The books that CHANGED MY LIFE

THE LAST BOOK THAT MADE ME LAUGH

Selected Poems by Linton Kwesi Johnson is not humorous at first glance. It is inspired by LKJ’S experiences as a Black man in London since the 1960s: the racism and clashes with police, but also the love, community and hope. He writes in Jamaican dialect and certain phrases make me laugh with sheer delight at his literary firepower.

THE LAST BOOK THAT MADE ME CRY

Brown Baby by Nikesh Shukla is beautiful; I cried.

I also smiled, got angry and pondered. This memoir is a love letter to Shukla’s late mother and young daughters and is threaded through with loss, but also with accents of light and joy.

THE BOOK THAT CHANGED THE WAY I THINK

non-white people to be genetically inferior was evil idiocy. However, Superior: The Return Of Race Science by Angela Saini woke me up: such thinking is prevalent in these times. Saini brilliantly rebuts nonsensical arguments.

THE BOOK THAT GOT ME THROUGH A DIFFICULT TIME

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings got me through my early teens after my parents divorced. Maya Angelou’s prose came at me, singing and swinging. Her book lifted me up and left a deep mark.

THE BOOK I MOST OFTEN GIVE TO OTHERS

Lincoln In The Bardo by George Saunders is lyrical, tragic, beautiful, witty, weird and profound. The American Civil War rages as President Lincoln loses his 11-year-old son to illness. Stricken, he visits the crypt alone and the novel unfolds there.