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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Interupting regular book schedule to let you all know that yesterday, I met @tayari - #WomensPrize winner 2019 who happens to be everything you've probably heard she is. Brilliant, funny, kind. More photos in my highlights. As I approached her, she said "Sooo cute. Cute glasses, cute hair, everything cute" ☺☺ 📚💃 If you've followed me for a bit, you'll know that "An American Marriage" is one of the best books I read this year. I raved so much about it and you can find my review if you scroll down a bit. 📚 "How do y'all take these very pretty photos of books?" thats what Aunty T said to me when I was trying to juggle her memory by showing her my account and the time I posted her book and she liked it. Best believe I had my fangirling game tight yesterday. Tayari is my aunty now. 📚 My aunty T arrived London on a boat a few days ago. When I said "Cool, a boat, definitely that was relaxing enough to get some writing done then?" She said "nope, the boat was rocking and rocking" 🤣 She did the rocking gesture with so much theatrics too. 📚 Fun Gist. Tayari told me that anytime anyone comes to the book signing line with a bootleg copy of her book, she gets them a new one, because no one deserves pirated books. 👌 📚 Also, Tayari deleted her #Twitter. Probably because y'all are so toxic there. Urghh. Loved meeting you maam, thank you for this beautiful, heartbreaking but compassionate story that forces the mind to be objective even in the face of hurt and to understand again and again that human beings are deeply flawed. 📚 Thank you @waterstones for putting up an amazing event. Thank you to the nice lady (staff) who gave me the postit to write my name on and took photos of me with Tayari. She went all out. Found about ten photos by the time she handed me my phone back. . . . . #bookstgramevents #bookish #bookblogger #AnAmericanMarriage #Fiction #bookstagram #readersofIG

In August, I was reading short stories on the @newyorkermag website and came across "Motherless Child" by Elizabeth Strout and I loved it from the first paragraph. I searched for everything else by the author and found this book called Olive Kitteridge which is the name of the lead character in the short story I read. 📚 I may have found the author I want to be like when I grow because up more than an enjoyable read, this was a fantastic learning resource for me. It's not surprising that it is a Pulitzer winner. 📚 This book is about ordinary human living - happiness, weddings, snow, sickness, fishing, burial, work but the reason it is such an amazing book is in how Strout writes such everyday characters with so much weight, so much bigness. We are introduced to Olive who carries the book all the way to the end even though every chapter is a separate story. Through her eyes, the reader is able to see all other characters a little more broadly than the assumptions we've made of their behaviour. Olive doesn't rub the reader as a nice person but that's ok because she's not horrible either. She's not either-or. Just a (complex) human being who feels slightly intimidated by her daughter-inlaw for example. Olive in one of the stories takes one leg of her daughter-in-law's shoes and throws in the bin just so the young woman can experience what it must feel like to make other people feel small or second guess themselves in a way that's almost delusional. It's a tiny gesture but a human one too. 📚 Strout is able to bring the intricacies of the human conditon to her characters, more than good or bad or teacher and wife, the reader is able to explore the actual feelings of chatacters, like jealousy, fear, which then leads to realising the real reason for their behaviour. I applaud greatly, Strout's ability to create such relatable characters with tiny gestures like how they eat and what they are thinking. I understand its not a favourite for quite a number of people but I loved reading this and studying character development in this book has helped my writing a lot. I highly recommend. . . . . #bookstgram #bookblogger #olivekitteridge #bookphotogtaphy #fiction

One week ago at the #4thestatelive event which @livmarmar graciously invited me to, I got a preview into some of the books coming out from @4thestatebooks in 2020 and I can't wait to read and share with you as I dive into them all. There are a few photos on my Twitter. I'll put some in my highlights maybe. 📚 I'm forever bias to the #HalfOfAYellowSun tote from the last event in February but this #HilaryMantel one is beautiful too. 2020 is that you in books?😎 All the synopsis here are engaging. So, fingers crossed. Are you looking forward to any authors in 2020? Yaa Gyasi has a new book out in 2020, so that's definitely exciting. . . . . . #bookstagram #bookevent #bookishphotography #hilarymantel #bookblogger #writersofig #readersofIG #fiction

In the past few months, I have had quite a number of writing deadlines and so, my reading has been mostly for study not necessarily pleasure. Hence, no book reviews. Thankfully, the two can mix well some times. As a writer (eishhh), I study character development in other people's stories, observe the momentum of a story arc, examine dialogue formation, etc. Hard to do that then equally observe as a reader effectively. Some of my deadlines have resulted in good things, some not so much but the plan is to continue to keep doing the work. Keep putting in the effort. 📚 On Monday, I was awarded second place for the #MoSiewcherran fiction manuscript prize and I'm still wobbly from the idea of it. I am not up to speed yet with the number of messages I need to respond to on my WhatsApp and social media. 📚 In addition to my prize money, @dialoguebooks gifted me a tote full of books all pictured and I'm enormously thankful for the joy that books bring me. As I come out of this phase of back to back writing deadlines and reading to study, I will be sinking gently into these books which are a brilliant blend of fiction and non-fiction and I will gently shift towards reading for pleasure and begin reviewing again. Especially looking forward to reading "The private joys of Nnnena Maloney", because the author's name sounds like my fellow country man. 🙂 📚 I am so thankful for the last few months, the mental energy expended and the results. The rejections too, which I will talk about soon, but not today. What I have today is gratitude to God. And thanks to everyone for sticking around, for engaging, for clicking links to my stories and essays, for recommending stuff to me, for being a community of kind people. E se pupo *** I will post a few photos from the award ceremony in my insta-stories. I met @candicec_w who was one of the judges and @shar_love_ publisher of @dialoguebooks and lots of more interesting reader-writers like me. . . . . . #bookstagram #bookish #bookblogger #writersofIG #readersofIG #bookishphotography #books #authors

My travel essay is up on the @catapult story site. . . Here, I write about what it means to leave Nigeria, to have hope for your country that eventually disipates, the erasure of the spices and taste of my childhood and how when everything becomes awful because of the green passport you carry, Nigerian music remains the only saving grace. I wrote all of this based on a recent trip to #Positano in Italy and I hope you enjoy reading it . . . Link in my bio.. . . . . #essay #travel #nonfiction #Italy

I spy with my little eyes, a name that begins with T. 💃💃💃 . . . Delightful news. Congratulations to the other seven people on this shortlist. . . . *** Thank you all for the nice messages already pouring in and thank you for wanting to read my book too. There's no link to this work just yet. This was judged based off the synopsis and the first three chapters of my manuscript - Alien, Go Home, which is my first fiction novel I am working on. It made it to the longlist last month which was exciting, but to be on the shortlist is monumental for me and I am so grateful. . . . Thank you, judges for seeing this work. I feel a little under pressure now because of course, this novel needs to come through real quick, but I am so so so grateful for where I'm at right now with it. Ese, Mercie, Grazie, Thanks I need a new dress to wear to the award ceremony now, don't I? 🙂 . . . . #bookstagram #bookblogger #manuscript #moprize #bookprize

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