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Title: Shadows Author: Chenjerai Hove Publishers: Heinemann (African Writers Series) Genre: Novella/Pastoral/Politics Year of Publication: 1991 Pages:111 Country: Zimbabwe For the Africa Reading Challenge Chenjerai Hove's Shadows is a story to read. In just 111 pages, Hove tells a story about love and death and the politics surrounding and leading to Zimbabwe's independence. Johana's father left his ancestral home to Gotami's land. There he became famous and rich, until the arrival of Marko. Johana walked with the boys and did the things they did. She herded the cattle and milked the cows. She found the classroom hostile. And she loved the boy with the civet cat in his mouth. But the boy seems to see through her; not talking to her after he had initially expressed his love for her. Then Marko came. A boy who had escaped poverty from his own land. The two saw within themselves a common destiny and fell in love, platonic initially but then with time ...

June came and passed me by so suddenly that as I turned to look at its tail in the bend, I saw I had only three books behind me in addition to zero interviews. The fascinating thing about June and its departure is that it also marks the end of the first half of the journey towards December. That's, in someway, July is like January - promising a new beginning and providing a new canvass for the making of resolutions. Now back to the quick-feet June. The slough of books I left behind were:   Shadows  by Chenjerai Hove A Sense of Savannah: Tales of a Friendly Walk through Northern Ghana by Kofi Akpabli The Gods are not to Blame  by Ola Rotimi In addition to these reads, I also reviewed two books which were read in May: The Handmaid's Tale  by Margaret Atwood Every Man is a Race  by Mia Couto Though June was a lazy-drone, churning out a paltry sum of 311 pages - less than the lower boundary of a chunkster - it was the month in which this blog recorded its hig...

Currently I am in Kumasi and I can at least update my blog. May was a busy month for me in terms of my professional life. My reading was somewhat limited and my blogging was seriously affected. In all I read four books and reviewed two. However, I kept my Monday Proverbs going by scheduling all the post. I love this feature. Sometimes I find on my phone that a blog has just been published. The Secret Destiny of America by Manly P. Hall Searching by Nawal El Saadawi The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood Every Man is a Race by Mia Couto I also brought you updates - the non-professional side - of my travels in the Bia District of the Western Region. First I told you about what I would be doing in this blog post . Then I introduced you to the village where I would be staying, Kwamebikrom (or for a direct transliteration: a certain Kwame's town), in another post . Just last week I updated you on the chills and thrills I have encountered on this field trip . I would  be br...

For other years and categories, see Review This list includes books and single stories read in 2011. Previously, this list was organised according to reviews so that a book read in the previous year and reviewed in the current year will be found here. However, this system has been reviewed to reflect only 2011 reads and nothing more and further categorised into months. Note that Single Stories are indicated by SS in brackets. A Single Story is a short story that was not read as part of an anthology or was not part of an anthology at the time of read. These SS are shortlisted short-stories like those for the Caine Prize or are from magazines and other websites. JANUARY: Return of the Water Spirit  by   Pepetela Distant view of a Minaret  by   Alifa Rifaat The Chattering Wagtails of Mikuyu Prison  by   Jack Mapanje The Shadow of Imana  by Veronique Tadjo Neighbours: The Story of a Murder  by   Lilia Momple Jude the Obscure ...

In October of 2009 , about seven months into my book blogging life, I came up with a plan to guide me read some fantastic books. I had just transitioned from reading 'everything' (or preferably pulp fiction) to literary fiction with focus on African literature. Realising how much I was missing, I set myself the target of reading 100 amazing books in five years. These books were to be exclusive of all other books I will read in the year. Thus, I can read other books but at the end of the five years I should have read these 100 books. I developed the list with vigour, with information from several sources (recommendations from friends and best books lists). This is the kind of challenge I cherish though I don't always complete challenges . However one challenging factor when it comes to challenges is book accessibility and it is because of this that I set the five-year target thinking that within that period the hurdle would have flattened out.  So I made a list of books...

After reading numerous blogs, I have decided to also challenge myself by assigning to myself 100 books to be read in 5 years, depending on availability and cost. The first set of books comes from Africa's Top 100 books as researched by the Zimbabwe Library Foundation . If I should come across interesting translations from Francophone and Lusophone writers, I would read them alongside these. As it stands now, all these writers are from Anglophone countries (except Mahfouz Naguib, from Egypt). Since this list contains mostly the classic, new writers would be read alongside these. Note: All books by the following authors would be read as and when they become available: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie  Books I have read would be italicised; Books I have read and reviewed on this blog would be italicised, crossed and linked; Books from Africa's Top 100 Books by the Zimbabwean Library Foundation: Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe Anowa by Ama...

Exile wields the hammer of darker memories. Where the victim and the victimizer embrace, who shall intervene, and clouds of rain pour down on the sky's rejects.  Page 44 There are many homesteads which will remain intact, with children and dogs chasing after hopeless bones and fireflies. But his home will not be a home. It will be a home of graves, ancestors, shadows, broken walls leaning on tired ear. Page 45 When the small bull grow horns, it must learn to defend itself... Page 46 A silent man will die in the silence of his foolishness. Page 49 [A] man who broods about his problems alone is likely to bewitch others. Talking is the medicine for troubles.  Page 50 If this is what my foot can carry me to, I choose the buttocks which make me sit near the grave of my ancestors. The lizard with a broken tail must learn to play near the cave. Page 50 An old death is better. Everyone dies when the years have left them behind. Everyone joins the ...

I am behind in the only time-bound Challenge - Top 100 books to be read in five years . Consequently, on Saturday, February 5, I went on a book hunt in search of the necessary books that would help me succeed but ended up buying more books that are not on the challenge's list of books. However, I got books for my other Africa related challenges. The books were a mix of English Classics (which I would feature on my blogs), African Literary pieces, and a non-fiction. I virtually had to roam every corner in Central Business District of Accra where I had ever seen a book being sold and in doing this I got lost several times passing places I had already passed and still asking for directions to this same place. That's what happens to a quasi-recluse. English Classics: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte : almost every reader has read this book. Readers are quite divided between being an Austen fan or a Bronte fan. Though this book is not on any of my reading challenges, th...

For other genres and categories, see Review There are many sub-genres of fiction. The list of books were amenable to the sub-genres provided below. Single stories are stories read online or downloaded and read in a pdf format. It could be part of a major collection such as The End of Skill  but was read as a stand alone. Novellas are complete stories (novels) that are 150 or less pages long. Children Stories (<12 years) Eno's Story by Ayodele Olofintuade Single Stories: Bombay's Republic by Rotimi Babatunde Butterfly Dreams by Beatrice Lamwaka Dayward by ZZ Packer Icebergs by Alistair Morgan In the Spirit of McPhineas Lata by Lauri Kubuitsile The End of Skill  by Mamle Kabu The Entire Northern Side was Covered with Fire by Rivka Galchen The Kid by Salvatore Scibona Here We Aren't, So Quickly by Jonathan Safran Foer Hitting Budapest by NoViolet Bulawayo How Kamau wa Mwangi Escaped into Exile by Mukoma wa Ngugi How Shall we Kill the Bishop...