FUCHSIA Magazine is proud to be hosting its very first #FUCHSIASummerBookClub ! In this hot, humid weather there’s nothing I like doing more than curling up with a good book. However, over the years life seems to have gotten in the way of my therapeutic reading rituals. I trudge around during the summer holidays and procrastinate the days away. This year I thought I’d hold myself accountable and start a book club to get some titles off my To-Be-Read list (TBR).
Life is indeed sometimes more surreal than fiction. Reading something absurd makes you wonder how plausible that scenario might be in real life. Thus, when that fictional scenario finally begins to unfold around you, you’re able to look at it more analytically.
The #FUCHSIASummerBookClub will be a three month online book club, where we’ll read six books from July-September. Throughout the three months we’ll be reading from our curated list (created by yours truly). Each of the books are chosen keeping the current socio-political atmosphere in mind. Every month has a dedicated theme that’ll be discussed in detail when the reviews are posted every fortnight.
How Can You Participate In The #FUCHSIASummerBookClub 2019
We look forward to reading these books alongside our readers. You can participate by sharing your reviews or favourite quotes (up to 120 words) using #FUCHSIASummerBookClub on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Do remember to tag us in your posts.We’ll be sharing your opinions in every related review post. Additionally, you can email your review to us at Info@fuchsia.com.sg with your contact details and the subject “FUCHSIA Summer Book Club”.
At the end of each month we’ll be choosing a winner based on the most interesting review to receive a gift voucher (courtesy of Team Fuchsia). So get your reading glasses on and READY. SET. READ!
Contest is open to citizens of Pakistan only. By entering you’re verifying that you’re at least 18 years of age or have the permission of your parent/guardian to share your contact details and mailing address. Decisions made are final and not open to dispute.
“Tyrannous Pursuits” – #FUCHSIASummerBookClub Titles For July
- The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls (1st-15th)
‘Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity were both their curse and their salvation. Rex and Rose Mary Walls had four children. In the beginning, they lived like nomads, moving among Southwest desert towns, camping in the mountains.Later, when the money ran out, or the romance of the wandering life faded, the Walls retreated to the dismal West Virginia mining town. As the dysfunction of the family escalated, Jeannette and her brother and sisters had to fend for themselves, supporting one another as they weathered their parents’ betrayals and, finally, found the resources and will to leave home. For two decades, Jeannette Walls hid her roots. Now she tells her own story.’ – (Goodreads)
- 1984 by George Orwell (16th-31st)
‘ Among the seminal texts of the 20th century, Nineteen Eighty-Four is a rare work that grows more haunting as its futuristic purgatory becomes more real. Published in 1949, the book offers political satirist George Orwell’s nightmarish vision of a totalitarian, bureaucratic world and one poor stiff’s attempt to find individuality. The brilliance of the novel is Orwell’s prescience of modern life—the ubiquity of television, the distortion of the language—and his ability to construct such a thorough version of hell.’ – (Goodreads)
“The Woes Of Women” – #FUCHSIASummerBookClub Titles For August
- Milkman by Anna Burns (1st-15th)
‘In this unnamed city, to be interesting is dangerous. Middle sister, our protagonist, is busy attempting to keep her mother from discovering her maybe-boyfriend and to keep everyone in the dark about her encounter with Milkman. But when first brother-in-law sniffs out her struggle, and rumours start to swell, middle sister becomes ‘interesting’. The last thing she ever wanted to be. To be interesting is to be noticed. To be noticed is dangerous.Milkman is a tale of gossip and hearsay, silence and deliberate deafness. It is the story of inaction with enormous consequences’. – (Goodreads)
- The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (16th-31st)
‘Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She may leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a day to walk to food markets. The signs are now pictures instead of words because women are no longer allowed to read. She must lie on her back once a month and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant. Because in an age of declining births, Offred and the other Handmaids are valued only if their ovaries are viable. Offred can remember the years before, when she lived and made love with her husband, Luke; when she played with and protected her daughter; when she had a job, money of her own, and access to knowledge. But all of that is gone now…’ – (Goodreads)
“South-Asian Authors Highlight” – #FUCHSIASummerBookClub Titles For September
- Unmarriageable by Soniah Kamal (1st-15th)
‘In this one-of-a-kind retelling of Pride and Prejudice set in modern-day Pakistan, Alys Binat has sworn never to marry. Until an encounter with one Mr. Darsee at a wedding makes her reconsider.
A scandal and vicious rumor concerning the Binat family has destroyed their fortune and prospects for desirable marriages, but Alys, the second and most practical of the five Binat daughters, has found happiness teaching English literature to schoolgirls. Knowing that many of her students won’t make it to graduation before dropping out to marry and have children, Alys teaches them about Jane Austen and her other literary heroes and hopes to inspire the girls to dream of more.
When an invitation arrives to the biggest wedding their small town has seen in years, Mrs. Binat is certain that their luck is about to change. She excitedly sets to work preparing her daughters to fish for rich, eligible bachelors…’ – (Goodreads)
- When I Hit You: Or, A Portrait Of The Writer As A Young Wife by Meena Kandasamy (16th-30th)
‘Seduced by politics and poetry. The unnamed narrator falls in love with a university professor and agrees to be his wife. What for her is a contract of love is for him a contract of ownership. He sets about reducing her to his idealised version of a kept woman. Bullying her out of her life as an academic and writer in the process, she attempts to push back. A resistance he resolves to break with violence and rape. Smart, fierce and courageous. A brilliant, throat-tightening feminist discourse on battered faces and bruised male egos; and a scathing portrait of traditional wedlock in modern India. ‘ – (Goodreads)
Let’s make the first ever #FUCHSIASummerBookClub a roaring success. We look forward to your participation.
Happy Reading!
