Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge discussion

This thread is for dropping ideas, questions, resources, comments, and discussion about Task 8: A Book By An Author from Africa.

A few lists to get you started:

http://bookriot.com/2014/09/24/africa...

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/5...

Thinking of Purple Hibiscus or Americanah

I read a lot of romance, and Kiru Taye is from Nigeria. I plan on one of hers.

Americanah is my choice as well!

Here are a few other lists that might help others -

- African Speculative Fiction

- Best Books by African Writers in 2014

- Even More Best Books of 2014 by African Writers

Albert Camus's the Stranger is my choice. I'm trying to read more classics and he is from Algeria.

I really enjoyed Americanah earlier this year so I plan to try another by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Half of a Yellow Sun.

I plan on reading Americah as well.

Wizard of the Crow was one of my favorite reads in 2014 so I think I'm going to read another Ngugi wa Thiong'o for this task :).

Started Biko earlier this year, then put it down. Will finish it now

leaning towards Diamond Boy

I usually read sf/fantasy and aside from Lauren Beukes' Zoo City, I'm struggling to find something that fits. Most of the authors I know/recognize are either born/raised in the US or the Caribbean. Any suggestions?

Julia wrote: "I usually read sf/fantasy and aside from Lauren Beukes' Zoo City, I'm struggling to find something that fits. Most of the authors I know/recognize are either born/raised in the US or the Caribbean...."

Check out the African speculative fiction in post 5, lots of sf/fantasy there.

Julia the book I mentioned is magical realism if you like that at all.

My Traitors Heart-Rian Malan

I plan to read either The Egyptian Book of the Dead or, because my grandparents used to live in Mozambique, and because the author is close to my age, a book by Mozambican author Mia Couto, probably Under the Frangipani or Voices Made Night.

I decided on Zoo City by Lauren Beukes because I've had it on my Kindle forever! :)

I'll be reading Things Fall Apart.

I'll be reading We Need New Names

I'll be reading The Witch Doctor's Wife.

I recommend Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe to anyone. I read it last year while I was abroad in Cameroon and my host siblings said it was required reading in their schools.

Going with Uwem Akpan's "Say You're One of Them", he's a Nigerian author, and the book includes stories that take place in Africa through the eyes of children. Really excited for this one!

NoViolet Bulaeayo's 'We need new names' is outstanding.

I'm going to read something by Wangari Maathai:

So one that not a lot of people have read but that I really think deserves to be talked about more is Portrait with Keys: The City of Johannesburg Unlocked

I've just bought Tales of the Metric SystemSo I might read that. But there are so many great options

I'll probably read Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes (she's from South Africa).

Kelli wrote: "I really enjoyed Americanah earlier this year so I plan to try another by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Half of a Yellow Sun.

[bookcover:Half of a Yellow Su..."

I'm also going to read Half of a Yellow Sun.

I've read through Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's novels and story collections in 2013 so I can't go with her. I'm thinking of using JM Coetzee's "Diary of a Bad Year" for this one since he was born in South Africa.

I'm going with Radiance of Tomorrow by Ishmael Beah. He's from Sierra Leone. The novel is set in Africa, and beautifully depicts the life and culture there in the wake of civil war. Definitely worth a look.

Also reading Things Fall Apart

I just finished reading Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun. I see a few others are planning to read it as well. It is amazing! I posted a brief review on my blog: http://brandysbustlings.blogspot.ca/2...

I just finished Foreign Gods Inc. by Okey Ndibe. It was an interesting take on some familiar themes and I'd like to explore this book further. I plan on coming back to it.

Americanah, this novel will serve both this task & the Jan 24 Readathon.

I'm almost through with a book I thought would qualify for this item, although that's not why I chose to read it. It's called Ghana Must Go by Taiye Selasi. It's partly set in Ghana and Nigeria and partly in Boston. However, investigating the author, I found that although her mother was from Nigeria and her father from Ghana (the same as the mother/father characters in the book), she was born in London, grew up in Boston (also the same as the children in the book), and at last report was living in Rome. So, while she may have African roots, I'm not going to classify her as an author from Africa. Plenty of time left in the year to read something else. Depending on exactly what criteria you use, there are 47, or 53, or 55 countries in Africa and who knows how many cultural groups, so there should be quite a diverse array of possible authors/titles.

I just started reading Do They Hear You When You Cry . It is a good read for understanding the experience of Muslim women in West Africa. Too often Islam is painted with one color - that of the Arab experience.

I just finished a YA book from Michael Williams, from South Africa, called Diamond Boy. It's about the Zimbabwe diamond mines and the main character is a teenaged boy whose family brings him and his sister to the mines to find their fortune. It was exciting, suspenseful, and I loved the main character. Highly recommended.

Zoo City was already on my "to read" list, so I am applying it to this category. I really enjoyed the book. Beukes gives excellent metaphor.

For this topic, I chose The Icarus Girl by Helen Oyeyemi and was not disappointed. I was gripped all the way through the end and did not know what was actually happening, which drives me crazy but keeps me reading! I would recommend.

I read Americanah for this task but found it less compelling than Half of a Yellow Sun, maybe because so much of it is set in the US. There were some great observations on race in America, but some sections could have been shorter and tighter.

Just started Black Dog Summer by Miranda Sherry.

Just started Black Dog Summer by Miranda Sherry.

Just finished Baking Cakes in Kigali. I learned a lot about the Rwandan genocide through the story of Angel and all the people she meets.

Just read Americanah. Excellent book! Author is Nigerian.

Just finished Americanah and loved it! It was enthralling, well-paced, and the narrative voice is powerful, funny, and far from annoying or overly sentimental.

I just finished reading by Chinua Achebe for this challenge. I really liked this book.

Mary Sue, I think that's the one I'll read in this category. I've been meaning to read that one for years, anyway.

Two I've already read before that I would highly recommend are: Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton and The Power of One, by Bryce Courtenay. Perhaps they are too obvious, but no more so, I suppose, than Things Fall Apart.

For this category I chose Waiting for the Barbarians by South African author J.M. Coetzee. It's a well done exploration of the harrowing effects of imperialism, though it wasn't as consistently compelling as one might hope, considering it's only 160 pages. However, he does do a fantastic job of conjuring up a generic Empire fighting nameless Barbarians, allowing you to easily fill in the blanks with any one of the many colonizer vs. colonized events from any point in history.

I'm going to read Zoo City by Lauren Beukes, it won the 2011 Arthur C. Clarke Award and it's been on my shelf ever since. Seemed like the Golden Compass with the daemons, except the protagonist has a sloth, which is obviously better.

For this task I read The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes.

I just finished Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi for this category and thought it was fantastic. It was a pretty quick read and I was fully engaged from beginning to end.