I wish more people knew about these 4 books from my English degree..

1. Why Don’t You Stop Talking

This collection of short stories explores topics such as lesbian relationships, mental health, illness, phobias, and loneliness. This collection is characterized by a downbeat tone, but there are moments of humour scattered throughout it. My favourite story is the Kafka-esque ‘Shell’ where a woman is forced to grow a shell to survive- completing her transformation by turning into a tortoise. Overall, it is well worth the read and there are images in this collection that I still think about years later.

2. War with the Newts

This Sci-Fi novel is strange, in more ways than one. At first there is disbelief, followed by scientific curiosity and, inevitably, exploitation. the premise of the novel is that humanity discovers a species of intelligent, humanoid newts living in the Pacific Ocean. It’s a funny, ridiculous, tragic satire that critiques capitalist consumption and the ways that we interact with non- human creatures, and the worldbuilding alone makes it absolutely very interesting worth the read.

3. The Transformation

This story follows the relationship of three people who move to Hawaii in the late ’90s. It is an experimental book told almost entirely in third person plural and follows a ‘they’ who encounter the contradictory nature of the island that they inhabit. It makes them question how class, race and gender intersect, and it is only by navigating the vulnerability that a new form of writing can emerge.

4. Mutability

This is not your usual story of motherhood. Brady’s Mutability explores the child’s becoming and the strangeness of the mother-child relationship through a series of poetry and prose ‘scripts’. It is a challenging, exploratory work that examines the utopian possibilities of ‘the child-space’ and the unbearable intimacy between mother and child that infringes on individual autonomy.

5. The Argonauts

This memoir explores queer family life in a radical and uncompromising way that explores the transformative nature of identity and language. It is a story of love, transness and the queerness of pregnancy. As if that wasn’t enough, the book engages with philosophy in a way that is both enjoyable and accessible.

6. Dust

Dust is a novel that immediately came to mind when I was considering writing this story. The book deals with themes of grief, loss and forgiveness and critically examines modern Kenyan identity, but it’s intrigue lies in its unconventional narrative structure. Owuor moves through time creating mystery and transforming death into life, masterfully weaving the single threads into a rich tapestry. Her imagery is stunningly beautiful and alchemical; the titular dust combining with rain water to become mud, which in turn is shaped into new forms that hold endless possibilities.

7. The Lonely Londoners

This novel is absolutely essential if you are interested in reading stories about the Windrush generation and the experience of migration. Selvon’s writing cuts deep, like the bone-chilling weather and bleak prospects of immigrant life in 1950s London, but ultimately this is a story of friendship, connection and survival in the face of adversity. A fantastic feature of this book is in its writing which is in Creole which puts the reader into the shoes of the characters and is brilliantly effective, evoking a strong sense of sympathy for the characters and the real struggles that migrants from the Caribbean faced

8. The Soul of an Octopus

This work of immersion journalism is full of respect and awe for non-human creatures and the natural world. Montgomery explores the figure of this strikingly different and infinitely complex cephalopod, challenging what we think of as ‘intelligence’ and telling the profound and touching stories of those whose lives have been transformed by this amazing creature. The emotional expression and the author’s connection to these incredibly smart & magical creatures was moving and insightful. Also loved the insight to the New England Aquarium & plan to visit next time I’m in Boston