BOOK LIST FOR CURIOUS WOMEN
New reads I found that you may love
“SO I am left with these times my skin disappears and everything that forms me begins to flee from my bones. Isn’t this what we equally fear and want? To lose the past because it hurts too much?” The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
I’ve been reading book after book as I help judge The Womens Prize For Fiction 2022 (70 books in total so far). It’s a dream job, but a slightly taxing one. Early mornings, a book always in my bag on the bus or tube, a book by my side where ever I turn. I have been moved to tears, filled with laughter, shocked and I once cautiously opened a book that scared the living daylights out of me because it some how felt haunted.
But this week a book shook my soul. I am not being over dramatic, though I have a tendency for this. But this one rattled me, disturbed me and reminded me that some writers are layers above everyone else, their skill is awe inspiring. And so it was with The Sentence By Louise Erdrich, who I had not read before (she is a Pulitzer prize winner) and really should have.
The Sentence is a story about identity, love, loss, addiction, family, heritage and friendship. It stars Tookie, a Native American woman rebuilding her life after a 60 year prison sentence. It’s also a ghost story and it’s extremely witty with a fast moving plot. The characters are so well described I miss them now that I’ve finished the book, and it is the first book to cover both the pandemic and the murder of George Floyd that I have read. But the best thing about it is that it is set in a book shop so it is a book about the power of books and within it is the best booklist you will ever come across.
So if you are at a loss for what to read next then these lists pictured BELOW are Tookie’s favourite reads from The Sentence, some really great classics in there. And I implore you to read The Sentence immediately and get to know Tookie better. Her story will educate and entertain you.
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