Ted Hughes: An Unauthorised Life by Jonathan Bate

Hello my lovely readers! This was my second book for the 12 Lives Challenge and probably my first and only book for Mega May, unless I'm able to finish the W.E.B. DuBois biography in time!

SYNOPSIS

Ted Hughes, Poet Laureate, was one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. He was one of Britain's most important poets.

With an equal gift for poetry and prose, he was also a prolific children's writer and has been hailed as the greatest English letterwriter since John Keats. His magnetic personality and insatiable appetite for friendship, love, and life also attracted more scandal than any poet since Lord Byron. His lifelong quest to come to terms with the suicide of his first wife, Sylvia Plath, is the saddest and most infamous moment in the public history of modern poetry.

Hughes left behind a more complete archive of notes and journals than any other major poet, including thousands of pages of drafts, unpublished poems, and memorandum books that make up an almost complete record of Hughes's inner life, which he preserved for posterity. Renowned scholar Jonathan Bate has spent five years in the Hughes archives, unearthing a wealth of new material. His book offers, for the first time, the full story of Hughes's life as it was lived, remembered, and reshaped in his art.

Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton

Hello my lovely readers!

This was my first read for #ReadAfricaMonth and it's sat on my shelf for DECADES. I actually read through 70 percent of it and then forgot to pick it up again when I was 16. Longest soft DNF ever! Let's get into it. 

SYNOPSIS
Cry, the Beloved Country is the deeply moving story of the Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son, Absalom, set against the background of a land and a people riven by racial injustice. Remarkable for its lyricism, unforgettable for character and incident, Cry, the Beloved Country is a classic work of love and hope, courage and endurance, born of the dignity of man.

QUICK REVIEWS pt. X

 A Most Tolerant Little Town by Rachel Louise Martin
The desegregation of Clinton High School in Clinton, Tennessee in 1956 by 12 Black students starts off mildly at first. Then the arrival of out of town pro-segregationists leads to violence, riots and eventually the bombing of the school.

*Good story about a little known Civil Rights history. I felt so bad for the students affected by the shenanigans that ensued. I'm glad that the author didn't censor word nigger throughout her book, but the audiobook version bleeped it out...even when it was read by a Black woman. Strange. 4 out of 5 stars.

Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker
Two people living centuries apart in the same home, discover a door between their worlds. One of these people is a ghost and one of their stories about murder is a lie. 

*This was OK. I was kind of lost with the Japanese mythology, but it was still a fine novel. It also was a bit convoluted at times. 3 out of 5 stars.

A Harlem Wedding by Tiffany L. Warren

Hello my lovely readers!

This has been a slow reading month for me. I'm working through two THICK biographies (hi #MegaMay!)  one is about poet Ted Hughes and the other is about the father of who this book review is about, W.E.B. DuBois. Both are good, but incredibly dense and more than 500 pages. I'll finish them this month, but in the mean time, I blew through this book. Let's get into it!

SYNOPSIS
A century ago, Harlem’s glittering social scene had a single Yolande Du Bois, the only child of N.A.A.C.P. icon W.E.B. Du Bois. Yolande was bold, vivacious, and beloved of every gossip columnist. A true daddy’s girl, Yolande followed her father’s advice on from where she went to college (Fisk—Papa’s alma mater) to which sorority she joined (Delta Sigma Theta). But in matters of the heart, Yolande and her father did not agree. Dr. Du Bois himself curated a string of handsome suitors from the “Talented Tenth” for her, but Yolande’s true love was jazz musician Jimmie Lunceford, son of a working-class family from far-off Denver, Colorado. Their romance was an open secret, and more than a little scandalous.

Despite it all, Yolande wound up marrying her father’s famed poet Countee Cullen. Their lavish uptown wedding was the hottest social ticket of 1928. With three thousand attendees, sixteen bridesmaids, and Langston Hughes as a groomsman, it was truly a sight to behold.

But, immediately after the wedding, Yolande’s carefully constructed fairy tale begins to crumble. Torn between the expectations of her father and society and her heart’s true desire, Yolande is forced to decide whether she must leave Harlem to create a more authentic life on her own terms.

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbit

Hello my lovely readers! Another day, another re-read. Let's get into it. 

SYNOPSIS
What if you could live forever? In this timeless story young Winnie Foster learns of a hidden spring in a nearby wood and meets the Tuck family, whose members reveal their astonishing discovery of the spring’s life-changing power. Now Winnie must decide what to do with her newfound knowledge—and the Tucks must decide what to do with her. But it’s not just the curious girl who is interested in their remarkable tale. A suspicious stranger is also searching for the Tucks, and he will stop at nothing until he finds them and uncovers their secret.

BOOKISH THOUGHTS AND UPDATES

Hello my lovely readers!

Here's just  a few bookish thoughts and updates on my mind....

1. Differences in reading habits
   Since discovering Libby, getting a Kindle and becoming a mother, my reading habits have changed dramatically!
   
   For example, on my recent re-read of Plum Bun, this year, I was able to get through the book in roughly four days. That's half the time it took for me to read it back in 2022 when I only read the physical version and didn't have a child. I mean 10 days to read a book, isn't anything to sneeze at (in my opinion), especially when you have a full-time job, an active social life, are planning a wedding and researching genealogy. 
   
   This second read of Plum Bun,  I got through quicker because I was constantly reading it, thanks to its audiobook. I love doing an audio/physical read because I am able to get through books quickly. When I'm driving, cleaning or getting dressed, I'm listening to it on audio. And when I have the chance to sit down and read...I read it! I still feel guilty if I'm listening to too much of it on audio, because I just love physical books! I want to make sure I'm giving them equal attention. Ha!
   
   Is it odd to say that sometimes I get intimidated by books that have no audiobook? Yes, it is, but this is where I am in life. I just have to give myself grace and time to get through it. Lord knows, Zora Neale Hurston's biography and Langston Hughes' biography don't have audiobooks, but that just means I get to take my time with them.
   
   
2. My Favorite Books of All Time!
   If anyone ever asks me what are my favorite books I can immediately say these: Plum Bun, The Ice Cream Girls, The Awakening, Their Eyes Were Watching God. I've recently re-read them all and UGGGGGGHHHHH, I just love them so much!
   
   
3. Reading Challenges for 2026
   I've unintentionally joined numerous reading challenges this year. I'd planned on only doing the 10 Books 10 Decades Challenge, 12 Lives Challenge and the Personal Five ReRead Challenge.
   
   But now....I've joined 50 States, Reading Europe, Read Africa Month (May), Mega May, Read Across the Caribbean, Hefty Tomes, and the Asia Reading Challenge.
   
   I should clarify that I'm using the above challenges more as trackers than anything else. So far, I've read 15 states, 3 European countries, no African authors (yet), no 500 plus page book (yet for May), no Caribbean authors, one Hefty Tome and 7 Asian countries.
   
   Hopefully by the end of the year, I can beef up these stats...but no pressure!

Sky Full of Elephants by Cebo Campbell

Hello my lovely readers!

This book missed the mark for me. Let's get into it.

SYNOPSIS

One day, a cataclysmic event occurs: all of the white people in America walk into the nearest body of water. A year later, Charlie Brunton is a Black man living in an entirely new world. Having served his time in prison for a wrongful conviction, he’s now a professor of electric and solar power systems at Howard University when he receives a call from someone he wasn’t even sure existed: his daughter Sidney, a nineteen-year-old left behind by her white mother and step-family.

Traumatized by the event, and terrified of the outside world, Sidney has spent a year in isolation in Wisconsin. Desperate for help, she turns to the father she never met, a man she has always resented. Sidney and Charlie meet for the first time as they embark on a journey across a truly “post-racial” America in search for answers. But neither of them are prepared for this new world and how they see themselves in it.

Heading south toward what is now called the Kingdom of Alabama, everything Charlie and Sidney thought they knew about themselves, and the world, will be turned upside down.