Tope Owolabi

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Category: Book Review

CRAZY RICH ASIANS by Kevin Kwan

My initial idea for props for this photo was to attempt to use some designer stuff I have but then it occurred to me that with #CrazyRichAsians designer and designer aren’t quite on the same level so I respected myself. #CrazyRichAsians is your typical love story – Boy meets girl, girl has no clue boy…

BIRTHMARKED

Author – Marvellous Michael (Nigerian) Genre – Crime fiction Number of pages – 317 Independently published at Patridge Africa. My very first thought while reading Birthmarked last year was that the dialogue is better suited for film.

PACHINKO REVIEW

Author – Min Jin Lee. Publisher – Apollo (an imprint of Head of Zeus) Number of Pages – 537 Pachinko has been quite tough for me to review because it is quite easy to hate it for the very reasons you love other books like it, and I will explain what I mean….

Sympathy is more complicated then we think: A Review of THE THINGS WE NEVER SAY: A Family History, by Amara Nicole Okolo.

Alithnayn Abdulkareem has written this review on Amara Nicole Okolo’s spectacular memoir story – THE THINGS WE NEVER SAY; A FAMILY HISTORY, published in August by Catapult. You can read here if you haven’t or just for a refresher to understand it better. The story is so heavy and so dense a second read has had me…

APRIL BOOK REVIEW – HOMEGOING

AUTHOR: Yaa Gyasi (Ghanaian) GENRE: Historical Fiction PUBLISHER/YEAR OF PUBLICATION: Viking (Inprint of Penguin) PRICE: £12.99 NUMBER OF PAGES: 305 (my copy)

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Last week, work got in the way of efficient reading so unfortunately didn't finish the book meant for review today. Work always means money, so I'm not mad. Hahaha. Anyway I thought I would share one of my favourite bookish things instead. JOURNALS. I think I also might continue this, atleast until I've exhausted all the favourite things. So, apart from loving to read, I love to write. From writing that brings me money to writing that remains in my draft, writing has always been important to my general well being. I have a journal for every phase of my life and a journal is one of two properties I've ever lost that saddens me till this day. In my bedside drawer alone, there are ten and none are empty. I have use for them all. One of them is this beautiful one from the #Sanaa collection from @littartbyai. I first discovered @littartbyai in 2017. I have made only three purchases since then, but each one has outdone the other in terms of quality and creativity which makes me so proud. Beautiful, handmade, fabric covered notebooks that stand out. I've never not been asked - "Where did you get that from?" There are about five patterns in this collection, but #red is my favourite colour so it wasn't difficult to decide which one I wanted. When I read books for review, I usually jot a few points I want to bring up in a bookmark or in my phone so I don't forget. I have decided to now write them in the A5 size one. It's small enough to fit any bag and I know that in years to come, when the @nytimes or @newyorkermag or possibly the @guardian comes to ask me to work with them as a book/literary critic, it will be a fantastic resource I can look back at to remember my earlier years of reviewing books on instagram. . . . ***Update - While I was taking this photo, the note that was left in the journal struck me. "Everything good will come." Isn't it so promising for my literary critic dreams? 😊 Amazing!!! What's a favourite thing you want to tell or show me? #Books #decor #cars #art 👇 . . . . . #bookstagram #Bookish #favouritethings #journaling #bookphotography #bibliophile #bookblogger #writersofig #readersofig

WHO TOLD YOU THAT YOU WERE NAKED? Gen 3 Ever read this scripture and wondered why eating from the tree of knowledge was forbidden? I mean, it is knowledge. Since when was knowledge a bad thing? The serpent deceived Eve by saying you won't die, you'll only truly see what's going on (MSG) And here exactly is where the problem lies. What is going on isn't your business if God says it isn't. In our daily living, we will be confronted by the knowledge of the world around us, conveniently backed up with statistics and data. Statistics that show that women over 45 cannot have children. Examples that show that you must have cracked your desired industry by age 25 if you really want to make it. Twitter threads that tell you that you can't love again after trust has been broken before. We are eating of the tree of the knowledge of our world, digesting what God did not say. You are being traumatised that your own life isn't following the popular path of school - marriage - kids, carrying shame from a previous event like getting pregnant at 18 or not getting pregnant after 10 years of marrige, you are internalising fears arising from the knowledge that statistics show ''kids from divorced homes are very likely to grow up and divorce too.'' So you take the statistics and run with it. But did God who created you and knows your end from your beginning say any of these things? Eating from the tree is what let Adam and Eve suddenly realise one fact that God had basically been shielding them from. The fact that they were naked. When they had no knowledge of what nakedness was, there was no need to be ashamed. The tree of knowledge represents why we must get to the point where we are able to trust God's decision for our lives completely without consulting anything or letting anyone's input matter. We must trust God's plan for us enough to not wonder about alternate knowledge. The sin of Eden wasn't just disobedience, it was choosing the knowledge of the world over the sovereignty of God. #Bookstagram #Bookphotography #Bookish #Bible #BibleJournaling #Biblesxcoffee #Devotion #faithblogger #biblestudy #Genesis

A Stranger's Pose by Emmanuel Iduma. This book is part travel memoir and part essays based on photographs and photography - many taken or seen during the author's travel across many African cities from Casablanca to Addis Ababa. Call it travel memoir and you will be right. Call it a collection of essays based on photos and you will be correct too. Biggest feat with this work for me is Iduma being able to write about mundane moments and things. Don't get me wrong, photography is not mundane. Photographs definitely tell a thousand stories. However, Iduma's stories have nothing (mostly) to do with the subject(s) of the photograph but his own previous encounters - which sort of remind him of those photos. Sounds complicated but its why I think it is a brilliant piece of work. To remember items of clothing like a Daraa or worn out shoes then write encounters that trigger nostalgic memories of home, friendship, country, love etc is a gift. Reading this felt like collecting memorabilia, like fridge magnets from a new country, only this time they are not tangible like fridge magnets, they are things that remain in your mind. Like a coca cola signage that's the same everywhere or a moment from childhood. Chapter 15 and 38 are two that made me want to ask questions of the subjects. The author in Chapter 15 on seeing a stack of portraits of people in his wardrobe remembers Serge in Abidjan who was arrested. He can't remember which face belongs to Serge from the stack unfortunately, and this leaves me wondering for a long time about him. Has he been released? Did he have to be arrested? Does he have family, etc. I don't think A Stranger's Pose is for everyone and I don't mean this in a bad way. It's one of those - you enjoy this style of writing or you don't. So I can't even rate it based on other travel essays because it's not your typical travel essay. I liked it. You may cringe at some overly forced sentences but they read like poetry to me. If you don't like Teju Cole's essays, I promise you can attempt Emmanuel Iduma. #OKBye 🙈 . . . . #bookstgram #nonfiction #travelogue #essays #bookish #NigerianAuthor #photography #bookphotography #daffodils #readersofig

I've just finished reading #LittleFiresEveryWhere by Celeste Ng and while I'm still contemplating whether to file it under YA Fiction or Adult Fiction, I'll say that it is first and foremost a beautiful read regardless of your style. I enjoyed this book not only for the deliciously mysterious story but for the way it brought techniques of writing I've learnt to life for me. I read books for pleasure, yes, but I read also to learn what to not do in my writing. It was like learning theory in class and doing practical in the lab. Character development in this novel ladies and gentlemen is a solid 10 over 10 and that for me was the major mover and shaker of the story. You know how usually, the major character carries the story, maybe the antagonist too and the rest are an appendage? Not the case with #LittleFiresEverywhere. Every single character was visually captivating. So vivid in their roles that I cannot imagine this novel written any other way without them. The scene of the opening and closing chapter are the same day, after a fire burns the Richardson family house to the ground, with everyone immediately suspecting Izzy, (the last born of the Richardson kids) who people had gossiped about for the longest time to be slightly off. In between is an unfolding story of stolen babies, lies, custody battle, precocious teenage years, abortion, community, motherhood and a inherent human need to escape when everything becomes too much. My small grouse with the book is the near collapse of the climax. Something nearly didn't come through the pages for me at the very end considering how much mystery the story begins with. Other than that, which to be honest I'm happy to disregard, I loved it. One of my best things about this book is the humanity of all the characters. It's a thing I've particularly decided to be conscious of. That most of the time, everyone deserves more than one chance. That no matter how foolish, mean, kind, friendly we appear to be, there's usually something beneath the surface that hasn't been scratched. This thing I think is what makes all of us human and must be dealt delicately with on an individual basis.

First read and review of the year is We Must be brave by Frances Liardet. @4thestatebooks sent me this proof copy last year and I've finished it just in time for its February 7th release date. Set during WWII England, Ellen Parr finds a child "abandoned" on a bus as German bombs are dropping on Southampton, raises her as hers and lives with the comfort of being saved by the one she saved but also with the tension that soon, someone will come for her and she would have to give her up. As with many war books, I found I was overwhelmed with sadness reading this. The author did a great job conveying the emotion of loss so beautifully. Trying not to give any spoilers as this book isn't even out yet however, I'll be monitoring the hashtag on #bookstagram, as I really want to discuss the brazen way delicate life issues were written. If this is a function of society at the time the author was trying to portray. Apart from the abandoned child, there are flashbacks into the life of Ellen which I thought were a bit too long. I'm certain many pages could have been done without. It was a case of me being tempted to skip whole chapters not because I was eager to find out the end but because the pages didn't necessarily move the story along. If you liked Anthony Doer's Pulitzer winning "All The Light We Cannot See", equally published by @4thestatebooks , you'll very likely like this too. Enjoyed the use of English as it was the old type. Cant wait to see what the final copy looks like. #WEMUSTBEBRAVE is out in all your favourite book stores on the 7th of February 2019. . . . . . #Fiction #WWII #England #Bibliophile #AllTheLightWeCannotSee #bookish #bookreview #HistoricalFiction #ReadersofIG

Happy New Year, people. I hope we had a restful holiday season? I did. Last year (2018), was mostly tough for me with many things and so, inadvertently, my book reviews on here took a downturn. Truth is, I couldn't keep up. At some point, I wasn't even reading as much, speak less of being able to write out a review. The few books I read took me forever to finish. I was winging it half the time but knew genuinely that I was struggling. So after a while, I concentrated on just reading for my own pleasure to ease myself of the pressure of posting reviews here. Hoping that I am able to jump back on the wagon this year as I genuinely love to post these reviews and talk about authors and publishers, booksellers and libraries. But no pressure. I don't have goals of how many books I intend to read this year. Perhaps because I've been there done that with that phase.💁Nor do I have any must read authors. I just want to enjoy literature in all its forms. I don't plan on chasing bestsellers and prize shortlists this year. I just want to read at my pace and enjoy, starting with all the books currently on my shelf that I started previously but didn't finish and ones that I've owned for over a year but haven't started at all. This is not to say that I won't be buying anymore books. Hahaha. I will never not buy books, infact these two in the photo are newly bought and as you can see they are just two little books that look like joy and happiness. Not necessarily books that explore this and that. They represent the goodness and joy I want my year of reading to be like. I hope you all have a magnificent year ahead, prospering at work or school and life. Thankful for this community, for all your DM's and for sticking around too. For reading everything I write that ever gets published, thank you. . . . . . #bookstagram #ikigai #hygee #bookclubofinstagram #bookish #flatlay #Danish #Japan #literature #newyear #booklover

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