Join us every Friday in July and August and learn about the Decoda staff’s summer reading picks. Today Maureen Kehler, Program Manager, is sharing her summer reading picks.

You know how you need to be in the right mood for the right book? Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier, Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi, and The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith, were like that for me. I started them years ago and then put them down for another day. I didn’t pick them up again until I got back from our trip to Zambia/Botswana/Holland.

Girl with a Pearl Earring is a novel about 16-year-old Griet, the fictional muse who inspired Johannes Vermeer’s painting by the same name. While you walk the cobbled streets along the canal in 1600s Delft, Holland, you feel the sensual tension building between painter and muse, the change in Griet’s relationships within her family, and you become aware of her limited options for the future.

I’m glad I waited to read the book until after I had been to Delft. I saw the market square, I stopped outside Vermeer’s residence, I looked up at the tower of the New Church from a boat on the canal.

I was missing Africa, so I knew I needed to go back there, at least in a fictional way. Although Homegoing doesn’t take place in the part of Africa where I had been, it did take me back to the big sky, the vast expanse of land, the vibrant colours and the strength of its people. The story begins with two half-sisters, born in different villages in Ghana in the 1700s and moves through eight generations and two continents. It reveals the history of British colonialism, the slave trade and the horrific legacy that was left. It puts light on the generational memory of oppression and exploitation of the African people.

Homegoing was a heavy read but throughout the woven tapestry of horrors, suffering and misery, there are threads of hope, of beauty and love. Yaa Gyasi’s storytelling is superb. Her writing of place and characters is captivating.

After reading Homegoing, I needed something light. My daughter had given me The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency years ago after she had been in Botswana for a few months. She said, this will give you a picture of the culture and the place.

After the death of her father, Precious Ramotswe uses her inheritance to set up a detective agency. Recognizing that she is a problem solver, pays attention to details, and is curious; she set out to solve the mysteries of her people. “She loved her country, Botswana, which is a place of peace, and she loved Africa for all its trials.”

This book recommendation comes with a caveat: it was written in the 1990s, by a white man in a black woman’s voice. Still, I found the story engaging and funny, with some subtle political views thrown in. Most importantly, it took me back to that beautiful, magical place. Africa!