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Title: Underground People Author: Lewis Nkosi Genre: Fiction Publisher: Ayebia Clarke Pages: 308 Year of First Publication: 2002 Country: South Africa Lewis Nkosi's second novel coming after the award-winning debut Mating Birds  is a unique story. Its uniqueness lies not in any attempt to create something which has never been done. Nor does it turn every sentence into a literary masterpiece, though each word, sentence, paragraph is a relish to read. The uniqueness of Lewis Nkosi's  Underground People  lies in its beautiful, fast-reading, and tension-building prose. And his ability to satirise South Africa's apartheid system whilst still keeping its seriousness, its human suffering closer to the reader. Cornelius Molapo is a high-school teacher, amateur poet, speaker, a jitterbug dancer, a passionate lover and a lover of cricket. He is also a peripheral member of the National Liberation Movement, the movement fighting to end apartheid rule in South Africa. W...

Finally, I have been able to add some books to my library. Over the past two or three days I have made purchases of some books to help me with the Africa Reading Challenge - in the coming weekend I would to show my progress with this challenge. The following are the books: Tropical Fish: Tales from Entebee by Doreen Baingana (Uganda): I haven't as yet read any book by a Ugandan writer so I chose to add this book to my collection. Also this book has been read and reviewed by Geosi of Geosi Reads and Kinna of Kinna Reads . This is a collection of short stories and the title story won the  Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book in the Africa region. Underground People by Lewis Nkosi (South Africa): Louis Henry Gates (Jnr) says the author (and this book) is worth listening to. Besides, my reading of South African authors (excepting the dual nationalist Bessie Head, whose work I have not yet reviewed) does not include an author of colour. Lewis Nkosi is the beginning of th...

Source: Penguin The year 2011 saw me read more more than twice the total number of books and single stories I read in 2010 (the actual review of the year's activities will be published on this blog somewhere on 31st December or early January, 2012). This post presents some of my favourite books read in 2011 and not necessarily books published in 2011. I usually don't get that kind of luxury embedded in reading books just as they are published.  Reading a large number of books presents one major problem: choosing the favourite ones. To avoid this problem I decided to settle on six for each of the two categories: African-authored books and Non-African-authored books. No further classification such as fiction, non-fiction, poetry and others were considered as not enough books were read in some of these and would endanger this exercise. African-authored Books: This blog is mostly about promoting African Literature. African Literature here is defined as any literary ...

The most difficult thing to do is creating a list of top favourite items - books, movies, etc. Regardless of what one does, one can and will never be satisfied with a list. Creating a top list of favourite books become even more difficult for people with uncontrollable reading habits, as some participants of Readers' Top Ten alluded to. For a book, the questions or considerations that come to mind include genre: fiction or non-fiction; poetry, prose, drama, creative non-fiction, memoirs, or essays. These things are incomparable as flowers and sheep. See? A story may stay with you because of the prose; another, because of the story - the theme; another, because you can relate - personally - to the subject discussed; others, because they purvey information you never knew. However, in order that I am not perceived as a dictator who only commands but does not follow his own rules and commandments, I have decided to share with you my Top Ten African books. Note that this is a fluid...

July, the beginning of the next half of the year, wasn't that bad in terms of reading though comparatively it was not up to the standards of January. In all I read four books: Dew in the Morning by Shimmer Chinodya: This is about a young boy writing about his village and the changes it has gone through, morally, culturally and environmentally. This book effectively takes Zimbabwe out of the African Reading Challenge; thus, any subsequent book I read by a Zimbabwean would not be recognised as part of the ARC since I have read more than three authors from that country. 1984 by George Orwell: This was read for the Top 100 Reading Challenge . 1984  is a dystopian novel about the future of the world if the rhetoric and ideologies being promoted or bandied about are implemented fully. It also shows how leaders think and uses fear and obfuscation to deceive the ruled to propagate their self-interest. After reading Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and 1984  I look forward to r...

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 ...

This list excludes single stories. Single stories are uncollected short stories published in magazines, blogs, online newspapers, and other places. It is believed that such stories would be collected by author and later 'formally' published, hence their exclusion. -2000 to 2009- A Heart to Mend :  Myne Whitman African Agenda : Camynta Baezie Amazulu :  Walton Golightly As the Crow Flies :  Veronique Tadjo Atonement:  Ian McEwan Before I Forget:  Andre Brink The Best American Short Stories 2004 : Lorrie Moore (editor) Big Bishop Roko and the Altar Gangsters : Kojo Laing The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable :  Nassim Nicholas Taleb Bloodlines : Veronica Henry (Editor) The Book Thief : Markus Zusak The Book of Chameleons:   Jose Eduardo Agualusa The Book of Not:  Tsitsi Dangarembga Cloth Girl : Marilyn Heward Mills The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time:   Mark Haddon Cut off my Tongue : Sitawa Nawal...

When the girl departed, leaving behind the smell of jasmine and eau-de-cologne, the two men watched her intently as she sashayed down the aisle of the plane, her marvellously rounded buttocks growing separate and independent with each step, suggesting something dull and Dutch, but also African, supple and graceful, a certain heathenish mobility of the body, as if responding to the subtle rhythms of the African tom-tom. Page 34 Living under the same roof, even sleeping in the same bed, doesn't necessarily mean closeness. The way I look at it, it's simply a way for one of the couple to enforce marital obedience. Page 110 Darling, you must always insist on having a seat next to a woman when you travel. The worst a woman can do is fall asleep on your shoulder and snore throughout your night flight! Page 114 It's not that the men are afraid of death. It's only that, well, a snake crawls on its belly and has eyes that can look backwards. Page 192 The ...