#BrewMonday: Books to Cosy Down With
With the grey skies, minus-degree temperatures and fewer sunlight hours typical of winter in the UK, it is unsurprising that the third Monday of January was coined ‘Blue Monday’ exactly 20 years ago. The melancholy of the season was highlighted with the hopes of encouraging us to, if we can, take action and find ways to brighten our days.
The Samaritans, UK charity that focuses on providing support for mental health, wanted to emphasise the severity of feeling low beyond a day or season, and initiated the ‘Brew Monday’ campaign to ensure that we settle down with a cup of tea and friend to have a chat, form connection and reach out to those we care about.
Here at Jacaranda Books, we love the idea of emphasising good mental health practices, so for this #BlueMonday, we want to do something to spotlight mental health, and spotlight an organisation that provides much needed support.
For #BrewMonday, we will be donating 50% of proceeds from books sold this week to Black Minds Matter UK, an amazing charity founded in 2020 to provide free mental health services for Black individuals and families. Through Talking Therapy, Awareness and Education and Advocacy, Black Minds Matter works tirelessly to raise awareness for mental health needs, and improve access to culturally appropriate services for the Black British community.
#BrewMonday asks that we spend time in community and conversation with others, but also doing things that ground us, like reading. And so for you, we have pulled together a list of books to take your mind on vacation, or to help you better be in conversation around mental health and how humanity experiences the good and bad of it.
An exploration into the minds of Black British men we know and love, like Jordan Stephens, Sope Soetan and Iggy London, MANDEM is a collection of essays from authors of all walks of life. They highlight personal tales of love, grief, sex and so much more with a vulnerability that many would say is not quintessentially attributed to Black men. This title aims to pick apart why that notion even exists, and start conversations that may liberate and alleviate some of life’s burdens in the way that talking often does.
This beachy, fun romance novel is set across the sunny shores of Ghana and the concrete jungle of London. We follow Faye Bonsu as she falls apart trying to fall in love, travelling all the way to Accra where she learns more about herself than she could have ever imagined. It of course doesn’t hurt that she encounters the handsome Rocky Asante on the way!
Picking up not far from where ‘From Pasta to Pigfoot’ left off, we join Faye enjoying a few changes in her life, but with new heights come new problems. Another lovely, light romance from our author Frances Mensah Williams, we get to see how our favourite Ghana girl has grown from her encounters in the first novel and follow her story through life, love and career.
A cautionary tale set in the not-too-distant future, Crosshairs is a dystopian novel that focuses on the marginalised and the unfair othering that they are subject to in a way that does not feel too dissimilar to the world we live in now. With mental health being a crucial issue for the LQBTQ+ community, Catherine Hernandez tells the story of Kay who joins forces with other outcasts and plans a rebellion in the face of losing the life they knew.
Rachel Faturoti tells a beautiful story of Fola, a 16 year old girl suffering under the weight of her family’s expectations and her brother’s serious illness. The themes of grief, hope and community are explored in this fantastical tale that looks at the hardships and realities of life and how we cope.
Another light-hearted trip through a romance, Love Again’s Rasheeda Ashanti Malcolm tells the story of Honey and her plan to keep her scheming, matchmaking mother at bay with the help of the charming and notoriously flirtatious Ashley Eliot. Will she be able to keep her mother’s picks away? Will she even want to when she encounters a particularly handsome choice?
A heart-wrenching story of love across political lines and borders, These Letters End in Tears tells of a queer love story set in Cameroon where their love is illegal. It is torn apart with no knowledge of if it will ever be recovered. The uncertainty does not erode the hope, with letters saved that communicate the hardship and mental weight of love lost.
‘Bad Love’ follows the young Ekuah through her journey of tumultuous first love and out onto the other side where adulthood, career and family realities are all waiting for her. She navigates it all against the backdrop of a new, more solid kind of love that causes her to question what she really wants out of life and if what she wants is actually any good for her.
We round off our list with If I Don’t Have You, a tale of love at first sight between Ren and Kayla whose attraction to each other is undeniable. As they are tossed together for work, are they able to look at themselves and what they really want and need in order to make this the romance it could be? Grab a copy for you and a friend and find out over a nice, hot cup of tea.
If you have considered a buddy read with a friend this year, maybe this is the list you have been waiting on.