Writers of Color 50 Books Challenge

5. Life isn't all Ha Ha Hee Hee by Meera Syal

I'm a big fan of Meera Syal, so I pretty much knew I would like this. Life Isn't All Ha Ha Hee Hee revolves around three thirty-something British Indian women, Tania, Sunita and Chila. They're about as different as they can be, but all are strong, well-rounded characters. I liked Sunita and Chila very much. Tania, I started off liking most, which then turned to dislike, then pity, before going back to like.

I love Syal's descriptions, which made it easy to imagine this vivid blend of British and Indian culture. It didn't make me laugh out loud, but it was funny - not in a cracking jokes way, just in the observations made about various characters. I also liked the ending very much. I don't want to ruin it, but I was left feeling happy with how the three characters had changed throughout the book.

6. Does My Head Look Big In This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah

Amal has just decided to start wearing the hijab full time. She goes to a posh school and knows that most of the people there will react badly. I didn't like this book as much as I liked her second book (10 Things I Hate About Me), but I still mostly enjoyed it. I liked the characters, I liked the multicultural world Amal lived in. But it wasn't a 'can't put it down' book. I sometimes wondered where the plot was going, or why I was still reading - for a section of the book there was very little suspense. Then something happened that caught my interest again. I think this is a good book in need of a better editor - Abdel-Fattah's a good writer, but this could have been improved.

7. Bindis and Brides by Nisha Minhas

Zarleena, who has recently escaped from an abusive marriage, bumps into a man (Joel) at the supermarket, and agrees to help him cook an Indian meal for his one night stand. Except the reason she does so is that he tells her it's for his fiancee, in order to prove his love. Various misunderstandings ensue, Joel proves himself a good guy after all, they all live HEA (except the abusive ex-husband, of course). I loved the writing style, and found it sometimes very funny. But I also had some serious issues. ( Spoilers. )

2. Ten Things I Hate About Me by Randa Abdel-Fattah

Randa Abdel-Fattah also wrote 'Does My Head Look Big In This?', which I know is very popular and has won various awards. So when I saw 10 Things I Hate About Me I had to buy.

Jamilah is a Muslim teen who's proud of her Lebanese heritage and enjoys going to madrasa and playing the darabuka. However, at school she's known as Jamie, and dies her hair blonde and wears blue contact lenses to fit in. She keeps 'Jamilah' secret, afraid of being bullied or not fitting in.

I loved this book. I loved how painfully real I found Jamilah, torn in two between her pride in her identity, and her desperation to fit in and avoid to notice of the popular kids. She's clever and funny, but also insecure and lacking in confidence. This being YA chick lit, it all gets complicated when boys get involved. I saw the twist coming from very early on, but it didn't spoil it much. There's a good cast of well-rounded secondary characters, all with their own issues (and I love Jamilah's sister embroidering 'Save the Forests' onto her hijab). I also loved the ending: it wasn't what I'd expected, but given how Jamilah's character grew over the book, it also made perfect sense, and I think left me happier than if it had ended in a more conventional way.

3. Jupiter Williams by S. I. Martin

This has previously been reviewed by puritybrown here. It's YA historical fiction, set in London 1800, focusing on Jupiter Williams and his brothers. They were born free in Sierra Leone, but sent to the African Academy in London for their education. When Jupiter's brother Robert disappears, Jupiter goes to try and find him.

This is good - I enjoyed reading about the African community in London at a time when most books would have you believe it was all white. It left me wanting to find out more. Jupiter is definitely a strong character, if not a likeable one, and the author doesn't shrink back from describing the nastiness and horror of the time.

But I couldn't help feeling something was missing. At the end I was left thinking, But what happens next? I'm not normally a huge fan of epilogues, but I think that something was needed to make it feel a little more finished. There was no sense of resolution, or at least for me it didn't feel like there was. But I enjoyed it, and it intrigued me enough that I want to find out more about the African community in Britain at that time.