It’s the second day of the week! I hope you are all doing well despite the challenging times. I hope and pray that you are all health, in body, mind, and spirit. As it is Tuesday, it is also time for a Top 5 Tuesday update. Top 5 Tuesdays was originally created by Shanah @ the Bionic Bookworm but is now currently being hosted by Meeghan @ Meeghan Reads.

This week’s topic: Top 5 books with plants on the cover

For the second consecutive week, the Top 5 Tuesday topic deals with book covers. After featuring covers with creatures last week, I will now be featuring covers with plants; flora after the fauna. I do have quite a score to choose from but here are some book covers I love. I hope you enjoy my list. Happy reading!

Crossing the Mangrove by Maryse Conde

The book cover of Maryse Condé’s Crossing the Mangrove captured my attention. It is so idyllic, a vision of a tropical (or not really) paradise by the sea. My first novel by the fabled Guadeloupean storyteller, Crossing the Mangrove, however, contains a narrative that is neither idyllic nor paradise. Nevertheless, it was a scintillating display of storytelling. Weaving in details woven by the characters, it was a memorable first book from Condé. It got me interested in reading more of her works; I have Segou next in line.

The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa

Japanese writer Yoko Ogawa’s The Housekeeper and the Professor won me over last year. The slice-of-life story typical of Japanese literature, is a heartwarming tale about the relationships we make with the people around us. It was also a nostalgic piece about the power of memory. I also loved the book’s deep blue cover propped with the sakura, the famed cherry blossoms of springtime Japan. Sakura, I have also learned, is a representation of beauty and mortality. To be honest, witnessing Japan’s famed cherry blossoms is one of the items on my bucket list.

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

I believe Nobel Laureate in Literature Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude has become a staple in many Top 5/Top 10 Tuesdays featuring book covers. I really do like the seemingly abstract cover art which is also a representation of place where the fictional town of Macondo founded by José Arcadio Buendía sprung – deep in the isolation of the jungle.

On Beauty by Zadie Smith

I am no fan of Zadie Smith’s On Beauty. I think this marked the start of my love-hate relationship with literary fiction (haha), or was it Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom. Either way, I did struggle. However, I did like the intricate details of the cover of On Beauty.

How We Disappeared by Jing-Jing Lee

Jing-Jing Lee’s How We Disappeared was recommended to me by a fellow book blogger. Longlisted for the 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction (won by Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet), it dealt with one of the uncomfortable truths of the Second World War, the comfort women of South East Asia. The story needs to be heart; I haven’t really encountered that many literary pieces about comfort women.

That end’s my list but here are some more book covers with plants and flowers on the cover; these are books I already own but I am yet to read. That’s it for now. Happy Tuesday everyone, and as always, happy reading!

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