July in Review, Projections for August

July was as good as June was and I read all the books I proposed to read. Four books were completed and I'm on the fifth. Including the current read, Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, I read a total of 1,291 pages with an average of 42 pages per day. The following books were read:
  1. The Book Thief by Zusak Markus. This book can scarcely be described as a Young Adult book though the protagonist is a young girl. The book was narrated by Death and was written in a very novel way that imitates no one. If you should read one fiction, perhaps it should be this one.
  2. Diplomatic Pounds and Other Stories by Ama Ata Aidoo. Forget my dilemma, but if you should read only one anthology this year, read this. In this collection of twelve (12) short stories, Ama Ata Aidoo entrenches herself as a foremost writer in Africa and beyond. Her sense of style, voice and subject was superior. This story has been reviewed for a magazine.
  3. Cut off My Tongue by Sitawa Namwalie. I saw Sitawa perform her poems flawlessly in Uganda. The themes of this collection ranges from the stupidity of tribalism and ethnicism which politicians entrenches to love and identity. A bold presentation of worrying subjects.
  4. If I'm So Successful why do I feel Like a Fake - The Imposter Phenomenon by Joan C. Harvey with Cynthia Katz. This book deals with the psychological problem which most successful people face. These individuals, though successful, feel that their success could be attributed to other things but their ability. They see themselves not deserving what they have or what they have achieved and begin to wonder if they will be exposed in their next job. The IP could be seen in both work and personal life.
  5. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen. This is the second Austen book I'm reading, though I am not enjoying it as much as I did Pride and Prejudice. 
The classification of books read are: novel (2); short story anthology (1); poetry anthology (1); non-fiction (1). 

Projections for August
I hope to read about six books to still keep on track with the 70 books target for 2012. I expect to read the following books:
  1. Devil May Care by Sebastian Faulks. A James-Bond novel that has been on my shelf since October 2010. It really has to move from the not-read section to the read section.
  2. Journey by G.A. Agambila. I started this book some time ago and dropped it without any reason. I hope to pick it up again.
  3. The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. This book has also been on my shelf since September 2011.
  4. A Month and a Day & Letters by Ken Saro Wiwa. This book will be read for the Ayebia Challenge.

Comments

Post a Comment

Help Improve the Blog with a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

69. The Clothes of Nakedness by Benjamin Kwakye, A Review

Image
Title: The Clothes of Nakedness Author: Benjamin Kwakye Publishers: Heinemann African Writers Series Genre: Fiction/Novel/Class Pages: 212 Year of First Publication: 1998 Country: Ghana For the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Africa Region Winners Reading Challenge Benjamin Kwakye 's novel The Clothes of Nakedness  is a compelling narrative directed at a Ghanaian audience, in particular. It reveals the economic hardships existing in our society; it also reveals the intricately woven relationships between the rich and the poor and how the 'seemingly' rich manipulate the poor to further that wealth-dom in this dual economic society where absolute riches exist side by side with abject poverty. The latter scenario is even more stark and pathetic if one knows that Nima and Kanda Estates, two neighbourhoods presented in the story, are real and not just fictional representation made concrete by Kwakye's brilliant mind. The story revolves around thr
Read more

10. Unexpected Joy at Dawn: My Reading

Image
Title: Unexpected Joy At Dawn Author: Alex Agyei-Agyiri Genre: Novel Publisher: Sub-Saharan Publishers Pages: 331 Year: 2004 Country: Ghana Unexpected Joy at Dawn is a story of two siblings, Nii and Mama Orojo, during the 1983 deportation of Ghanaians from Nigeria under the Shehu Shagari government. Nii, who is a Nigerian by blood but a Ghanaian by birth, was left in Ghana by his parents as they made the tortuous journey to Nigeria when Ghana enacted the Aliens Compliance Order of 1969, which made every person living in Ghana without the required papers an alien. His name was changed to reflect the name of his adopted parents. After fourteen years of living in hardship in Ghana, which involves living in slums even though he was an Assistant Manager at a bank, taking on multiple jobs, not being able to bury a wife and being chased around by market women for purported 'fraud', he decided to go to Nigeria in search of his roots. Besides, he entertained the fears of being
Read more

Pre-Colonial* and Post Colonial African Literature - Is Writing the Path to Development

Pre-colonial African Literature concerned itself with the fight for independence. Writings that were churned out during this period (before the 1960s) addressed colonialism and occupation and its tone was vitriolic. Such books as Ngugi's Weep Not Child sought to put the fight for independence into perspectives. So drunk were the people with the struggle of the day that the people (of Africa) began to confuse independence with development. And as a matter of fact development, by a people for the same people according to their likes and dislikes, is truly a function of independence. However, when those who position themselves to enjoy the fruits of independence behave like the oppressors, against whom the masses struggled, then the people's development becomes a mere word not a philosophy. Dissolved in the quest-for-independence euphoria, the people - the freedom fighters , those whose real blood fetched freedom - forgot to ask questions of those who were window-sitting expe
Read more