A Five-Year Reading Challenge that Ended Almost Two Years Ago

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 (here and there). Slowly, I grazed through the list and slowly time went by. However, by October 2014, when the challenge ended my reading slumped and my blogging life with it. It was so bad that it carried into 2015 and then 2016 making it impossible to talk about the end of the challenge and my level of achievement. Within this five years (or seven years as of 2016), I had changed jobs five times and each job had taken something away from my blogging life as every job I had taken had been quite different requiring new learning and new adjustments. 

Books Unread: Consequently, I have not been able to read 50 percent of the listed. In all, I read only 46 percent and of the 54 books not read I only have two on my unread bookshelf: The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood and One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The following are the listed books I could not read:

1. Anowa by Ama Atta Aidoo 
2. A Dry White Season by Andre Brink 
3. The Life and Times of Michael K by J. M. Coetzee 
4. The Blood Knot by Athol Fugard 
5. Bones by Chenjerai Hove 
6. Living, Loving and Lying Awake at Night by Sindiwe Magona 
7. House of Hunger by Dambudzo Marechera 
8. Labyrinths by Christopher Okigbo 
9. Song of Lawino by Okot P'Bitek 
10. Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadwai 
11. Third World Express by Mongane Serote 
12. Butterfly Burning by Yvonne Vera 
13. Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee 
14. Osiris Rising by Ayi Kwei Armah 
15. Tsoti by Athol Fugard 
16. Toads for Supper by Chukwuemeka Ike 
17. Ake: The Years of Childhood by Wole Soyinka 
18. The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky 
19. Summertime by J. M. Coetzee 
20. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner 
21. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner 
22. Light in August by William Faulkner 
23. Kim by Rudyard Kipling 
24. The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing 
25. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez 
26. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez 
27. Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann 
28. The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann 
29. The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood 
30. The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood 
31. Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon 
32. The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon 
33. Mason and Dixon by Thomas Pynchon 
34. Vineland by Thomas Pynchon 
35. Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace 
36. Poker by Wittgenstein 
37. Mistress by Wittgenstein 
38. Tractatus Logico Philosophicus by Wittgenstein 
39. Philosophical Investigations by Wittgenstein 
40. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison 
41. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert 
42. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes 
43. Moby-Dick by Hermes Melville 
44. Ulysses by James Joyce 
45. Carpenter's Gothic by William Gaddis 
46. A Frolic of His Own by William Gaddis 
47. Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maughan 
48. Money by Martin Amis 
49. London Fields by Martin Amis 
50. The Information by Martin Amis 
51. We Won't Budge by Manthia Diawara 
52. Songs of Enchantment by Ben Okri 
53. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro 

Books Read: Though good books are difficult to come by, through benevolent friends and fate, I was able to read some really interesting titles listed below:

1. Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe 
2. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe 
3. The Beautyful Ones are not yet born by Ayi Kwei Armah 
4. Nervous Condition by Tsitsi Dangaremba 
5. The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta 
6. Burgher's Daughter by Nadine Gordimer 
7. A Question of Power by Bessie Head 
8. The Cairo Trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz (I: Palace Walk; II: Palace of Desire; III: Sugar Street) 
9. Indaba, My Children by Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa 
10. Chaka by Thomas Mofolo 
11. A Grain of Wheat by Ngugi wa Thiongo'o 
12. The Famished Road by Ben Okri 
13. Season of Migration to the North by Salih El Tayyib 
14. Death and the King's Horsemen by Wole Soyinka 
15. The Palm-Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola 
16. The Healers by Ayi Kwei Armah 
17. They Say you are One of Us by Uwem Akpan 
18. Mine Boy by Peter Abrahams 
19. The Trial by Franz Kafka 
20. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky 
21. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky 
22. The Conservationist by Nadine Gordimer 
23. Life of Pi by Yann Martel 
24. Possession by A. S. Byatt 
25. Lord of the Flies by William Golding 
26. Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner 
27. Beloved by Toni Morrison 
28. A Bend in the River by V. S. Naipaul 
29. A House for Mr Biswas by V. S. Naipaul 
30. 1984 by George Orwell 
31. To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee 
32. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte 
33. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini 
34. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen 
35. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood 
36. White Teeth by Zadie Smith 
37. The Great Gatsby by Scott F. Fitzgerald 
38. Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre 
39. Theatre by Somerset Maughan 
40. Atonement by Ian McEwan 
41. On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan 
42. God Dies by the Nile by Nawal El Sadaawi 
43. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie 
44. Satanic Verses by Salman 
45. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy 
46. Infinite Riches by Ben Okiri

Even though the challenge is officially over, I will still look for some of the titles on the list to read; however, time has changed my taste and there are some books on this list I may not actively look for. I am happy that I undertook this challenge and sad that I could not make a deep dent into the list.

An Almost 100 Books to be Read in 5 Years

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:

1. Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe
2. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
3. Anowa by Ama Atta Aidoo 
4. The Beautyful Ones are not yet born by Ayi Kwei Armah
5. A Dry White Season by Andre Brink 
6. The Life and Times of Michael K by J.M. Coetzee 
7. Nervous Condition by Tsitsi Dangaremba
8. The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta
9. The Blood Knot by Athol Fugard 
10. Burgher's Daughter by Nadine Gordimer
11. A Question of Power by Bessie Head
12. Bones by Chenjerai Hove 
13. Living, Loving and Lying Awake at Night by Sindiwe Magona 
14. The Cairo Trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz (I: Palace Walk; II: Palace of Desire; III: Sugar Street) 
15. House of Hunger by Dambudzo Marechera 
16. Indaba, My Children by Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa
17. Chaka by Thomas Mofolo
18. A Grain of Wheat by Ngugi wa Thiongo'o
19. Labyrinths by Christopher Okigbo 
20. The Famished Road by Ben Okri
21. Song of Lawino by Okot P'Bitek 
22. Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadwai 
23. Season of Migration to the North by Salih El Tayyib
24. Third World Express by Mongane Serote 
25. Death and the King's Horsemen by Wole Soyinka
26. The Palm-Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola
27. Butterfly Burning by Yvonne Vera 

Other books by African writers:

1. Summertime by J.M. Coetzee 
2. The Healers by Ayi Kwei Armah
3. Osiris Rising by Ayi Kwei Armah 
4. They Say you are One of Us by Uwem Akpan
5. Tsoti by Athol Fugard 
6. Toads for Supper by Chukwuemeka Ike 
7. Mine Boy by Peter Abrahams
8. Ake: The Years of Childhood by Wole Soyinka 

The second set of books consist of acclaimed translations:

1. The Trial by Franz Kafka 
2. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
3. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
4. The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky 

The third category of books are selected Booker Winners

1. The Conservationist by Nadine Gordimer
2. Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee 
3. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
4. Possession by A.S. Byatt

The fourth set of books is by Nobel Laureates (some have been covered already). Books for this set were taken from different Top 100s such as Modern Library Top 100 Novels; Readers' List and Boards' List; Times Top 100 Novels etc.

1. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
2. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner 
3. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner 
4. Light in August by William Faulkner 
5. Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner
6. Beloved by Toni Morrison
7. Kim by Rudyard Kipling 
8. A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul
9. A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul
10. The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing 
11. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez 
12. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez 
13. Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann 
14. the Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann 

The fifth set of books is other Classics by non-Nobel Laureates:

1. 1984 by George Orwell
2. To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee
3. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
4. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
5. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
6. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
7. The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood 
8. The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood 
9. White Teeth by Zadie Smith

The sixth set of books is those that some readers say are difficult to read:

1. Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon 
2. The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon 
3. Mason and Dixon by Thomas Pynchon 
4. Vineland by Thomas Pynchon 
5. Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace 
6. Poker by Wittgenstein 
7. Mistress by Wittgenstein 
8. Tractatus Logico Philosophicus by Wittgenstein 
9. Philosophical Investigations by Wittgenstein 
10. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison 
11. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert 
12. The Great Gatsby by Scott F. Fitzgerald
13. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes 
14. Moby-Dick by Hermes Melville 
15. Ulysses by James Joyce 

____________________
This List is not up to 100. The categories add up to 82. Please add the remaining 18. Also if there are some mistakes please let me know. Note: Additions and Revisions have been done here

81. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

The Handmaid's Tale (402; 1985) is an imaginative dystopian about a fictional world; a place where all rhetorics about women's place in the world are realised. It is also a world that has been lived before. In this novel, Atwood relied on all that had been said and is being said about women and what they should and shouldn't do. In the fictional world of Gilead, the constitutional government of the United States had been overthrown; its place place taken by Gilead, a state based on the Christian teachings and its purpose for women.

In Gilead women are grouped into Wives, Marthas, Aunties, and Handmaids. Handmaids are reproductive 'machines' that keep the population of Gilead from declining. And children are the most prized assets of the day. Rich couples unable to bear their own children contract these handmaids to get pregnant for them. A Handmaid who's unable to get pregnant after several 'servicing' with Commanders are described as unwomen. These unwomen are sent to other parts of the colony.

Offred, the narrator of this story, was a handmaid. She tells of her life as a handmaid and what she went through. It was almost like diary entries, written not to be read by none so that most things are not described detailedly. The reader sometimes feel like the cover was half-closed instead of half-opened. If it were a pot, one would have stretched one's neck to take a full look into it; but this wasn't so. However, in Offred's (or Of Fred) tale, she contrast life in this utopian turned dystopian regime with her life in the earlier period where all things were working well and women had the opportunity to do whatever they wanted to do; where there were women's movement, of which her mother was one, which fought for the rights of women. Like every strictly managed society, there were saboteurs and those unwilling to fit in Gilead, individuals working to bring down the Theocratic state, which itself wasn't theocratic to the core. For though micro- and mini-clothings have been banned and uniforms have been prescribed, prostitution and drugs have all been superficially eliminated, there was a building within which all of these are done with abandon, by the very Commanders who instituted Gilead. Amongst such 'unwilling' individuals was Moira.

Offred's Commander seemed to have some love for past things as 'love' and 'scrabble'. In Gilead, love is not the key. Women function. Men function. Love is not something you fall in in Gilead. However, this primordial emotion awakened itself within Offred's Commander, and most of the commanders for that matter, and as told, unreliably though, by Offred, the commander began showing some levels of love to her during their secret scrabble games. Offred's narration could not be fully reliable as she herself sometimes say one thing only to tell us that it wasn't true, it didn't happen that way. But we can be sure that the glimpses she offered us, which were not reliable, were the watered down versions. The real deal were more macabre. 

Atwood dispassionately wrote this novel and it was difficult to see where she actually stands in this grand scheme. Does she incline towards the period before or the current period or a bit of both; for, in writing, she brought the good and the bad from each side. There were, superficially, no drugs, stealing or any form of blatant crime on the streets of Gilead. It was a peaceful place though the internally, within the people, there was chaos in the first generation of Gileads. Individuals missed the things they were, in the previous period, most likely to term immoral and also of things most likely to be ignored or glossed over. Like women magazines, like lipsticks, like prostitutes and more. However, even though naturally the puritanic ideology of Gilead failed, Atwood, nevertheless, showed how people conditioned themselves to live in such conditions. Later, in the historical notes, where the major impact of the story is felt, Gilead becomes just one of the many past civilisations: Mayans, Aztecs, Hittites and many others. 

Is this world the best it can possibly be? In Atwood's Handmaid's Tale where the issue was fully implemented, tweaking the current dispensation would lead to problems; just as capitalists don't want governments to interfere with business. Academicians studying Gilead, several years later, provided interesting analysis and it is there that story finally converges.

Though this novel is said to have been inspired by Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, and also set to have no mean a place beside Huxley's Brave New World and Orwell's 1984, I can only say that this novel is Atwood-esque. It had all the characteristics of the only Atwood I have read, Oryx and Crake. The time difference between the books was palpable but taking this out, we see Atwood projecting before us, the very things we have been experimenting and preaching. Whereas in Oryx and Crake it was the scientific world doing all these splicing of genes to create a better world - that novel inspired my poem Middle Sex - in The Handmaid's Tale, it is the religious world or specifically the Christian world. Again, these two books illuminates the age-old rivalry-cum-love affair between science and religion.

In the end I can only say that I enjoyed reading this book. It helped me a lot on my trips to different communities. Sometimes reading this imaginative world and entering a rural community where pastoral life is dominant is almost akin to landing on Mars blindfolded. An interesting book. All should read especially those who think they need to change the world to conform to a universalised law in a homogeneous world. And the changemakers. This is an Atwood and every Atwood is a must-read.
_______________
For the Top 100 Books Reading Challenge

Non-African Authored Reviews

For other categories, see Review

As the tagline of this blog suggests, I promote African Literature. However, I read non-African-authored books and this is a list of those I wrote about on this blogs arranged by title. Note that most of these aren't reviews but comments.

1. 1984 by George Orwell
2. A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul
3. A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul
4. Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner
5. Beloved by Toni Morrison
6. The Castle by Franz Kafka
7. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
8. Dayward by ZZ Packer
9. Dreams from my Father by Barack Obama
10. The Entire Northern Side was Covered with Fire by Rivka Galchen
11. Fela, This Bitch of a Life by Carlos Moore
12. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
13. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
14. Here We Aren't, So Quickly by Jonathan Safran Foer
15. Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
16. The Kid by Salvatore Scibona
17. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
18. Kwame Nkrumah: Vision and Tragedy by David Rooney
19. Lenny Hearts Eunice by Gary Shteyngart
20. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
21. The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
22. On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
23. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
24. The Pilot by Joshua Ferris
25. Possession by A. S. Byatt
26. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
27. Sand Daughter by Sarah Bryant
28. The Secret Destiny of America by Manly P. Hall
29. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
30. Sula by Toni Morrison
31. Theatre by W. Somerset Maugham
32. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
33. Twins by C.E. Morgan
34. Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre
35. What do You do Out There, When You're Alone by Philipp Meyer
36. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Reviews by Title

For other categories, see Review

This lists alphabetically books reviewed on ImageNations beginning with the title. If the title begins with 'the', the next word in title is used; unless the whole title of the book is THE, this I have not as yet met. This is not the case if the title begins with the indefinite article 'a'.

-1-

1984: George Orwell

-A-

A Bend in the River: V.S. Naipaul
A Farewell to Arms: Ernest Hemingway

A Grain of Wheat: Ngugi wa Thiong'o

A Heart to Mend: Myne Whitman
A House for Mr. Biswas: V.S. Naipaul 
A Life in Full: Jude Dibia
A Man of the People: Chinua Achebe
A Month and a Day & Letters: Ken Saro-Wiwa
A Question of Power: Bessie Head
A Sense of Savannah, Tales of a Friendly Walk through Northern Ghana: Kofi Akpabli
A Woman Alone: Bessie Head
Absalom, Absalom!: William Faulkner
Accra! Accra! More Poems about Modern Afrika: Papa Kobina Ulzen
Anthills of the Savannah: Chinua Achebe
African Agenda: Camynta Baezie
African Roar 2010: Ivor W. Hartmann and Emmanuel Sigauke (Editors)
African Roar 2011: Ivor W. Hartmann and Emmanuel Sigauke (Editors)
Almost Cured of Sadness: Vuyo Seripe
Amazulu: Walton Golightly
Amsterdam: Ian McEwan
Antifragile: Things that Gain from Disorder: Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Arrow of God: Chinua Achebe
The Art of War: Sun Tzu
As the Crow Flies: Veronique Tadjo
Atonement: Ian McEwan
Auto da Fe: Elias Canetti

-B-

The Beautyful Ones are not Yet Born: Ayi Kwei Armah 
Before I Forget: Andre Brink
Beloved: Toni Morrison
The Best American Short Stories: Lorrie Moore (editor)
The Best of Simple: Langston Hughes
Big Bishop Roko and the Altar Gangsters: Kojo Laing
Birds of Our Land: Virginia W. Dike
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable: Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Blindness: Jose Saramago
The Blinkards : Kobina Sekyi
Bloodlines: Veronica Henry (Editor)
The Bluest Eye: Toni Morrison
Bombay's Republic: Rotimi Babatunde
The Book Thief: Markus Zusak
The Book of Chameleons: Jose Eduardo Agualusa
The Book of Not: Tsitsi Dangarembga
Brave New World: Aldous Huxley
Breaking Silence - A Poetic Lifeline from Slavery to Love: James Robert Myers (Editor)
Burger's Daughter: Nadine Gordimer
Burning Grass: Cyprian Ekwensi
Butterfly Dreams: Beatrice Lamwaka

-C-
The Castle: Franz Kafka
The Catcher in the Rye: J.D. Salinger

Cat's Cradle: Kurt Vonnegut

Chaka: Thomas Mofolo
Changes: Ama Ata Aidoo
The Chattering Wagtails of Mikuyu Prison: Jack Mapanje
The Chicken Thief: Fiona Leonard
Cloth Girl: Marilyn Heward Mills
The Clothes of Nakedness: Benjamin Kwakye
The Conservationist: Nadine Gordimer

Contemporary African Short Stories: Chinua Achebe and C.L. Innes (Editors)
Crime and Punishment: Fyodor Dostoevsky
Cry, the Beloved Country: Alan Paton
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time: Mark Haddon
Cut off my Tongue: Sitawa Nawalie

-D-

The Dante Club: Matthew Pearl
The David Thuo Show: Samuel Munene
Dayward: ZZ Packer
Dead Aid - Why Aid Makes things Worse and How there is another Way for Africa: Dambisa Moyo
Death and the King's Horseman: Wole Soyinka
Death Comes from the Archbishop: Willa Cather
Definition of a Miracle: Farida N. Bedwei
Devil May Care: Sebastian Faulks
Dew in the Morning: Shimmer Chinodya
Diaries of a Dead African: Chuma Nwokolo, Jnr.
Dimples on the Sand: Henry Ajumeze
Diplomatic Pounds and Other Stories: Ama Ata Aidoo
Distant view of a Minaret: Alifa Rifaat
The Mistress's Dog: David Medalie
Dreams from my Father: Barack Obama
Duskland: J.M. Coetzee

-E-

The End of Skill: Mamle Kabu
The English Patient: Michael Ondaatje
Eno's Story: Ayodele Olofintuade
The Entire Northern Side was Covered with Fire: Rivka Galchen
Every Man is a Race: Mia Couto
Excursions in My Mind: Nana Awere Damoah

-F-

The Famished Road: Ben Okri
Fathers & Daughters - an Anthology of Exploration: Ato Quayson (Editor)
Fela, This Bitch of a Life: Carlos Moore
Faceless: Amma Darko
The Foundation Trilogy: Isaac Asimov

Fragments: Ayi Kwei Armah
Freedom Train: the Story of Harriet Tubman: Dorothy Sterling
Fury: Salman Rushdie

-G-

Gathering Seaweed: Africa Prison Writing: Jack Mapanje
The Ghost of Sani Abacha: Chuma Nwokolo
The Gods are not to Blame: Ola Rotimi

The God of Small Things: Arundhati Roy

The Godfather: Mario Puzo
The Government Inspector: Nikolai V. Gogol

The Great Gatsby: F. Scott Fitzgeral
Growing Yams in London: Sophia Acheampong

-H-

The Hairdresser of Harare: Tendai Huchu
Half of a Yellow Sun: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Handmaid's Tale: Margaret Atwood

Happy Ending: Stanley Onjezani Kenani

Harare North: Brian Chikwava

Harmattan Rain: Ayesha Harruna Attah
Harvest of Thorns: Shimmer Chinodya
The Healers: Ayi Kwei Armah
Here We Aren't, So Quickly: Jonathan Safran Foer,  
Hitting Budapest: NoViolet Bulawayo
Home: Toni Morrison
Houseboy: Ferdinand Oyono
How Shall we Kill the Bishop: Lily Mabura

How we Buried Puso: Morabo Morojele
How Kamau wa Mwangi Escaped into Exile: Mukoma wa Ngugi
Hunter Emmanuel: Constance Myburgh

-I-

I Write What I Like: Steve Biko
Icebergs: Alistair Morgan
If I'm So Successful, Why do I Feel like a Fake: the Impostor Phenomenon: Joan C. Harvey with Cynthia Katz
The Imported Ghanaian: Alba Kunadu Sumprim
In the Heart of the Country: J.M. Coetzee
In the Spirit of McPhineas Lata: Lauri Kubuitsile
Incidents at the Shrine: Ben Okri
Indigo: Molara Wood
Infinite Riches: Ben Okri
The Inheritance of Loss: Kiran Desai
Interventions - A Life in War and Peace: Kofi Annan
Invocations to the Dead: Gill Schierhout
IPods in Accra: Sophia Acheampong

-J-

The Joys of Motherhood: Buchi Emecheta
The Journey: Valerie Tagwira
Journey: G.A. Agambila
Jude the Obscure: Thomas Hardy
July's People: Nadine Gordimer

-K-

The Kid: Salvatore Scibona
The King and I: Novuyo Rosa Tshumba
The Kite Runner: Khaled Hosseini
Kwame Nkrumah: Vision and Tragedy: David Rooney

-L-

La Salle de Départ: Melissa Tandiwe Myambo
The Last Evenings on Earth: Roberto Bolano
Lenny Hearts Eunice: Gary Shteyngart
Life of Pi: Yann Martel
The Life of Worm: Ken Barris
The Lion and the Jewel: Wole Soyinka
Look Where You Have Gone to Sit: Martin Egblewogbe and Laban Carrick Hill (Editors)

Lord of the Flies: William Golding
Love on Trial: Stanley Onjezani Kenani
The Lump in her Throat: Aba Amissah Asibon

-M-

Madmen and Specialists: Wole Soyinka
Maru: Bessie Head
Matigari: Ngugi wa Thiong'o
Mema: Daniel Mengara
Midnight's Children: Salman Rushdie
Mine Boy: Peter Abrahams
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day: Winifred Watson
Mr. Happy and the Hammer of God: Martin Egblewogbe
Mr. Oliver: Mamle Kabu
Mrs. Dalloway: Virginia Woolf
Muzungu: Namwali Serpell
My First Coup D'etat - Memories from the Lost Decades of Africa: John Dramani Mahama

-N-

Neighbours: The Story of a Murder: Lilia Momple
Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism: Kwame Nkrumah
Nervous Conditions: Tsitsi Dangarembga
No Easy Walk to Freedom: Nelson Mandela
No Longer At Ease: Chinua Achebe
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency: Alexander McCall Smith
Northanger Abbey: Jane Austen

Not Without Flowers: Amma Darko

-O-

Oedipus Rex: Sophocles
On Chesil Beach: Ian McEwan
On the Road: Jack Kerouac 
Opening Spaces: An Anthology Contemporary African Women's Writing: Yvonne Vera (Editor)
Oryx and Crake: Margaret Atwood
Oscar and Lucinda: Peter Carey
The Other Crucifix: Benjamin Kwakye
Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis: Jimmy Carter
Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again: Ola Rotimi

-P-

Palace Walk: Naguib Mahfouz
The Palm-Wine Drinkard: Amos Tutuola
The Periodic Table: Primo Levi
The Pilot: Joshua Ferris
The Place We Call Home and Other Poems: Kofi Anyidoho
The Plantation: Ovo Adagha
Powder Necklace: Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond
Portrait of an Artist, as an Old Man: Joseph Heller
Possession: A.S. Byatt
Praying Mantis: Andre Brink
Pride and Prejudice: Jane Austen
Purple Hibiscus: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Purple Violet of Oshaantu: Neshani Andreas

-Q-

--

-R-

The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves: Matt Ridley
Reading Lolita in Tehran: Azar Nafisi
The Repudiation: Rashid Boudjedra
Return of the Water Spirit: Pepetela
The River Between: Ngugi wa Thiong'o

-S-

Sand Daughter: Sarah Bryant
Saturday: Ian McEwan
Say You're One of Them: Uwem Akpan
Searching: Nawal El Saadawi
Search Sweet Country: Kojo Laing
Season of Migration to the North: Tayeb Salih
The Secret Destiny of America: Manly P. Hall
Set Me Free: Clifford Chianga Oluoch
Shadows: Chenjerai Hove
The Shadow of Imana: Veronique Tadjo
Smouldering Charcoal: Tiyambe Zeleza
So Long a Letter: Mariama Bâ
Song of Solomon: Toni Morrison

Soulmates: Alex Smith
Soul Safari: Alnoor Amlani
Speeches that Changed the World: Emma Beare (Editor)
Stickfighting Days: Olufemi Terry
Sula: Toni Morrison

-T-

Tail of the Blue Bird: Nii Ayikwei Parkes
Theatre: Somerset W. Maugham
The Thing Around Your Neck: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Things Fall Apart: Chinua Achebe
Through the Gates of Thought: Nana Awere Damoah
Tickling the Ghanaian: Encounters with Contemporary Culture: Kofi Akpabli
Tropical Fish, Tales from Entebbe: Doreen Baingana
The Trouble with Nigeria: Chinua Achebe
To Kill a Mockingbird: Harper Lee
Traces of a Life: Collection of Elegies and Praise Poems: Abena P.A. Busia
Twins: C.E. Morgan

Two Thousand Seasons: Ayi Kwei Armah

-U-

Underground People: Lewis Nkosi
Unexpected Joy at Dawn: Alex Agyei-Agyiri
Unjumping: Beverley Nambozo Nsengiyunva
Urban Zoning: Billy Kahora

-V-
Vernon God Little: DBC Pierre
Voices Made Night: Mia Couto

-W-

Waiting: E.C. Osondu
War and Peace (Volume I, II, III & IV): Leo Tolstoy 
The Wasp and the Fig Tree: Brian Chikwava
Weep Not, Child: Ngugi wa Thiong'o
What do You do Out There, When You're Alone: Philipp Meyer
White Teeth: Zadie Smith
Wizard of the Crow: Ngugi wa Thiong'o
Women Leading Africa - Conversations with Inspirational African Women: by Nana Darkoa-Sekyiamah (Editor)
Writing Free: Irene Staunton (Editor)

Wuthering Heights: Emily Bronte

-X-

--

-Y-

You Must Set Forth at Dawn: Wole Soyinka
You Wreck Her: Parselelo Kantai

-Z-

--

Fiction

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)

1. Eno's Story by Ayodele Olofintuade

Single Stories:

1. Bombay's Republic by Rotimi Babatunde
2. Butterfly Dreams by Beatrice Lamwaka
3. Dayward by ZZ Packer
4. Icebergs by Alistair Morgan
5. In the Spirit of McPhineas Lata by Lauri Kubuitsile
6. The End of Skill by Mamle Kabu
7. The Entire Northern Side was Covered with Fire by Rivka Galchen
8. The Kid by Salvatore Scibona
9. Here We Aren't, So Quickly by Jonathan Safran Foer
10. Hitting Budapest by NoViolet Bulawayo
11. How Kamau wa Mwangi Escaped into Exile by Mukoma wa Ngugi
12. How Shall we Kill the Bishop by Lily Mabura
13. Hunter Emmanuel by Constance Myburgh
14. La Salle de Départ by Melissa Tandiwe Myambo
15. Lenny Hearts Eunice by Gary Shteyngart
16. Love on Trial by Stanley Onjezani Kenani
17. The Life of Worm by Ken Barris
18. The Lump in her Throat by Aba Amissah Asibon
19. The Mistress's Dog by David Medalie
20. Muzungu by Namwali Serpell
21. The Pilot by Joshua Ferris
22. Soulmates by Alex Smith
23. Stickfighting Days by Olufemi Terry
24. Twins by C.E. Morgan
25. Urban Zoning by Billy Kahora
26. The Wasp and the Fig Tree by Brian Chikwava
27. Waiting by E.C. Osondu
28. What do you do out there, When you are alone by Philipp Meyer
29. You Wreck Her by Parselelo Kantai

Plays:

1. The Blinkards by Kobina Sekyi
2. Death and the King's Horseman by Wole Soyinka
3. The Gods are not to Blame by Ola Rotimi
4. The Government Inspector by Nikolai V.  Gogol
5. The Lion and the Jewel by Wole Soyinka
6. Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
7. Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again by Ola Rotimi
8. Madmen and Specialists by Wole Soyinka

Short Story (& Essay) Anthologies:

1. A Life in Full and Other Stories: The Caine Prize for African Writing 2010 Anthology:
1. The Plantation by Ovo Adagha
2. A Life in Full by Jude Dibia
3. Mr. Oliver by Mamle Kabu
4. Happy Ending by Stanley Onjezani Kenani
5. Soul Safari by Alnoor Amlani
6. The David Thuo Show by Samuel Munene
7. Set me Free by Clifford Chianga Oluoch
8. Invocations to the Dead by Gill Schierhout
9. Almost Cured of Sadness by Vuyo Seripe
10. The Journey by Valerie Tagwira
11. The King and I by Novuyo Rosa Tshumba
12. Indigo by Molara Wood
2. African Roar 2010 by Ivor W. Hartmann and Emmanuel Sigauke (Editors)
3. African Roar 2011 by  Ivor W. Hartmann and Emmanuel Sigauke (Editors)
4. The Best American Short Story 2004 by Lorrie Moore (Editor)
5. Best of Simple by Langston Hughes
6. Bloodlines by Veronica Henry (Editor)
7. Contemporary African Short Stories: Chinua Achebe and C.L. Innes (Editors)
8. Distant view of a Minaret by Alifa Rifaat
9. Every Man is a Race by Mia Couto
10. Fathers & Daughters - an Anthology of Exploration by Ato  Quayson (Editor)*
11. The Ghost of Sani Abacha by Chuma Nwokolo
12. Incidents at the Shrine by Ben Okri
13. The Last Evenings on Earth by Roberto Bolano
14. Mr. Happy and the Hammer of God by Martin Egblewogbe
15. Opening Spaces: An Anthology Contemporary African Women's Writing by Yvonne Vera (Editor)
16. Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan
17. The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
18. Tropical Fish, Tales from Entebbe by Doreen Baingana
19. Voices Made Night by Mia Couto
20. Writing Free by Irene Staunton (Editor)

___________________

*Includes Essays on the subject

Novella (Up to 150 Pages)

1. As the Crow Flies by Veronique Tadjo
2. Burning Grass by Cyprian Ekwensi
3. Duskland by J.M. Coetzee
4. Houseboy by Ferdinand Oyono
5. Maru by Bessie Head
6. Mema by Daniel Mengara
7. Neighbours: The Story of a Murder by Lilia Momple
8. The Palm-Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola
9. Return of the Water Spirit by Pepetela
10. Searching by Nawal El Saadawi
11. Shadows by Chenjerai Hove
12. So Long a Letter by Mariama Bâ
13. Weep Not, Child by Ngugi wa Thiong'o

Novels (>150 Pages):

1. 1984 by George Orwell
2. A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul
3. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
4. A Grain of Wheat by Ngugi wa Thiong'o
5. A Heart to Mend by Myne Whitman
6. A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul
7. A Man of the People by Chinua Achebe
8. A Question of Power by Bessie Head
9. Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner
10. African Agenda by Camynta Baezie
11. AmaZulu by Walton Golightly
12. Amsterdam by Ian McEwan
13. Anthills of the Savannah by Chinua Achebe
14. Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe
15. Atonement by Ian McEwan
16. Auto da Fe by Elias  Canetti
17. The Beautyful Ones are not Yet Born by Ayi Kwei Armah
18. Blindness by Jose Saramago
19. Before I Forget by Andre Brink
20. Beloved by Toni Morrison
21. Big Bishop Roko and the Altar Gangsters by Kojo Laing
22. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
23. The Book of Chameleons by Jose Eduardo Agualusa
24. The Book of Not by Tsitsi Dangarembga
25. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
26. Burger's Daughter by Nadine Gordimer
27. The Castle by Franz Kafka
28. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
29. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
30. Chaka by Thomas Mofolo
31. Changes by  Ama Ata Aidoo
32. The Chicken Teeth by Fiona Leonard
33. Cloth Girl by Marilyn Heward Mills
34. The Clothes of Nakedness by Benjamin Kwakye
35. The Conservationist by Nadine Gordimer
36. The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
37. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky 
38. Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
39. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
40. The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl
41. Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
42. Definition of a Miracle by Farida N. Bedwei 
43. Devil May Care by Sebastian Faulks
44. Dew in the Morning by Shimmer Chinodya
45. Diaries of a Dead African by Chuma Nwokolo Jnr.
46. Diplomatic Pounds and Other Stories by Ama Ata Aidoo
47. The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
48. Faceless by Amma Darko
49. The Famished Road by Ben Okri
50. The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov
51. Fragments by Ayi Kwei Armah
52. Fury by Salman Rushdie
53. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
54. The Godfather by Mario Puzo
55. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
56. The Hairdresser of Harare by Tendai Huchu
57. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
58. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
59. Harare North by Brian Chikwava
60. Harmattan Rain by Ayesha Harruna Attah
61. Harvest of Thorns by Shimmer Chiondya
62. The Healers by Ayi Kwei Armah
63. Home by Toni Morrison
64. How we Buried Puso by Morabo Morojele
65. The Imported Ghanaian by Alba Kunadu Sumprim
66. In the Heart of the Country by J.M. Coetzee
67. Infinite Riches by Ben Okri
68. The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
69. IPods in Accra by Sophia Acheampong
70. Journey by G.A. Agambila
71. The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta
72. Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
73. July's People by Nadine Gordimer
74. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
75. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
76. The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
77. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
78. Matigari by Ngugi wa Thiong'o
79. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
80. Mine Boy by Peter Abrahams
81. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson
82. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
83. Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga
84. No Longer At Ease by Chinua Achebe
85. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
86. Not Without Flowers by Amma Darko
87. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
88. On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
89. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
90. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
91. Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey
92. The Other Crucifix by Benjamin Kwakye
93. Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz
94. Portrait fo an Artist, as an Old Man by Joseph Heller
95. Possession by A. S. Byatt
96. Powder Necklace by Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond
97. Praying Mantis by Andre Brink
98. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
99. Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
100. The Purple Violet of Oshaantu by Neshani Andreas
101. The Repudiation by Rashid Boudjedra
102. The River Between by Ngugi wa Thiong'o
103. Sand Daughter by Sarah Bryant
104. Saturday by Ian McEwan
105. Search Sweet Country by Kojo Laing
106. Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih
107. Smouldering Charcoal by Tiyambe Zeleza
108. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
109. Sula by Toni Morrison
110. Tail of the Blue Bird by Nii Ayikwei Parkes
111. Theatre by W. Somerset Maugham
112. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
113. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
114. Two Thousand Seasons by Ayi Kwei Armah
115. Underground People by Lewis Nksoi
116. Unexpected Joy at Dawn by Alex Agyei-Agyiri
117. Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre
118. War and Peace (Volume I, II, III & IV) by Leo Tolstoy
119. White Teeth by Zadie Smith
120. Wizard of the Crow by Ngugi wa Thiong'o
121. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte