I just… I… I don’t even know where to begin with this review. This book is a-mazing. It’s heartbreaking and heartwarming all at the same time, and should be required reading for everyone. The story starts on the Gold Coast of Africa (Ghana), with the parallel tales of two half-sisters who never know each other – one is married off to a white slave trader, and one is captured and sold as a slave. Each chapter alternates between the next generations of each woman’s […]
A top pick for 2017…and it’s only January!
One of my top five! And it’s only January! This book is soooooo good, you guys. It’s eye opening and tragic and heartwarming and epic and so many other things. Yaa Gyasi (last name sounds like “Jesse”) is a Stanford graduate, born in Ghana and raised in America. On a visit to Ghana, while researching her book, she saw the Cape Coast Castle. This is one of many forts in Africa used by European traders. It is also the genesis of Gyasi’s fictional story, which […]
Seriously good historical fiction that all y’all should read.
“You want to know what weakness is? Weakness is treating someone as though they belong to you. Strength is knowing that everyone belongs to themselves.” So everybody has been saying this is really good, and now after reading it, I can confirm that is indeed really good. You know, in case my star rating didn’t already do that for you and you need the actual words. THIS BOOK IS REALLY GOOD. There. It’s in all caps now, and everybody knows that all caps on the […]
Impressive and ambitious
“How could he explain to Marjorie that what he wanted to capture with his project was the feeling of time, of having been a part of something that stretched so far back, was so impossibly large, that it was easy to forget that she, and he, and everyone else, existed in it–not apart from it, but inside of it.” Homegoing (2016) is a far-reaching and impressive first novel by Yaa Gyasi. The book begins in the late 1700’s on the coast of Western Africa with two […]
A contender for Best Book of 2016
I had heard early acclaim for Yaa Gyasi’s debute novel, Homegoing, but it wasn’t until ElCicco’s rave review that I first thought, “I must read this.” I come and go on long family sagas, but Gyasi has forever changed the game, in my opinion. This is a must-read book, and I cannot quite say enough about it. Definitely in the running for Best Book of 2016. I develop this argument for Best Book 2016 in my full review. Also: if you don’t think you like […]
Recommended Reading
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 […]
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