This week on the Women’s Prize podcast, host Vick Hope chats all things books (and poems) with superstar singer-songwriter Joy Crookes, whose debut album Skin was released in 2020 to rapturous acclaim. Raised in a Bangladeshi-Irish household – with a dad who would make her recite Yeats and Heaney – a life of storytelling has clearly worked its way under Joy’s skin, channelled into her exquisite lyrics and melodies.
Here Joy talks to Vick about the pleasure of finding those unexpected books that put into words our complex, chaotic experiences – and why a good book can feel like a proper slap to the face. Read on to discover Joy’s five Bookshelfie picks and click here to listen to the conversation in full.
‘This book proves how political love can be, in the best way … Studying love can be an incredible thing. And it’s something we never get to study. We just experience it, or we think we do.’
‘I think I was seven pages in and I started crying … It’s simple, it’s evocative, it’s so real. I love the fact that it’s all about her work and not about her, she’s not a brand.’
‘People project onto me, people stereotype me all the time … but for me to learn my own biases through such an incredible book, I just thought it was genius, so smart.’
‘This was the first book I ever read that really addressed race, particularly race in America and civil rights. I had a lot of questions that I didn’t understand why I was asking myself. I used to say stuff like, Why does it feel like our people are angry? Why is there tension?’
I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and was Shot by the Taliban
by Malala Yousafzai
Find out more‘Malala’s story is impeccable and surreal … I read this book in my late teens and it made me feel really empowered and strong.’
