Diversity Spotlight Thursday is a weekly feature hosted by Aimal at Bookshelves and Paperbacks. Please click on this link to get more details about the feature.
To take part all you need to do is answer the following questions:
- A diverse book you have read and enjoyed
- A diverse book that has already been released but you have not read
- A diverse book that has not yet been released
A Book I Have Read
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaleed Hosseini
Born a generation apart and with very different ideas about love and family, Mariam and Laila are two women brought jarringly together by war, by loss and by fate. As they endure the ever escalating dangers around them—in their home as well as in the streets of Kabul(Afghanistan)—they come to form a bond that makes them both sisters and mother-daughter to each other, and that will ultimately alter the course not just of their own lives but of the next generation.
This is one of the best books that I have ever read. I really like Khaleed Hosseini and have read all his books. The Kite Runner and And the Mountains Echoed are both pretty good but A Thousand Splendid Suns is my favorite of the three.
A Book on my TBR
The Lovers: Romeo and Juliet in Afghanistan by Rod Norland
Zakia and Ali were from different tribes, but they grew up on neighboring farms in the hinterlands of Afghanistan. By the time they were young teenagers, Zakia, strikingly beautiful and fiercely opinionated, and Ali, shy and tender, had fallen in love. Defying their families, sectarian differences, cultural conventions, and Afghan civil and Islamic law, they ran away together only to live under constant threat from Zakia’s large and vengeful family, who have vowed to kill her to restore the family’s honor. They are still in hiding.
I have had this memoir for a while now. I hope to read it sometime soon.
A Book that has not yet been released
Stay with me by Ayobami Adebayo
‘There are things even love can’t do… If the burden is too much and stays too long, even love bends, cracks, comes close to breaking and sometimes does break. But even when it’s in a thousand pieces around your feet, that doesn’t mean it’s no longer love…’
Yejide is hoping for a miracle, for a child. It is all her husband wants, all her mother-in-law wants, and she has tried everything – arduous pilgrimages, medical consultations, dances with prophets, appeals to God. But when her in-laws insist upon a new wife, it is too much for Yejide to bear. It will lead to jealousy, betrayal and despair.
Unravelling against the social and political turbulence of 80s Nigeria, Stay With Me sings with the voices, colours, joys and fears of its surroundings. Ayobami Adebayo weaves a devastating story of the fragility of married love, the undoing of family, the wretchedness of grief, and the all-consuming bonds of motherhood. It is a tale about our desperate attempts to save ourselves and those we love from heartbreak.
Hardcover, 304 pages
Expected publication: March 2nd 2017 by Canongate
I received this book from NetGalley and I can’t wait to read it.I just know that I will like this book!
Exciting News: I wrote about Trevor Noah’s Memoir: Born a Crime on my post last week on Thursday. I didn’t think that I would get the book and it took three weeks before I got feedback.However, I am happy to say that I got approved last night!
Have you read any of these books? Which other books would you recommend that I add to my TBR. If you participated in this weekly feature, please leave your link in the comments section and I will visit your post.
A Haven for Book Lovers 
I think I’ll start participating in this one at least once a month 🙂 Sounds like a good way to pinpoint some diverse reads and discover others.
Yay,welcome 🙂 I’ll look out for your posts and recommendations 🙂
I also liked A Thousand Splendid Suns better than The Kite Runner – which is not to say that The Kite Runner isn’t a fantastic read as well. I haven’t read And The Mountains Echoed yet, but Khaled Hosseini is a wonderful writer without a doubt 🙂
And I also have Stay With Me from Netgalley, yay! ❤ By the way, yesterday on Netgalley I saw Pettina Gappah has a new book coming out and I remembered you have read & reviewed one of her books before. So if you'd like to read another one, now you have the opportunity! 🙂
Thank you so much for letting me know about Pettinah’s book.I just rushed over to NetGalley and wished for it.I hope to get :-)Yay for Stay with me.It looks really promising so I’m glad we both got it.I didn’t know there’s African Lit on there but Ive just expanded my categories to include literary fiction.Glad we agreed on Khaleed and his books.I hope you’ll get to read And The Mountains Echoed soon 🙂
No problem 🙂 I’ll cross my fingers for you!
So glad you got approved for the book! Haven’t ready any though 😦
Thanks:-) I had already assumed that I wouldn’t get it such that when the email came in, I just assumed that it would give me some reasons about distribution rights. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised:-)
So many books to add to my TBR. The memoir especially looks interesting. Thanks for sharing I never would have known about some of these books otherwise.
I’ve never heard of The Lovers before but it sounds so interesting! I’ve read The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, but haven’t read any of his other works, though I’ve heard great things about them! And Stay With Me honestly has one of the prettiest covers I’ve ever seen. ❤
Thank you so much for participating!
Thank you so much for coming up with the feature and hosting us every Thursday. I have found so many wonderful diverse read through the meme. I agree about the cover for Stay with Me and you should definitely read more Khaleed Hosseini, they are all wonderful:-)
A Thousand Splendid Suns is so wonderful!! Great post 🙂
Thanks Julianne and yes,Khaled’s books are great but A Thousand Splendid Suns is my favourite one 🙂