June is Caribbean Heritage Month! I always get so excited about reading a huge stack of books by Caribbean authors but somehow about a week or two before I get anxious and torn over which books to put in my TBR stack of the month. As a habit I always put my planned reading for my book clubs and buddy reading on the stack first. That seems to be setting the tone for what gets put on top next. We are currently 9 days into June and I have only finished 2 books. Neither are Caribbean themed but both are nonfiction. That’s a first. I’ve decided to join the #CaribAthon group read of The God of Good Looks by Breanne Mc Ivor. I started it yesterday and it’s not bad at all. I’m looking forward to seeing how all of this is going to play out. I started just listening to the audiobook but decided to pick up the Kindle edition in the end. It was on sale on Amazon France for 11€. That’s a bit more than what I would usually pay for an electronic edition but I just decided to splurge. #CaribAthon, taking place from June 7 – 17, is spearheaded every year by 2 dynamic literary content creators Karen from Runwright Reads and Peta from Comfy Cozy Up.
Now that I’ve decided to kick off Caribbean Heritage month with The God of Good Looks, I also want to read Blue by Haitian author Emmelie Prophète. I had the pleasure of meeting her at Festival America in September 2022 in Vincennes. I was able to hear more about her and her work as I was privileged to be one of the ten people to have breakfast with her Sunday morning of the literary festival in a nearby café. It was a lovely time and as a result I wound up purchasing one of her books in French, Les Villages de Dieu and another one in English, Blue (Le testament de Solitudes). Les villages de Dieu was released in November 2020, and is not yet translated into English. Hopefully it will happen soon.
In case you’re still mulling over what you want to read for Caribbean Heritage Month, here are a few of my favourites:
