The Bibliophiles' Emissary

Author : Yewande Omotoso My Rating : 5 Stars Genre : Fiction Year Published : 2016 ISBN : 978-978-54604-2-1 Date Read : 18/01/2018 SUMMARY Hortensia and Marion are next door neighbours in a charming, bougainvillea-laden Cape Town suburb. One is black, one white. Both are successful women with impressive careers behind them. Both have recently been widowed. Both are in their eighties. And both are sworn enemies, sharing hedge and hostility pruned with zeal. But one day an unforeseen event forces the women together. Could long-held mutual loathing transform into friendship? Love thy neighbour? Easier said than done. MY THOUGHTS   The story is centered around Hortensia James and Marion Agostino; two women who appear different on the outside, but who have quite a number of startling similarities. The first thing, other than all the mini instagram reviews I read of this book, that drew me to it was the fact that the protagonists were elderly. I recall th...

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.”  ― Dr. Seuss 2017 for isn't a year I'm especially proud of, because at the beginning of the year I planned to read a max of 52 books, but ended up reading only 9. I definitely failed at that lol. But with a new year comes new goals and opportunities, so this year I plan on reading a minimum of 24 books (making that at least 2 books a month). I believe it's an attainable goal and I pray that come 2019, I can proudly say that I read 24+ books in the previous year. To some people, 24 might seem like a small number but oh well **shrugs shoulders**  In 2017, I read a total of 9 books and they are: Paper Towns by John Green (It isn't included in the picture above), A Cowrie of Hope by Binwell Sinyangwe, The Enemy Within by Steve Jacobs, Nine Lives by El Nukoya, Bury Me Come Sunday Afternoon by Nike Campbell-Fatoki, Teenagers Are People Too! b...

Author : Binwell Sinyangwe My Rating : 3 Stars Genre : Fiction/ Literature Year Published : 2000 ISBN : 9780435912024 Number of Pages : 152 Date Read : 03/12/2017 SUMMARY 'These were the nineties,' reflects the narrator of A Cowrie of Hope , and for the young widow Nasula they are years of relentless economic hardship and privation. She dreams of a better life for her beautiful daughter, Sula, free from poverty and independent of marriage. But when Nasula finds herself unable to pay for Sula's education, her hopes seem to have been extinguished - until a friend advises her to go to Lusaka and sell her last sack of highly sought-after Mbala beans. Nasula makes the journey, but in the city she finds herself exposed to new, and predatory, dangers. MY THOUGHTS The author's writing style was pretty basic. The plot was kind of predictable, nothing mind-blowing, but pretty decent. I especially loved how the story gave me Joys of Motherhood vibes....

Author : Uwem Akpan My Rating : 3.5 Stars Genre : Fiction/Short Story Year Published : 2008 Number of Pages : 258 Date Read : 14/07/2017 SUMMARY Each story in this jubilantly acclaimed collection pays testament to the wisdom and resilience of children, even in the face of the most agonizing circumstances. A family living in a makeshift shanty in urban Kenya scurries to find gifts of any kind for the impending Christmas holiday. A Rwandan girl relates her family's struggles to maintain a facade of normalcy amid unspeakable acts. A young brother and sister cope with their uncle's attempt to sell them into slavery. Aboard a bus filled with refugees—a microcosm of today's Africa—a Muslim boy summons his faith to bear a treacherous ride across Nigeria. Through the eyes of childhood friends the emotional toll of religious conflict in Ethiopia becomes viscerally clear. Uwem Akpan's debut signals the arrival of a breathtakingly talented writer who gives a matter-...

Author : Osisiye Tafa Year of Publication: 2015 Genre : Biographical / Fiction Number of Pages : 270 My Rating : 3 Stars Date Read : 14/04/2016 SUMMARY Sixty Percent of a True Story’ is a window into the different realities of three undergraduates. Osisiye arrives the University of Lagos on a windy morning with dreams of high grades but must explore the fleshpots of the city, freedom of the campus and spiritual diversity of the bustling city of Lagos, Nigeria. Will he find a balance soon enough and will his dalliances with drugs, women and new friends be his undoing? The story moves on to Korede, a depressive introvert. He takes one through the vagaries of growing up as ‘different’ in a society that sees things in black and white and does not forgive men who do not act as men. Chris is a staple in Nigeria’s urban lore, the internet fraudster. Through his eyes, we understand the various motivations for this career choice and explore the process that births such d...

Author : Steve Jacobs My Rating : 4.5 Stars Genre : Fiction/Literature Year of Publication : 1995 Date Read :16/08/2017 Number of Pages :185 ISBN : 9780435909987 SUMMARY A black man, brutalised by apartheid, murders his wife. His fate is in the hands of a young Jewish lawyer, Jeremy Spielman. As Jeremy prepares to defend his client, he discovers uncomfortable facts about his own life: the racism of his girlfriend, the injustice of the legal system and his own weakness in the face of his country's enemies . MY THOUGHTS The Enemy Within   is one of numerous books, which are part of the African Writers Series (AWS). If you don't know what the African Writers Series is, click  here  to educate yourself :) This book was really quick and easy to read, yet it carried so much depth in it's pages. This is a quality that all the AWS books I've read all possess and for this reason, I hope to read all the books in the series- all 200+ of them. I caught a gli...

I believe as Africans, we ought to embrace every aspect of our culture, down to the littlest things. We, as Africans, tend to disregard anything that is affiliated with Africa and this has generated stereotypes that define us till this day. African Literature to me is a form of art that deserves all the laud and appraisal it is currently not receiving. Below is a list of reasons why African lit will forever have a special place in my heart. It is very relatable .  It depicts Africa as the giant it is and it blots out the false perception the rest of the world has about Africa. It is unconventional  This post was inspired by Chimamanda Adichie's interview with The Atlantic,  which I came across a few months ago on  Brittle Paper  . The award winning author's interview talks about stereotypes and what makes them problematic. The interview was designed as an animation and she did the voice-over. It was so brilliant. It's like she took the words right out ...

This post is going to be a bit of a chatty one. I was nominated for this award by my lovely friend  Demilade of Coco-Bella Blog  . Do check out her blog. She discusses everything from beauty to books. I really appreciate the nomination, Demss <3 Below are the rules of the award, so if you're nominated by the end of this post then you can use this as a guide for your post :) Now on to the questions I was asked : Why did you start blogging? I actually began blogging, because I was inspired by the same person who nominated me for this award- lol coincidence, right? After reading her blog back in SS2 (year 11), I was inspired to create a virtual platform were I could share my thoughts on the books I read and my other findings. Although I'm not as consistent as I like to be, I'm definitely grateful for Demilade's influence. Biggest lesson blogging has taught you? 1.Everyone's blog is different, don't compare yourself to them.  2. Success d...

Sourced from  www.pulse.ng Feminism:  the advocacy of women's rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes. Author : Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie My Rating : 4.5 Stars Date Read : 21/05/17 Year Published : 2017 Genre : Non-fiction/Essay SUMMARY Here are fifteen invaluable suggestions- compelling, direct, wryly funny, and perceptive- for how to empower a daughter to become a strong, independent woman. From teaching a young girl to read widely and recognize the role of language in reinforcing unhealthy social norms; encouraging her to choose a helicopter, and not only a doll, as a toy if she so desires; having open conversations with her about appearance, identity, and sexuality; criticizing cultural norms surrounding marriage; and debunking the myths that women are somehow biologically designed to be in the kitchen, and that men can "allow" women to have full careers, Dear Ijeawele goes right to the heart of sexual politics in the twenty-first centu...

Author : A. Igoni Barrett Genre : Fiction | Satire My Rating : 4.5 Stars Year of Publication : 2015 Number of Pages : 302 SUMMARY Furo Wariboko- born and bred in Lagos - wakes up on the morning of his job interview to discover he has turned into a white man. As he hits the city streets running, still reeling from his new-found condition, Furo is amazed to find the dead ends of his life wondrously open out before him. As a white man in Nigeria, the world is seemingly his oyster - except for one thing: despite his radical transformation, his ass remains robustly black... Funny, fierce, inventive and daringly provocative - this is a very modern satire, with a sting in the tail. MY VERDICT I initially came across this book late last year and the title caught my eye immediately . I in cl ud ed it in the first ever Wishlist on the blog here  . So when i was gifted this book by my friend back in July,  I was super eager to read it . Now...

Author : Chinelo Okparanta Genre : Short Story/Anthology My Rating : 4.5 Stars Year of Publication : 2013 Number of Pages : 196 SUMMARY In these exquisite stories, Chinelo Okparanta introduces us to families burdened equally by the past and the future. Here, we meet a childless couple with very different desires, a college professor comforting a troubled student, a mother seeking refuge from an abusive husband, and a young woman waiting to join her lover abroad. High expectations consume them. Nigeria defines them. ' Her clear, elegant use of language and exploration of family life, migration and love are refreshing and distinctive. '- Diva ' Happiness is like water,' she says.'We're always trying to grab onto it, but it's always slipping between our fingers. ' page 144 MY VERDICT I'm obsessed with short stories now, even though they leave me aching for more. I love how they prompt me to conjour up crazy conclusions about what bec...

Author : NoViolet Bulawayo Genre : African Literature/Fiction My Rating : 4 Stars Year of Publication : 2013 Number of Pages : 304 SUMMARY Darling and her friends live in a shanty called Paradise- which of course is no such thing. It isn't all bad, though. There's mischief and adventure, games of Find bin Laden, stealing guavas, singing Lady Gaga at the tops of their voices. They dream of the paradises of America, Dubai, Europe, where Madonna and Barack Obama and David Beckham live. For Darling, that dream will come true. But, like the thousands of people all over the world trying to forge new lives far from home, Darling finds this new paradise brings its own set of challenges- for her and also for those she's left behind. MY VERDICT I came across the first chapter of this book, which is titled 'Hitting Budapest', whilst reading the Caine African Prize for Writing 2011. Check out my review of that here . Initially I thought the story odd, because I...

  So it's that time of the month again and I'm back with a new edition of Wishlist Wednesday. If you haven't seen my previous one, you can check it out  here . So this month's edition is the AWS edition. AWS basically means African Writers Series, which is a series of books by African writers that has been published by  Heinemann  since 1962. There are about 200+ books in this series that I know of. The first book in the series I read was The Concubine by Elechi Amadi, about two years ago and I loved every bit of it. I immediately began searching for other AWS books and my search is still ongoing because it's quite a bulky series. I currently own five books out of the lot and one of my major goals is to own or at least read all the books- crazy right? Lol I know. So below are a few of the books I want from the series (obviously I want all, but I've gotta break the list down)                        ...

Author : Chika Unigwe My Rating : 5 Stars Genre: Adult Fiction/ African Literature Year of Publication : 2009 Number of Pages : 296 SUMMARY Four very different women have made their way from Africa to the red light district of Brussels. They have come to claim for themselves the riches they believe Europe promises but when Sisi, the most enigmatic of the women, is murdered, their already fragile world is shattered. Drawn together by the tragedy, the remaining three women - Joyce, a great beauty whose life has been devastated by war; Ama, whose dark moods hide a past injustice; and Efe, whose determination to earn her keep is motivated by a particular zeal - slowly begin to share their stories. They are stories of fear, displacement, love and of all, they are stories of a sinister man called Dele. MY VERDICT Let me just start by saying that I knew I'd love this book from the moment I read the synopsis. That's why I'm not doubting the 5 stars I awarded this...