HEAVEN knows the feels I experienced while reading through this book. The reading process alone took it all out of me, gave it back, took it away and gave it back again. It was a journey I wouldn’t trade for anything, ever. I’d love to keep to myself how little I knew about Malcolm X or how I read through the whole book [with a few baffled notes on the side] thinking Alex Haley was a Caucasian male. You are allowed to laugh. When you are done. Here’s my rather nervous unpacking of this complex life and intriguing story. It’s a discussion … a first for my channel. Let me…
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#READSOULLIT|| Tag
SO this seems to be a trend of late. I must have a sit down with myself, it’s now reached the point where it is actually embarrassing. I was tagged on a #readsoullit booktube tag in celebration of Black History Month in America. The point of the tag is basically to celebrate African-American authors and literature. I’m late, but it is still the last day of February, so somehow I made it! LOL! xoxo
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INTRUDERS|| Mohale Mashigo
I have chosen to break each of these short stories into mini-reviews for purposes of this review. I hope this gives you a glimpse into how special and worthwhile this book is. If in anyway this whets your appetite then do not hesitate to grab a copy, if only to realise that there’s something mystical in every ‘ordinary’ person. ManokaWe truly are nothing without our mothers. In a patriarchal black world where we are taught our identity lies in the paternal – we really truly do still need our mothers. The issue of identity as coming from a mother, passed on through the intimacies of giving birth and breastfeeding shines…
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HALF OF A YELLOW SUN|| Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The world was silent when we died … the title of the book within this book encapsulates the message of Adichie’s story. If I’m honest, the idea of war has always been as real as what I’ve seen on tv. Nothing quite as heart pulling and soul wrenching as this story. That’s the power of fiction I wish many experienced. The next time I read, watch or listen the news about a war torn country I will remember these characters and each of their stories and my empathy will be amplified. It is vital that we tell our stories. If only just for this. Half of a Yellow Sun follows…
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ONE DARK THRONE|| Kendare Blake
This is the sequel to Three Dark Crowns and therefore cannot be read or reviewed in isolation. In this sequel, the real games begin. At the end of Three Dark Crowns we were left with a breathtaking cliff hanger and all sorts of questions unanswered. So, the sequel was a definite must. The triplets are still scrambling for the crown, and though we thought we had lost one, it turns out we thought wrong, and what is about to ensue is a twisted story of the need for family and the hunger for power. Blake adds dimensions to her world that we didn’t particularly expect. We finally also learn if…
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THREE DARK CROWNS|| Kendare Blake
Kendare Blake is definitely gifted in the art of world creating. The island of Finbirn as she paints it in her prose is vivid, pulsating and easy to imagine. Three Dark Crowns is the story of triplets of royal lineage living on a secret island where the ascension to the throne is determined by which triplet kills their siblings first. This Young Adult novel, fantasy of course, follows the lives of these three sister, Mirabella, Arsenoe and Katherine, each possessing their own magical gift. Mirabella is an elemental, she has the gift of the elements, she can instruct and command them, fire, water, wind, earth you name them. Arsinoe is…
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JUNE|| Wrap Up
June was a great reading month to say the least. I managed to steal a day where all I did from midday to bedtime was read. It did wonders for my spirit among other things. The perfect getaway I’d say. Here’s what I read in June: THE NOVICE TARAN MATHARU I really was pleasantly surprised by this book. I was not expecting to like it quite as much as I did. The book follows Fletcher, an orphan who lives in the village Pelt during war between the humans and the Orcs. The humans of Homminum are in conflict with dwarves and elves. They are supposedly fighting a war against the…
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THE ULTIMATE DREAM|| TBR chronicles
I don’t know about you but all my dreams are ultimate. So I hope you don’t find this misleading in anyway. Perhaps it will become clearer as I explain. That said I think each person is allowed a few hundred ultimate dreams and goals in their lifetimes. Those things that say to them ‘I have arrived’. For me, for today’s post, I will have arrived when I read all the books I own. You guys would get sick of me telling you and whoever cares to listen that in fact I have read cover to cover of my 200+ and ever growing collection. Imagine that. Someone pulling out a random…
