Month: February 2017

Reading for a couple of Accra book clubs/groups in 2017

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At the moment I am involved with two book clubs/ book groups here in Accra. Here are the reading choices for 2017 – at least what I know of, as of the time of writing.

Accra Book Club (contact via accrabookclub [at] gmail [dot] com). Meets monthly except July (and even that is flexible).

Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi – January 2017
Do not say we have nothing, by Madelein Thien – February 2017
The underground railroad, by Colson Whitehead – March 2017
Blackass, by Igoni Barrett – April 2017
The bad-ass librarians of Timbuktu, by Joshua Hammer – May 2017
Wonder, by R J Palacio – June 2017
The sympathizer, by Viet Thanh Nguyen – August 2017
13 ways of looking at a fat girl, by Mona Awad – September 2017
Radiance of tomorrow, by Ishmael Beah – October 2017
The woman who breathed two worlds, by Selina Sian Chin Yoke – November 2017?
The maestro, the magician and the mathematician, by Tendai Huchu – December 2017?
Behold the dreamers, by Imbolo Mbue – January 2018?

NAWA book group (nb: one has to be a member of NAWA in order to take part, but I still thought I should share the list):

Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi – January 2017
A man called Ove, by Fredrick Backman – February 2017
Longbourn, by Jo Baker – March 2017
Dead wake, by Erik Larson – April 2017
Caliph’s house, by Tahir Shah – May 2017
The Wright brothers, by David McCullough – June 2017

Of course, all the above titles are available via Kindle (and I presume Nook).  And Vidya Book Store in Osu does stock some titles.

 

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A backward look at my Ghanaian and African reads of 2016

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Usually sometime early in the year I look back on my reading for the previous year, and share the books on Ghana and Africa I read.

For Ghanaian fiction, I read three novels: two are diasporan authors, while one is based based here in Ghana (at least now)

  • Glover, Boakyewaa – The justice
  • Gyasi, Yaa – Homegoing [a January 2017 choice for two book clubs/groups I belong to!]
  • Quartey, Kwei – Murder at Cape Three Points

For Ghanaian non-fiction, I count four works

  • Addo-Kufuor, Kwame – Gold Coast boy [autobiography, by a brother of Ghana’s former President, a physician and politician]
  • Ashun, Mary – Tuesday’s child [another autobiography, with an emphasis on the author’s childhood]
  • Insaidoo, Kwame Afadzi – Ghana – An incomplete independence or a dysfunctional democracy?
  • NAWA – No worries. 6th ed  [I actually have all 6 editions of this guidebook to Accra!]

My African fiction category is a mixed bag, including some novels with locations in African settings, which I realize some people might not consider “real” African fiction.

  • Abouet, Marguerite & Oubrerie, Clement – Aya de Yopougon 1-3 [a series of graphic novels with Ivoirian characters]
  • Banda-Aaku, Ellen – Sula and Ja [story for young adults/teens by prize-winning Zambian author]
  • Boyd, William – Solo [anoatther James Bond novel, partially set in Nigeria]
  • Camus, Albert – The stranger [this was a re-read of the classic]
  • Davids, Nadia – An imperfect blessing
  • Farah, Nuruddin – Hiding in plain sight [read for Accra Book Club]
  • Guillaume, Laurent – White leopard [thriller, with a Malian location]
  • Jemisin, N K – The fifth season [prize-winning science fiction/fantasy novel which takes place in what had once been Africa’s tropical regions]
  • Jonasson, Jonas –  The girl who saved the King of Sweden [another comic book from this Swedish author;the main character is South African]
  • Lotz, Sarah – The three [author is South African, and part of the novel is set there]
  • Mahlangu, Songeziwe –  Penumbra
  • McCain, Paula – Circling the sun [read for Accra Book Club, set in colonial Kenya]
  • Orford, Margie –  Like clockwork [thriller set in South Africa]
  • Singh, Astha –  Congo journey [mostly on the Indian community]
  • Walker, Rebecca – Ade – a love story [set mostly in Tanzania]

African non-fiction was a bit sparse last year, with only three books

  • Agyeman-Duah, Ivor – Africa – a miner’s canary into the 21st century
  • Beckman, Bjorn & Gbemisola, Adeoti – Intellectuals and African development
  • Kpomassie, Tete-Michel – An African in Greenland [quite touching in parts]

I do admit that, apart from book clubs/groups, I don’t really plan my reading.  I do have a lot of TBR books which fill one medium bookcase, and always feel I should concentrate a bit more on these books, but somehow it doesn’t always work out!