Tag: Books

Book Covers

Happy Black History Month! African-American Book Covers (showcase 4)

by Darkowaa8 Comments on Happy Black History Month! African-American Book Covers (showcase 4)

Why not celebrate Black History Month by admiring lovely book covers by 30 brilliant African-American/ Black authors?

Pick up a copy of one of these to commemorate Black Literature. Enjoy!

Check out more amazing book covers by African and Caribbean writers – here.

And!! Check out (and join) #ReadSoulLit on social media (Twitter & Instagram) which was created by Didi of Brown Girl Reading (@FrenchieDeeDee). It’s a February Book Photo Challenge to celebrate Black History Month – her blog: http://browngirlreading.com

Happy Black History Month! 🙂
Book Reviews, Goodreads Reading Challenge (2014)

2014 Recap & My Top 5!

by Darkowaa2 Comments on 2014 Recap & My Top 5!

If you’ve been following my book blog for some time, you would know that I participated in the Goodreads 2014 Reading Challenge and I pledged to read 12 books this year. Since I have a strong passion for African literature, as well as African-American and Caribbean literature, I challenged myself to indulge in books of those genres this year. I successfully surpassed my goal and ended up reading 15 books in 2014.

I started this blog because I needed to express my views on the books I read, especially with people around the world who have read some of these books. Over the years I’ve realized that simply discussing the issues of the books I read with friends doesn’t suffice for me, for many reasons. Writing reviews on this blog and expressing my opinions on the books I’ve read has beIMG_8741en fulfilling! It would be nice to actually discuss in detail the things I liked and disliked about the books, but I can’t include spoilers in my reviews – its always so tempting!

Check out all the books I read and reviewed this year in the Book Reviews section of the blog!

(note: I wasn’t able to finish reading Sozaboy: A novel in Rotten English by Ken Saro-Wiwa and The Palm-Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola. I just wasn’t feeling them at the time… And I think my ‘Currently Reading’ posts were jinxing my reading progress 😦 )

 Top 5 faves of my 2014 Reading Challenge

1. One Day I Will Write About This Place: A Memoir by Binyavanga Wainaina

2. Happiness, Like Water by Chinelo Okparanta

3. The Spider King’s Daughter by Chibundu Onuzo

4. Mom & Me & Mom by Maya Angelou

5. Harmattan Rain by Ayesha Harruna Attah

Spider King's Daughter cover
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Harmattan Rain by Ayesha Harruna Attah (was featured in Part 2 of the series: https://africanbookaddict.com/2017/03/17/gh-at-60-our-writers-their-books-part-2/)
Harmattan Rain by Ayesha Harruna Attah (was featured in Part 2 of the series: https://africanbookaddict.com/2017/03/17/gh-at-60-our-writers-their-books-part-2/)

I plan on participating in the Goodreads 2015 Reading Challenge as well. I’d like to read more Caribbean novels next year, so we’ll see how that goes!

What were your favorite books of 2014?

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Thanks for all the support! See you in 2015 🙂

Book Reviews, Shimmer Chinodya

Can We Talk and Other Stories by Shimmer Chinodya

by Darkowaa2 Comments on Can We Talk and Other Stories by Shimmer Chinodya

Date Read: November 22nd 2014

Published: 2001 (originally published by Baobab Books in 1998)

Publisher: Heinemann (African Writers Series)

Pages: 154

shimmer

 The Blurb

Opening with the puzzled and innocent view of a boy looking in on the adult world from outside, this collection follows the transition from childhood to adult life. Youthful desires for prosperity, love and a purpose in life are undermined by experiences of humiliation, compromise and a failure to communicate, in a process that reflects a wider disillusionment and decline in post-independence Zimbabwe. In the final story, cynicism turns to anger as the narrator, facing the breakdown of his marriage, challenges his audience to confront the inaction that leads to disappointment and the deep-seated loneliness and alienated at the root of our estrangements.

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Review – ★★★★ (4 stars)

This is a refreshing collection of 11 short stories and I’m glad I randomly spotted this at the bookstore! People, Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka are not the only legendary African Literature male novelists. Shimmer Chinodya is surely one of them- in my opinion! He is a wonderful poetic storyteller.

Can We Talk And Other Stories is a collection of stories that take readers through the transitions of boyhood to manhood. Various issues associated with coming-of-age such as confusion, fear, loneliness, depression, insecurity, alcoholism amongst others are tackled in these 11 short stories. It’s best to read these stories from the beginning to the end, as the stories are in chronological order with respect to the age of the main characters.

The novel starts off with a story of a precocious five year old boy, followed by tales of school life- in Zimbabwe and abroad, followed by stories of adult relationships and ends with a story of a forty-something year old man, lamenting his failed marriage called “Can We Talk”. “Can We Talk” was actually nominated for The Caine Prize for African Writing in year 2000- the year Leila Aboulela won the prize for her story “Museum”.

I enjoyed all the stories, mostly because they were different from the myriad of West African novels I usually read. I loved reading about Zimbabwe and admired Chinodya’s use of Shona (the principle language of Zimbabwe) in the text. The glossary at the back of the novel helped me translate some of the words used in the text, but even without the glossary I was able to understand the ideas conveyed in the stories. Chinoya’s use of alliteration, metaphors, repetition and other literature techniques were perfect in illustrating issues of love, confusion, guilt and loneliness. There is also a lot of humor in these stories- its not all depressing!

My favorite stories were:

“Brothers and Sisters” – A tale of a young man who suddenly becomes a staunch Christian and tries to convert everyone he interacts with to Christianity. He finally finds the love of this life, but when she finally reveals to him her true self, things take an interesting…exaggerated turn.

“Snow” – This is not a story per se…I wouldn’t call it a poem either. Its more like a collection of words. “Snow” more or less is a collection of words expressing different ideas and feelings about living in the West- from accents, to weather, food, international students, immigration etc. To get a gist of the text, here are two excerpts from pg. 59 & pg. 61:

‘White flesh white flesh. Blue eyes. Green eyes. Black eyes. Brown. Blonde hair. Brunette. Red. Black. Multivitamin smiles. Braced teeth. Sun-tan.

Food.

Foodfood foodfood foodfood.

French fried, fritters, frankfurters, fish, fillet, farina, falafels, figs, fennel, flax, Fanta, fruitbread.

Fat.

Fat fat fat.

Fudge-face, milk-nose, coke-lips, burger-bums, popcorn-belly, choc-cheeks, gum-teeth, cream-tongue, pizza-palate, Budweiser-chin, candy-kiss…’ (pg. 59)

‘Snow. Cold, loneliness. No legs, no laughter. Layers of loneliness packing into cakes of ice. The hard ice of longing. Cold and hard as pornography. Magazines splattered with blood-red flesh. Peep shows. Live.

Can the earth be so dead, so cruel? So white? Were shorts possible?

Oh, for a black face, for laughter, for warmth.’ (pg. 61)

I love this story because I’m currently obsessed with narratives on African life in the West/immigrant experiences. I especially love how “Snow” ends, because winter can truly get lonely and make any African miss home immensely! I simply understood and bonded with the collection of words and had fun reading it. Shimmer Chinodya is a wordsmith!

My only issue with this collection is that most of the stories were written from a male’s perspective. It would have been nice to have more than just one story (“Play Your Cards”) with a female voice.

But I will definitely be on the lookout for more Shimmer Chinodya books to purchase. I think I’d like to read his book- Chairman of Fools next.

My heart was glad after reading this novel. 🙂

★★★★ (4 stars) – Great book. Highly recommend!

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Purchase Can We Talk and Other Stories on Amazon

Book Covers

Caribbean Book Covers! (showcase 3)

by Darkowaa2 Comments on Caribbean Book Covers! (showcase 3)

Welcome to showcase 3 of the Book Covers Series!

The showcase below displays some lovely Caribbean book covers! The art work of these covers have either pushed me to purchase some books, or are still encouraging me to purchase them in the near future. Check out the other showcases from the Book Cover Series – here!

Stay tuned for showcase 4- to be posted early next year, which will feature African-American book covers.

Enjoy! 🙂

bad girls in school

More book covers!

Book Reviews, Chinua Achebe

Girls at War and Other Stories by Chinua Achebe

by Darkowaa2 Comments on Girls at War and Other Stories by Chinua Achebe

Date Read: August 5th 2014

Published: September 1991

Publisher: First Anchor Books

Pages: 121

37775

The Blurb

Full of characteristic energy and authenticity, the stories in this classic collection capture the remarkable talent of one of the world’s most acclaimed writers and storytellers.

Here we read of an ambitious farmer who is suddenly shunned by his village when a madman exacts his humiliating revenge; a young nanny who is promised an education by her well-to-do employers, only to be cruelly cheated out of it; and in three fiercely observed stories about the Nigerian civil war, we are confronted with the economic ethnic, cultural and religious tensions that continue to rack modern Africa. Displaying an astonishing range of experience, Chinua Achebe deftly takes us inside the heart and soul of people whose pride and ideals must compete with the simple struggle to survive.

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Review – ★★★ (3 stars)

This is a decent collection of stories by Achebe.

My favorite stories were:

‘The Madman‘ – a tale of a once prominent man in a village who is humiliated by a vengeful madman. What a shameful but hilarious story!

‘Marriage is a Private Affair‘ – a story of a loving couple who are trying to convince their relatives of their forbidden love, as they are from different ethnic groups. I liked how Achebe wrote on the challenges of intermarriages between people of different ethnic groups especially as it is a problem we still face in Africa today.

‘Girls at War‘ – a tragic love story during the civil war in Nigeria. The story is centered on the short-lived romance between a militia girl and the Minister of Justice, living on the edge during the dangerous times of the civil war.

I don’t think I enjoyed reading this collection of short stories. Achebe’s writing style and storytelling manner were phenomenal as usual, but I wasn’t really interested in the subject matter of most of the stories. To be honest, I purchased the book because I loved the book cover design! And I must say, I still like the book cover design more than the stories, hahaa! But I do recommend this book- especially to the die-hard Chinua Achebe fans…this would be a fast read for you.

★★★ (3 stars) – Good book. I recommend it, I guess.

Purchase Girls at War and Other Stories on Amazon

Book Reviews, Leila Aboulela

Minaret by Leila Aboulela

by Darkowaa16 Comments on Minaret by Leila Aboulela

Date Read: July 21st 2014

Published: 2005

Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

Pages: 288

minaret

The Blurb

With her Muslim hijab and down-turned gaze, Najwa is invisible to most eyes, especially to the rich Arab families whose houses she cleans in London. Twenty years earlier, Najwa, then an aristocratic Westernized Sudanese, could have never imagined this new life. She was a student at the University of Khartoum but her focus in life was on fashionable clothes, pop music, and parties. When a political coup forces Najwa’s family into exile in London, she soon finds herself orphaned and completely alone. For the first time in her life, Najwa turns to the solace and companionship among the women at the mosque, and when she adopts the hijab, she begins to see the world anew. Then Najwa meets Tamer, the intense, lonely younger brother of her employer and they find a common bond in her newfound faith and slowly, silently, begin to fall in love. Written with directness, simplicity and force, Minaret is a stunning and insightful novel about one woman’s journey toward spiritual peace.

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 Review – ★★★ (3 stars)

I loved Leila Aboulela’s short story ‘Museum‘ which won the first Caine Prize in 2000. I read ‘Museum‘ from the anthology, Opening Spaces – Contemporary African Women’s Writing and I thoroughly enjoyed it, mainly because Aboulela is Sudanese and writes about Khartoum. We rarely read or hear about Sudan in the African literature scene, so Leila Aboulela’s writing excites me!

I preferred reading the beginning of Minaret: Najwa was born into an upper-class Muslim family where her father worked with the president of Sudan, and her mother came from a rich family. Najwa and her twin brother who are very secular compared to other Muslim youth went to the best private schools of Khartoum and the best university in the nation. The family had several luxurious cars, superfluous food,  partied with their rich friends regularly and enjoyed vacations in several countries, including London where they owned a townhouse. Life was great for Najwa’s family.

Since all was well for Najwa and her family, she was very oblivious to the fact that Sudan was a very poor nation with majority of the citizens under the poverty line and with a government- which her father was associated with, that was very corrupt. Things turned upside down for Najwa and her family when Sudan faced a coup d’etat, hence her family- excluding her father, were forced to escape to their townhouse in London. The storyline cuts through 10-15 years later and after a series of unfortunate events, Najwa who was once a rich, secular university student becomes a lonely, poor housemaid. As a housemaid, Najwa finally starts to take Islam seriously by wearing a hijab and going to the Mosque to pray daily.

The storyline towards the middle of Minaret gets a bit annoying. Najwa (now a housemaid), who is now about 40 years old falling in love with Tamer – her employer’s son, was a bit strange to me. Why is this 40 year old in love with a 19 year old university student? I found Tamer to be very judgmental as he felt he was a better Muslim than everyone. Towards the middle of the story, I realized Najwa was a little too naiive for my liking. Her fate was very sad as she was orphaned quite early due to political instability in Sudan, but I didn’t find Najwa to be a strong Muslim woman I could learn from. Surely, she had her strengths- she had a calm spirit, she was meek, she was very kind and regarded others’ feelings. Throughout the novel, she was trying to grow spiritually and was trying to become a better Muslim, but by the end of the novel I didn’t really see the depth of her growth. The conclusion of the novel seemed incomplete as well since Najwa’s character seemed stagnant. It was as though she was content being a housemaid and did not aspire to do anything better with her life or even go back to Sudan. I was quite disappointed that Najwa did not want more for herself.

Leila Aboulela is a great writer. I loved the calmness and simplicity of her writing in this novel. This book made me appreciate the Muslim culture and the importance of women wearing hijabs and tobes. I just wish the love story between Tamer (the 19 year old) and Najwa was more realistic and didn’t take up 3/5ths of the storyline. But I still look forward to reading more of Aboulela’s books!

★★★ (3 stars) – Good book. I recommend it, I guess.

Purchase Minaret on Amazon

Currently Reading, Goodreads Reading Challenge (2014)

Currently Reading

by DarkowaaLeave a Comment on Currently Reading

I recently finished reading ‘The Spider King’s Daughter’ by Chibundu Onuzo and I loved it! A review will be posted soon!

*sigh* But (dental) school is in session and I know my reading will slow down. I’ve already surpassed by reading goal for this year- which was 12 books. Right now I’m on book 15, so at least I was able to complete my reading challenge!

I’m currently reading: The Palm-Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola

palm wine drinkard (1)

This is a small book (about 125 pages). So hopefully it won’t take me ages to finish reading and will also be a fun distraction from my school workload 🙂

Book Covers

African Book Covers! (showcase 2)

by DarkowaaLeave a Comment on African Book Covers! (showcase 2)

Welcome to showcase 2 of the Book Covers Series!

The showcase below is part two of some of my favorite African book covers. African book covers are all very unique! The cool art work of these covers either pushed me to purchase the books, or are still encouraging me to purchase them in the near future. Check out African Book Covers showcase 1 – here!

Stay tuned for showcase 3, which will feature some great Caribbean book covers.

Enjoy! 🙂

Harmattan Rain by Ayesha Harruna Attah (was featured in Part 2 of the series: https://africanbookaddict.com/2017/03/17/gh-at-60-our-writers-their-books-part-2/)
Harmattan Rain by Ayesha Harruna Attah (was featured in Part 2 of the series: https://africanbookaddict.com/2017/03/17/gh-at-60-our-writers-their-books-part-2/)

More book covers!