I hope you are all keeping well, and you are washing your hands during this difficult time as we try to navigate some kind of normalcy while practicing safe #SocialDistancing and we are being encouraged to stay home as our country and the world goes through this terrible COVID-19 pandemic.
I’ve been trying to get into my current read which I shared on the IG page here. Check out my reading history on it and let’s follow each other on our Good Reads profiles. What are you currently reading or plan to read during this time?
This morning I received a delivery from NB Publishers for their latest releases from their imprint, Kwela Books. One fiction and a non-fiction title I’ve been looking forward to because I know a few of the contributors and I’m so excited for them all!
First up is the non-fiction book I received titled Living While Feminist, edited by Jen Thorpe. Jen Thorpe brought us Feminism Is back in 2018. Read more on Jen Thorpe’s work here. I refer to myself as a learning feminist so when I get femist work from publishers I really get excited because it’s a time for me to learn and unlearn from all the different voices.
About Living While Feminist:
Many of our experiences are filtered through our bodies – norms, myths, and cultural standards shape the way that we feel about our bodies and how we see ourselves. Feminism says these rules are bullshit.
This collection take us from an examination of skin and hair, to an exploration of pleasure, sex, and safety. They explore our bodies and health. They examine the way that institutions can trap us and how we can trap ourselves. It reminds us that feminism is dynamic, open, and ever relevant.
The book will be out in stores on 30 March and retails for R260. Perhaps order yours through your local store or buy online for delivery in the comfort of your home.
About Searching for Simphiwe by Sfiso Mzobe
Detectives in pursuit of criminals, a brother desperate to find his wunga-addicted sibling, a search for abducted girls, a quest to be reunited with a long-lost lover – these are just some of the searches that form the basis of the stories in this collection. On a more metaphysical level there are characters seeking some form of faith or purpose. Entertaining tales that keep the reader enthralled with tension and suspense, while reflecting the realities of contemporary South Africa.
I have to confess, I haven’t read Sfiso’s award-winning debut novel, Young Blood. It won the Sunday Times Fiction Prize, the Herman Charles Bosman Prize, a SALA (South African Literary Award for a First-Time Published Author), and the Wole Soyinka Prize.
Searching for Simphiwe is available from 10 April and it retails for R265. So do the right thing and add it onto your #TBRlist for April, we may still be in #SocialDistancing so the more titles in your collection – the better.
Thank you very much to the team at NB Publishers for these titles – it really brightened up my morning. I’ll make good use of the Living While Feminist postcard included in the package to send to a friend in Zurich which will double as a book suggestion for her. Looking forward to indulging. In the meantime, please do like soon to be independent Blackbird Books publisher Thabiso Mahlape requests on her latest Sowetan contribution and note that “The Country needs you to stay home and open a book” – you can find it here.
