I think a lot of the books I choose to read I choose because they look important and/or like they’re going to be good for me and/or because I ought to. Books by Doris Lessing and Gloria Steinem come to mind by way of example of this. And I usually end up enjoying these books and feeling glad that I read them. Still, they might not be the kind of books that I would recommend to everybody I know. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi is a […]
Big skies, big animals, big threats
By the time I started reading Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, I had forgotten what it was about, and I’m glad I had because otherwise, I would have had my defensives up. I added it to my library queue after reading badkittyuno’s review last month. Cannonball Read: the system works. There’s not much I can add here. badkittyuno did a killer job summarizing the experience of the read, and the broad strokes of the story that Alexander Fuller tells. It’s a memoir of […]
Beasts of no nation
This book broke my heart. I literally had to stop reading at certain parts for days in order not to wallow in despair. Written by a former child soldier in Sierra Leone, in an attempt to reproduce the cadences and rhythm of his native tongue Mende, he here tells the story of the village Imperi which was destroyed in a surprise rebel attack and was sequentially abandoned. Slowly, after years of neglect the villagers return, first the elders, who take it upon themselves to clear […]
Ms. Adichi Has a Dream
Gender matters everywhere in the world. And I would like today to ask that we begin to dream about and plan for a different world. A fairer world. A world of happier men and women who are truer to themselves. I am a mostly passive feminist. I am definitely a feminist. I believe women have the right to equal rights and equal opportunities. I believe people should be able to be the people they are and not have to fit within prescribed cultural gender roles. […]
Scandal Magnet, Pioneering Aviatrix, and Maverick – Beryl Markham
A beryl is a precious stone. It is rough until cut and polished when its beauty turns it into an aquamarine, or an emerald or the flawless golden heliodor. A beryl is rare and coveted. Beryl Markham was a wild thing created by Africa. She walked like a leopard and lived life with no boundaries. She was a maverick. A pioneer. Which during the early part of the twentieth century was a rare and golden thing. The wikipedia entry on her is dry and lifeless but the historical fiction, […]
This is not actually a book about birds.
Well this was a surprisingly delightful little book. Mr. Malik is a “short, round, balding brown man”–a sixty-something widower with a comb-over. After his wife’s death, on his doctor’s advice, he picked up a hobby: birds. Every Tuesday morning, he joins the East African Ornithological Society bird walk, led by Rose Mbikwa, Scottish widow of a Nairobi politician. Mr. Malik most definitely has a (quiet) crush on Ms. Mbikwa. One Tuesday, the showy and good-looking Harry Khan, Mr. Malik’s former classmate, shows up at the bird walk. […]
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