3 Of The Best: Unputdownable New Local Reads
If you can consider my day job to be writing, then know that my downtime is reading. Wild, I know, I know. Sighhhh.
As part of my newsie set-up I wanted to find a landing place for all the lovely labels and new bits – whatever those might be! - that I am constantly ferreting out. I aim to run these selections along a theme and hopefully it will mean introducing you to something new along the way. Obviously, it is also an excellent excuse to shine a light on local – I have spent an entire media career sharing this love.
With any luck, this week will also serve as an excuse for my relentless devouring of books. For those of you looking for new reads on the regular, join my Insta bookclub @doesmybooklooksmart and if you are looking for IRL connections know this: I am launching live books events in the coming weeks. I hope you’ll join me to talk all things books, meet new people, have a glass of wine with your chommies, maybe share a fireside meal…
1. Love At First Flight by Jo Watson
Did you know that Jo Watson started her romance writing career over on Wattpad? It’s a reading-slash-social media sharing platform for writers to share their work with readers and hers is hugely popular. Her Wattpad book Love To Hate You has been read almost 20 million – yep, with a ‘m’ – times and she is now also an Amazon UK top ten bestseller. Maybe we were a little slow on the uptake her in SA, but no more.
I am also biased where Jo Watson is concerned because we have spent many hours bonding over our shared love of Depeche Mode and we seem to have the same travel karma - if such a thing exists - because we have found ourselves in the same international cities at the same time. And not all have been related to Depeche Mode concerts!
Love At First Flight is her latest - a heart-warming (truly) fake dating trope. Pippa is an air traffic controller who has had nothing to do with pilot Andrew bar their regular banter over the airwaves as he taxis in to land or is readying to take off. This suits Pippa just fine as she doesn’t consider herself brilliant in real-life social situations. When they do finally meet IRL, the fact that Pippa needs a date to her dreaded school reunion segues with the fact that Andrew is in desperate need of a date to get his well-meaning family to shut up about his future prospects. Easy then! They plan their fake dating to thwart everyone’s good intentions about their non-existent love lives. You knowwwww these scenarios never end well until they do, but Jo balances this book with such heart and so much witty banter that you will be besotted with Pippa and Andrew too. And there’s a li’l spice thrown in for good measure. I loved them and loved playing spot the South African references – Northcliff Hill, anyone?
What’s Jo reading? How To Kill Men And Get Away With It by Katy Brent. “Well, technically I’m listing to the audiobook and before all you naysayers jump in and say it’s not reading…. It is! I’m loving it, even though the book deals with some very dark and heavy themes, it’s also very entertaining, witty, sarcastic and twisty! It’s about our very own female Dexter who decides to avenge womenfolk by taking out men who’ve behaved very, very badly! Something that perhaps many of us have fantasized about at least once. Book I wish I had written? I’m a total cliche in three words. The Secret History, Donna Tartt.”
2. The Finish Line by Gail Schimmel
I haven’t met Gail Schimmel but I’m not sure she has the same 24 hours as the rest of us do as Gail is not just the author of a collection of dark suburban suspense novels, but she also is still full-time employed as the CEO of the Advertising Regulatory Board and an attorney. So when I think that I don’t have the bandwidth to write my book (surely all of us have the “I have a book in me” thought), then I think of Gail, give my own self a kick up the arse and get on with it. I don’t. But I should.
Gail’s books start off simply enough – moneyed suburban families and couples who seem nice enough and have-it-all-enough on the outside take a turn for the dark, usually to increasingly eye-popping, suspenseful, psychotic effect. This is exactly where we find childhood frenemies Brenda and Denver in her newest book, The Finish Line. The pair were first thrown together at school when Brenda is the new scholarship kid who beats out the heir to the sports throne and popular babe-about-town, Denver.
This begins a lifelong rivalry that tracks them through relationships, weddings and children until things really get hairy. The friendship from Denver’s side is so darkly insidious, you feel annoyed and frustrated that Brenda – against the odds and all evidence to the contrary – continues to choose to see the good side of her. Until she finally gets a major wake-up. And then… Well, boom, bitches! It’s a cracking finish.
What’s Gail reading? “The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley - I saw it on social media somewhere, and I am a sucker for a good time travel story and needed something a bit light and fun – so far it is delivering, mostly. I wish I had written… Either The Secret History by Donna Tartt, or Cider House Rules by John Irving. Actually, the list of things I wish I had written could BE a book. I settled on The Secret History for that balance between beautiful writing and a gripping story – I love dark academia/ privileged young people doing terrible things and I think, in a way, this is the perfect version. Then, the early John Irvings are just the most perfect use of language, and observation of the world, and pushing of the boundaries of what was written about, for me.”
3. The Hidden by Fiona Snyckers
Fiona Snyckers is an award-winning writer – award-winning in that she has won both the South African Literary Award for best novel and the Humanities Award for best novel, both for Lacuna, and she’s been nominated five times for the Sunday Times Fiction Prize. I’m not here to tell you about Lacuna though, I’m here to talk about her insanely pacy new thriller, The Hidden.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Fiona as part of a panel on writing gripping reads at this year’s Franschhoek Lit Fest. And a gripping read, she delivers in The Hidden. It is her first book set outside of South Africa – even her earlier young adult series were entirely home-grown. This edge-of-your-seat, suspenseful book is set deep in rural Oregon in the heart of an off-the-grid American survivalist community, that is more cult than ‘community’.
The plot kicks off with an act of US domestic terrorism and proceeds to unravel the story from different points of view and different timelines - past and present. You’ll hear from the FBI investigator and the couple who escaped the, ahem, community and are now the investigation’s only leads and/ or suspects. The two of them are married with kids living a life of quiet domesticity until their past comes a-knocking. I am giving nothing away, suffice it to say that when the twists land, they will knock you flat on you back! Flat. On. Your. Back.
What Fiona’s reading? “I am reading Really Good, Actually. It is a book that belongs to a particular life stage - the late twenties - when people are literally f-ing around and finding out. As a writer, I find it useful to stay current with people who are at different life stages to me. And Monica Heisey is really smart, funny, and insightful. That book is a strong recommend from me!
I often get asked what book I wish I had written. There are so many. So my answer is always ‘Here is the book I wish I had written THIS WEEK’. I love Gabrielle Zevin. Young Jane Young is an imaginary retelling of the Monica Lewinsky story. It is written with great compassion and empathy for all involved (except maybe for the creepy, predatory senator). I hope Zevin keeps on writing forever. I am such a fan.”
Now that you know what you could be reading next, drop what you are currently reading in the comments… I’d love to hear more xoxo