March and April 2012 book related activities

I just realized that April was an extremely slow month for posting – ouch! True, I was busy with family visitors, but I am not sure that stands as a good excuse.

Yet, looking back I did read a fair amount. In April and March combined I read 15 books:

four either by Ghanaians or with a Ghana setting:

• Three cheers for Ghana (Robert Peprah-Gyamfi) [basically the author's account of a visit to Ghana in the mid 2000's after a long absence in Germany and the UK]
• Diplomatic pounds & other stories (Ama Ata Aidoo),
• The black body (edited by Meri Nana-Ama Danquah) and
• Abina and the important men, by Trevor Getz and Liz Clarke [the last I thought was very good]

one non-Ghanaian African novel: As the crow flies (Veronique Tadjo)

six thrillers/crime novels (one of my favourite ways of relaxing):

• Our kind of traitor (John Le Carre)
• Sharp shooter (Nadia Gordon)
• The office of the dead (Andrew Taylor)
• The girl on the landing (Paul Torday)
• A reliable wife (Robert Goolrick)
• Legends (Robert Littell)

three literary works:

• Super sad true love story (Gary Shteyngart) [for Accra Book Club]
• A mercy (Toni Morrison)
• Pigeon English (Stephen Kelman) [also for Accra Book Club]

On the book buying front, I bought nine books – all physical items, no e-books!  I do feel I have to do some work on my To Be Read shelves

• six on Ghana/by Ghanaians
• one a cookbook (a personal weakness)
• one mystery
• one on marketing to women

Book related events included:

• Ama Ata Aidoo’s book launch (at British Council) and book reading (at Goethe Institut)
• two Accra Book Club meetings – mentioned here

Plans for May?  None really, apart from the May read for Accra Book Club.  Generally I tend to go with my feelings rather a planned set of readings.

 

Books mentioned from “Reading Lolita in Tehran”

At the end of March a few members of the Accra Book Club met to discuss Reading Lolita in Tehran, by Azar Nafisi.  We glanced at the book group questions, but didn’t really address them much – we all agreed they were a little esoteric!  But instead we talked about the political situation in Iran and how it impacted on the lives of the author, her family, her students and members of the book group who came to her house to discuss books.

In addition we looked at the list of books for “recommended further reading” at the back of this novel, as well as the books which formed a type of focus for each of the chapters.  We all felt that we were slightly illiterate, even though we might actually be reading quite a lot we hadn’t read some/many of the books mentioned.

So what follows is a personal self-assessment:

Books actually mentioned in the chapter headings of the text:

• Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita:  yes, I have read it, but it was a long, long time ago – probably in my teens, so I have to admit I don’t remember much about it.
• F Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby:  read it not too long ago, just about the time of the financial crisis, which I thought was entirely appropriate!
• Henry James:  should I be ashamed to admit that I haven’t read any of his books?  I suspect I may have tried, but never succeeded…
• Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice:  this I proudly acknowledge as one of my favourite reads, and I think I have probably read it at least once in each decade of my life… most recently within the last couple of years.  I still appreciate it, and also enjoy the movies/TV adaptations.

What about the “suggested reading” list at the end of the book?

• Jane Austen, Persuasion:  Definitely a while since I read this, I think I am definitely up for a re-read!
• Saul Bellow, The Dean’s December, Herzog, More die of heartbreak:  I read Herzog, but again a long, long time ago…
• Heinrich Bool, The clown:  not read
• Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights:  read it as an adult, but to be frank, wasn’t that inspired!  Is this heresy?  Probably
• Mikhail Bugakov, The Master and Margarita:  read as a teen, but don’t really remember it
• Italo Calvino, If on a winter’s night a traveler:  not read
• Lewis Carroll, Alice’s adventures in Wonderland:  read several times, some as a child, some as an adult.  Probably due for another re-read, especially with the new film out
• Raymond Chandler, The big sleep:  read it, but a long time ago
• Joseph Conrad, Under western eyes:  not read; I suspect I may have tried to read it, but just couldn’t get into his style.    I just about managed Heart of darkness not so long ago, but not any of the others.  Yet I am amazed that this author was not writing in his native language!
• Diderot, Jacques Le fataliste:  not read, not even in secondary school French class
• Henry Fielding,  Tom Jones and Shamela:  read neither, though I suspect I may have watched at least part of a film version of the former, but does that count?
• Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary:  read it, but a long time ago.   Time for a re-read?
• Sadeq Hedayat, Buf-e-Kur (The blind owl):  not read, and I haven’t even heard of it
• Henry James, The ambassadors:  again another not read
• Franz Kafka, The trial and In the penal colony:  haven’t read either, though I seem to remember attempting to read at least one Kafka novel and not getting very far.
• Herman Melville, The confidence-man:  a no again, and I never did read Moby Dick either
• Vladimir Nabokov, Pnin:  not read
• Iraj Pezeshkzad, My uncle Napoleon:  not read
• Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea:  did read it, but I suspect that I am such a fan of Jane Eyre that I might not truly appreciate Rhys’  heroine
• Scheherezade, A thousand and one nights:  I’ve heard about the stories, but I don’t think I have ever read any.
• Muriel Spark, Loitering with intent and The prime of Miss Jean Brodie:  I have read the latter, and seem to remember feeling rather sad about it
• Laurence Sterne, The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy, gentleman:  somehow I never read that many 18th century classics
• Italo Svevo, Confessions of Zeno:  not read, another one I’ve never heard of
• Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: not read, and I am ashamed to say that I only read The adventures of Tom Sawyer very recently, so I guess I can be excused.  But of course I had seen some of the film or TV adaptations, even though some of them might have been more than a little sugary.
• Virgina Woolf, To the lighthouse:  read, though I seem to remember neither liking it nor understanding it.

So by my count, I hit 33% – 10 out of 30.   I don’t think this is too bad, but then it does make me feel I have some catching up to do.  Maybe I should make it a goal to read or reread at least one so-called “classic” every month, along with at least one “Africa” written or themed book?

My reading for December 2009

Since I’ve been on holiday for almost two weeks, I was able to finish a few more books than I would have done if I had been going to work.   As usual a mixture of the slightly literary with the slightly less serious…, interspersed with dipping in and out of some cookbooks, though not necessarily doing anything practical related to this.

I finally got around to reading Muriel Barbery’s The elegance of the hedgehog - in English though, unlike my ambitious sister who decided to read it in French!   I liked it, though I found the ending rather unexpected!

There are a couple of works with an African flavour:  Chris Cleave’s The other hand [also goes by the title Little Bee in the US?] and Work in progress and other stories.

Interestingly the former was a suggestion for the Accra Book Club, but one of the members had given rather negative feedback, so we didn’t add it.  I still read it though, and I can see why reactions could be ambivalent.  In a way, living in West Africa probably would tend to make me a bit more critical.  I liked the different perspectives, but I wasn’t sure that the plot really held together, though some of the individual sections were quite moving.  I somewhat resented the ending as being somewhat “colonial”.

The second work is a collection of short stories, including the five short-listed entries for the 2009 Caine Prize for African writing.  I had read a few of the stories before, and also personally know some of the authors of those who attended the 2009 workshop which was held outside Accra in April 2009.  So there was definitely an element of curiosity to see what the Ghanaian authors would produce.

With the exception of editor Ivor Agyeman-Duah’s An economic history of Ghana: reflections on a

half century of challenges and progress, and Pierre Bayard’s How to talk about books you haven’t read, both of which were books which I dipped into rather than read at a go, the rest of my reading for December 2009 was what most would call genre reading.

There were three crime/thriller novels, one science fiction/fantasy blockbuster and one slim volume which I had been unable to resist buying because it brought back memories of childhood.

David Baldacci’s The whole truth:  enjoyable and shall I sadly admit forgettable?

Stieg Larsson’s The girl who played with fire:  the second volume of the Swedish Millennium series.  Actually the Accra Book Club is reading the first volume as our January selection, which should be fun.  Some reviews were not so positive but I enjoyed this second volume, and the especially the focus on Lisbeth Salander.

Last of the crime/thriller trio is Colin Cotterill’s Disco for the departed:  Not heavy reading, with some comic elements.  Admittedly there was one strand in this book that didn’t relate too much to the main story, but even that was fun, in a slightly macabre sort of way.

I did finish Neal Stephenson’s tome, Anathem, which a colleague lent to me – with a warning that it really was a doorstopper!  Definitely not something one could read in bed!  It wasn’t easy; I realised rather too late that there was actually a glossary, which would have been a bit more useful had I noticed it earlier.  Although I enjoyed it, I wondered if it was too complex and too long…

And finally there was a return to childhood, with a paperback edition of Antoine Saint-Exupery’s The little prince, though regrettably I didn’t buy the colour edition.  :-(  I wonder how much I got out of this book as a child, which I am sure I first read in French.

November 2009 reading

I think I need to remember to take a photo of each of the books I read, mainly because I feel slightly odd about linking to a site such as Amazon all the time.  After all how many of us in Ghana are buying our books from there?

So here goes for the month of November 2009:

I do not  come to you by chance, by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani.  The story of a young Nigerian graduate who is frustrated in finding a job, keeping his girlfriend, and living up to the standards that his family expect of him.  So what does he end up doing?  Joining the black sheep of the family, and becoming quite expert at 419s!  I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it was both fun, and at times sad, and yet rang horribly true.

The Jane Austen book club, by Karen Jay Fowler.  I think it was the title that attracted me, already being a fan of Jane Austen.  Did it live up to the promise?  Not sure.  For me it was OK, but not very exciting, or even particularly inspiring.

A beautiful place to die, by Malla Nunn.    Here the attraction was definitely the cover, and a niggling feeling that I had read a good review of this detective story set in the early 1950s in South Africa.    It was quite atmospheric, with lots of tension, yet still the complexity of several of the characters did come through.  I really liked it, and look forward to reading her future work.

Wife of the gods, by Kwei Quartey.  A detective story set in Ghana, with a Ghanaian detective!  How could I resist?  Since I first heard of it, it had been on a wish list, and I even went to the extent of talking to the author on his website – basically asking when there would be copies available here in Ghana.   Didn’t get an overly satisfactory answer though.   A fellow Accra Book Club member had bought a copy and lent me hers, so I quickly read it.   Verdict:  OK, in my view quite a few loose ends, or inconsistencies.  Not bad on descriptions, but did it have atmosphere?  Not really.   But I’ll probably look out for his next work.

Garlic and sapphires: the secret life of a critic in disguise, by Ruth Reichl.  I am not a foodie – though I like eating, and sometimes cooking – but I enjoy reading cookbooks, and about cooking.  The author writes very entertainingly about her “disguises” and visits to New York restaurants while she was a critic for the New York Times. Light reading, but I enjoyed it, especially as her relationship with her mother is recalled.

Of course, I started some other books, which are still ongoing…  And one of them has over 900 pages and even thought it is a paperback – is HEAVY!