A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
Reason for request: "It's a very real and emotional book about India's caste system, and how it affects people. The book is filled with emotion, joy, love, sacrifice, everything that makes a good book. It's the best I've ever read, and the ending stuck with me because, though depressing and unfair, it's likely the truth."
Are You Really the Doctor? My Life as a Black Doctor in the NHS by Matthew Hutchinson
Reason for request: "Mixed, of colour, immigrant parents, born and raised in the UK, know Britain as home, fit into two cultures but not entirely into either. Awareness of biases and different view points in a multi-cultured society. I've met this Dr and he's brilliant.”
Hand of the Prince by Pablo de Orellana
Reason for request: “It has a paragraph on Western Sahara, involving discourses around the conflict and the erosion of Saharawi identity by Morocco. Though I have no Saharawi heritage myself, I worked with Saharawi families as a volunteer for years in Spain, and I would love to see a book that recognises their struggles and so much as acknowledges their existence as a people and the 'forgotten' war they have been fighting for over 50 years.”
In Defense of Witches by Mona Cholett
Reason for request: "The book is a vital addition to the cultural conversation around women, witches and the misogyny that has shaped the world they live in (and we live in).”