May 2012 bookish activities

My “bookish” month of May definitely had an African/Ghanaian orientation to it, especially for reading and buying of physical books.

Of the six books I completed, five were either by African/Ghanaian authors or took place in Africa/Ghana, and these are not necessarily books I had planned to include in the Africa Reading Challenge . So this is what I read this past month:

1. Patchwork, by Ellen Banda Aaku [won the Penguin prize for African fiction in 2010. Has won other prizes for children’s books.]
2. Foods and food related practices of cultural groups in southern Ghana, by Faustina Amoako-Kwakye. [talks about traditional foods and ways of preparing them. Some recipes.  Not totally a cookbook, which is why I included it]
3. Indigo, by Catherine McKinley [read for Accra Book Club. More a story of the author’s obsession with the cloth indigo, and her experiences in Ghana, and elsewhere in West Africa]
4. Tickling the Ghanaian, by Kofi Akpabli [entertaining essays about contemporary Ghanaian culture]
5. Snow crash, by Neal Stephenson [pretty seminal science fiction novel; I kept having having to remember that it was written in 1993! My favourite read of the month.]
6. Zoo city, by Lauren Beukes [fantasy thriller, set in South Africa; not the easiest of reads, mainly because of its innovative language]

On the “books” acquired front, it was a pretty quiet month.

I bought two physical books for myself:

1. Ancestor stones, by Aminatta Forna [I really should read this author’s books – I now have three on my TBR shelves]
2. Crossroads, by Mike Adjei [I bought it partly because of the cover!]

And one on my Kindle: Little hands clapping, by Dan Rhodes [slightly macabre novel, for Accra Book Club]

And received the following as gifts:

1. Engaging ideas, by John C Bean [actually this is for work!]
2. The night circus, by Erin Morgenstern [has been on my wish list for a while]
3. Death comes to Pemberley, by P D James [the combination of the author plus Jane Austen characters proved irresistable]
4. Quiet, by Susan Cain [all about introverts]

Not a bad month, but a little quiet, in my opinion.