I've been in this country long enough to know not to get too excited when the sun comes out - you never know how long it will stick around! Still, the winter coat is officially tucked away for the next few months and the lighter scarves and coats have come out, as the sun has been shining a lot more recently. Supposedly it's also going to to be the hottest summer in 40 years, with some reports saying there is going to be 99 days of sunshine in the UK this summer (I've also been here long enough to not get too excited about that). Still, basically, Hello (Almost) Summer! And with summer - as with each new season - comes reading lists: BuzzFeed shared 31 Brilliant Books for Spring back in April; while ELLE let us know the 19 Summer Books That Everyone Will Be Talking About, also in April.
Well, I'm here to share three books I'll be reading this summer - during my downtime (whenever work isn't taking over). I may read others, but these three are certainly at the top of my list. They are Abubakar Adam Ibrahim's Season of Crimson Blossoms, Sarah Ladipo Manyika's Like A Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun and Yewande Omotoso's The Woman Next Door.
These three books also have one thing in common - the central protagonists are 'older' women*. This is amazing because 'older' women (in real life, as well as in literature) tend to be seen as dependent and often depicted as not have any sexuality - in fact that aspect is usually rendered invisible. I don't know entirely what to expect, but from the blurbs of these three novels, as well as the few reviews I've read, they seem to break away from these stereotypes of 'women of a certain age'.
There's the youngest of them all, fifty-five-year old widow, mother and grandmother Hajiya Binta Zubairu in Season of Crimson Blossoms who has an affair with a 25-year-old weed dealer, Reza, and now yearns for intimacy after the sexual repression of her marriage. Then Dr. Morayo Da Silva, on the cusp of seventy-five, in Like A Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun. Dr. Da Silva is a Nigerian woman living in San Francisco, in good health and spirit. That is until she falls and her independence crumbles. The story is also said to have elements of the erotic yearnings of an older woman. Finally, Hortensia James and Marion Agostino - both over eighty-years-old, successful women with impressive careers, recently widowed, neighbours and sworn enemies.
Seriously, all three books sound like they will be amazing reads, and can we also take a second to acknowledge these writers for writing (and their publishers for publishing) what seem like positive stories about 'older' women. Can't wait to tuck in!
*Side note: I'm using older (instead of old) and putting older in quotes, as while I do not think women in their early- to mid-50s are old, in the case of Season of Crimson Blossoms Hajiya Binta Zubairu - being a widow, mother and grandmother - would be considered old in the context in which the story is set.
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| Image via loveyourchaos |
These three books also have one thing in common - the central protagonists are 'older' women*. This is amazing because 'older' women (in real life, as well as in literature) tend to be seen as dependent and often depicted as not have any sexuality - in fact that aspect is usually rendered invisible. I don't know entirely what to expect, but from the blurbs of these three novels, as well as the few reviews I've read, they seem to break away from these stereotypes of 'women of a certain age'.
There's the youngest of them all, fifty-five-year old widow, mother and grandmother Hajiya Binta Zubairu in Season of Crimson Blossoms who has an affair with a 25-year-old weed dealer, Reza, and now yearns for intimacy after the sexual repression of her marriage. Then Dr. Morayo Da Silva, on the cusp of seventy-five, in Like A Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun. Dr. Da Silva is a Nigerian woman living in San Francisco, in good health and spirit. That is until she falls and her independence crumbles. The story is also said to have elements of the erotic yearnings of an older woman. Finally, Hortensia James and Marion Agostino - both over eighty-years-old, successful women with impressive careers, recently widowed, neighbours and sworn enemies.
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| My Summer Reading List. What's yours? |
*Side note: I'm using older (instead of old) and putting older in quotes, as while I do not think women in their early- to mid-50s are old, in the case of Season of Crimson Blossoms Hajiya Binta Zubairu - being a widow, mother and grandmother - would be considered old in the context in which the story is set.
