The World's Literature in Europe discussion
A-YEAR-AT-A-GLANCE CALENDAR
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2016 Calendar (in message 1)
Poingu wrote: "...it is interesting to look back and notice what has changed..."People read books for all sorts of reasons. Reading comparatively with a consideration of another time and place is truly reading historical fiction because the writer was writing for his contemporaries. Today's writers narrate the past for today's readers.
So too with bookshelves of the past. Pulling out and reading those old volumes really is to step into a bygone era.
Asma Fedosia wrote: "Dioni (Bookie Mee), both novels are classics. Whichever you want to start/oversee. Such suspense wondering about your choice. Drumroll... "Considering it's my first time to take the role in this group I'll choose the shorter one of the two then: Season of Migration to the North. I look forward to the schedule and discussion! Thanks Asma.
Dioni (Bookie Mee) wrote: "...I'll choose the shorter one of the two then: Season of Migration to the North. I look forward to the schedule and discussion!..."You're welcome, Dioni (Bookie Mee). Looking ahead to Season of Migration to the North as well. Set in Sudan, a country along the Red Sea.
Asma Fedosia wrote: "Dioni (Bookie Mee) wrote: "...I'll choose the shorter one of the two then: Season of Migration to the North. I look forward to the schedule and discussion!..."You're welcome, Dioni (Bookie Mee). ..."
My library has this and I've added it to my list. Hopefully my schedule will work out well.
Fantastic Sue and Asma. By the way you can just call me Dioni :). Bookie Mee is my book blog name, which I put just so bloggy friends would know it's me when we "meet" at goodreads.
Dioni (Bookie Mee) wrote: "Fantastic Sue and Asma. By the way you can just call me Dioni :). Bookie Mee is my book blog name, which I put just so bloggy friends would know it's me when we "meet" at goodreads."Sounds good Dioni
Sue wrote: "...Hopefully my schedule will work out well."Hope you can make the discussion of Season of Migration to the North and of other books during the African book safari!
Asma Fedosia wrote: "Sue wrote: "...Hopefully my schedule will work out well."Hope you can make the discussion of Season of Migration to the North and of other books during the African book safari!"
I do too. Hard to believe that 2016 is soon to be here and I already have many books planned. Is this book already scheduled?
Dioni (Bookie Mee) wrote: "...you can just call me Dioni :). Bookie Mee is my book blog name..."Hi, Dioni, Must say that I really like your Bookie Mee site (changing panoramic graphic; book reviews; photos) as well as your travel sites--Instagram (Meexia) and Wandering Mee.
Any month in 2016 best for you when Season of Migration is read?
Hi, Dioni, Must say that I really like your Bookie Mee site (changing panoramic graphic; book revie..."Thanks very much for the compliment and for checking them out Asma :).
I'd be fine anytime as long as I can see the schedule a couple of months in advance, but if I have to narrow it down I prefer the first half of the year.
I peeked through the upcoming books for 2016 and saw Death and the King's Horseman: A Play. I hope that's in the schedule as it piques my interest and by incredible luck I just found the book at a second hand bookshop yesterday!
Death and the King's Horseman: A Play is on the schedule, Dioni. And, The Season of Migration is going into the first half of the year. Thank you lots.
Asma Fedosia wrote: "Death and the King's Horseman: A Play is on the schedule, Dioni. And, The Season of Migration is going into the first half of the year. Thank you lots."Thanks very much Asma. I'm ready for 2016 :)
Asma Fedosia wrote: "Death and the King's Horseman: A Play is on the schedule, Dioni. And, The Season of Migration is going into the first half of the year. Thank you lots."My library has this one too!
Dioni (Bookie Mee) wrote: "...I'm ready for 2016 :) "Very good, Dioni!
Sue wrote: "My library has this one too!"A local theater company here staged Death and the King's Horseman: A Play a couple of years ago.
Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "...I've created a document in Google Drive [message 58]..."At first, the doc didn't appear a few weeks ago; today I clicked once more on the link above (message 58) and found your library of African books.
Some ideas for the naming of TWL's year in Africa?
What's the history of the names for previous years Asma?
Well, Dioni, Greece was the first year in 2010. The intention was a concentration on contemporary Greek fiction. Interests expanded the topic into classical Greece as well. Later years included Brazil and Peru, Japan, Turkey, Iceland, Asia and Oceania. After Africa (perhaps for two years) will likely come an excursion into South, Central, or Caribbean America."Asia and Down Under 2015"
"Icelandic Literature 2014"
"Excursions from Iceland 2014"
"Focus on Turkey 2013-14"
"Excursions from Turkey 2013"
"(Good 'Ole) Summertime in Japan"
"Brazil"
"Peru"
"Agora ∞ Greek Group Readings"
"Mt. Olympus ∞ Greek Myths"
"Acropolis ∞ Greek Literature"
"Epidaurus ∞ Arts and Poetry"
"Delphi ∞ Greece & A Bit After"
Hi Asma, seeing your previous post, is there anywhere I can find the reading list and discussions for Brazil?
Perhaps a simple "Year of Africa 2016"? :)I'd be very interested in the reading of South/Central/Caribbean America region, as I'm a bit lacking in these areas too.
Asma Fedosia wrote: "Some ideas for the naming of TWL's year in Africa?"I'll put forward the obvious one: [African] Safari 2016
(A safari /səˈfɑri/ is an overland journey, usually a trip by tourists to Africa.)
Melaslithos wrote: ...is there anywhere I can find the reading list and discussions for Brazil?"The books read and discussed here are listed in the Bookshelf. The categories are Brazil and Peru. The dates begun and finished are part of the Bookshelf descriptions. Melaslithos, the discussions about them are missing for several. But the group Bookshelf still is a recommended resource. Thanks for asking.
Melaslithos, the discussions about Brazilian and Peruvian books are no longer hidden from view and are now on TWL's homepage.
Dioni (Bookie Mee) wrote: "Perhaps a simple "Year of Africa 2016"? :)..."Lagullande wrote: "I'll put forward the obvious one: [African] Safari 2016..."
According to Wikipedia, the African safari is a literary genre...Verne, Haggard, Hemingway!
Asma Fedosia wrote: "Melaslithos, the discussions about Brazilian and Peruvian books are no longer hidden from view and are now on TWL's homepage."Thanks!
Sue wrote: "...Is this book already scheduled? "Dioni (Bookie Mee) wrote: "...I prefer the first half of the year...."
Yes, Season of Migration to the North is scheduled for March 7-21, 2016.
I note in an earlier post that The Meursault Investigation is planned during Jan-Feb 2016. If you are reading it on Amazon kindle, then you are lucky to scoop it up in today's holiday sale.
Asma Fedosia wrote: "If you are reading it on Amazon kindle, then you are lucky to scoop it up in today's holid..." Not in the UK it seems. But coincidentally I bought a copy a few weeks ago, so hope to join next year in the group read. And noted about the schedule for Season of Migration to the North. Thanks Asma.
Asma, do we have a final list of the 2016 African books yet?
Dioni (Bookie Mee) wrote: "...hope to join next year in the group read. And noted about the schedule for Season of Migration to the North ..."That title and author will be a first for me.
Maggie wrote: "...do we have a final list of the 2016 African books yet?"Hi, Maggie,
Yes, there is a tentative list:
¬NEW YEAR'S EVE/DAY ring out the old year and ring in the new with "Fafnir". TWL member James Yagley's curated excerpts about money.
¬Things Fall Apart (Nigeria) January 3-23
¬Death and the King's Horseman: A Play (Nigeria) January 24-30
¬The Joys of Motherhood (Nigeria)Death Of an Ancient King (Africa) January 31-February 20
¬The Meursault Investigation (Algeria) February 21-March 6, moderator: Don
¬Season of Migration to the North (Sudan) March 7-21, moderator: Dioni
¬The Spider's House (Morocco) March 22-May 2, introduced by poingu
http://digibug.ugr.es/bitstream/10481...
¬The Cairo Trilogy: Palace Walk / Palace of Desire / Sugar Street (Egypt)Background:¬The Fishermen (Nigeria) September 3-October 4
http://www.aucpress.com/t-aboutnm.asp...
http://www.sam-network.org/video/trib...
1. Palace Walk May 3-June 20
2. Palace of Desire June 21-August 1
3.Sugar Street August 2-September 2
¬The Book of Chameleons (Angola) October 5-22
¬Ancestor Stones (Sierra Leone, West Africa) October 23- November 24, moderator: Maggie
¬ The Automobile Club of Egypt (Egypt) November 25-January 23, 2017
¬African Safari stories by Ernest Hemingway: "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" and "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" (Africa) January 24-30, 2017.
2016 AFRICAN FESTIVAL CHALLENGE: Pair up at random these festivals with the following books or with your choice of African books and read the books.If you read at least six about Africa, then you win the challenge.
FestivalsPANAFEST PAN AFRICAN HISTORICAL FESTIVAL (Cape Coast & Accra, Ghana) December 2015
FESTIMA MASKED DANCE TROUPES (Dedougou, Burkina Faso) February 27-March 5
SPLASHY FEN MUSIC FESTIVAL (Underberg, South Africa) March 24-26
MAWAZINE FESTIVAL RHYTHMS OF THE WORLD (Rabat, Morocco) May 20-28
FES FESTIVAL OF WORLD SACRED MUSIC (Fes, Morocco) May 6-14
OPPIKOPPI FESTIVAL (South Africa) August 5-7
WODAABE GEREWOL & CURE SALEE (In-Gall, Niger) September
INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF THE SAHARA (Douz, Tunisia) November
BooksIn Arabian Nights: A Caravan of Moroccan Dreams (Morocco) 400p
Birds of Amber (Egypt) 416p
http://www.aucpress.com/p-2675-birds-...
Half of a Yellow Sun (Nigeria) 562p
The Poisonwood Bible (Belgian Congo) 576p
Dust (Kenya) 384p
The Tuner of Silences (Mozambique) 234p
A Bend in the River (postcolonial Africa) 290p
West with the Night (Kenya) 306p
The Joys of Motherhood
Annotated list of translated African books, pp 8-30
Thanks. Good list. I can lead Ancestor Stones.
Thank you, Maggie. Browsing through the synopsis of it, I think I like it.
Great list Asma! I'll definitely be joining a few of these. I'm interested to read the Cairo Trilogy but it's a big chunk of reading time to dedicate, so I'll be deciding closer to time whether I'm going to join just the first one or all three.
Dioni (Bookie Mee) wrote: "...I'll definitely be joining a few of these.."You indicated in an earlier post that you probably wanted to read the first book of the Cairo trilogy :) I altered the scheduled to include a recently published Egyptian novel: The Automobile Club of Egypt.
Where is West Africa? In four illustrated articles about West Africa, the written, spoken, and symbolized culture about it is in a current exhibition.
Asma Fedosia wrote: "Where is West Africa? In four illustrated articles about West Africa, the written, spoken, and symbolized culture about it is in a current exhibition."Beautiful, but I wonder why they highlighted that area. Is the culture there perceived to be more advanced, more beautiful, more well rounded, . . . than the rest of the continent? Perhaps, it was just easier to pinpoint since that is a commonly used term for that part of Africa.
Maggie wrote: "Beautiful, but I wonder why they highlighted that area...."First, the West African region consists of similarities among the cultures there. Second, to West Africa flowed enormous intellectual activity and material across the Sahara. That bit of history is not widely known, says a British Library blog. The cultural transmission included: manuscripts for libraries and homes, music, traditional stories orally transmitted for generations, etc. In Timbuktu, Mali, a major transferral of manuscripts at great personal risk took place to safeguard the materials. Great effort was undertaken to transfer, bury, digitize, and smuggle the historical material from their original places of safekeeping. The preservation of centuries-old learning and culture in West Africa is a concern to Mali, UNESCO, the British Library, etc.
Interesting. Thanks for that information. It will, no doubt, help in our Africa reading.
Readers, A couple small changes were made to the tentative list, and an African reading guide was added at the bottom. What do you think?
Schedule
¬NEW YEAR'S EVE/DAY-January 2: ring out the old year and ring in the new with "Fafnir". TWL member James Yagley's curated excerpts about money.
¬Things Fall Apart (Nigeria) January 3-23
¬Death and the King's Horseman: A Play (Nigeria) January 24-30
¬Death Of an Ancient King (Africa) January 31-February 20
¬The Meursault Investigation (Algeria) February 21-March 6, moderator: Don
¬Season of Migration to the North (Sudan) March 7-21, moderator: Dioni
¬The Spider's House (Morocco) March 22-May 2, introduced by poingu
http://digibug.ugr.es/bitstream/10481...
¬The Cairo Trilogy: Palace Walk / Palace of Desire / Sugar Street (Egypt)
Background:¬The Fishermen (Nigeria) September 3-October 4
http://www.aucpress.com/t-aboutnm.asp...
http://www.sam-network.org/video/trib...
1. Palace Walk May 3-June 20
2. Palace of Desire June 21-August 1
3.Sugar Street August 2-September 2
¬The Book of Chameleons (Angola) October 5-22
¬Ancestor Stones (Sierra Leone, West Africa) October 23- November 24, moderator: Maggie
¬ The Poisonwood Bible (Belgian Congo) November 25-January 23, 2017 (date may change), moderator Maggie
¬African Safari stories by Ernest Hemingway: "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" and "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" (Africa) January 24-30, 2017, readable at Wikilivres, "The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway".
Bonus Challenge
2016 AFRICAN FESTIVAL LITERARY CHALLENGE: Pair up at random these festivals with the following books or with your choice of African books and read the books. If you read at least six about Africa, then you win the challenge. Festival attendance is optional.
FestivalsPANAFEST PAN AFRICAN HISTORICAL FESTIVAL (Cape Coast & Accra, Ghana) December 2015
FESTIMA MASKED DANCE TROUPES (Dedougou, Burkina Faso) February 27-March 5
SPLASHY FEN MUSIC FESTIVAL (Underberg, South Africa) March 24-26
MAWAZINE FESTIVAL RHYTHMS OF THE WORLD (Rabat, Morocco) May 20-28
FES FESTIVAL OF WORLD SACRED MUSIC (Fes, Morocco) May 6-14
OPPIKOPPI FESTIVAL (South Africa) August 5-7
WODAABE GEREWOL & CURE SALEE (In-Gall, Niger) September
INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF THE SAHARA (Douz, Tunisia) November
BooksIn Arabian Nights: A Caravan of Moroccan Dreams (Morocco) 400p
Birds of Amber (Egypt) 416p
http://www.aucpress.com/p-2675-birds-...
Half of a Yellow Sun (Nigeria) 562p
The Automobile Club of Egypt (Egypt) 496p
Dust (Kenya) 384p
The Tuner of Silences (Mozambique) 234p
A Bend in the River (postcolonial Africa) 290p
West with the Night (Kenya) 306p
The Joys of Motherhood (Nigeria) 224p
Annotated list of translated African books, pp 8-30, 38+
Asma Fedosia wrote: "Readers,
A couple small changes were made to the tentative list, and an African reading guide was added at the bottom. What do you think?
..."
Looks fantastic. Thanks Asma!
A couple small changes were made to the tentative list, and an African reading guide was added at the bottom. What do you think?
..."
Looks fantastic. Thanks Asma!
The list is wonderful, if perhaps a bit ambitious. Depending on where you place it, I may be able to lead The Poisonwood Bible, too.
Don wrote: "Looks fantastic. Thanks..."You're welcome, Don. Thanks for the say-so!
Maggie wrote: "...Depending on where you place it, I may be able to lead The Poisonwood Bible, too."One option is to exchange The Automobile Club of Egypt, November 25-January 23, 2017, for The Poisonwood Bible .
Currently that will work for me, but my vacations (which often depend on the plans of others) have not been set yet. I may need to move the start date if something gets set in the way. Okay with you?
Maggie wrote: "... I may need to move the start date if something gets set in the way."I agree. My vacation occurs during Palace Walk. Thank you.
Wanda wrote: "Great Africa list, Asma."Wow, thank you for the compliment.
The World's Literature in Europe
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Dioni (Bookie Mee), both novels are classics. Whichever you want to start/oversee. Such suspense wondering about your choice. Drumroll...