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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Elsewhere, Home by Leila Aboulela is a collection of short stories that explores immigrant stories of characters from Africa and the Middle East in Scotland and England. I have been to Aberdeen and I live in London so you can imagine that the book was so beautifully familiar. 📚 I understood without effort stories of a partner going to work offshore while pregnant in Aberdeen, the appeal of the Christmas lights on Oxford street in London and the ease of family life in Abu Dhabi. All of these have been my experience, so the stories felt like parts of me being explored. 📚 Another familiar thing was how a Nigerian character featured in quite a few stories, even if subtly, like in fashion in education etc. I loved them all, but "Majed" is the story that I remember the most. I don't think this means it is the one I like the most but it plays in my head quite often. 📚 I understand that short stories are not many people's cup of tea. They end too abrubtly and probabaly even need a technique to reading them. I'm a short story fan and this was very enjoyable. Immigrant stories are beautiful and delicate and intimate and this isn't an exception. It's not even necessarily told from that - oh woe is us, look at us, pity us because we've had to leave home angle that immigrant stories approach from, It's just normal, beautiful, daily stories happening to people who happen to be living elsewhere, home. 📚 The final story in the collection "Pages of Fruit" is based off the relationship a reader has with an author just by reading all their works. Didn't realise a beautiful story could be written based on fangirling and its potential toxicity. I loved this collection and I 100% recommend. . . . . #bookstagram #bookblogger #immigration #bookphotography #bookish #literature #shortstories #fiction #potd #cactus #Aberdeen #London #Africa #MiddleEast

Jumping on the #mapmyshelf challenge after seeing Claire of @always_need_more_books do it. The first book that came to mind was Taiye Selasi's #GhanaMustGo but I didn't find it on my shelf which means it is in #Lagos These are the book titles I found - 📚 Birds of America by Mary McCarthy A year in Jamaica by Diana Lewes Welcome to Lagos by Chibundu Onuzo London Train by Tessa Hadley A Brief history of Bali by Willard A Hanna Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jnr On Chesil beach by Ian McEwan 📚 I found #TheTattooistofAuschwitz only after I was done taking the photo and putting the books back in the shelf. Lol. So there's that. #QOTD - Top of your head, what's a book title you can think of with the name of a place? . . . . . . #bookstagram #booksfromaroundtheworld #bookish #bookphotography #map #autumn #Shelfie #challenge #potd #bookblogger #literature #fiction #nonfiction #essays #WelcometoLagos #Lagos #LondonTrain #London #BirdsofAmerica #America #MLK #IanMcEwan #Jamaica #Bali

A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF HEAVEN by Mathangi Subramanian Thank you @oneworldpublication for sending me this copy in June. This book invites you in with promise, big promise - The story of a transgender christian convert, a blind girl who loves to dance, a queer daughter of a hijabi union leader and a politically driven activist. 📚 The interwoven story of each girl is told from within the rusty walls of Swargahalli, a slum with broken signage that reads as Swarga, which translates in Sanskrit to Heaven. The language of the book is poetic, and full of such colourful imagery, you mostly forget it is set in a slum. 📚 Shiny high-rise buildings are springing up in Bangalore, a fast growing city in India, and the Heaven community is constantly trying to ward off the government from demolishing the 30 year old slum using the unique story and friendship of the girls to drive the story. 📚 Unfortunately, the promise and imagery of this book is also its undoing, because somewhere around the middle, the character of these magnificient girls we are introduced to begins to fall flat, the colourful language becomes tiring to keep up with. I can't tell who is who or what's happening. It feels like a puddle of too many things. I didn't realise until more than halfway reading that a glossary for the character was provided in the book. Maybe it would have helped. I feel though that it shouldn't be that difficult to keep up with characters. There's atleast eighteen active ones in this book. 📚 I also couldn't figure who was narrating. Sometimes, the voice felt like one of the girls, othertimes, it was an omniscient voice looking in to tell the story. 📚 The first thing I wrote down in my review book for this story is - Fast paced and loving it. Shame it sank after that but picked up again towards the end. I wish it maintained the 100% energy from start to finish or at least began on a 20 and advanced gently into 100 The writing is very poetic and even with the frustrations I've highlighted, I'll still recommend it as a good read. 📚 A People's History of Heaven is out in #hardback tomorrow, 5th September from @oneworldpublications . . . . #bookstagram #fiction

September already looks busy, but these are the books I'm hoping to read this month. So help me God. I can not confirm if I wouldn't derail to other books should I find something of worth, but this is the plan for now. Spot any favourite? What are you reading? . . . . . . #bookstagram #Literature #bookish #bibliophile #Autumn #EndofSummer #readingchallenge #bookphotography #fiction #nonfiction

BACK TO SCHOOL. If you still have a week before your kids resume for a new school year, this is the best time to gently ease them back into their normal routine. Back to structured bed time, meal schedule, work plan, etc. Pack up the Xbox, return to slow WiFi (they may swear for you with this one though so I'm not here🤣) etc. ✍ Return to usual chores. Let them resume doing everything that you let pass during the holidays - laying their beds in the morning, washing up immediately after eating. Remind them that holiday is over. Don't shock their bodies on the 9th of September. Start gently now. ✍ All the best this season, dear parents. May your account never lack school fees and after school funds. May your kids find socks that match every morning. May they not come home with only one shoe. May tuck shop money be enough, may you not run out of lunchbox ideas, may inspiration for hairstyles for your girls come freely, may the boys be happy to visit the barbers. May PTA meeting be on the right day/right time. May they remember homework without you shouting. May school supply not finish in two weeks. May school commute be easy, may they remember the class reading report when you are at home, not almost at the school gate. ✍ May grades improve too. May they not be bullied, may they not be the bullies. May they love reading. May they choose kindness always. Happy Back to School Season. Parents, you have my absolute best wishes 🤣 Xx . . . . #bookstagram #school #education #holiday #books #bookish #bookworm

B for Bank holiday. Feeling super lazy this holiday Monday so I've recycled this photo from exactly one year ago. Summer bank holiday 2018. Loads of people are out in the 33° sun today, which is so exciting because wow, how lucky for the UK to be experiencing this much sun at the end of August. How are you spending your free day if you are in the UK? What are you reading if you aren't? I'm trying to finish "A people's History of Heaven" and getting my short story fix from Leila Abouleila's "Elsewhere Home." Loving both. I am also curating my September reads, I want to believe I have a good list. We'll see. Who is looking forward to #Autumn? . . . . . #bookstagram #bookish #bookphotography #Bankholiday #Summerreads #summer #bookphotography #holiday #literature #bookblogger #POTD

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