#krystle zara appiah

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➫ monthly book round-up: march 2024

books read: 6 [=] average rating: 3.1 [-14%] average speed: 10.5 days [+35%] total pages: 2,219 [+7%] yearly goal progress: 17/50 best of the month: a psalm of storms and silence, roseanne a. brown worst of the month: saving time: discovering a life beyond the clock, jenny odell

4.5* reads:

a psalm of storms and silence, roseanne a. brown

4* reads:

the murder at the vicarage, agatha christie

3* reads:

rootless, krystle zara appiah

2.5* reads:

pageboy: a memoir, elliot page

the human origins of beatrice porter & other essential ghosts, soraya palmer

2* reads:

saving time: discovering a life beyond the clock, jenny odell

currently reading:

the meaning of mariah carey, mariah carey

[haveyoureadthispoll]

On a Spring afternoon in London, Sam hops the stairs of his flat two at a time. There's �1,300 missing from his and his wife, Efe's, shared bank account and his calls are going straight to voicemail. When he finally reaches someone, he learns Efe is nearly 5,000 miles away as their toddler looks around and asks, "Where's Mummy?" When Efe and Sam met as teens headed for university, it seemed everyone knew they were meant to be. Efe, newly arrived in the UK from Ghana and sinking under the weight of her parents' expectations, found comfort in the focused and idealistic Sam. He was stable, working toward a law career, and had an unwavering vision for their future. A vision Efe, now a decade later, finds slightly insufferable. From the outside, they're the picture-perfect couple everyone imagined, but there are cracks in the frame. When Efe and Sam are faced with an unplanned pregnancy, they find themselves on opposing sides. Fatherhood is everything he has dreamed of, but Efe feels stuck in a nightmare. And when a new revelation emerges, they are forced to confront just how radically different they want their lives to be. Already swallowed by the demands of motherhood and feeling the dreams she had slipping away once again, Efe disappears.

[apinchofm]

Book Recs ✨

some books for you all to read and enjoy or cry over!

fiction - romance

honey and spice by bolu babalola

rosewater by liv little

the mismatch by sara jafari

non-fiction

hood feminism

feminism interrupted by lola olufemi

radical intimacy by sophie k rosa.

fiction - fantasy

her majesty's royal coven series by juno dawson

weyward by emilia hart

the first woman by jennifer makumbi

fiction - adult

normal people by sally rooney

the weight of blood

yellowface by r.f kuang

rootless by krystle zara appiah

fiction - ya

legendborn series by tracey deonn

ace of spades by faridah àbíké-íyímídé

these violet delights series by chloe gong

[memoriesfrombooks]

The "why" of Rootless by Krystle Zara Appiah covers a lot of ground - the immigrant experience, discrimination and prejudice, cultural expectations, parental expectations, gender expectations, and parenthood. Despite the shifting timelines, the empathy that develops for Efe could have resulted in an emotional story. Then comes the ending. My reaction... Really? Really? After all that, this is how it ends? Did I really read that entire book and begin to invest in it for this? 

Reviewed for NetGalley.

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December 2023 Reading Log

The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger 

Did You Hear About Kitty Karr by Crystal Smith Paul

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

Girl in Snow by Danya Kukafka

Fairy Tale by Stephen King

The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes

The Grace Year by Kim Liggett

Uncultured by Daniella Mestyanek Young

Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

I Have Some Questions For You by Rebecca Makkai 

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

Four Treasures of the Sky by Jenny Tinghui Zhang

Just the Nicest Couple by Mary Kubica

The Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamali

The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton

Lightlark by Alex Aster

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

Rootless by Krystle Zara Appiah

The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

[leggy-freda]

We Chit Chat: Rootless by Krystle Zara Appiah

Taynement: Time for another Chit Chat! Leggy: This was entirely a coincidental Chit Chat. We just happened to be reading this book at the same time. How did you decide to pick this one up? Taynement: My sister-in-law is an avid reader and her review had me intrigued, so I added it to my TBR pile. Leggy: I picked this as my Book of the Month pick for March and just happened to finally pick it…

[musingsofmonica]

March 2023 Diverse Reads

March 2023 Diverse Reads

•”Above Ground” by Clint Smith — March 28, Little Brown and Company, Poetry

•”The Perfumist of Paris” by Alka Joshi — March 28, Mira Books, Historical

•”Dust Child” by Mai Phan Que Nguyen — March 14, Algonquin Books, Historical

•”Flux” by Jinwoo Chong — March 21, Melville House Publishing, Science Fiction 

•”Rootless” by Krystle Zara Appiah — March 7, Ballantine Books, Contemporary 

•”The Next New Syrian Girl” by Ream Shukairy — March 14, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, YA Contemporary 

•”Sea Change” by Gina Chung — March 28, Vintage, Literary

•”Ada's Room” by Sharon Dodua Otoo — March 28, Riverhead Books, Historical

•”Wandering Souls” by Cecile Pin — March 21, Henry Holt & Company, Historical 

•”Y/N” by Esther Yi — March 21, Astra House, Literary

•”The Great Reclamation” by Rachel Hen — March 28, Riverhead Books, Historical

•”Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers” by Jesse Q. Sutanto — March 14, Berkley Books, Mystery 

•”The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter and Other Essential Ghosts” by Soraya Palmer —March 28, Catapult, Magical Realism 

•”Too Soon for Adiós” by Annette Chavez Macias — March 21, Montlake, Contemporary 

•”Chlorine” by Jade Song — March 28, William Morrow & Company. Fantasy

•”There Goes the Neighborhood

Jade Adia — March 07, Disney-Hyperion, YA Contemporary 

•”Our Best Intentions” by Vibhuti Jain — March 14,  William Morrow & Company, Literary Thriller 

•“River Spirit” by Leila Aboulela — March 07, Grove Press, Historical

•”Birdgirl: Looking to the Skies in Search of a Better Future” by Mya-Rose Craig — March 28, Celadon Books, Memoir/Environmental/Natural

•”What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez” by Claire Jimenez — March 07, Grand Central Publishing, Literary 

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rootless // krystle zara appiah

first published: 2023 read: 26 march 2024 – 30 march 2024 pages: 358 format: paperback

genres: fiction, adult, family (marriage, parenthood esp. motherhood), mental health (post-partum depression) favourite character(s): i can't lie, almost all the characters were fairly unlikeable. paa was okay least favourite character(s): see above

rating: 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑 thoughts: i happened to come across rootless in a post on instagram discussing books on motherhood; it then coincidentally ended up being my book club's pick for next month, so i decided to jump in and give it a go. it wasn't necessarily what i was expecting, but it wasn't an unpleasant read. it had me hovering around the 3.5* mark until we moved into the second half, where i slowly mentally bumped my rating up to a 4*. then the ending came, and i was so dumbfounded by the choice that was made that i dropped down to a 3*. i feel like it messed with my enjoyment of the book, and was a stark reminder of how important a book's ending is to the entire story.

it was a little too slow-paced for my liking, and while i was enjoying the story i was waiting for it to get to the point throughout almost all of part one (which was 50-60% of the book). it did pick up eventually, and i got more invested in the increasing tensions in the plot and between characters. the majority of the book is comprised of backstory to the "present moment" where we begin in chapter one, which itself precedes what is to come in about the last 10-20% of the book. i understand why the story was told in this way, but it just made the book feel slow-going and a long wait (over the narrative span of about 20 years) to get to the explosive place in which we started chapter one.

a lot of the characters, especially the two main characters, were difficult to like and to root for. efe and sam were both awful communicators, and while i could be sympathetic to them in a handful of ways, most of the time i felt they came across as selfish and immature. i think there are a lot of discussions to be had about parenthood and motherhood, the pressure some women face to become mothers, the way society tends to judge women who have chosen not to have children, and our sympathy towards women who struggle when they do have children, including our understanding of postpartum depression. but i just don't feel it was best discussed in this story or with these characters.

now, despite all this, i was finding myself interested as the plot progressed and intrigued as to how certain characters would reconcile and resolve their issues. but the way the author decided to end this book in the last three or four chapters, without any spoilers, was awful, ridiculous, and disappointing. i cannot for the life of me understand why that route was chosen, and by the time i closed the last page i was just pissed off. it ruined some of what i had been able to enjoy about the story's progression and each character's growth up until that point.

i do think this book has a lot of potential for book club discussions, so i am looking forward to seeing what other people have to say about it, but in general rootless was something of a disappointment.