Afro Book Club discussion

As the year draws to a close - what were some of your fav reads during 2013?

Although I didn't read much this year, I enjoyed (in no particular order):
Americanah
The Good Lord Bird
We Need New Names
Ghana Must Go
Fallen Lands
Searching for Zion
Where'd You Go, Bernadette
Revenge (Yoko Ogawa)
The House Girl
Devil in the Grove (Gilbert King)

Mocha Girl wrote: "Although I didn't read much this year, I enjoyed (in no particular order):
Americanah
The Good Lord Bird
We Need New Names
Ghana Must Go
Fallen Lands
Searching for Zion
Where'd You Go, Bernadette
R..."

We definitely think alike. :)

Here are my top ten 2013 reads.
No particular order

Searching for Zion: The Quest for Home in the African Diaspora
Ghana Must Go
Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America
Wash
Ghostman
Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria
Little Green: An Easy Rawlins Mystery
Americanah
The Good Lord Bird
Fallen Land

You two have some good lists. I need to add some of your books onto my list.

Beautiful Ruins
The Art of Happiness
The War of Art
Happiness
Daring Greatly

My reading list this year wasn't one of the most attractive one. .. but out of the few books I read, I can think of the following with such a sweet memory...:)

Wisdom and the Senses
The Idiot
Crime and Punishment

For me these are the books that stood out
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
The Sabi by Diane Brown
and reread of The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Still reading Buck but really liking it

I sadly have not achieved my goal of 50 books this year. But I definitely put in more effort. Some of these books are old but I only just read them this year.
1) Half of a Yellow Sun
2) Their Eyes Were Watching God
3) Lean in
4) Purple Hibiscus

For me it was a couple:
- Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria
- The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives
- Cloth Girl
- The Thing Around Your Neck

as an addition what do you all make of this article on the Guardian?

'we need new names' - starting today ... ;)

another recommendation by a fellow south african:

'ending and beginnings' - redi tlhabi

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

Cheryl wrote: "For me it was a couple:
- Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria
- The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives
- Cloth Girl
- The Thing Around Your Neck

as an addition what do you all make of ..."

Thanks for sharing this.

The only book on the best African list I have not heard about is : Children of Saba by NK Read (which seems to only available as ebook in US)

I am not surprised at any of the other books on the list as they have been promoted (and received good advance reviews and were promoted at industry conferences. Well - Alain Makanckou did not receive the same type of promotion but he does have a fan base.

I still need to read the Barrett book (and maybe the Mabanckou bk as I have tried his work before and his writing style did not appeal to me) but have read the others and have enjoyed them and recommended to others.

Cheryl wrote: "For me it was a couple:
- Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria
- The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives
- Cloth Girl
- The Thing Around Your Neck

as an addition what do you all make of ..."

So glad you liked Looking for Transwonderland - it was also one of my favs for this year

Read The Secret Lives of Baba... a couple of years ago and it was one of my surprise reads of that year - it was delightful and so much more than the title suggests.

While Adichie is one of my fav writers I will admit that I am not a big fan of short stories collections so while I read The Thing Around Your Neck the whole time I was thinking please make your next book a novel (which she did with Americanah).

These books aren't new, but the best ones I read this year were
Season of Migration to the North and
The Return of the Water Spirit.