Genny's July reads in Orange

Here's a healthy crunchy bunch of orange carrots to welcome you to my thread!



I've been slow to start a new thread for this month, and equally slow to start on any of the Orange books on my TBR pile.

Since January the Orange books I've read are:
The Help and
Fingersmith - enjoyed both very much.

Top of the list for July are
The Outcast which I've had for 3 years or so, and started reading when I first bought it, but got distracted.
Purple Hibiscus which I've had from the library for quite a long time!

other candidates are
The Tenderness of Wolves and
Gilead.

I don't have any of this year's shortlisted in my possession yet, so I'll concentrate on catching up on one or two of the above from previous years.

Welcome! I hope you like The Outcast - one of my favorites!

Enjoy Purple Hibiscus! I'm an Adichie fangirl. ;) I loved Fingersmith too, but haven't read any of the others you mentioned.

Hi gennyt. It is nice to meet you. I hope that no matter how much or how little of the Orange you read this month, that you enjoy the comments and camaraderie here within the group.
I second BiblioEva's comment on Purple Hibiscus. Not many books where you can smell and feel the plants, earth, people, etc. With this one I think all of my senses were used in a manner I have never found before. Not an easy book, but a lovely and wonderful book. I hope you like it as well.
And Gilead is just a heartwarming, lovely story that my mind continues to go back to time and time again. I really loved that book.
Good reads to you gennyt and welcome.
belva
P.S. love the photo at the top of your thread. It all looks so fresh and nummy.

Ohhh indeed, your photo looks so delicous and healthy! And of course, carrots are Orange!I've only read The Help a year or so ago , among your possibilites.

This year was the first year that I became aware of the Orange Prize -and I think I've read about 8 or more Oranges so far - begining in May;)

I've love to read Gilead but had to take it back to the library.

Genny, I've just started Fingersmith and will really jump on it when I have finished something else.....
I predict that you will be carried away by Gilead. At least, I was. I have yet to read anything by Ms. Adichie, but at least I have a copy of Half a Yellow Sun. What with The Memory of Love and Sacred Hunger AND Travels in West Africa waiting in the wings, I'm not sure that I can "do" anything else from that continent right now.

Ohhh Peggy, I can't wait to read Travels in West Africa. I was so excited when I finally found it. And Mary Kingsley......what a woman. They just don't make us like that anymore. Are you reading it for AV/AA?
hugs,

THanks for visiting, Jill, Eva, Belva, Deborah, Peggy - and for all the encouragements and recommendations.

Just under half way through Purple Hibiscus and finding it very vivid, and the father character appalling...

I do hope I can get this one finished soon and leave myself time for at least one more Orange book this month. Too many to choose from with all your recommendations, though as I'm restricting myself to those already in my TBR pile it will probably be either Gilead (which so many of you have warmly recommended) or The Outcast - which I have listed for one of the TIOLI challenges and really want to finish, as it's been hanging around for several years since I first started then abandoned it.

Oh, Genny! I forgot to say that I loved Outcast too! I really think you'll enjoy the playing with theology as it lives in Gilead though. (And Belva, I'm really not reading Travels in West Africa right now even though it is off the shelf and I started it and found it good. She is quite an entertaining writer. And, no, I'll just read it when I read it especially since I don't know right off hand what AV/AA is......)

>9 LizzieD:

I believe AV/AA = All Virago, All August.

I'm about a third of the way through The Outcast now. It hasn't completely drawn me in yet - though there is the suspense of wondering what will happen, as the opening chapter is set at a later date than what follows, and so you are left waiting to see how the character will end up there. Some interesting well written evocations of a child's perspective in some of the early chapters.

>10 sqdancer: Of course it does!!! Thank you, Bernadette!

Well, I ended up reading just the two Oranges, Purple Hibiscus and The Outcast. Purple Hibiscus was my favourite of the two I think - both involved children dealing with pretty awful treatment from their fathers which made for uncomfortable and distressing reading. There were also signs of hope and people who treated them differently in both books, but this came almost too late in The Outcast, making it a difficult read throughout. Hope to get proper reviews written for both, when I'm on holiday next week - I'm very far behind with book reviews still.