Reviewed by Hannah Gough

The Guardian journalist Gary Younge picked at random one day (24-hour time frame) in 2013 in which ten young people were killed by guns in America. 

Each chapter of the book is devoted to one of the ten victims and varies in length as some are more in-depth as Younge was dependent on the willingness of friends and family members to be interviewed. In the book Younge opens up the stories of the young lives while at the same time weaving in his own personal journey in undertaking this investigation. 

This book helps to put a human face to the gun-related death statistics which are flashed before our eyes regularly in the media. ‘Another Day in the Death of America’ reminds you that behind the numbers are actual young children; take Jaiden Dixon for example, a 9 year old boy who had been slow getting ready for school that morning but didn’t make it off his front porch before he was shot dead.  

As Younge states, this is not a book about race or gun control, it is about understanding the circumstances that resulted in ten young people being shot and killed in a 24-hour period. This is not an extraordinary day in terms of murders in the USA, none of these deaths made the news: it was ‘just another day’. 

The book is relevant on so many levels especially since the underlying structural problems of gun control or lack thereof in America are still unresolved. This book will make you feel emotions which are warranted given the shear number of gun deaths – take the time to read this book. 

I will leave you with this poem by a freshman student named Tyler who went to school with one of the youths killed. 

We hope to live,

Live long enough to have kids 

We hope to make it home every day

We hope we’re not the next target to get sprayed…

We hope never to end up in Newark’s dead pool

I hope, you hope, we all hope. 

RESERVE YOUR COPY OF Another Day in the Death of America! 

Reviewed by Vindhya Kathuria

The Hate U Give is a brutally honest book, speaking up about the very real issue of police brutality and giving a strong voice to the Black Lives Matter movement.  It unapologetically gives insight to the reality of racial bias in the justice system, through the eyes of a 16 year old girl whose world is shattered because of it.

Starr lives on the border of two completely different worlds; the rough neighbourhood where she lives and her posh high school in the suburbs. On one hand her “normal” consists of  gunshots, gang violence and riots. But despite all that it is where her true roots lie and a home she could never abandon.  On the other side exists a sense of safety, secureness and protection. But with it comes a cost to conceal her true self, she becomes the non confrontational Starr who holds back her slang and doesn't give anyone a reason to associate her with “ghetto”.

However the fine barrier between her two worlds clash when she witnesses the fatal shooting of her best friend Khalil. Another case of police brutality, another unarmed kid who did nothing wrong but was merely shot based on his race and colour, another name to add to the list of R.I.P hashtags, another person who deserved better.

Now Starr finds herself caught up in the middle of it all. Being the only witness to Khalil's death, only she knows the truth. What she says or doesn't say could determine everything. She is torn between fighting for justice for her friend or keeping quiet to avoid meeting the bullet herself.

This heartbreakingly powerful novel demands for change in the current police force and justice for those individuals who are harassed for their colour. It is a critically important read as it is not only informative and compelling but also teaches readers to stand up and use the greatest weapon they have ; their voice.

RESERVE YOUR COPY OF The Hate U Give! 

Reviewed by our very own Hannah Gough!

If you enjoyed the podcast Serial, this is a book for you!

True crime literature doesn't do it justice, as the author Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevichsuccessfully weaves in her own story. We don't live in a black and white world where people who commit crimes are wholly evil. However, how does one come to terms with a man who has confessed and is indeed guilty of a child's murder? Ricky is on death row when we first meet him and Alexandra is a young law student, but the story takes you back to the very beginning of both of their childhoods to try to make sense of it all. If you are ready for the journey, I cannot recommend this book enough. It reads like a thriller while calling into question the very essence of who we are as human beings.

RESERVE YOUR COPY OF The Fact of a Body! 

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

What goes through the mind of a truly lonely person? What does it feel like to have to live, when you really would rather not? In a world where social connections and physical appearance can make or break you, how do you cope with people’s stares and a total lack of friendships?

Every once in a while, a news report will reveal the true number of people who live lonely lives and most of us know people who at one point or another have experienced loneliness, but much like depression used to be, loneliness is today very much a taboo subject - often seen as a sign of weakness and therefore rarely a topic of conversation except in the abstract.

Enter: Eleanor Oliphant. 

A young woman with a dark past and a very predictable present. A life that follows the exact same schedule every single day, the same job, the same clothes and the same two bottles of vodka. 

“….usually, I don’t speak from the point at which I state my destination to the bus driver on Friday night, right through until I greet his colleague on Monday morning.”

Gail Honeyman’s debut novel “Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine” is a wonderful introduction not only to a lovable character but also to her world - a world where everything must stay very simple, very practical and very much the same. Any unexpected movements and she risks facing demons better contained safely within the confines of a regularly scheduled Wednesday afternoon telephone conversation. She has to stay strong, in control. Her password of choice....Seneca’s words: “Fire tests gold and adversity tests the brave”.

But Eleanor knows something is wrong - she knows she is lonely and the struggle between the safety of the known and the promise of unknown land her in a tug of war. 

“I took one of my hands in the other, tried to imagine what it would feel like it was another person’s hand holding mine. There have been times where I felt that I might die of loneliness. People sometimes say that they might die of boredom, that they’re dying for a cup of tea, but for me dying of loneliness is not hyperbole. When I feel like that, my head drops, and my shoulders slump and I ache, I physically ache, for human contact - I truly feel that I might tumble to the ground and pass away if someone doesn’t hold me, touch me.”

”People don’t like these facts, but I can’t help that”.

Fortunately for Eleanor, however, life refuses to be controlled and random acts of kindness force her to embark on a roller coast ride of chance encounters and risk taking her outside of the carefully set boundaries of her meticulously planned life - while stockpiling pills for a quick exit. 

“Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine” may not seem like the perfect summer read, but believe me…it is! It is a heartwarming, funny and illuminating novel about the plight of so many people who live quietly among us, whose lives we don’t understand or appreciate. It is also the story of the power of parents over their children - for good and for (very) bad - and the responsibility of society to the children who need us the most. Finally, it is a novel about the wonderful unpredictability of life and how just one person can mean the difference between light and utter darkness. 

RESERVE YOUR COPY OF Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine!