BOOK CLUB
GIRL: ESSAYS ON BLACK WOMANHOOD BY KENYA HUNT
With contributions from authors including Candice Carty-Williams, Ebele Okobi and Freddie Harrel, this sharp, witty, insightful and essential book of essays is required reading over the end-of-year break. An American now based in London, Kenya started writing Girl while on maternity leave with her second son, and finished it during lockdown earlier this year. She’s a truly gifted writer who’s worked at Jane , Elle , and is currently fashion director at Grazia . The essays adeptly and neatly draw allusions between global topics and personal experiences – as the best essays do – segueing between London taxi rides and Trump’s inauguration, from the enslaved Sally Hemings to #Megxit, and the importance of community whether online or IRL – reminding us that even amid the chaos and despair, there is love, hope, perseverance and opportunities for growth. As the second essay, Notes on Woke puts it: “Wake up – and then stay that way.”
THE RELENTLESS MOON BY MARY ROBINETTE KOWAL
This is the third book in Robinette Kowal’s stellar Lady Astronaut series, which has won the Hugo and Nebula Awards. The premise follows the mid-20th century space race after a meteor strike in the 1950s that wipes out the eastern seaboard of the US (including Washington DC and the entire government administration), causing extreme and ultimately devastating climate change on our home planet. The ensuing crises force the entire human race to accelerate its plans to colonise the moon. This third novel follows the same timeline as the previous book (which tracked Elma York, the original Lady Astronaut, as she takes part in a voyage to Mars), but it tells the tale from the perspective of Nicole Wargin. She is one of the pioneer settlers who is keeping the moon colonisation program focused, while riots and
pandemics threaten to derail humanity’s best opportunity for survival. In space, she is a leader, but on Earth, Nicole is a ‘decorative bauble’. She smiles alongside her husband Kenneth in his role as the governor of Kansas, while he considers a run for President. A growing ‘Earth First’ resistance is building in numbers, opposing humanity’s relocation, and fifty-something Nicole is increasingly being sidelined in favour of younger, male colleagues. A perfect diversion from the current problems on our planet, this book can be read as a stand-alone work, but delightfully comes with two extra novels to enjoy if you’d like to start from the beginning of the series.
IMAGES Despite the pandemic’s prevalence, many societal issues have come to the fore this year. Kenya Hunt’s Girl and Mary Robinette Kowal’s The Relentless Moon explore examples of these in fictive and factual representations
“Even amid the chaos and despair, there is love, hope, perseverance and opportunity for growth”
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