What you reading now?

[Xavier]

I read a lot of blogs...Reading this for men's bible study

[CeaBee]

Got this free yesterday



The Garcías—Dr. Carlos (Papi), his wife Laura (Mami), and their four daughters, Carla, Sandra, Yolanda, and Sofía—belong to the uppermost echelon of Spanish Caribbean society, descended from the conquistadores. Their family compound adjoins the palacio of the dictator’s daughter. So when Dr. García’s part in a coup attempt is discovered, the family must flee.

They arrive in New York City in 1960 to a life far removed from their existence in the Dominican Republic. Papi has to find new patients in the Bronx. Mami, far from the compound and the family retainers, must find herself. Meanwhile, the girls try to lose themselves—by forgetting their Spanish, by straightening their hair and wearing fringed bell bottoms. For them, it is at once liberating and excruciating being caught between the old world and the new, trying to live up to their father’s version of honor while accommodating the expectations of their American boyfriends. Acclaimed writer Julia Alvarez’s brilliant and buoyant first novel sets the García girls free to tell their most intimate stories about how they came to be at home—and not at home—in America.

[kia027]

Listening while driving


and reading



Just finished reading a book about the owner of a bookstore in Harlem that specialized in books by and about african peoples

[CeaBee]

and this one.

"India wasted no time with me," Vik confides on page one, and the story takes off. Vik's predicament is uniquely compelling: he is an Indian-American teenager who spent most of his childhood in Wisconsin, USA, and now must move to India for college. The story recalls other great depictions of the immigrant experience--as I read, the work of Jhumpa Lahiri and Junot Diaz came to mind--yet THE LEAVING OF THINGS cleverly turns this familiar story on its head. The book asks, What is it like to be an "other" in the Old World? How does it feel to move from the land of McDonald's and Madonna to that of khari puri and Bollywood?

Throughout the novel, writer Jay Antani explores complex questions of racial, cultural, and national identity with thoughtfulness and grace. As Americans, we may be accustomed to visiting other countries as tourists, viewing foreign cultures and customs through the lens of orientalist exoticism or simple curiosity. And other works of literature have shown us India as experienced by its natives. In THE LEAVING OF THINGS, however, we see India through the eyes of an American kid who is neither a tourist nor a local, an Indian kid who should belong but doesn't. An Indian who is not Indian, an American who is not American, Vik struggles to find his place in this strange and fluid universe, and the stakes are high.

[evanovitch]

Americanah

About Americanah

A powerful, tender story of race and identity by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the award-winning author of Half of a Yellow Sun.
Ifemelu and Obinze are young and in love when they depart military-ruled Nigeria for the West. Beautiful, self-assured Ifemelu heads for America, where despite her academic success, she is forced to grapple with what it means to be black for the first time. Quiet, thoughtful Obinze had hoped to join her, but with post-9/11 America closed to him, he instead plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London. Fifteen years later, they reunite in a newly democratic Nigeria, and reignite their passion—for each other and for their homeland.
Awards

● Winner of the 2013 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction
● One of The New York Times’s Ten Best Books of the Year
● Winner of the The Chicago Tribune 2013 Heartland Prize for Fiction
● An NPR “Great Reads” Book, a Washington Post Notable Book, a Seattle
Times Best Book, an Entertainment Weekly Top Fiction Book, a Newsday Top 10 Book, and a Goodreads Best of the Year pick.

[evanovitch]

Excerpt: Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie




http://newbooksnigeria.wordpress.com...ngozi-adichie/.Finally, Aisha finished with her customer and asked what colour Ifemelu wanted for her hair attachments.“Colour four.”“Not good colour,” Aisha said promptly.“That’s what I use.”“It look dirty. You don’t want colour one?”“Colour one is too black, it looks fake,” Ifemelu said, loosening her headwrap. “Sometimes I use colour two, but colour four is closest to my natural colour.”Aisha shrugged, a haughty shrug, as though it was not her problem if her customer did not have good taste. She reached into a cupboard, brought out two packets of attachments, checked to make sure theywere both the same colour.She touched Ifemelu’s hair. “Why you don’t have relaxer?”“I like my hair the way God made it.”“But how you comb it? Hard to comb,” Aisha said.Ifemelu had brought her own comb. She gently combed her hair, dense, soft and tightly coiled, until it framed her head like a halo. “It’s not hard to comb if you moisturize it properly,” she said, slipping into the coaxing tone of the proselytizer that she used whenever she was trying to convince other black women about the merits of wearing their hair natural. Aisha snorted; she clearly could not understand why anybody would choose to suffer through combing natural hair, instead of simply relaxing it. She sectioned out Ifemelu’s hair, plucked a little attachment from the pile on the table and began deftly to twist.“It’s too tight,” Ifemelu said. “Don’t make it tight.” Because Aisha kept twisting to the end, Ifemelu thought that perhaps she had not understood, and so Ifemelu touched the offending braid and said,
“Tight, tight.”Aisha pushed her hand away. “No. No. Leave it. It good.”“It’s tight!” Ifemelu said. “Please loosen it.”Mariama was watching them. A flow of French came from her. Aisha loosened the braid.“Sorry,” Mariama said. “She doesn’t understand very well.”But Ifemelu could see, from Aisha’s face, that she understood very well. Aisha was simply a true market woman, immune to the cosmetic niceties of American customer service. Ifemelu imagined her working in a market in Dakar, like the braiders in Lagos who would blow their noses and wipe their hands on their wrappers, roughly jerk their customers’ heads to position them better, complain about how full or how hard or how short the hair was, shout out to passing women, while all the time conversing too loudly and braiding too tightly.[End of Excerpt]

[CeaBee]

Yes I read Americanah, it was just "okay" for me. It was one of those novels that i was glad that I borrowed from the library. I prefer her first? novel Half of a Yellow Sun.

[seemiyah]

I bring this back up top fi show off! Yes mi nuh have no shame
So I just got back from 3 glorious weeks in JA and I manage to read 8, EIGHT, OCHO, books during that time mi eye dem tyad.... anyway here they are:

1. The Other Side of Paradise - Stacy Ann Chin
2. The Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfield
3. Son - Lois Lowry
4. Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman
5. The Ocean at the end of the Lane - Neil Gaiman
6. The Good Women of China, Hidden voices - Xinran
7. What Alice Forgot - Liane Moriarty
8. An Untamed State - Roxane Gay

Rhaatid mi forget a book, a 9 mi read!!!

9. The Golem and the Jinni - Helene Wecker

[CeaBee]

You suppose fi give book review, not just list them out

[seemiyah]

Alright this is out of 5 stars

1. The Other Side of Paradise - Stacy Ann Chin - 3 Stars really enjoyed the first 3/4 of the book then fell down in the end (You will see this is a common theme in my assessment)
2. The Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfield - 3.5 Stars Good set up to the "mystery" found it compelling but once again somewhat disappointed with the reveal at the end
3. Son - Lois Lowry - 2 Stars Loved her book the Giver, this is a direct sequel, started out good then you know what happened....the last half was crap!
4. Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman - 3 Stars - Funny story about Anansi as a man/god and his kids...will be turned into a BBC miniseries - Last 1/4 turned too strange for me but still an enjoyable read
5. The Ocean at the end of the Lane - Neil Gaiman - 4 Stars! Enjoyed it, felt the fear along with the poor child
6. The Good Women of China, Hidden voices - Xinran - 3 Stars - a depressing book that made me glad I born where and when I born, but still very enlightening, I do recommentd.
7. What Alice Forgot - Liane Moriarty - 3.5 Stars - love the easy style of her work and the situations that make you think about your life and moral delimmas. Liked her other books better The Husband Secret and Big Little Lies
8. An Untamed State - Roxane Gay - 3 stars - Lord have mercy this was a hard book because it was so graphic and my stomach couldn't take the torture scenes! It was about a woman from a rich Hatian family being kidnapped while on vacation there.
9. The Golem and the Jinni - 4 Stars! Different interesting story, an allegory on the immigrant experience to a certain extent, enjoyed it

Happy now?

[CeaBee]

nuh muss! thank you ma'am

[CeaBee]

i download a sample of the Anansi one.

[Peasie]

Alright this is out of 5 stars

1. The Ocean at the end of the Lane - Neil Gaiman - 4 Stars! Enjoyed it, felt the fear along with the poor child
2. The Golem and the Jinni - 4 Stars! Different interesting story, an allegory on the immigrant experience to a certain extent, enjoyed it

Happy now?

These look interesting.

how are your parents?

[seemiyah]

CB - let me know what you think of the Anansi one. I got it from the library.

PZ - Yes those books were good, go read dem. The parents are good, my mother keep talking about ChickV pain but out in the yard for hours and hours so not a thing wrong with her. Pops had a birthday while I was there so that was nice we got to celebrate.

[Wahalla]

....I just read the Hunger Games Trilogy... and was impressed with it... it is allegorical narrative of slavery... from self loahting, trans generational oprression, romaneque poltics... Panem et Circuset....


I was recommended three books by vice President of Finance (M/A) of a european equavalent of a exxon type energy company .....started reading one... by v
1. The Frackers... A story of the FRACKING revolution of the technological and socila developments
2. Too big to fail... the story of the 2008 banking crisis... .I reccommend this...there is a documentary based on it i beleive .. i down loaded it and it is an easy read so far ,,,, it is written from a narrative perspective... like he was having a cup of coffee and the head of Golman sax called...
3. A book about human factors in the Macondo disaster !