9 Authors Whose Books Should Be on Your Summer TBR List
What’s summer without a reading list?
Since publishing my debut novel, I have had the pleasure of meeting other authors who, like myself, went off-script career-wise to venture into the world of writing. While space (and holding my audience’s attention) does not allow me to list everyone I’ve met along the way, I do suggest you check out these nine writers listed here. Not only are their journeys and books inspiring, but I have a feeling that your next favorite read might be listed right below.
Kingstown Burning, by Rachelle J. Gray
First up, there’s me, Rachelle J. Gray. It’s almost two years since my debut novel Kingstown Burning came out — an experience that changed how I interacted with literature. My appreciation of authors grew, as did my interest in their creative processes and inspiration.
In my case, arriving at a milestone birthday motivated me to complete my manuscript after picking at it bit by bit for way too long. I was focused on being a photographer, not an author, but the feeling that if I held this story in any longer I would burst, led me to sit down and pour into my writing.
I finally completed Kingstown Burning in 2018 while living in Barbados. Then in 2020, as a transplant in Florida, USA, during the worldwide lockdown, it was published. A month later, I arrived in Senegal after accepting an offer to manage the only English language bookstore and education resource center in Dakar.
Now I am a freelance writer. I started this lifestyle publication Trodd Culture, and my second novel is shaping up nicely. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Back to the TBR list. So what are we reading this summer?
In Kingstown Burning, loyalty, romance, perseverance, and revenge are explosive companions as Marley Cadogan, I-Am, and Nubya are caught in the crossfire of a regional ganja war in the southern Caribbean. To get their lives back, they seek out the help of an Obeah Man and embark upon a quest in a thrilling mix that moves along a mystical timeline in a tropical paradise. Someone is keeping a secret. Another is about to unearth a truth. Nubya, Marley, and I-Am inadvertently discover what they are made of and are left to determine if that makes them heroes or villains.
Sorry I Didn’t Write, by Nadia Alleyne
Nadia Alleyne is a legal consultant who currently lives in Singapore, which is on the other side of the world, far from her Caribbean island home Barbados. A journalist for one of the island’s newspapers linked us up. A great first conversation turned into our first IG Live where we discussed our backgrounds, books, and publishing.
The idea for Nadia’s memoir Sorry I Didn’t Write came in 2014 after she completed a life-changing secondment in Yangon, Myanmar. She credits her love of reading, writing, and sharing stories as what prompted her to become an author. “Sorry, I Didn’t Write is about overcoming challenges, living in the moment, and celebrating the triumphs as we navigate through our own lives,” Nadia says. “I wanted to share the lessons I had learned after my Myanmar trip. I wrote the Barbados sections over the years, and then I started writing the Singapore section when I got here.”
Presented as if reading entries from her diary, Sorry I Didn’t Write was published in 2021. And what about the cool title of her book? “The name came to me since I took so long to write it,” Nadia admits.
In Sorry I Didn’t Write, Nadia was becoming increasingly restless with her role as a legal counsel in a multinational company when the opportunity arose for her to undertake a secondment in Yangon, Myanmar. The country was in the early stages of opening to the rest of the world. Four years later, she will again find herself in South East Asia, this time as an expat wife in Singapore.
Nadia takes you on an insightful journey with her through the excitement and challenges of her childhood in Barbados, her unique personal and professional experiences in culture-rich Myanmar, to finding her footing as an expat wife in Singapore.
Some parts of Nadia’s story will make you laugh out loud, cry and even inspire you to embrace change, overcome challenges, live in the moment and celebrate the triumphs as you navigate through your own life.
Ese’s Golden Smile, by Amanda Bricard
It wasn’t until Nigerian mother, wife, and author Amanda Bricard moved to Senegal from France that she dared to publish her first book. That was four books ago.
Earlier this year Amanda released her newest title, Ese’s Golden Smile. We known each other since she brought Ayo and His Wooden Bicycle, and Le voyage de LULU en pirogue in for consideration at the bookstore I managed in Dakar.
While she certainly is winning in the children’s book department, Amanda isn’t confined to a genre, “I like to write using whatever genre I prefer because there are no limitations for what I can write. It could be a fairytale, drama, romance, mystery, or poetry. I’m driven by my emotions, mood depending on where my interest is at a particular time.”
A writer since her early teenage years, it offered her a way to escape. “It was and is my peaceful place. At that time, I wasn’t much of a talker, but in my head, there were many words. Too many, and so it was the easiest way for me to express myself.”
Amanda publishes her book in French and English. She had set out to write a novel but children’s books kept manifesting instead. “One crazy thing I’ve discovered is that I enjoy writing for children, because not only do I get to see my stories come to life through the beautiful illustrations that accompany them, but the idea also that many children will be able to learn a moral or two by reading any of my books is fulfilling,” she notes.
Ese’s Golden Smile tells the story of an adorable little girl with a vibrant and attractive personality that extends toward everyone around her. Faced with new emotions after suddenly losing her radiant charm, Ese embarks on a mission determined to find it again. The story highlights the magic behind kindness and the power of unity, stretching into a continuous circle that encourages friendship, and celebrates family. An enchanting tale for every little darling all around the world.
How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House, by Cherie Jones
“Every writer’s journey is his/her own. For years I longed for an international publishing deal while working various jobs and caring for my children. Meanwhile, there were considerably younger writers gaining representation and publishing deals without (it seemed) much effort,” reflects Cherie Jones — writer, lawyer, and mother of four.
“I had to learn that the writing was what was important, not the recognition, not the validation of a publishing deal. I had to redefine what writing success meant for me. Ironically, it was after I went through that process that the publishing deal became a reality — around 20 years after I’d first decided it was a goal of mine!”
Cherie popped up on my TV one February morning while I was in Florida. She caught my attention when Good Morning America announced How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House as their book club read for the month. A fellow Bajan on GMA! Big things were happening.
It wouldn’t be until a few months later in August when I accepted an invitation to participate in a literary reading hosted by a bookstore in Barbados, where Cherie lives, that we would finally e-meet.
I didn’t fangirl. I was inspired. Did you know that she writes her first drafts in longhand, from the back (last page) to the front (first page) of her writer’s notebook? Well, she does.
“I write like I breathe,” Cherie tells me for this piece. “It’s necessary, and I don’t think about it, but my inspiration to publish formed at university when I actually realized that people somewhere might read and enjoy what I wrote.”
While living in London, it was on a bus home to Thamesmead that Cherie got the idea for her debut thriller. She completed the novel years later after returning to Barbados, and with it came the realization of her dream. She landed a book deal with a traditional publisher and has been enjoying her long-awaited success.
How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House is a novel about a young woman called Lala who lives and works braiding the hair of tourists on a pink, powdery beach in Paradise. Only, for Lala, life is less than idyllic. She’s married to Adan, a career thief and weed smuggler whose cunning is surpassed only by his cruelty to her. She’s in love with Tone, a dreadlocked gigolo who sells his body to rich tourist women and helps Adan with his criminal activities. When we meet Lala, she’s about to give birth to her husband’s baby on the same night that a wealthy tourist is murdered in the botched robbery of one of the mansions not too far from where Lala and Adan live.
The novel is about how the two events — the birth of the baby and the murder of this tourist, are connected, but the story is also about race, class and privilege in Paradise, it’s about the tension between the carefully curated ideal of the picture-postcard-perfect island getaway sold to rich tourists, and the brutal reality of life for the locals who live there. It’s about what one society requires of its women, how these requirements restrict them, and how they survive. It’s about domestic violence, and it’s about love.
In Pursuit: Journeys in African Entrepreneurship
What happens when two Bendel boys find themselves in Lagos eating pounded yam and egusi trying to figure out what to do with election downtime, basically 6 to 8 months of economic inactivity? They come up with the idea to write a book. But not just any book. In Pursuit: Journeys in African Entrepreneurship — is a guide to doing business on the African continent, with Nigeria as a proxy.
Oswald and I go way back, a solid two decades, to my New York City days as a budding photographer. Fun fact about Os, I can attest that he knows the right ingredients needed for throwing the best house parties in Brooklyn.
In these times, however, Oswald Osaretin Guobadia is the Senior Special Assistant to His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria, on Digital Transformation. He is the lead on the Nigeria Startup Bill (NSB) — a project that is strategic to the growth of Nigeria’s tech ecosystem and digital economy, and a member of the Presidential Council on Digital Economy and e-government. Co-author Chukuka Chukuma is an investment banker, entrepreneur, and partner at Racecourse Capital, a private investment and advisory firm. His career spans twenty-five years at world-class financial institutions like Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Salomon Smith Barney, Citibank Nigeria, Afrinvest West Africa, and Stanbic IBTC Bank.
Released in 2020, In Pursuit is especially timely given the exodus many in the diaspora are making back to the motherland. Oswald believes that successful African entrepreneurs must write more.
In his view, “The entrepreneurship process imprints all sorts of ideas into you as you solve the day-to-day business issues. The process also fools you into thinking you are alone in the process. We wanted entrepreneurs to know they weren’t alone and also for them to read about entrepreneurship from an African perspective.”
In Pursuit — Journeys in African Entrepreneurship chronicles the journeys of two friends whose experiences in America shaped their approach to starting their businesses in Nigeria. Drawing on their experiences of working, building and supporting businesses, and exposure to multimillion-dollar projects around the world, they uncover what it takes to own, run, and grow a profitable business.
Through their insights, they relay information relevant not only to entrepreneurs and investors seeking to do business in Nigeria but anywhere on the globe―after all, the heart of business is human interaction. Their conversational banter-jab style, for which they’re known in person and on social media, invites readers into their circle where they can share the wisdom gained through continuous pursuits to fulfill their dreams.
Business and life intersect. No matter your goal, you’re not crazy, and no, you’re not alone! Through In Pursuit, two Bendel boys invite you to laugh, yell, and reflect, as they converse from head and heart.
The Vault, by Wilmont St. Cyr
When Wilmont St. Cyr released his first novel Fields of Death, I was editor-in-chief of a lifestyle magazine. Heading back to the office after lunch in Bridgetown, as I turned to enter the building, Wilmont approached me out of nowhere. He had a New Yorker-type hustle energy — the good kind — and pitched that he had just published his first novel and would we consider reviewing it.
Wilmont was passionate about his work, and I respected that. I gave him my word, and he parted ways with the lone copy of Fields of Death that a family member had just flown in from overseas that day. We did review his book. The rest is the good stuff that leads me to this moment, seven years later, when I tell you that last month, Wilmont released his sophomore novel, The Vault, and I’m elated.
He cites life experiences, and encouragement from his brother that he take up writing, as contributing factors for him trodding this path. “My first thoughts about writing came while incarcerated, where I wrote four books,” Wilmont shares. “I think the craziest thing I discovered about myself as a writer is that you can live many lives with the stories you create.”
As for his stance since anchoring himself in the freedom of his purpose with two novels to his name? Wilmont is philosophical in his perspective, “I believe that writing should never be prejudiced or reserved for only a few. It’s not demographic. It has no borders or boundaries, no class or creed…for everyone has a story.”
The Vault carries remnants of the Georgian era and the dawn of the 19th Century. Alienist William Stalker falls from grace and is banished to the penal colony Barbados to serve as an indentured servant.
Born in Scotland a mulatto, his bi-racial skin color led to experiences of scorn, colorism, and racism in England where he migrated with his mother. Sent to the colony, he discovers an essential root in his family tree and witnesses the horrors of slavery. A contemporaneous tale, it travels through sovereign England to beautiful Barbados, its world heritage sites, the historic Garrison, the subterranean tunnels beneath it, and the mysterious burial vault.
Married to the beast colonialism, the tiny island was called a precious jewel in the British crown. The Vault unfolds a story of love, mystery, and the evil machinations of slavery in the West Indies during the transatlantic slave trade.
Women of the African Diaspora
“There aren’t enough powerful positive representations of us, and us telling our own stories,” posits Haby Barry — creative entrepreneur and author.
The “us” she speaks of are the people of Africa and its diaspora. Haby whose parents are from Guinea, West Africa, is a Fulani living in Los Angeles, California.
She explains, “I was driven by a need to showcase the diversity of women from the African diaspora who embrace their authenticity and origins no matter where they are in the world.” So she set out to create an art, fashion, and photography photo book.
The idea for Women of the African Diaspora came while she lived in Oakland, California. “I had launched my jewelry line maybe a year and a half prior when I got the idea for the book, and I reached out to my co-author to start brainstorming how we could pull it off. I knew I wanted to incorporate my jewelry into the photography book but wanted it to be more than just photos.”
It took a few years to pull the book together. This included photo shoots in three different countries. “The first shoot took place in Guinea, West Africa, in 2017, the second shoot was in Oakland, California, in 2018, and the final shoot took place in France in 2019. We wrote the book, commissioned three original art pieces, and designed the book in 2020, publishing it in December of that year,” Haby recounts.
Haby and I met in early 2021. I was managing the only English language bookstore in Dakar, and on the last day of her trip to Senegal — prompted by a mutual acquaintance — Haby popped in to see if we would be interested in carrying her book. Saying yes was a given. It’s undeniable that we need more positive images and stories focused on African women in the diaspora.
Women of the African Diaspora is 150 pages of full color featuring the photos and stories of 10 women of the African diaspora wearing modern looks of traditional fabrics from the continent in Guinea, West Africa; Oakland, CA (U.S.); and Paris, France, embracing their authentic selves and natural beauty. Each chapter is introduced with original art pieces and historical anecdotes, highlighting social and political movements, their global impact, as well as the migration of the diaspora to and within the U.S. and France.
Foreword by Yomi Abiola, Founder of the Fem League and Cultural Curiosity committed to the advancement of women.
A is for Africa, by Marc Christopher
“A is for Africa is about the amazing culture and beauty of the continent of Africa, and I wrote it so that youth and others alike would get a small snippet of the amazing culture of Africa,” recounts Marc Christopher, a 27-year-old law enforcement officer for the state of Florida in the US.
Two years ago, when the world, including folks in South Florida, was under lockdown and experiencing protests triggered by the tragic killing of George Floyd, Marc and I met. It’s also when the idea for A is for Africa came to him―during a workout session at his cousin’s house.
“I started writing in June of 2020. To be honest, the social environment around that time was tense, and a bit of my outlet was to put it in a creative form,” Marc recalls.
“My favorite part of the book was honestly getting the illustration back because I’m writing all of these words, it’s in my notepad for the longest, and whenever I sent the creative direction to the illustrator, he sent back my words personified with beautiful pictures, that really made me excited!”
Marc hopes that youths understand that, “Africa may have ups and downs like any other continent or other countries in this world, but it is an amazing place, and I want to inspire people to actually go visit.”
He admits, “All I knew about Africa growing up as a child was that it was hot, and people said everyone there was poor, which is not the whole truth.”
In 2021 Marc made his first trip to the continent. His experiences of rich places, resources, cold temperatures, and the beautiful culture of Nairobi, Kenya helped to remove the stigmas he previously associated with Africa.
Hoping that his book and its artwork will help encourage new minds to see the beauty of the African continent that is oftentimes overlooked, Marc recommends A is for Africa as reference material for children and adults. His synopsis, “I would say that this is a non-fiction book because everything in here is fact.”
A is for Africa is primarily for the young reader, but it can also benefit the old. This piece of literature gives you a small glimpse of the beauty which comes from the African continent and the love which is noticed worldwide. This artwork features loose rhyming patterns, thought-provoking questions, and different languages. It expresses true African connection from deep within.
Reading A is for Africa will help generate more research and travel to these different countries, simply using the American alphabet while describing different countries and cultures in each letter.
Why Don’t I Look Like You, by Farah Landemaine
Born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Farah Landemaine left the corporate world to be a work-from-home mother to her two children. “I always loved animals but I never thought of being a children’s book author,” Farah recounts.
Farah is the co-writer and publisher of the Anak Rimba Book series with her dear friend Abyan Junus Nishizawa. Growing up in Kuala Lumpur, as city children Farah and Abyan didn’t have many chances to appreciate the outdoors. As adults, they realized that if they had more exposure to nature at a young age, they might have become the scientists or conservationists that today are working hard to solve the world’s problems.
So they use their books to raise awareness. Farah acknowledges that climate change, deforestation, and the fast extinction rates of species are a concern for us all, especially for our children who will inherit this planet as their home. The Anak Rimba Book series is a platform that publishes creative content with a focus on conservation awareness in Asia through nature-focused children’s storybooks.
In 2021 when Farah brought her books and grand ideas to Chez Alpha Books, the Dakar-based bookstore I was managing at the time, she sold me on what she calls “Happy Activism” which allows her to write and collaborate with many environmental NGOs, helping them bridge their serious message with creative storytelling.
Her first book, Why Don’t I Look Like You? celebrates the beauty of being different and appreciating our differences while raising awareness about the Tapir. Five years later, Farah has released a fifth book My Midnight Flora. A collaboration with Rimba Research, who are bat researchers in Malaysia, and funded by the Singapore Zoo grant to help bring awareness on flying foxes and their importance in the pollination process of night-blooming flowers like the durian flower.
Farah points out, “Our mission is to tell more stories with impact. As authors, we wanted to be the voice for the voiceless, to speak up for our animals and Mother Nature. Our books focus on Southeast Asia’s endangered animals. We aim to create stories that highlight conservation awareness, and hence our mission saves animals and nature one story at a time.”
Why Don’t I Look Like You is a story about a little Tapir (Timo) and his mother who goes on a journey of self-discovery in search of animals who look different from their mothers, just like him. Timo is a brown and beige spotted baby tapir, whilst his mother, the Malayan Tapir is black and white. Apart from teaching children that being ‘different’ is a good thing, the objective is also to raise awareness about tapirs, their environment and to promote the idea of uniqueness and diversity amongst children.
Rachelle J. Gray is a Barbadian-American writer, creative consultant, and communications specialist. She has written for Island Origins Magazine and is the former editor-in-chief of BimROCK Magazine. A mother of one and an auntie to many, living and working between the USA, Barbados, and Senegal — Kingstown Burning is her debut novel.
