everydayxangels Posted February 1, 2009 Share Posted February 1, 2009 (edited) June 23. Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Diaz 22. First Love - Ivan Turgenev 21. Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys May 20. Light Fell - Fallenberg 19. Davita's Harp - Chaim Potok 18. Love Invents us - Amy Bloom 17. How I Learned to Snap - Mark Read April 16. The Joys of Motherhood - Emechetta 15. The Vast Fields of Ordinary - Burd 14. The Thing Around Your Neck - Adichi 13. A Leap - Enquist March 12. River Between - Thiong'o 11. Persepolis II - Satrapi 10. Persepolis - Satrapi 9. The Seasons of Beento Blackbird - Busia February 8. Ancestor Stones by Aminatta Forna 7. Balzac & the Little Chinese Seamstress - Sijie 6. Butterfly Burning - Yvonne Vera January 5. The Samurai's Garden - Tsukiyama 4. The Bluest Eye - Morrison 3. Zami - Audre Lorde 2. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan - See 1. The Belly of the Atlantic - Fatou Diome reading now: -- Edited June 29, 2009 by everydayxangels Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
everydayxangels Posted February 1, 2009 Author Share Posted February 1, 2009 (edited) Red = Read Purple = Added 2666 - Bolano Abyssinian Chronicles - Isegawa Across The Lakes - Amal Chatterjee Alentejo Blue - Monica Ali The Aleph and Other Stories - Borges Ambiguous Adventure - Kane Ancestor stones - Forna The Anchor book of modern Arabic fiction - Johnson-Davies Animal's People - Sinha Beyond The Curve - Kobo Abe The Black Unicorn - Lorde This Blinding Absence of Light - Jelloun The Bone People - Hulme The Book of Salt - Monique Truong Borderlands - Anzaldua Breath - Winton The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Diaz Burst of Light - Lorde Butterfly Burning - Yvonne Vera By The Sea - Gurnah Caspian Rain - Nahai Chamber Music - Doris Grumbach Changes - Aidoo Circle of Karma - Kunzang Choden The Circle of Reason - Ghosh The Conference of Birds - Farid al-Din Attar Death of Vishnu - Suri The Descendants - Kaui Hart Hemmings Desert Flower - Dirie Desertion - Abdulrazak Gurnah The Dew Breaker - Danticat Diving Pool - Ogawa Dogside Story - Patricia Graces Don Juan in the Village - Jane DeLynn Drown - Diaz Enchantress of Florence - Rushdie Everything Under the Sky - Asensi Everything Good Will Come - Atta The Foreigner - Lin Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon - Amado Gates of the Sun - Khoury Getting Rid of It - Collen The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins The God in Flight - Argiri God's Bits of Wood - Ousmane Graceland - Chris Abani A Grain of Wheat - Thiong'o The Grass Is Singing - Lessing The Gravity of Sunlight - Shand A Guide to the Birds of East Africa - Drayson Gut Symmetries - Winterson The Hakawati - Rabin Alameddine Half of a Yellow Sun - Adichie Harmony Silk Factory - Tash Aw The Hero's Walk - Anita Rau Badami Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits - Lalami The House of Paper - Dominquez The Hungry Tide - Amitav Ghosh The Icarus Girl - Oyeyemi The Inbetween World of Vikram lall - Vassanji Infidel - Ali The Inheritance of Loss - Desai In The Country of Men - Matar In The Eye of the Sun - Ahdaf Soueif In The Time of Butterflies - Alvarez Invisible Cities - Italo Calvino Jellicoe Road - Melina Marchetta The Joys of Motherhood - Buchi Emecheta (*) The Last Chapter - Leila Abouzeid The last flight of the flamingo - Couto The Last Summer of Reason - Tahar Djaou Let It Come Down - Bowles Letter to a Christian Nation - Harris Little Boys Come from the Stars - Dongala Like Nowhere Else - Denyse Woods The Lost Dog - Michelle De Kretser Loving In The War Years - Moraga The Match - Gunesekera Measuring Time - Habila Mema - Mengara Minaret - Leila Aboulela A Mind of Her Own - Anne Campbell Mosquito - Roma Tearne My Name Is Red - Pamuk Nervous Conditions - Tsitsi Dangarembga Of Water and the Spirit by Amidoma Patrice Some Onitsha - Le Clezio Oranges Are Not Only Fruit - Jeanette Winterson Out Stealing Horses - Petterson Painter of Shanghai - Jennifer Epstein People I Wanted To Be - Ochsner Point of Return - Siddhartha Deb Portrait of Sepia - Allende Purple Hibiscus - Adichie A Question of Power - Bessie Head Red Poppies - Alai Redundancy of Courage - Timothy Mo Reef - Gunesekera Saffron Kitchen - Crowther Sea of Poppies - Ghosh Seasons of Migration to the North - Tayeb Salih Second-class Citizen - Buchi Emecheta Segu - Maryse Conde She Plays With The Darkness - Zakes Mda The Sheltering Sky - Bowles Sister Outsider - Audre Lorde Sky Burial - Xinran Sleepwalking Land - Mia Couto Stone Virgins - Yvonne Vera A Story Like the Wind - Laurens van der Post A Sunday at the Pool in the Kigali - Couremanche Sweet Dreams - Daniel C. Dennett Tales of Murasaki - Liza Dably This Blinding Absence of Light - Jelloun This Bridge Called My Back - Cherrie Moraga A Thousand Years of Good Prayers - Yiyun Li Two Women - Marianne Fredriksson Under African Skies - Charles Larson The Underpainter - Urquhart Under the Frangipani - Mia Cuota The Viceroy of Ouidah by Bruce Chatwin Waiting for Snow in Havana - Eire Walk The Blue Fields - Keegan War by Candlelight - Daniel Alarcon Wasted Vigil - Aslam The Whale Caller - Zakes Mda The White Tiger - Adiga What the Body Remembers - Baldwin Whiteman - D'Souza Wide Sargasso Sea - Rhys Wolf Totem - Jiang Rong Women at Point Zero - Saadawi (*) Women of the Left Bank - Benstock The Yacoubian Building - Aswany Starting Count: 111 I always find it interesting to see what books I had intentions of reading at the beginning of the year and which ones I actually end up reading. My reading habits change faster than I can read the books. Edited July 8, 2009 by everydayxangels Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
everydayxangels Posted February 1, 2009 Author Share Posted February 1, 2009 (edited) January Books The Belly of the Atlantic- Fatou Diome I participate in the Global Challenge, and at the moment Africa has my attention, and this book takes place in Senegal. I had read another Senegalese book (So Long A Letter) and didn't think that highly of it, but this book was just incredible. The stories and folklore that surround this island community are beatific and very imaginative. I am enamored with Fatou and her writing. Zami - Audre Lorde I read a lot of LGBT books and this autobiography of a major gay rights pioneer dazzled me. I find it fascinating to see peoples roots and find where they got their strength. I will be reading much more by Audre. The Bluest Eye - Morisson Everyone has raved about Morisson and all of her books, I didn't know which to read first. This was a great choice. I braced myself for the sadness and the abrasiveness of the subject matter - and loved it. A necessary read. The Samurai's Garden - Tsukiyama I am always one for subtleties in fiction, I find them to have much more value to me. And this was one that fell right into that. A man recovers from tuberculosis on the seaside of Japan and finds incredible peace, friendships, a lover and heartache, all of it beautiful. Edited March 31, 2009 by everydayxangels Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
everydayxangels Posted March 8, 2009 Author Share Posted March 8, 2009 (edited) My February Books: Butterfly Burning by Yvonne Vera This slim read that packs a punch takes place in Zimbabwe. It was incredibly dense and literary, but incredibly beautiful and lyrical. Fumbatha, a construction worker meets the heroine, Phephelaphi and wishes her to be his and "wants her like the land beneath his feet." Phephali is not satisfied with the cage he provides her and her desire for freedom and exploration ends their relationship. It was so beautiful and provided immense insight to Zimbabwe, Vera oftentimes plugging her beliefs into the plot. However, it was so dense hat I am going to have to re-read it simply to comprehend it fully. Balzac & the Little Chinese Seamstress - Sijie It takes place in China. A pleasant read about censorship and "re-education" during the Chinese cultural revolution. Two city youths are sent to the rural hill of china to be re-educated by the peasants. In the surrounding town, they form a reserved friendship with Four-Eyes, whose mysterious suitcase catches the attention of the nameless narrator. The uncover the suitcase to discover a case full of banned western novels. The two boys devour the works and in time change their own circumstances. This book highlights the irony of the re-education that was done and presents insight into present / western censorship. Ancestor Stones by Aminatta Forna I can compare it to The Red Tent for Sierra Leone. Abbie, living in present day London, is called back to her home country Sierra Leone by guilt. Four of her 11 aunts, who all shared the same husband tell the stories of their lives. A very interesting look at the globalization / colonization. It spanned from 1920's to the 1990's told through stories by the aunts. The Igbo faith, the coming of "the white man" and with him their Muslim faith (different from the Christian faith) and modernization. I thought it most interesting that although women were still incredibly oppressed, some still were able to leave their husbands if their circumstances became unbearable. A little unknown fact, Sierra Leone created the self-adhesive stamp. -- I am currently reading The Seasons of Beento Blackbird, which takes place in Ghana, Jamaica and NYC which is quite fast paced and enjoyable. Edited March 11, 2009 by everydayxangels Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
everydayxangels Posted March 31, 2009 Author Share Posted March 31, 2009 MARCH books The Seasons of Beento Blackbird By Akosua Busia A children's author, Solomon loves his women and loves love. One of his wives lives on a lush island in the Carribbean. She is an easy-going and sensitive soul, a very likable character though very little is said of her. His other, younger and shy wife lives in Ghana. He also has a potential love interest, his agent/publicist in America. The women are the seasons of Solomon. The writing was beautiful at times with the scenic depiction and the description of the culture, but the dialogue was painfully improbable at times. Personally, I think she could have done without Solomon's girlfriend/publicist in America. Though his trips to America were very interesting, with the racism that he experiences, I just don't think it was entirely necessary. Complete Persepolis Marjane Satrapi I was at first apprehensive about reading a graphic novel, but as it was for school, I saw very little choice. I loved it whole very much. Very interesting looking at the revolution through a child's eyes and in the end I was very thankful for the sketches. The writing as well as the pictures were incredibly witty and humorous. The little girls running about with the veils, making them out to be toys. Highly recommended. The River Between by Ngugi wa Thiong'o (quite a mouthful) I had read Achebe's depiction of colonization and then the most toxic aspect was the religion, that was the case for this novel as well, except in Kenya. The daughter of a Christian fanatic wishes to be circumcised, which is frowned vehemently upon by her fathers new-found religion. She decides to disobey the person she fears most and runs away to be circumcised and live with her aunt. The young woman dies from being circumcised, which people believe to be their ancestors/gods frowning upon the new religion. Where people used to be grey about their faith, the legend of the daughter is now the catalyst for the war between Christianity and the indigenous faith. I thoroughly enjoyed book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
everydayxangels Posted May 2, 2009 Author Share Posted May 2, 2009 APRIL BOOKS A Leap by Anna Enquist A really beautiful collection of short drama monologues. The first one is my favorite, a story of Alma who is a talented musician is given the ultimatum: her lover or her music / herself. She chooses her lover and starts her life as "her husbands wife" then "her child's mother" and after introspection she begins to doubt her decision. However, at the end she is given another chance to choose and her decision is heart-breaking. I strongly recommend this. The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Adichie (released June 16th) I enjoyed this short story collection almost as much as Half of a Yellow Sun. In most of the stories, it's about Nigerian-Americans, each told with a fresh perspective and about a different subject-matter. Adichie writes beautifully and certainly doesn't disappoint with her latest. Vast Fields of Orindary By Nick Burd A very touching coming of age YA novel about a miserable closeted gay boy in suburban America. Dade is in a purely physical relationship with the most popular boy at school, who won't acknowledge his existence in public. It's the summer before Dade leaves for college and he meets two people that will be pivotal in his life. Nothing extremely remarkable, but enjoyable. The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta Set in Nigeria, Nnu Ego, the daughter of a fiercely independent woman and a powerful man, makes the transition of a rural family-oriented society to an urban "white" city. She deals with the vast heart-breaking differences between the two cultures. Her husband now serves a white woman younger than he, who refers to him as "boy" and she endures the loss of her first-born. I thought it very well written and a beautiful piece of work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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