A Book Lover’s List For Happy Reading
2020 is playing with my emotions y’all!! It really sucks to be stuck indoors without any sense of when all of this would be over, and whether or not we are going to have summer! I had great plans for this summer, but now that the “outdoors” have temporarily been cancelled, I’ve had to sulkily make indoor-related summer plans and be content with them. One of the summer plans that I’ve made is to curate all of the great novels that I have read, and share them with people that I know. I am a book lover, so curating a list of my favorite novels will be the type of mental challenge that I need right now. Because I am trying to be a better person this year (although this year has had the trashiest attitude!), I decided to share with y’all what I have come up with so far! Mind you, these books made it to my curated list because of my personal preferences of novels, so you may not agree with every novel that made it unto the list. This list is also in no real order! With that being said, continue reading and share if you’ve read a book that you’d like to recommend to me!
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
If you know anything about African female literary figures, Chimamanda is a house hold name! In this book, Chimamanda provides a unique view of the Nigerian class structure in the post-colonial era, while also weaving in and out of personal stories of love, betrayal, triumph and loss. With a story-telling technique that is captivating and unique to her, readers are provided insight into a Nigerian family as they navigate events before, during and after the Biafran war. I experienced a whirlwind of emotions while reading this book, ranging from sadness, nervousness, anger and outright disappointment at some of the characters. My personal favorite character was Ugwu, a classic representation of the “house boy” and a silent narrator of the wealth disparity between the poor and rich in Nigeria. If you love a mix of historical and fictional events, then this is definitely the book for you!
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingslover
This book was an accidental buy, but damn am I glad that I bought it! This book presents the riveting story of a White Southern American family who are shipped to the Congo to serve as Christian missionaries. On the surface, it seemed that I was simply reading about a family driven to ruin by a fanatical father and husband, as well as the resilience of a mother who does whatever she can to save her babies. However, when I started to really read between the lines, I discovered that the story was indeed the telling of the strife that the Congo, a minerals rich but severely pillaged country, had to undergo to free itself of several tyranny rulers ranging from Leopold of Belgium to the English. In this book, the contributions of the Church to the atrocities that the Congolese people endured is brought to the forefront. In addition, the struggles of the country’s founding members, the betrayal and back-biting, the efforts of the Western powers to keep the Congo subjugated; all of that is addressed through the eye of a struggling White southern woman who really had no business being in the Congo. This book honestly exceeded all of my expectations, and a year after reading it, I still cannot shut up about it!
The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives by Lola Shoneyin
Prior to reading this book, I had never heard of the writer, so I did not have any expectations regarding the quality of work. I am so thankfully that I went in as a blind slate, because I was pleasantly surprised! If you ever get curious about how women in polygamous marriages live their best lives and co-exist, especially in African spaces, then definitely pick this number up! The characters themselves are so multi-dimensional that I never experienced boredom on any person’s story. While the characters are witty, cunning, malicious and naïve, they also drop subtle, and sometimes not-so-subtle, hints about the patriarchal nature of marriage, the complexity of womanhood, and the ends that people would go to survive. It is such a delightful read, especially if you are a reader who appreciates hearing multiple perspectives/narrators in a single story!
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
This is a book I’ve read about twice, and listened to on Audible about twice also! The story-telling in this book is simply phenomenal! The narrator seamlessly transitions between providing social commentary on the contemporary issues of race and racial identity in America, and engaging in self-reflections on her choices, desires and passions. I don’t know how Chimamanda did it, but she managed to create a character that is so unlovable yet so incredible relatable! As the protagonist maneuvered between her identities and her experiences, I couldn’t help but feel like I was being given VIP access to an exclusive world! Again, Chimamanda does a phenomenal job exploring the intersectionalities of race, gender, national origin, language and immigration status in a single breath! If you are looking to have a love-hate relationship with a fictional character, then Americanah is the book for you!
Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo
By now, you’ve picked up on my love for stories based in Africa and written by African women! I find such stories more relatable, authentic and moving (don’t ask me why), and Stay With Me is one of them. This book was recommended to me by my cousin, a fellow book enthusiast. The author tells the story in stages, using two main story tellers. The seamless movement between stages and narrators is a sharp contrast to what is actually happening in the main characters’ lives, which I found to be genius! This is mainly a story about marriage, but it evolves to become a story of loss, difficult decisions self-forgiveness, self-righteousness and societal expectations sewed within the African fabric. This was one of those books where the ending initially doesn’t make much sense. The writer literally forces you to stop reading, and start imagining what the ending would have been if the characters had made drastically different decisions. Gosh, I was soo mad when the story ended in what I believed to be an abrupt manner, so I am silently praying that the author has more in stock for us!
I am working on the second part of this post, and will share it will y’all shortly! In the meantime, 2020 needs to get her act together and stop throwing a hissy fit!
