Things We Do Not Tell the People We Love

Written By Jess Pancholi

Things We Do Not Tell the People We Love by Huma Qureshi
Reviewed by Linda
📕📗📘📙

Thank you @sceptrebooks for sending this over to us!♥️

I was first introduced to Huma Qureshi’s writing in the form of non-fiction this time last year and it seems as though we’ve come full circle as I’ve just finished Huma’s latest fictional offering in the form of Things We Do Not Tell the People We Love. For the record, I absolutely loved it. 🍓

I’m not usually a short story fan because I don’t like having varying experiences between one story and another, or to finish on a cliffhanger with no closure. But Huma has managed to strike the perfect balance between the length of each story vs. the depth of characters offered. I was invested from page 1 and was given the right amount of information I needed to keep reading.

My favourite stories were Foreign Parts: a great snapshot into an interracial relationship and belonging, The Wishes: a young couple starting a family and Too Much: a strained mother/daughter relationship which needs to become an entire book in its own right and one which I’m still thinking about.

Whether it’s intimacy, motherhood, fertility, grief or friendship each story felt relatable in someway. I was also reminded of how much I actually love Huma as a writer (she’s also one of our favourite people), her words are heartfelt, the messages behind each story subtle but poignant. I highly recommend this.

Jess Pancholi

I’ve got to start this off by thanking Linda for putting together this amazing group of ladies who I love dearly! Linda was my uni/PhD wife for 8 solid years and books were one of the many things that bound us together - pun intended! I really think our book family is amazing, diverse and we really influence each other to push our reading boundaries (and crack each other up with our banter and jokes haha!) The family extends to you followers too - and we are just getting started!

According to everyone in my family and numerous home movies I was forever reading books.  Spot the Dog and anything Beatrix Potter were my jam. They say your love of reading never dies and I can absolutely say that is true! The books might be more grown up but I’m still there, book in hand (and snacks to boot!) ready to lose myself in a story.I can’t say for sure what my preferred genre of book is - I’ve read everything from biographies to epic modern novels and classic tales too - and of course as a scientist I dabble in a little popular sci lit on the side. I’m always willing to try something wacky and weird, even if I don’t like it in the end but I guess that’s why I’m part of The Candid Book Club, eh?

If you asked me to recommend some books to you, I would say that Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy is my absolute favourite ever; its worth it, I promise!I also love: Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli (shout out if you read this in high school - it’s YA that really sticks with you) Brave New World by Aldous Huxley The Good Immigrant edited by Nikesh Shukla (this is ESSENTIAL reading) Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami A Little Life by Hanyayan Agihara, Yes Please by Amy Poehler. And of course- The Tale of Jemima Puddleduck by Beatrix Potter

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