Bookworms

A thousand Splendid Suns

2008-04-08T21:04:00.000+03:00

(swiftly ignoring the elephant in the room)

Bants swore to me that this time we shall be good editors and keep bookworms going! So to kick it off I will do a review of a book I just finished!

Khaled Hosseini

I must confess that I normally hate books that deal with oppression because they make me angry on one hand and on the other am like "soo done" we have read too many of them. But A thousand splendid suns is a beautifully written book about an illegitimate girl in Afghanistan who is married off to an old man (who else) after her single mother commits suicide - because of her! The story follows the girl as she adjusts to life in Kabul and marriage and eventually being replaced in the affection (and hatred) of her husband by another unfortunate young girl who is not only orphaned by the war but is also.............I actually refuse to say what couz it will spoil the story for you if you decide to read it. The book has a bitter sweet ending.

Half way through the book I felt like flinging it away due to the intense hatred I felt towards one of the characters!

Without spoiling the ending and the story I must say that I had not read Kite runner (by the same author) but after I finished this one I had to look for kite runner. Khaled Hosseini is a brilliant writer who makes the reader feel an attachment and/or hatred to atleast one or all of the characters. Reading any of his books, you are guaranteed to have your heartstrings pulled at! I should however point out that Khaled has a way of bringing in the Taliban war without making the whole story about it, which is brilliant and annoying at the same time. Annoying because we know about the war already and dont need to hear any more about it; but brilliant because its inescapable forcing him to find a way to write it into the story.

Verdict: One day I read it with one eye closed on account of the amount of alcohol in my system! Thats how good the book is! If you can get it, Please read it...
Okay over to you bants

Ahsante

2007-04-18T10:57:00.000+03:00

I may be trying to get on the good side of Bants and SBB here, but I really want to say thank you for the effort into keeping bookworms alive. And bants (you can translate this into sheng) you are still co-editor!

Now that am back from the bush, and we have two editors, let us try and revive this blog. There was a time I was overwhelmed with reviews, but either watu wameacha kusoma (shudders!) or guys are too busy to send in reviews. But kichwa ngumu mimi shall not give up so here is my request:
Anyone who has read the following books kindly send in a review:

1. The Wangari Maathai book:- Unbowed

2. The Raila Odinga book:

3. The Moi book: Elder statesman (or whatever)

4. The Mandela book: Long walk to freedom

5. The kibaki book? Iko?

Am sure you can see a pattern here. Biographies of famous and infamous people............

There shall be a prize at the end of the biography session!!! So get writing. (pleeeease, they shall close us down if you dont) How is that for blackmail...

Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust

2007-03-13T13:59:00.000+03:00

by Imaculee Ilibagiza

I stumbled upon this book in my quest for interesting memoirs and I must admit I was not disappointed. The book is written from Imaculee's perspective and starts off on a nostalgic note where she is describing her childhood. Her vivid description of the lush Rwandan countryside will make you long to visit shagz. The first few chapters suck you right in and this lays the groundwork of how deep an emotion you'll feel for the rest of the book. It's pretty obvious that she had a happy childhood, but was also very sheltered and mostly unaware of the political climate in the country. Therefore, when she wakes up one morning and Hutus are suddenly butchering Tutsis with machetes, it takes you by total surprise and you're right there with her wondering what the hell is going on.

The rest of the book takes you through the long, awful days spent in hiding with seven other Tutsi women in a tiny little bathroom that belongs to a Hutu pastor. I read the book while holding my breath and felt as though I were in that bathroom with her, willing those Hutus that are looking for her to disappear. How they all survive until the end of the genocide is truly remarkable and Imaculee's own intelligence and quick thinking is evident. There are many vivid descriptions in the book that will stay with you long after you've put the book down. Mine is the one where her oldest brother's head is split in half because the perpetrators wanted to see what "the brain of a person with a Masters degree looks like".

Overall, the book is well written and gripping enough to make you want to read it nonstop. However, this is a very personal representation of history and if you're like me, you will end up with a lot of unanswered questions when you turn the last page. It was not until after I'd read the book and was busy recommending it to everyone I knew that I found out her story has been featured on Oprah and a few other places, so many people are probably familiar with the story. But, it's worth a read. It's a testimony to how truly animalistic humans can be, but it is also a testament to the strength of the human mind and how hope and faith can help you survive trauma.

Overall, the book is well written and gripping enough to make you want to read it nonstop. However, this is a very personal representation of history and if you're like me, you will end up with a lot of unanswered questions when you turn the last page. It was not until after I'd read the book and was busy recommending it to everyone I knew that I found out her story has been featured on Oprah and a few other places, so many people are probably familiar with the story. But, it's worth a read. It's a testimony to how truly animalistic humans can be, but it is also a testament to the strength of the human mind and how hope and faith can help you survive trauma.

~SBB~

Shalimar the Clown, by Salman Rushdie

2007-01-27T19:47:00.000+03:00

This is the first book by Salman Rushdie that I ever read. Initially, I wanted to start with his other book which landed him a fatwa - The Satanic Verses - since it was out of stock I read Shalimar instead.

A very well written book about a young indian village girl-a dancer, who marries his childhood sweetheart-an entertainer a.k.a clown, later turned killer, and leaves him later on for an american ambassador, a married guy with a frigid wife hence the roving eye. In the end, things don't go as she thought they would and she goes back to the village, where she lives as an outcast, until her husband comes to kill her. Let me not spill more beans now.
I really liked the way the story flows though Salman tends to take meandering paths to get to the point, so if you are impatient, it might not really tickle you. There was one section where he went on about some parties (political) and they were all abbreviated (HDG, KIR, MJU, ALZ, BPT etc) It looked crazy but since i skipped that page, i was alright with it:-)

The last part of the book was wonderful, did not want to put it down. A really nice book, not fast paced but has parts that grip. Definately 8 out of 10.

Review by Chatterly

MESKEL

2007-01-25T12:38:00.000+03:00

I always thought of Ethiopia or Ethopia as I so fondly love to call this marvelous African gem, as a place where chics have this incredibly soft and oddishly but nice wavy hair…I still do by the way, but after reading this story my perspective of these beautiful people was refined. This land, this high land- “The roof of Africa”- is the setting of Meskel. A story about Greek immigrants that moved into Ethiopia in the early 20th century, the story is nothing but illustrious, a documentary of sorts telling graphically, a story of a people endowed with a rich culture. It is against this background that Mellina and Lucas Fanouris now Kenyan immigrants (I know!! Don’t they ever get tired of their nomadism?!) tell the 2-generation story which culminates in their fleeing their “homeland” during Mengistu Haile Mariam’s “Red Terror”, remember?
Yeah that’s the I-want-to-sound-knowledgeable-opinion; this is my raw take: I think it’s a book that you’ll be proud to read, not because its interesting but because it’s an “EthOpian family saga”, you get my drill? Yeah its those books that you’ll read for months at times putting it away so far because its exhausting to read details of some ‘immaculatte’ orthodox catholic ceremony, because, well the cover defines drab and yes sometimes it’ll leave you wondering “What the hell am I doing reading this? Isshh?”.
But hey don’t listen to me, believe it or not, I know about the “RED TERROR” now and the barbaric tyranny of Haile Mariam and the ‘glorious’ reign of the Emperor Haile Sellasie and his down fall on his 80th birthday? I forget… Anyway it’s a great book for y’all out there with literary egos and a knack for historical and socio-political literature.
In my honest opinion though, out of five yawns: I give it 3. Out of ten laughs,: I give it 0.5.
Real stories are made realer by pictures? Well you won’t be disappointed there…
Read Meskel…(1926-1981).

Review by Bantutu

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

2007-01-24T16:15:00.000+03:00

I first heard of this writer when she was featured in the Sunday Nation magazine premium stuff so no link, some time last year. I was very impressed because it was the first article that took so much space in the said paper and did not contain useless phrases like ‘ so how do you manage to balance being wife, mother, full time worker blah blah. “or alternatively “is there a man in your life.” Duh...!

Anyway on to the book.
It is a beautiful simple story through the eyes of 15 year old Nigerian girl living under the wings of a tyrannical father. At the end of it all I hated her father with such a passion, his being a tithing, not to mention generous, Christian notwithstanding. The man did not even talk to his own father because the said father had not converted to Christianity! The things he does to his own family members in the name of Christianity are abominable to say the least.

The book is an easy read most readers will have something to relate to within the story be it the unbelievable amount of corruption, hypocrisy, growing up, a girl’s first crush (even if it is a priest), university strikes, womanhood, endless blackouts, military coups.

The cover is really pretty too though you must not judge a book by that only.I plan on reading more of her books and short stories.

Other writing by the same author
http://www.ulg.ac.be/facphl/uer/d-german/L3/cnaindex.html

Review by: prousette

LOST LAKE: PHILLIP MARGOLIN

2006-12-19T14:25:00.000+03:00

I LOVE MARGOLIN! But unfortunately I hated this book.

Anyone who has read Margolin knows that his books are fast paced. I once spent the whole night reading sleeping beauty. But that’s not the book I wonna talk about. Its lost lake.

Ok let me start from the beginning, the entire book is a cliché, as you read it you get the feeling that you have read this story before. A guy was in some highly secret army unit established by (wait for it……) a guy who is now standing for president of the US of A! All the records of the unit have been inevitable expunged aaaaand made to look like the guy was in a mental hospital! YAWN. And there is the daughter of the candidate who absolutely loathes her father and AGAIN was hospitalized in a mental institute to discredit her! YAAAAWN!

The guy manages to escape from Vietnam and lives anonymously in some small town until an incident in a little league game puts him back in the spotlight and within the clutches of the presidential candidate.

This is one of those books I did not care what happened to the characters, I was not rooting for anyone to hook up with anyone else. And I hoped that at the end of the book they would ALL die, just so that the author will not be tempted to write a sequel! But alas, they all lived.

At the end there is an absolutely unbelievable, didn’t see that coming hook up! To repeat myself, I absolutely, positively hated this book. But I still love Margolin and will wait for his next book.

Currently reading Final Target by IRIS JOHANSEN.

The Devil’s Alternative-Frederick Forsyth

2006-12-05T16:08:00.000+03:00

Basically your typical story. Yani about communism, Russia, the notorious KGB or so they say.

Sawa, the story starts with a Ka-Ukrainian being rescued from the Black Sea by a fishing boat en route Turkey, then you are taken to Russia where you..aaah no!! First you go to Stato: the (in) famous West Wing, the then US Kibaki is in session with his State Sec and the Defence Sec. They are looking at surveillance pictures (motion) taken by their spy satellites.. For like 3 quarters of a dakika-they are showing cereals, then something interesting..... A guy stops walking, looks around and approaches a lone tree and pees.... at this point the prezzo is like “Am sitting in this warm office in a late spring morning watching a man urinate somewhere in the shadow of the rural mountains!” NEAT!

The point of all this is apparently to tell the prezzo that RUSSIA (that time USSR) was facing acute rain shortages that would translate to the worst famine ever to hit the soviets. Bloody capitalists!!...Think they've earned gloating rights! Then we are off to RUSSIA, the Kremlin to be exact, a meeting of the Fat cats. This is where they explain the origin of the looming famine.

From there it’s all down hill. Spanning from an assassination together with all its planning and stuff to an admittedly darn good lovvie-dovvie-thingie, from the building, commissioning and finally hijacking of the Worlds largest super tanker 1,000,000 tonnes of Crude oil to the mother of all blackmails.

Entertain yourself.

Classic suspense well researched, well interwoven. This guy has to explain the origin of all that comes to play in the story. He even explains why the peeing Brits urine was clear (Yani colourless), Biologically!! (So yes even the Brits are involved here).

Any Jack Ryan fanatics?? As usual Clancy did his best to discourage readers at least those ones like me: small print just doesn’t rub me the right way and then the thing is fatter than Debt of Honour

Oh n aah Unyc has a review on the third Kwani? compilation Y'all should check it out

TAMBUA!

Kusoma Ni tizi

Chukua kitabu ujitambue. Au vipi?

Review by: Bantutu

Summer Literary Seminars-Kenya (SLS-Kenya) 2006

2006-12-04T11:28:00.000+03:00

Nairobi and Lamu, Kenya
15-28 December 2006

Programme

The first week (15-21 December 2006) of the two-week long SLS-Kenya programme will be held in Nairobi’s Heron Court Hotel where accelerated writing workshops will be conducted by some of the most distinguished African, European and North American writers. The workshops will feature lectures and roundtable discussions on publishing and the state of East African, African, and North American writing. In addition, SLS readings will feature Anglophone African and North American poets and writers of different generations at a number of interesting venues across the city, including the University of Nairobi’s Taifa Hall, cultural centres and bookshops. SLS-Kenya will coordinate tours of the city, and participants will have an opportunity to venture outside the city centre to suburban artists’ colonies, among other activities.

The second half of the programme will take place on Lamu Island, where participants will have more opportunities to attend readings and participate in networking events involving faculty.

Contest

SLS held its first annual contest in 2006, held in affiliation with Tin House (USA) and Maisonneuve (Canada) magazines, two of the most interesting and prominent publications in North America.
The authors of the winning poem and prose entries received air fare, accommodation, and a full tuition waiver to the 2006 Summer Literary Seminars programme in Kenya, AND publication of the winning entry in one of these magazines--fiction and poetry in Tin House, non-fiction in Maisonneuve. Second place receives a full tuition waiver to SLS 2006, and third place receives a substantial tuition scholarship. Other hand-picked finalists will be offered tuition scholarships as well.

For More on the Lamu programme, click here who incidentally, has gladly volunteered to help Bookworms in the editing.

Thanks a bunch.

Cormforts of Madness

2006-12-01T14:43:00.000+03:00

The very first book review: YIPEE

THE BOOK THAT OFFERS NO COMFORTS

It’s a cold, stormy night.

Tommy the cat is wandering on my mabati roof getting his arse drenched. I could let him in, but that would be the first time a sane person has let in THIS stray cat. So I leave it alone. I sit myself on the couch, my reading one, put my feet up, snuggle under the warm blanket, light up my virtual fireplace…and turn the page…

Page 1, it’s melancholy. I fight back a tear. I fight back the second.

Page 2, 3, 4, 5…it’s all melancholy melancholy melancholy. I’m beginning to wonder why so much sadness.

Page 10, what the F? kwani, when will the sadness ever end.

I doze off at page 15. When I awake, I realize I have drooled all over page 16. I wipe it off and smudge a few words. Nothing lost. Meanwhile, Tommy has found himself a mate and by the sound of things, he’s about to get his freak on.

I struggle to get to page 30. Clearly, there’s more action on my roof than in this book.

It’s a book about some dude, a catatonic, who apparently has been confined to his wheel chair for the longest time. He can’t move a muscle. Feel a thing. All he does is see, think and be fed through a…a tube. The whole book is about what he sees and the goings on, which include experiments, at this mental facility.

But if you want to know it’s well written, I read it all the way to the end. 144 pages of anguish. By this time, I’m pissed at the author. When I finally finish the book (three days after week two) I toss the book so far, the sun will never shine on it, even if the house is brought down.

I’m wondering what the hype about this book is. Unless I, being me, ordered for the wrong book. It won an award apparently. So maybe I was wrong, but there’s no way I’m reading even the synopsis on the back cover again.

If someone can read it, cool.

The book? Comforts of Madness by Paul Sayer. Jeez.

REVIEW BY: Madcoach aka Modoathii (Told you I would acknowledge the authors)

gnitset

2006-11-30T15:50:00.000+03:00

ma Itsu gnitset ot ees fi ma llits tnetepmocni

lliw tsop ecno i dnif tuo!

FINALLY

2006-11-28T16:37:00.000+03:00

Right!
I finally got my butt off the couch (no couch not you!) and atleast started the book review blog! Phew! I feel better now.

So here is how it will work:
1. Read a good book

2. Enjoy the book

3. Write a review but DO NOT REVEAL THE ENDING ! LOL

4. Do either of the following: Send an email to kbwbookreview@yahoo.com and I will post it for you (with acknowledgements) ama send an email to the same address and I will mail you the password for the blog to enable you post without having to go through the email, or I add you onto the blog as one of the authors.

5. Bask in the glory of your beautiful review

Thank you
Half n Half