Hum If You Don't Know the Words | 
pickI've been offline since Thursday so I have to catch up on all my reviews. ( see my previous post)
#BookedInTime 1970s South Africa September 2024
@cuilin @dabbe
This was a compelling story that I really enjoyed and was very well done. The only reason I took off a star was I just didn't like Robin. Even though she did redeem herself a little at the end.
pickA novel set in the immediate aftermath of the Soweto Uprising, this was an affecting and well-written story of a mother desperate to find her missing daughter, and of a child learning about the ugliness and prejudice in her world. There are some tonally weird caper-like scenes in the end but overall this was a good read. Full review at http://booknaround.blogspot.com/2022/04/review-hum-if-you-dont-know-words-by.htm...
pickIn the future predictive software maps out every detail of a person's life & that of their descendants. A woman is on trial for selfishly becoming pregnant w a child who may negatively affect the future. The jury are those whose families will be affected by the Viper (viable person) for better or worse & they must vote to decide if she'll be allowed to give birth or if the pregnancy must be terminated.
Fascinating & disturbing! Not in database.
What a sweet and wonderful surprise!! Thanks for sending this book to me @Soubhiville ! I‘m sure I‘m going to love it. Thank you so so much and for thinking of me!!
Book Outlet book haul
Have you read any of these? Share your opinion :)
pickI LOVED this book that explored the difficult areas of apartheid, death, family, righteous violence, and grief. Set in South Africa during the 1970s, this book is told through the point of view of two characters, a naive white child and an educated black woman. It‘s eye-opening, insightful, and raw, and so so good.
so-soWhile most of this story was compelling, I often felt that the child character made unrealistic moves or that her thought processes were too advanced for her age.
Overall I enjoyed it otherwise, but those things pulled me out of the story many times.
While my hubby was in the cheese shop, I popped into the charity bookshop next door 😜Picked up one book but I‘ll be back for more💚Who can deny giving charity?!?!
pickBianca Marais's Hum If You Don't Know the Words, which I read as part of an IG buddy read, is an immensely readable, compelling historical novel. Set during after the Soweto Uprising in 1976 Johannesburg, the book alternates between the perspectives of Robin, a nine-year-old white girl whose parents are murdered during the events surrounding the uprising, and Beauty Mbali, ⬇️
Small Spoiler: Just after this passage we meet a hero who helps this hurting child whose parents have died start to heal and that hero is the head librarian ... oh my heart 💔
This book is breaking my heart! 💔
pickThis was beautifully written- I was brought to tears at a few points. Human connection, permanence, love and loss.
pickThis is a special book. Both heartwarming and shocking, with characters you will want desperately in your life. Do yourself a favour and read it!
So, we are past the halfway point of 2019 already 😱 and these are the best books I‘ve read so far. What are yours?
Starting this one tonight. Really enjoying it so far, only 10 pages in. Happy Friday!
I've read most of these #YellowSpines and liked almost all of them, but probably the tagged book most of all.
#SpringIntoReading
pickA great story with heart-warming characters. This would make a good book club selection because it deals with many discussion-worthy topics and the author has an interest in doing phone interviews with book groups. (Listen to Book Cougars podcast episode 65 to hear their interview with Marais. At the end of the episode, the author states she‘s available to interact with reading groups.) Excellent audio narration.
pickThis debut novel is a page-turner that I highly recommend. If you like coming of age novels, historical fiction, stories about race, relationships, orphans, or foreign lands, you‘ll want to pick up Hum. If you‘re more of a non-fiction reader, this novel will provide loads of emotional context for what life was like under Apartheid.
More #PlayingCatchUp! One before I go to work, and hopefully more later!
📖 The Hunger Games, Hum if You Don't Know the Words, and Harry Potter, obviously!
🖋Going withCynthia Hand, her books are fun!
🎬Hocus Pocus, because it's the season!
🍽 Hummus. 😋
#ManicMonday @JoScho
pickso glad i switched to audio so i could listen to the beautiful south african accents in this narration 4.5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
1. Only the Brave
2. Movies and dinner
3. 5
4. Supposed to discuss Tuesday at book club 😏
5. Alrighty!!
@jesshowbooks
#friyayintro
so-soI had incredible admiration for Beauty, not only for her intelligence, but for her compassion. Her stoicism and strength when met with such adversity was nothing short of amazing and I wish that the entire story was told from her perspective. She is well-written without being trivialized, Marais shines through her characterization.
pickI got this book at the Yankee Book Swap at our #CTLitsyMeetup. Thank you @mrozzz for bringing this as your selection! It was a beautiful book, giving us a glimpse into the lives of a white South African girl and her black caretaker during the time period of the Soweto uprising. Viewing their struggles brought the enormous complexities of life in apartheid-era South Africa to an intimate, personal level. I really loved it!
pickLast night we had book club for this wonderfully delicious book: Hum If You Don't Know the Words. We all loved it and highly recommend it. We met at a bar called Catcher in the Rye and ordered drinks with names like Tequila Mockingbird, Secret Garden, Tropic of Capricorn, and munched on treats like Holden Cauliflower 😁. When the bill came it was tucked into a copy of Lemony Snicket. I loved it all. It was a fantastic evening!
My “This is only 50 cents at the book sale so I can‘t pass it up” pile is outta hand. Any I must read? Any to skip? #helpaLittenout
This was the book that I got from the Yankee swap at the #CTLitsyMeetup yesterday at RJ Julia‘s in Madison, CT. It looks fantastic and I had not heard of it before so I‘m looking forward to reading it. It was wonderful to meet everyone! Great company and great location 🙂
Great workout at the gym. Then lunch with my best friend and my son. Then stopped by our local independent book store, Union Avenue Books, and picked this up. Now to settle in and finish a couple of books I am near the end of. #goodsunday #livingmybestlife
pickInteresting story in time, place, and setting. Makes me want to learn more about this period in South Africa. The reader does need to suspend disbelief toward the end, when the 9 year character is not as realistically portrayed as she was earlier on.
pickA TRUE GEM! Highly recommend!
A beautifully written novel about apartheid — tragedy. racism + injustice. survival.
Set in 1970‘s apartheid-era South Africa.. the story of a white child + black mother whom (after the Soweto student uprising) meet under extreme circumstance + loss, and the challenges they face while seeking answers during those difficult days. Unputdownable so grab Kleenex and be ready to sit a spell!
A 5 Star EYE-OPENER for me!
pickThis was a longtime TBR I‘ve been looking forward to, so maybe my expectations were unrealistic. Not an author who believes in “show, not tell” -messages are about as subtle as a whack on the head. Also some “white (wo)man to the rescue” (literally) issues. But it‘s a touching story, has some lovely scenes, and offers a narrative on Apartheid that is seldom heard here in America. I appreciated it even more having already read Born A Crime.
I was mute. I didn‘t know what to say in a world where people were hated and attacked for not being the right color, not speaking the right language, not worshipping the right god or not loving the right people; a world where hatred was the common language, and bricks, the only words.
I thought of you yesterday @RebelReader when I picked up this signed copy at the Galleria B&N yesterday. 😊 I too am anxious to read it!
We got two authors tonight!! Chloe Benjamin on the left and Bianca Marais on the right. I went because Chloe was going to be there and she was wonderful, but I really enjoyed Bianca and cannot wait to read her book. Bianca also told us she just delivered her next book to the publisher and it sounds good too. Chloe has just started her next book and she says she writes slow so we will be waiting awhile for her next offering. Great night! ❤️❤️
pickThere was some lovely writing in this book about a 10 year old white girl and 50 year old Black woman in 1970s South Africa in the grip of apartheid. It was a little too “white girl learns valuable life lessons off the pain of Black woman” for me to really love the story, but it was an interesting read. 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼1/2
And that‘s the third book finished today!!
Also books had always helped me make sense of the world and given me answers when I needed them.
My ideal evening, kids are quietly occupied in their rooms, dog is snoring and we‘re engrossed in our books #couplesthatreadtogether
I can‘t believe I was going to take this book back to the library tomorrow unread. Really glad I decided to try a couple of pages even though I didn‘t think I was in the mood. The writing is entrancing.
Now I need to put it down so I can sleep!!
pickA great story of 2 unsuspecting characters, black 50 year old Beauty and white 10 year old Robin, living in 1970s South Africa during apartheid whose paths cross. This meeting will change their lives but will it be for the better? You‘ll just have to read it and find out. I highly recommend it.
