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

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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Elnathan John reads in Accra

Two book related events this past week: an Accra Book Club discussion and a visiting writer.

Accra Book Club was a rescheduled event, so there were only two of us – one of the other regulars having traveled! But we had a good talk about Anthony Doerr’s bestseller, All the light we cannot see, and other books and reading in general.

The visiting writer was Elnathan John, who recently published his first novel, Born on a Tuesday. The readings were organized by the Writers Project of Ghana, and took place at Vidya Book Store in Osu. About 40 or so people came and all seemed pretty engaged. Elnathan John read excerpts from his novel, which was available for sale, and at a reasonable price, and spoke about writing, especially in the context of Northern Nigeria.  It was a very enjoyable way to spend a late Saturday afternoon!

I look forward to more of such events.

Accra Book Club discussed Harper Lee’s work

The recent news of the death of Harper Lee brought to mind the Accra Book Club’s choice of Go set a watchman and To kill a mockingbird as our first reads for 2016.

I think all of us had read To kill a mockingbird in younger days (usually in secondary school/high school, so this was a while ago) and/or seen the award winning film starring Gregory Peck as Atticus.

So it was definitely re-reading a book from an earlier era, in the context of also reading a sequel (by when it takes place)/ prequel (when it was actually written).

We all agreed that To kill a mockingbird was definitely the better book, and still worth reading.  It really is a classic of the 20th century.

Accra Book Club selections for 2016

I know that some people do come across Accra Book Club via this blog.

So here are Accra Book Club’s selections for 2016, though the first book was read in December 2015

• The fishermen, by Chigozie Obioma – December 2015
• Go set a watchman & To kill a mockingbird, by Harper Lee – January 2016
• All the light we cannot see, by Anthony Doerr – February 2016
• A spool of blue thread, by Anne Tyler – March 2016
• A tale for the time being, by Ruth Ozeki – April 2016
• Circling the sun, by Paula McLain – May 2016
• Hiding in plain sight, by Nurrudin Farah – June 2016
• The children’s crusade, by Ann Packer – August 2016
• Everything I told you, by Pauline Ng – September 2016
• The dinner, by Herman Koch – October 2016
• The girl on the train, by Paula Hawkins – December 2016

I missed the discussion of the first book – work commitments prevented me from attending this gathering, much to my distress. [One of the disadvantages of working one and half hours out of Accra!]

I have read both the Harper Lee books, and am looking forward to this discussion, coming up at the end of January.

I have physical copies of three of the remaining nine books; the remaining ones I will probably read on my tablet.

Obviously, if someone is interested in joining this book club, please leave a comment, and I will send you further details.

2015 Ghana and Africa reads

I know I haven’t done much posting over the last year, and I guess one of my New Year’s resolutions for this year is to do more in this area. Focus is the key though.

I didn’t do much reading of fiction from Ghana, as seen by the following:

• Adonoo, Elikem: The teleport conspiracy [lent to me by the author]
• Attah, Ayesha Harruna: Saturday’s shadows [author is definitely maturing]
• Goka, Ruby Yayra: The lost royal treasure [young adult]

although I do have to admit to reading some Ghanaian flash fiction, but those I didn’t record!

Non-fiction on Ghana did much better:

• Akpabli, Kofi: Harmattan – a cultural profile of Northern Ghana
• Coe, Cati: The scattered family – Parenting, African migrants and global inequality [doubly relevant as a lot of the families were from Akuapim South District in Ghana, where I work]
• Dagadu, Kati Torda (ed): Ghana: Where the bead speaks
• Larratt, Carol: Human mules – The kayayo girls [not really sure whether this was creative non-fiction, but fascinating nonetheless]
• Tonah, Steve: Fulani in Ghana: Migration history, integration and resistance
• Tsikata, Dzodzi: In the shadow of the large dams [having worked near Nigeria’s first hydroelectric dam, I am still fascinated by the impact of these large projects]
• Owusu, Mary A Seiwaa: Prempeh II and the making of modern Asante 

I did read a fair amount of African fiction, with a tendency towards Nigerian writers/writers of Nigerian descent:

• The Gonjon pin and other stories: the Caine Prize for African fiction 2014 [even though I often download the shortlisted stories, I still like buying the published collections]
• To see the mountain and other stories: The Caine Prize for African writing 2011
• Barrett, A Igoni: Love is power, or something like that
• Ndibe, Okey: Foreign Gods, Inc. [for Accra Book Club]
• de Hernandez, Jennifer et al: African women writing resistance [a mixture of fiction and non-fiction]
• Forna, Aminatta: The memory of love [for Accra Book Club]
• Hamilton, Masha: The camel bookmobile [not sure this really counts, though the setting is mostly Kenya]
• Imaseun, Eghosa: To Saint Patrick [I had downloaded this before attending a WPG reading by this author.  A Nigerian detective story!]
• Laye, Camara: The dark child [rather amazing that I hadn’t read this before!]
• Obioma, Chigozie: The fishermen [for Accra Book Club]
• Okorafor, Nnedi: Lagoon [author is of Nigerian descent]
• Omotoso, Yewande: Bom boy
• Oparanta, Chinelo: Happiness, like water [definitely an author to watch]
• Oyeyemi, Helen: Boy, Snow, Bird [the setting is the US, though the author is of Nigerian descent] [for Accra Book Club]
• Wanner, Zukiswa: London Cape Town Joburg [Inspired partly by Caine Prize presentation]

Followed up by a few non-fiction books with an African emphasis:

• Fuller, Alexandra: Cocktail hour under the tree of forgetfulness [even though the main characters aren’t particularly nice, the author writes well and sympathetically]
• Ngugi Wa Thiongo: Decolonising the mind 
• Saro-Wiwa, Noo: Looking for Transwonderland 

I guess the above will sort of qualify for the 2015 Africa Reading Challenge.  Although sometimes I feel it is not much of a challenge really, as I tend to read a fair number of books by Ghanaians/about Ghana and also by Africans/about Africa anyway – approximately 30% of my reading.

Accra Book Club reads for 2014 and looking forward to 2015

A recap of the books Accra Book Club read and discussed during 2014

• Ender’s game, by Orson Scott Card. I know this was on the list, but I can’t remember the discussion. I did eventually watch the film on DSTV, and thought it was pretty well done.  I used to have a physical copy of this book, but somewhere along the line, it disappeared.  So I had to buy a e-copy!
• Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – a good discussion. I suspect that a different group would have a very different perspective.  I actually read a Nigerian edition!
• Dear life, by Alice Munro – brrr, the Canadian climate does permeate these rather bleak stories
• Kindred, by Octavia Butler – I really like Octavia Butler’s work, and wonder why it took me so long to read them!
• The Burgess boys, by Elizabeth Strout – a disfunctional family, with locations in New York and Maine. Moving though.
• The invention of wings, by Sue Monk Kidd – based on historical figures, involved in the abolition of the slave trade
• The housekeeper and the professor, by Yoko Ogama – I didn’t attend this discussion, but I enjoyed the book which was very different from most of the work I read during this year
• The lowland, by Jhumpa Lahiri – moving account of two brothers and their families in India and the US.  Another physical copy
• The shining girls, by Lauren Beukes – upon reflection, I found the discussion of this book helped me to understand this book better
• We need new names, by NoViolet Bulawayo – I have to admit that I didn’t enjoy this book that much; I also wasn’t that sure about having the two different settings of Zimbabwe and the US.  Ironically I bought the e-book, and then discovered that EPP books had loads of physical copies, and for a very, very reasonable price!
• Euphoria, by Lily King – a love story told from different points of view. A good read.

And because I am aware that some people may be wondering what we are going to read and talk about in 2015, here is our current list of books:

• Flight behavior, by Barbara Kingsolver
• Memory of love, by Aminatta Forna
• How to get filthy rich in rising Asia, by Mohsin Hamid
• The woman upstairs, by Claire Messud
• Boy, Snow, Bird, by Helen Oyeyemi
• Foreign gods, by Okey Ndibe
• Don’t let me go, by Catherine Ryan Hyde
• The short and tragic life of Robert Peace, by Jeff Hobbs
• Ade, by Rebecca Walker

If anyone wants to know more about Accra Book Club, do comment or send an email to accrabookclub [at] gmail [dot] com.

February 2013 book/information related activities and reads

A very belated report on my February book/information related activities and reads

I only finished reading four books during February – interestingly all written by males, an even split between
fiction and non-fiction, with three having an African/ African diasporan/ Ghanaian focus.

• Chicago, by Alaa al Aswamy [this was on my list for the 2012 Africa Reading Challenge!  Stories of the Egyptian diaspora, mostly. Not as good as The Yacoubian building, in my opinion]
• Pilgrims of the night – Development challenges and opportunities in Africa, edited by Ivor Agyeman-Duah [essays on Africa, loosely connected with an environmental focus]
• Yes, Chef , by Marcus Samuelsson [memoir by the famous Ethiopian/Swedish chef. Being a enthusiast of books about food, I enjoyed this!  So how can I actually visit his restaurant?]
• A life apart, by Neel Mukherjee [prize-winning book which has been on my TBR shelf for a long time. A story split between India and the UK, the present and the beginning of the 20th century]

Book buying, which of course followed physical visits to bookshops, as opposed to visits to online book sites,
was OK. I bought four non-fiction books (three with an African focus), two novels, two Tintin books (to add to the family collection)  and one collection of Calvin & Hobbes comic strips.

As for book events/activities I could count probably four – though the last one doesn’t strictly have to do with books, though it did involve librarians.

1. The author of The fastest billion, Charles Robertson, came to Ashesi for a presentation (essentially taken from the book), and of course there were copies of the book for sale, so how could I resist? Plus sales from the book are benefiting Ashesi, so how could I resist?
2. There was also the monthly gathering of the Accra Book Club – rather sparse in attendance this month, I do admit – with a discussion of Of Africa, by Wole Soyinka. Not the easiest of reads, controversial (naturally), and I have to admit that I have yet to finish this book, though I am not giving up.
3. The other bookish activity is a little different. I am a member of NAWA  which raises money for projects through sale of its guide to Accra, No Worries. The first edition came out in 1997, and the most recent edition – the 4th – in 2010. As this is beginning to be out of date, despite several changes on the companion website, it is time to put out a new edition, especially as there are an increasing number of non-Ghanaians coming to live in Accra, who want to know what’s available in this city.  At the moment there are a group of NAWA members working on the new edition, checking and updating entries, adding new ones, selling ads, and so on. I am just a little cog, working with colleagues on a few sections, but it is pretty satisfying. And then there is a role in updating the website…
4. Bookish matters have blended more into information and electronic ones, and the last activity I wanted to mention pertained to CARLIGH – Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Ghana. Periodically CARLIGH organizes workshops for those working in member institutions (of which there are now nearly 30), and at the end of February there was a two-day event on “Searching e-resources”, which I helped to co-facilitate with a colleague from the University of Ghana, Legon.  Fun, because one always learns something new, and it is very relevant to what many librarians do nowadays.

Again, my month was busier than I thought, though I still wish I could finish reading more books than I did.  But then there is the ever-present “light-off” phenomenon which has meant that we have only six days in February when the electricity stayed on for a full day! [the red writing indicates light-off]

November – librarians’ meeting and readings

When I initially started thinking about this post I thought November hadn’t been a particular busy month, but on reflection, maybe that was not quite the case.

I completed five books during the period:

1. The kaya-girl, by Mamle Wolo [First prize Winner of the 2011 Burt Award]. A fun read for teens/young adults.
2. Florida heatwave, edited by Michael Lister. [A collection of thriller short stories set in Florida; some definitely better than others]
3. My first coup d’etat: Memories from the lost decades of Africa, by John Dramani Mahama [Written when the now President of Ghana was Vice-President; some interesting anecdotes from a contemporary politician.  We felt we had to read and discuss this book before Ghana’s Election Day on 7 December 2012]
4. It happened in Ghana – A historical romance 1824-1971, by Noel Smith [not sure how to describe this book, which mentioned various events in Ghana’s history; I didn’t think it was that great]
5. A discovery of witches, by Deborah Harkness [all right, I haven’t read the whole Twilight series, but this vampire/witch/daemon story has its entertaining bits!]

There was a preponderance of books on Ghana, with more fiction (as usual), but more male authors than female.  And I did read two of the books on my Kindle, definitely a bit more than usual!

I bought four books during the period – all from Vidya Bookstore  so as usual my TBR shelves continue to grow

1. Joseph Anton, by Salman Rushdie
2. The casual vacancy, by J K Rowling
3. American dervish, by Ayad Akhtar [actually on one of my wish lists for a while]
4. Amateur spy, by Dan Fespermann

My bookish/library activities during the month of November were three:

• Ghana Library Association‘s biennial congress & AGM – took place in the first week in November.  Alternately interesting and a bit irritating.  Great to see professional colleagues.  Election results were pretty interesting – a much younger group elected!
• Accra Book Club’s discussion of My first coup d’etat, by John Dramani Mahama.  We all agreed that it was great that a Ghanaian politician should put pen to paper, and wished that more would do so.  Reactions from those of us who had spent some time in Ghana did differ a bit from those who hadn’t.  But generally we liked it.
• Readings by Chuma Nwokolo, author of The ghost of Sani Abacha and Diaries of a dead African, at his visit to Ashesi.   Very entertaining and amusing.  I think all the students and others present enjoyed it.

Maybe readers should be the judge as to whether November was a busy or quiet month?

Upcoming literary and bookish events in Accra

The next ten days or so promises to be full of various bookish and literary events, which I am very much looking forward to.

1. Ghana Association of Writers Book Festival (GAWBOFEST) takes place on Friday 21 September 2012 at the National Theatre, here in Accra – in theory from 08.00.  Realistically as it is a public holiday, probably from around 09.30 or so.  Lots of activities according to an advert but no real programme available online, at least as far as I can tell.  I shall go, at least briefly.
2. 11th Ghana International Book Fair, which takes place from Monday 24th to Saturday 29th September, again at the National Theatre.  Book sales and exhibitions are of course the main part of this event, but there will be other parts, including meetings, and the formal launch of the Burt Award 2011 winning books.  For more details, see their website.  Always on my list of events to attend, and spend money at!
3. Writers Project of Ghana monthly readings, on Wednesday 26 September, at the Goethe Institut, with Nigeria writer, Chuma Nwokolo.
4. Accra Book Club’s monthly gathering, with a discussion of Esi Edugyan’s Half-blood blues, which I have nearly finished [having no electricity at home for nearly 48 hours definitely does not help my reading!]
5. A biannual meeting of the Consortium of Academic & Research Libraries in Ghana (CARLIGH) at the end of next week – good to meet fellow librarians.

So I will definitely be busy, and if I get my act together, I should actually do some posting as well!

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.