the am Virtual Book Club
Sarah Skelton
For this issue, I have selected two incredible and much acclaimed books for the AM virtual book club, both with ‘dream’ in the title: Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Dream State by Eric Puchner.
A quote from a character in Dream Count serves as an appropriate introduction to both of these books: ‘’Novels had always felt to me truer than what was real.”
This is something I experience often. When I am immersed in a book, or have just finished one, I feel as though I have entered a dream state, feeling almost dazed, finding it hard to detach myself from the characters and enter into normal life again. Books really do enable you to live many different lives.
Dream Count
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION
Dream Count is the story of four women and their loves, longings and desires. It explores how these four women dream of things that are constantly out of their reach, or have their dreams crushed by circumstances and choices. It unflinchingly explores the boundaries and challenges in women’s lives, whether physical, emotional, cultural or those exercised through power and systems.
Chiamaka is a Nigerian travel writer living in America. Alone in the midst of the pandemic, she recalls her past lovers and grapples with her choices and regrets. Zikora, her best friend, has been successful at everything until – betrayed and brokenhearted – she must turn to the person she thought she needed least. Chiamaka’s bold, outspoken cousin, Omelogor, is a financial powerhouse in Nigeria who begins to question how well she knows herself. And Kadiatou, Chiamaka’s housekeeper, is proudly raising her daughter in America, but faces an unthinkable hardship that threatens all she has worked to achieve.
Dream Count is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s searing, unforgettable story of these four women – a sparkling, transcendent novel that takes up the very nature of love itself.
Dream State
Eric Puchner
This is an epic novel that spans decades and deftly explores the meaning of love, fidelity, regret, and home, set against a backdrop of rising global temperatures. It explores love, regret, guilt and friendship. The characters reflect on their dreams, what might have been and the long-lasting consequences of choices made.
Cece is in love. She has arrived early at her in-laws’ beautiful lake house in Salish, Montana, to finish planning her wedding to Charlie, a cardiac anaesthesiologist with a brilliant future. When Charlie asks Garrett, his best friend from college, to officiate the ceremony, Cece can’t imagine anyone less appropriate for the task.
After all, Garrett, a depressed baggage handler at the local airport, doesn’t believe in marriage. But as she spends time with him and his gruff mask slips, she grows increasingly uncertain about her future, leading to an impulsive decision that will alter the three friends’ lives forever – the events of that summer reverberating across fifty years and spanning generations.
Both these books explore how dreams illuminate the parts of ourselves we hide, fear, or long for. They both explore how dreams reveal emotional truths but do so in very different ways.
Remember, you can get free shipping when you order these books online (www.booknookstewarton.co.uk/shop/ayrshire-magazine-virtual-book-club) using the special discount code AMVBC. The website also allows you to subscribe to the virtual book club. And don’t forget to leave your thoughts on each book on the Ayrshire Magazine Virtual Book Club Facebook page.
