Gemini season is here, and we see books in your future – ones sure to complement your intellectually curious, playful and charming nature. As an air sign signified by the twins, you’re perceptive, adaptable and quick-witted, meaning you’re likely drawn to campus novels, ancient retellings, hyper-intelligent animal stories, narrators stuck between identities and tales of, yes, twins. These are the books that were made for you.
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
If there’s one thing the twin flame Gemini loves, it’s a story with two sides, and The Vanishing Half is exactly that. Twin sisters Desiree and Stella finally escape their small hometown in search of a different life in New Orleans, only to lead lives that couldn’t be further apart. Desiree returns to her mother’s house with a dark-skinned child, while Stella has chosen to pass as white and cut herself off from her past. Through these sisters, Brit Bennett explores racism and colourism and considers whether someone can truly outrun their heritage. It will have a bright, inquisitive Gemini pondering for days. (Don’t just take our word for it, listen to Dua’s conversation with Brit here.)
If On A Winter’s Night A Traveller by Italo Calvino
A book about reading books, Italo Calvino’s novel is a playfully intellectual work of metafiction, and sure to keep an unpredictable Gemini intrigued. The book addresses ‘you’, the protagonist, who is also ‘the reader’ of the book, who finds themselves unable to finish a story, instead condemned to read the same first chapter over and over. On a mission to read further, the reader meets a woman, Ludmilla, with the same strange problem. This is a philosophical romp that meditates on reading, translation, storytelling and pokes fun at both real and entirely invented schools of thought. The perfect match for the curious, bookish Gemini who relishes a literary mind game.
The Idiot by Elif Batuman
If you’re an intellectually curious Gemini, you’ll love The Idiot. Witty and sharp Selin is 18, Turkish-American and off to Harvard. Despite being anything but idiotic, her deft mind starts to waver when she realises that everyone around her seems to have learnt social conventions and codes of adulthood that are completely opaque to her. Alongside a quirky cast of characters, Selin learns to navigate academia, identity and first love (or is it infatuation?). Geminis will love this intellectual-campus-chick-lit genre, along with Selin’s charisma and dry humour.
The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
With this contemporary retelling of the ancient tale of Penelope, wife of Odysseus and cousin of Helen of Troy, the questioning Gemini can rediscover a classic and satiate their analytical curiosity. In this dazzling reimagining of a Greek epic, Margaret Atwood turns the story of the quintessential faithful wife on its head and gives a voice to Penelope and her slain maids, hailing from Hades long after their unjust deaths. It’s a feminist companion piece to The Odyssey – but Odysseus ain’t such a hero now.
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
Recently widowed and mourning the disappearance of her son 30 years ago, Tova Sullivan gets a job at an aquarium and forms an unlikely connection with a hyper-intelligent giant octopus. Rarely is a book narrated by a cephalopod who longs to be released back to the ocean, but this heartwarming point of view reminds us of the power of animals when navigating grief and loss. This cosy, heartwarming read opens up channels of communication between species, and complements Gemini’s inquisitive and playful nature.
You Exist Too Much by Zaina Arafat
When a Palestinian American woman tells her mother that she is queer, she is heartbreakingly told: “You exist too much.” This book follows her journey as she navigates her identity, her culture and her faith – particularly as she emigrates to the United States. After moving in with her girlfriend in Brooklyn and engaging in a reckless string of romantic encounters, she ends up checking into an unconventional treatment centre that diagnoses her with ‘love addiction’. There, she attempts to confront her myriad addictions and process diaspora queerness, trauma, mental health issues and a difficult mother-daughter relationship. If anyone is going to connect with the push-and-pull between multiple identities in this novel, it’s got to be the ever-unpredictable and adaptable Gemini.
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
It is 1969 and Ayemenem, Kerala, is simmering with communist tensions and caste dynamics. Over the next three decades, this modern classic follows the lives of twins Estha and Rahel, their mother Ammu, and the cataclysmic visit of the twins’ English cousin Sophie Mol, which sets a trajectory for the agonising unfolding of events in this family’s life. This wistful novel invents its own charming juvenile language that will have you laughing one page, and crying the next. This is a book which emphasises how much the small things can have the biggest impact. With the story centering around twins, it’s perfect for Gemini season. Just have the tissues ready.
