Books – Page 3 – Dimples Migraines and Aahs

May 26, 2022May 26, 2022

A man called Ove

I have never been so wrong about a book as I was with this one. Sometime in 2020, I shared the books I had read and a friend suggested that I have this as my next read. I read the blurb and wondered what the possibility was that several people would shelve this book on first attempt. I kept toying with the idea of reading the book because much as photos are a representation of what the person behind the camera sees, book recommendations sort of function the same way.

Last month when we were deliberating which book to read in May, a fellow member of the book club suggested this book. I thought It is about time I gave it another shot because there is really no better time than the present. This is how I got myself to read it two days before our book club meeting.

I could not nearly bring myself to like the name Ove. It sounds so incomplete probably a middle name or a nickname; it begs to be complemented by another name. Then who has sentences for chapters? This alone should have signaled that I was in for extraordinary.

Books these days have one of three styles; the writer has a then chapter followed by a chapter narrating events as they unfold or we get the perspective of one main character in one chapter followed by the other relevant character in the next chapter and lastly the book just flows as it is either the present, past or a letter another character in the book is reading.

A man called Ove has focus and direction a storytelling skill I was recently told I possess. The author wants to tell a story but for the main story to achieve its purpose, the reader needs to be acquainted with the feeder stories but not in detail, just enough flesh for them to shed light on the main story and also ensure the reader does not lose sight of the end goal.

A time like that comes for every man when he chooses what sort of man he wants to be. And if you don’t know the story, you don’t know the man.

Ove is a grumpy old angry man. My English teacher would be disappointed that I have not employed the correct order of adjectives. From his perspective, rules are rules and rules should be followed. He is a stickler and a man who minds his business. I am not one for cast in stone routines but I do like order. As the book unfolds we get to really know the man Ove. He is such a funny character and now that I think about it his lifestyle reminded me of lagom and why I would want to live in Sweden for a period in my life.

I like my space and in the beginning, I could not understand what is glorified about other characters always coming into Ove’s way and stopping him mid-track. Why wasn’t the universe conspiring to get him his heart’s desire? Was it too much to ask? In the end I realized that the universe did grant him his desire. This book is not about Sonja but I have come to love her. I think this book is the truest depiction of life and everyone should read it at some point in their lives.

Loving someone is like moving into a house. At first, you fall in love with all the new things, amazed every morning that all this belongs to you, as if fearing that someone would suddenly come rushing in through the door to explain that a terrible mistake had been made, you weren’t actually supposed to live in a wonderful place like this. Then over the years, the walls become weathered, the wood splinters here and there and you start to love that house not so much because of all its perfection but rather for its imperfections.

There is something about a handyman. One who uses his hands to fix and has his set of tools. The same way mothers insist that a girl who cannot cook will be returned by her husband should have been the same emphasis put on boys to learn how to remove an airlock, fix a sink backflow, replace a shower head, change bulbs, yes I said it bulbs you will be surprised.

My intention was not to give much away about the book but just to let you know that you have a book that can be added to your to be read.

January 31, 2022January 31, 2022

Fallen Grace and books in 2021

I knew He would never leave me. Yes, a struggle it has been but just before the end of the month the delivery of a post! I willed myself to write and I sought for a piece, had 3 drafts but they did not sit well with me.. one fateful evening of going through my friend’s stories and it landed on my lap, well served.

I started this book on 26th January and right from the start I knew I finally got the one. The blurbs promised a sad story; one of two girls, deep in poverty in Britain. I subscribed to the funeral ceremony that would make one of the girls cross paths with her to be destiny. Yeah, you think you’ve got a rag to riches story… Well rags, they were in and their journey and the narration of the story is one you want to read.

I must be reading books based in London each year.. it is the English for me. I can certainly twang and I am all airs. The lives, the descriptions, is it that I relate because the Britons were our colonizers and we have some sort of kinship tie. It certainly is the notable mentions, the nobility and the world of the dead as a whole especially at this time of the year. Historical fiction is the label given to the book’s genre.

The funeral industry is one that always leaves me in awe. Talking to dealers in death whenever the opportunity presents itself, watching how different cultures treat their dead, reading about hanging coffins and how that began due to scarcity of burial ground and the lengths the wealthy go about honoring their dead like Emelda Marcos having piped music playing in her husband’s coffin to keep him until burial in his home country became possible.

I like the ideas impressed upon me by this book. The author’s pedantic prose.. would it be a book by an English author if I do not have newfound words rolling off my tongue. I want to give it all away but I’m holding myself on a leash. I cried tears of joy because who would have seen that coming!!!

The book cover is befitting. The length is very manageable as it is only 232 pages that will turn fast. Another plus is that you will be more knowledgeable about England’s history when you finish the book.

I might as well sum up my 2021 in books in this post. 2021 recorded the lowest in the three years since I began tracking my reading experience. It is not that I read less or that I was distracted but many of the materials I read in 2021 were more academic than recreational. I marvel at the people whose count is 96 books in a year and in 2020 I was chasing that although with a starting goal of 40. This year January is almost coming to an end and I have only two finished books; quite a slow start.

My last book of the year which spilled over the first days of this year was Regretting you by Colleen Hoover. I am so glad I managed to read a book by her during the year. If you recall in 2019 when I started recording my progress I had read 4 of her books and I had so much to say here https://wordpress.com/post/dimplesmigrainsandaahs.home.blog/207. It is my pleasure to confirm that Regretting you has maintained the bar set by colleen Hoover. I dreaded picking the book up in 2020 in fear that it may erase the streak maintained.

I always like it when an author ropes the book title in the story and this book does it. The first few pages kept me interested, the next few pages lost my interest. I urged myself to keep reading since I only judge a book after the first hundred pages. Somewhere along my reading I stopped keeping track of the pages turned and as the end drew near, I was content with the pace, the writing, the description, the characters, the plot, the language and the length of the book.

Finding my passion is my passion

The story is beautiful, we go through the emotions with the characters, and the dialogue is so well written. One feels as if they were part of the audience. Other Honorary mention goes to The Mothers by Brit Bennet, and City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert. 2021 in books may fall short of the in depth review because of the books I read, the six that moved me during the year got their stand alone posts and two though written went unpublished. I am looking forward to the books I will read this year and the impact they will have on me and my writing.

December 12, 2021December 12, 2021

The Mothers by Brit Bennet

Sourced from booksandwineke on Instagram

There’s something about an author’s first. Maybe like we go in on our first love, at least from what I have seen in movies. We go in deep, love relentlessly, give in to the tide, and be swept away by the waves, steady, thrilling, memorable, and that first may not be replicated. There will be others but they will never be the first. The first lingers, the first is ebbed in your memory, the first is almost sacred the first…

I pondered over whether Brit was male or female. Being in the 21st Century, I expanded my thinking into what pronoun Brit goes by. Ever since badonpaper podcast shit on how men write romance and lovemaking of a female character, I tend to attribute well-written love-making scenes to female authors. This book has those, very descriptive, nothing out of the ordinary, and in those lines, I was inclined to think Brit is Female but I was not ready for that confirmation.

This book will do you well .. it was a page-turner for me and I am shy of declaring it my best book of the year while I still relish in its high. I know I have written highly of City of girls and yes I thoroughly enjoyed my reading of it and I would say the same about The Mothers.

The Mothers rightfully take the mantle because it is a short easy read. The satire flows and the humor in between the lines are the caliber of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. If you enjoyed Eleanor Oliphant you will relish this. The characters and the theme are very relatable. Do note that there is a suicide trigger and an abortion trigger.

Before we were wives and mothers, we were girls and we loved ain’t shit men. The type of man our brothers warned us about because he was going nowhere and he would treat us bad on the way to that nowhere… A tragic woman hooks into an ain’t shit man or worse lets him hook into her. He will drag her until he tires. He will climb atop her shoulders and her body will sag from the weight of loving him.

It’s usually a gapping moment when an ain’t shit man brings the A-game in his next relationship. Some wait for the shoe to fall and at times it does while on other occasions the ain’t shit man continues the act or for those who believe, he changes for the better.

Most of the milestones in a woman’s life were accompanied by pain, like her first time having sex or birthing a child. For men, it was all orgasms and champagne.

The experiences in women’s lives are characterized by pain. Right from the monthly periods, as if it is not enough some have to go through it in severe pain. It is worse for women diagnosed with endometriosis and if you think surely it should only get better from here there’s the unfortunate lot that experiences painful sex not to mention no orgasm afterward and adding onto that the birthing process!

After a secret has been told everyone becomes a prophet

Everyone claims to have known.. each person picks a scenario and labels it the telltale sign for them. You wonder why they never shared their prophetic moment with the masses so that we can confirm the prophecy. Are we short of Isaiah’s in our midst who long before openly and without a shadow of doubt spoke about the birth of a Messiah in the town of David and everyone must have laughed it off …never quick to believe.

The topics addressed in this book are heavy. We learn about a girl who is left by her mother and another who leaves her mother. One who dreads having a child and another who is struggling to have one. Choices and how once made they determine the life we lead. The different ways the same boy loves; one was always a secret and another paraded as the acceptable one. The depiction of society has never been clearer. The characters Nadia Turner and Audrey and everything Brit Bennet covered in 356 pages are worth your time. I am looking forward to another book by her.

The characters were well thought of. While reading I thought, I hoped, I pitied Luke but I could not blame Nadia. I marveled at how Shaddie stood a chance, I felt that Luke might have a second chance. I liked the growth of the characters and how plot twists were just thrown at us and I had to reread the line as if the author had moved from the script. This would make a great movie because the story ought to be read or watched by many.

November 20, 2021November 20, 2021

The Nightingale has sung

War stories… knowing what people went through at a certain time in history through no fault of their own and imagining how I would have survived being in that situation. It is the names the natives coin for their oppressors. It is the love that comes their way in spite of the bodies dropping each day and knowing that each kiss is a goodbye. It is the hope for a better future, the longing for the past, and the uncertainty of the present. It is mostly the narration of the story, the description, the tempo, and the tone.

I almost gave up on this book; 200 pages in and I was as clueless as the characters. I wanted to know something they did not. Perhaps it should have been one of those stories that start with the end then explain how we got there. Maybe there should have been a letter that was written that we get to read before it is delivered. I grew tired of Isabelle talking about the war, Vianne expecting the return of the men who went to war and Gaëtan.

At first, I felt like nothing was happening in those 200 pages then in the next 100 pages I made sense of why things had to be narrated as they were. I was glad to be as clueless as the characters. Happy to go through the experiences with them. I felt frightened, fatigued from the walk to the border, the lack of essentials because everything is being rationed and the resignation to fate while doing my part.

Isabelle is brave, impetuous, reckless and I think that sometimes she took a risk when she ought to have played safe. Things were bad and she hoped her actions would help quicken the process to a free France but there was a long way to go. I understand how one can love another and at the same time only spew hatred towards them. I understand how one can be quick to think the worst after examining things on the surface. I understand that you can mean well but still be unable to do anything for another.

Some experiences are brutal and maybe as the book suggests, we need not work towards forgetting them and leaving them in the past but we should narrate them, remember them, notice what impact they have had and how they have shaped our character. The characters in this book portray different reactions individuals would have at a time of war.

There are those who would be up in arms in the frontline. There are those who sit back hoping and praying that their loved ones come back safe and sound. There are those who take subtle measures that make a huge difference even though they are not frontline in the war. There are circumstances that cannot be explained away and hard choices that people have to live with long after the war.

In love we find out who we want to be; in war we find out who we are

There is so much loss in war. One loses friends because much as the invader is the enemy, we each play a different role in the war for our survival and hence people drift. One loses themselves as the hypothetical scenarios they once formed in their heads become reality and there is no one to share with because everyone is going through something. Dignity, humanity, pride is stripped off and souls are laid bare. Children are forced to grow up overnight and see the world as is, no fairies, no Santa clauses, no Prince charming just ordinary men and women.

Grief like regret settles into our DNA and remains forever a part of us

After the war, some people talk about their experiences others want to move on with the pieces left of who they once were. There is so much to be forgiven, so much to be accepted, there is evidence of it all around but each person does what can get them to go through another day without hurting deeply. In love we find out who we want to be; in war, we find out who we are.

October 17, 2021October 17, 2021

Kintsugi

Kintsugi is the Japanese art of fixing what is broken ( mostly pottery) with gold. It is built on the idea of embracing imperfections and the notion that you can create something more beautiful than what was broken. There are too many broken pieces and our constant need to fix. A friendship that does not last the lifetime you thought it would, a relationship that has you filled with doubts and anticipating when it would break, the need to fix what is not even broken yet. It is like we live in a constant state of breaking and mending.

I had not realized it but so many broken pieces lay around me and I did not know what to do with them. Sometimes we think a situation or someone is completely broken and there is no way of putting back the pieces together. Sometimes we break people and carry around the burden of regret thinking if only I did not say that or If only I never met the person in the first place. Kintsugi is there to remind us that the broken can be fixed and its okay if we are not the same people to do the fixing. Mosaic art is there to show us that different broken pieces can make something more adorable than the original creation. Today’s deep dive is the aftermath of my book club’s read of the month ( September).

Young Adult books have never been my cup of tea. It is mentally disturbing that they are written by adults and I do not know what it takes for them to create such a young narrative. We had two options; a book that was described as sad Orbiting Jupiter by Gary D. Schmidt and Our Chemical hearts which was described as a love story. My fellow book club members opted for the love story but I wanted to see what could be intricately sad about Orbiting Jupiter.

I remember their astonishment when I reported that the book was not sad but mostly normal. We had a moment of them checking in and me clarifying that I was completely fine and just wanted to find out how sad a book could get. Nothing has topped Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami for me in that spectrum but I have also not been actively searching for sad books. Perhaps a little life by Hanya Yanagihara will top that list but its too long, and not captivating enough for me to bear through the end to find out. ( maybe I am not mature enough for the book but I see myself getting there and reading it to the end ).

I found this book sad. More sad than Orbiting Jupiter. Maybe it is because I went in expecting a love story that develops through Middle school only to be hit by grief, pity and so much wisdom about love. This writing is broken somewhere between being an editor’s post and a book review but the golden thread should guide you. As usual, I’ll now leave the golden nuggets from the book to bait you into picking and reading the book yourself.

Stories with happy endings are just stories that haven’t finished yet.

This phrase would mean that there are no happy endings.. I do not think that in this context the opposite of happy is sad and that endings are two sided like a coin. They are probably a continuum. If the author suggests happy endings are just stories that have not yet finished they could be anything else along the continuum. My explanation may only be a different way of expressing what the author meant and maybe she might have been onto something.

Because apparently you still have to chase girls who can’t even run

This was hilarious especially In the context of the book. I do believe girls should be chased but I did read somewhere that neither the girl nor the boy is the price. While in the relationship girls too do some chasing. At the end, love is the price and that’s the motivation for the chase anyway.

Everything dies love included. Sometimes it dies with a person, sometimes it dies on its own. The greatest love story ever told doesn’t have to be about two people who spent their whole lives together…. There’s nothing like a failed love, all love is equal in the brain.

Full disclaimer.. these nuggets of wisdom are not evenly spread through the book. You might struggle reading the first 77 pages like I did. Humour is what mostly kept me going and the fact that I needed to contribute on the conversation during my bookclub whether in praise for the book or tearing it apart. We had a fair share of both.

Not to leave your palate distasteful, one of the characters has this to say about why people fall in love again despite having being heartbroken .

Because the journey is beautiful in the beginning and no one can see the bend in the train tracks until it is already too late to stop and when you board the train you hope that this is the one that doesn’t crash even though it might be, even though it probably will be, it’s worth getting on anyway to find out.

Our chemical hearts.

June 11, 2021June 11, 2021

Bird Summons

A lady who has piqued my interest for the past two years declared this her current read. The Author’s name sounded familiar, I had purposed to read, I think I read the book, Kindness of enemies by her. I took up this book to have something in common with the lady. The book cover implores you to pick it up. It looks playful, a simple and easy ready.

The blurp was promising a story about three women who embark on a journey and through it they find themselves. Iman is in her early twenties, already married a couple of times and has no means of self sustenance hence the marriages. Moni is a wife who had given birth to a differently abled child and neglected her role as a wife to be a full time mother. She prides herself in that and feels that there is no greater honor than to be at her child’s beck and call. Some women might have been in this position or still are and I applaud the author for addressing this. Last is Salma who is happily married at least to the outsider but deep down she is fighting battles. Decades into her marriage, she still wonders whether she made the right choice. She stalks her first love on social media to see the life he is living and imagines herself in it.

There might seem to be a trend here of me only reading books about women, written by women and this is not orchestrated. I might have felt strongly about them or was bothered enough to write about them but in between reading city of girls and this, I read men without women by Haruki Murakami and the silent patient by Alex Michaelides.

By now you are accustomed to the way I conduct my reviews. To the new reader, I give snippets of conversations or pick lines from the book and in doing that, I aim to help you in decision making on whether or not to read the book. The lines I pick will not spoil your reading experience in any way if that is your eventual decision.

children can be rude to their parents but never to the waiter

I don’t know which parenting handbook gave this tip that well behaved children should be polite to strangers, people who provide services, adults in general but no emphasis on the parents. As a child one could get away with shouting at your parent but if you pulled the same action to another adult, you would never hear the end of it.

Every holiday was a threat… perfect length turned into indulgence, time sitting heavy on idle hands, the mind free to find fault with time left behind, too much friction between people, familiarity turning into contempt.

The next time you plan a holiday, make it short.. resist the urge of going for a week to Mombasa; three days two nights is adequate. I never thought of holidays as a threat but ever since I read that line that is all I see holidays as. Guests who overstay their welcome eventually leave when things have turned sour. All night spent in the clubs ( back in the day) turns friends to despicable people. When you look back and admit to yourself, you will agree with the author. At least we now know how to prevent that going forward.

For the three women who took the journey too long, they realized that there is freedom from pride and convention, freedom from the need to put on a brave face or pretend that things are not as bad as they appear to be. This is the only positive outcome of such long holidays; one gets to untangle the deeper feelings and if the process does not ruin the relationship in the process, it sweeps cobwebs off it.

The actions considered small and casual not the big ones carried on the peg of self righteousness. It was the small choices the characters had made in their lives that was thrown at them in their attempt to sweep off their cobwebs; questioning their righteousness. Mantra: Resist the urge of a week’s trip ; two nights are adequate.

For coming this far, here is an unpopular opinion from one of the characters: Isn’t marriage a form of religious sanctioned prostitution? She argues, prostitution involves someone giving their body in exchange of material gain. In marriage, much as the holy book says it is ordained for procreation, there is significant material gain and what of the married couples who cannot/ do not procreate, what is marriage for them?

April 24, 2021

City of girls

I had no idea what to expect when I picked up this book but it delivered. I have read books by the author before but none were like this. Committed which is a memoir and that I would recommend left me with bouts of wisdom. My next read was big magic which to me is a self help book particularly to channel your creative side and she mastered the writing there. I could not pick up eat pray love, I have watched the movie and I cannot tell which part elated readers across the world because that effect truly passed by me. I know people who swear by that book are about to kill my prose here but hear me out please. After all this writing is about city of girls.

Now that I think about it, I did have some thoughts on the book before reading. A book by a woman about women, a city of them; I was in for friendships, romance, and just being carried away by the lives of other women for the 467 pages. I knew the book was the right choice out of my rut from the very first page, it was addressed to me and all along it felt like I was seated in a plush sofa, getting a whiff of the burning sea salt and orchid candle and Elizabeth was narrating the story ( rather Vivian Morris).

How do I not mention the prologue! It read

You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm
Colette

I like atypical stories, stories about people who do not conform to societal expectations. Stories about people who are free, wild, doing foolish things with enthusiasm. People who let that inner child out and go about their lives as everyone should, like it is theirs and only theirs to make something of, anything. stories about glamour, partying, meeting who is who and finally drifting back to your close knit circle, doing what you passionately love which most of the time is a hobby that you made a career out of and that allows you to enjoy the frivolities of life while touching people’s lives with your unique talents.

The conversations in this book are so real. There is a way Elizabeth clothes you in the characters and in that line, you are one. I loved the show business; in the middle of the war the conversation in this book is about how other people’s lives were going on. those engaging in debauchery were still at it, we felt the loss of loved ones who had gone in the army, families being separated, careers changing, patriotism, critique of the government, it is all in there around the light heartedness of plays at the lily house.

In this book I lost myself and I found myself. I finally unearthed what it was that I really wanted and what that meant. From it I wrote one of the truest entries in my journal and I now see life with a certain clarity I lacked before the 467 pages. I am not promising that you will have the same outcome, but you will lose yourself in it and you will be entertained by it.

I never start a book without reading the dedication and I’m only done with it after reading the acknowledgements. I want to know how the journey was writing the book and appreciate the people who made it come to life by reading their names. I am glad to know that the unabashed sensuality and independence was someone’s true life story. I am grateful for the depths Elizabeth took to capture their intricacies; there was literally a corresponding human version that birthed each character in the book. My personal favourite was the mention of Doris Day whose music I have just come to enjoy.

Much as the setup is in the 1940s, the book will be enjoyed by both the young and old. The old will be filled with nostalgia and the young with a deeper appreciation of the ninety’s. There is literally nothing new under the sun and what you think was just recently invented is a practice that has been long in existence and you are just late to the party.

‘ girls who are about to get married are always afraid. They’re afraid that they don’t love their fiancés enough or that they love them too much. They’re afraid of the sex that is coming to them or the sex that they are leaving behind. They’re afraid of the wedding day going awry. They’re afraid of being looked at by hundreds of eyes- and they’re afraid of not being looked at, in case their dress is all wrong or their maid of honour is more beautiful ‘

The book is this raw I tell you. ‘ You must learn in life to take things more lightly my dear. The world is always changing. Learn how to allow for it. Someone makes a promise and then they break it. A play gets good notices, and then it folds. A marriage looks strong, and then they divorce. For a while there’s no war, and then there’s another war. If you get too upset about it all, you become a stupid, unhappy person -and where’s the good in that?

Last conversation I leave as I hope you will get a hold of the book and be equally awed.

“Good for him, give him a trophy for it , but don’t marry a man just because he’s nice. And try not to make a habit of getting engaged in the first place, it can lead to marriage if you’re not careful.“

You will be in for such subtle humour, and good rinsing of your eyeballs if you allow.

April 7, 2021April 7, 2021

Qué sera sera

At the end of the day, all reading will depend on what my brain chooses to remember on the exam day. After that, it depends on the examiners mood and how strict or lenient they choose to be.

There are only so many ways you can cross your legs and just a few postures to shift from.

Time still runs out whether you are in the 5am club or not.

Getting things done, well that depends.

I have tried reading several units a day each spanning just 2 hours. I changed to understanding units per topic. I later added going through past papers to get the feel of the exam and scrapped all that for jogging my memory to see whether I remember the points read and if I could explain them in my own words.

Will I ever be ready?

Do I want exams pushed an extra week?

What if I just get it over and done with?

I could read everything, understand everything. Interpreting the question well would definitely add me marks and the icing on the cake would be remembering everything I read and seemed to understand. At the end of the day, it heavily depends on the examiner, their mood, how lenient or strict they choose to be

Qué sera sera … what will be will be.

March 4, 2021March 4, 2021

My 2020 Reading Feast

I have actively postponed writing this piece until it is the only option left. I do want to share what I read but it hurts knowing that I cannot read as much this year. Actually, I am reading more this year just towards the academic side. 2020 was great fodder for books. I thought I would make it to 40 books but I went slightly over 30. By end of January, I was already 6 books in unlike now when I only manage one book a month.

My notable reads of 2020 in no particular order are: Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert, Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine by Gail Honeyman, Second Class Citizen by Buchi Emecheta, the Letters of Vincent van Gogh and Girl, Woman Other by Bernardine Evaristo.

I would highly recommend each of the above books if taste was not a limiting factor. I know of people who read Big Magic at the beginning of every year for that creative push. My podcast book club; bad on paper had it as the January read this year.

Eleanor Oliphant is not completely fine. She is very reserved, lonely I would say; hardly has any friends, drinks so as not to think or feel, she is literally a passerby in the world. The book was very well written. It was a page turner of sorts. Plenty of vocabulary considering Eleanor does crossword everyday. I adopted this habit for about a month after finishing the book. I used to do it in High school but now having several entertainment options, the habit quickly dwindled.

Second Class Citizen was a one night stand; fast, pleasurable, met expectations, and left a lingering taste. It is set up in Nigeria and the UK during the colonial times. It describes in great detail the life then, the hurdles and how the characters transformed. It is very much character driven and fast paced.

Hardly is an African man portrayed as lazy but this one really held the forte. To some extent, the man feared success! He did not strive for it, he did not welcome it, he was too comfortable being average and fortunately, the wife had enough ambition for the both of them.

I am so passionate about the story that I have to restrain myself from giving too much detail. Did I mention that the book has my lucky star, humour!! There is lots of it and it is very relatable on an African perspective. This book really depicts hard work, a mother’s sacrifice for her kin and navigating the African home. There is this incident in the book when the woman (I forget her name) was going to give birth. She chose the midwife option because it was less costly and the Government gave stipends to those who chose that method and as such, she could better manage the family’s scarce resources.

Fortunately, the circumstances would not allow her to go through with it and the opportunity was a blessing in disguise. She got well looked after in the maternity ward, got to see other couple’s interaction and how different the situation was for her. It made her strive for better and the next opportunity she had, she did not wait for the best to be done because she knew it would not be done given the man she married. Nonetheless, she did it for herself and quite crafty!

I am inclined to think men are the ones who chase women because females can easily adapt. The males present us with an offer and we choose whether to take it or leave. Most of the time women compromise and decide to simply get by. Reminds me of this meme that stated:

if all the men your girlfriend loved were on a lineup and she was asked to pick the love of her life, would she pick you? Better yet, would you be in the lineup?

Men always go for women out of their league but most women accept men far below their league. This is exactly what was portrayed in the book and what I see in everyday life. To curb this, my mantra this year is:

show me how you love yourself and I will decide if that is how I want to be loved.

Two places I will try not to go is back and forth or out of my way. The woman in the book really paced around but as all other females, once she was done, she was DONE!!!! I know I have given away too much but you should really read the book.

My interest in reading Letters of Vincent Van Gogh was piqued after watching a documentary about his life. Ever since, I have been talking about him and giving his life experiences, one would think in another life we were buddies and I got to experience him firsthand. The book really instills the importance of loving and to be loved; I dare say it is the greatest thing one can achieve, it will fulfill you and shows in all other areas of your life. Van Gogh had a rough time attaining that and he advised, that one should love many things at least then, one of the many will not disappoint.

Haruki Murakami’s Norwegian Wood deserves a mention. This was the saddest book I have ever read. Suicide seems to be theme; characters are perpetually sad and they commit suicide. There should be a disclaimer before picking up the book that you need to be in a better place in your life otherwise their sadness will engulf you. Funny enough I enjoyed reading the book. It had weird characters and I loved that. Their everyday lives were just that; everyday lives. The book was well written and I loved the discussion I had in my book club about the book.

Girl, woman, other is a special book

the writing is similar to what I have going on in this paragraph

commas and full stops are a myth and it seems like the author had a long list of names that she was dying to feature and decided to use all of them in that book at once

you will have one sentence or even a word appearing in a page then the book goes back and forth ties the begining to the end and you were somehow lost in between

most people struggle through it and I am one of those but once the book gets to you it is a fast page turner

my first attempt with it only got me through the 1st chapter of character 1 not of the book I attended a book club discussion on it and resolved to make another attempt because those who went through it had so much to say and I could not be left out

Well, which of the 6 have you been convinced to pick up?

January 24, 2021January 30, 2021

The one book you should read

I interrupt normal programming to introduce this gem. Normally, I would have a post out at this time of the year about how I travelled in books in 2020 but this, my last book of 2020 and first of 2021 deserves an accolade. It did in fact get one, voted the best fiction in 2020 by goodreads. Avid readers who have experienced different writing styles, varying length of pages and ideologies sat down, read and 72,828 people took their time to vote it in for the award. Numbers do not lie, and that’s the premise on which I dared look for this book and much as I am late to the voting, I am and you will agree with the 72,828.

It is everything you want to read and just the right dose before diminishing marginal returns
mashkiz

There are so many things to love about this book. The cover, the simple writing style, the length of pages, science fiction here and there, the theme, the characters, the arrangement of chapters, the titles of the chapters, it is somehow a self-help book; it is a bit of everything and it being categorized as the best fiction is putting it in a neat box. I had trouble placing it in one genre, it is everything you want to read and just the right dose before diminishing marginal returns.

Writing this review reminds me of that incident in the Bible when Jesus asks John to baptize him and John is quite reluctant because he feels he is not worthy enough and in any case, it should be Jesus baptizing him. I fear putting my version of the book incase it turns out not to be your cup of tea and you end up dismissing the entire book. I hope you can tell how much I really want you to read this book. If it takes you a whole year to finish, let it be so. I am confident that would not be the case and I would very much like feedback if you happen to think it was a waste of your time.

Every life contains millions of decisions. Some big, some small. But every time one decision is taken over another, the outcomes differ. An irreversible variation occurs which in turn leads to further variations. This is what Nora Seed experiences in the book. She is hopeless in life, pondering what could have been if she did something different but where she stands, death is her only option. She commits suicide, only to find herself in a library that gives her the possibility to experience all the versions of her life that could have been.

Phrases like the good old days, take me back, wishful thinking, building castles in the air; always wishing for the past or imagining a better future. Nora realizes that the present has as much potential as the past did or the future will have. Life is not for understanding, it is just for living. Sometimes the universe does conspire to help us achieve our goals and sometimes life simply gave you a whole new perspective by waiting around long enough for you to see it.

While going through the parallel universe, she realizes that there is little that is unique or special about our problems. Maybe it not the lack of achieving that makes us upset but the expectation to achieve. You can have everything and feel nothing. It is not what you look at that matters, it is what you see, perception is everything!

If you are not convinced this is the one book you should read, my goal is still achieved as I have managed to sneak several quotes from the book. I’ll leave you with this other one that should have been in the book but happened to be in another. Unless we change how we view ourselves, what we are and what we are not, we cannot change. Don’t find yourself, never know who you are because that’s what keeps you striving and discovering.

Having come this far, I’ll dare recommend a song to listen to: it only takes one night- Zepeda Gonzalez Victoria. For some reason, it came to my head the moment I finished the book.