This month’s Book with Buzz blog about recent reads that deserve to be shouted about much louder feature a cool snacking cook book, genre-bending fiction, and a remarkable portrait of British Caribbean lives. Enjoy!

Caught Snackin’

Caught Snackin'

Hands up who wants to up their snack-making game? We’re talking spicy popcorn chicken, one-pot sticky cola wings, five-minute chilli noodles, and Jaffa Cake bread and butter pudding, and that’s just for starters (and pudding…). In fact, there are 100 recipes in total, all coming courtesy of Tiktok sensation @caughtsnackin.

Also serving yummy ideas for tipples, including Gummy Bear vodka and frozen espresso martinis, this part comfort food bible, part “let’s spice snacks up” manual is all about big flavours that satisfy big appetites.

The Hero of This Book by Elizabeth McCracken

The Hero of This Book

Though making big waves on the other side of the pond, Elizabeth McCracken’s The Hero of This Book is beginning to create ripples in the UK, and rightly so. A comic, clever, moving novel that plays with the boundaries between fiction and memoir, it tells the powerful story of a writer reflecting on her mother’s death, and explores grief, memory and how we continue to love those we’ve lost. It’s also brilliantly funny.

In the words of the New York Times, the author’s words “create an exquisite alchemy that makes a reader ready to follow her anywhere, believe every word she writes down…With every vital, potent sentence, McCracken conveys the electric and primal nature of that first fundamental love”. 

I’m Black So You Don’t Have to Be by Colin Grant

I'm Black So You Don't Have to Be

One of our personal January Picks, we were delighted to see I’m Black So You Don’t Have To Be garnering more attention in recent weeks. Presenting a profound, rich tapestry of British West Indian experiences through personal portraits of individuals close to author Colin Grant, it reveals much about generational shifts, family dynamics and race in Britain.

Bernardine Evaristo, Booker Prize-winning author of Girl, Woman, Other called it a “compelling and charming read”, while The Guardian described it as “An important contribution to the story of British-Caribbean identity, told with loving scrutiny”.