Numbers Selected

[Diane , Head Librarian]

Tinea wrote: "Hi Diane, will you start over calling numbers for 2020? I love this challenge and hope it keeps going."

Will do. This month's number will be announced late, though, to give participants time to adjust their lists.

[Diane , Head Librarian]

January's number is 20. You may continue to make any changes to your list until the end of 2019.

What will you be reading?

[Wim, French Readings]

I'll be reading Desertion by Abdulrazak Gurnah, my first book by this author. It was a group read a couple of years ago but I never got to reading the book...

[Tinea, Nonfiction Logistician]

I'll read Amazons of Black Sparta: The Women's Regiment of Dahomey for Benin as I round out my missed stops on the Tour d'Afrique. My library didn't have many options for Benin, but I was choosing between this one and Wives of the Leopard: Gender, Politics, and Culture in the Kingdom of Dahomey which looks interesting but a little too heavy for the moment.

[Diane , Head Librarian]

I will be reading Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta.

[Wim, French Readings]

Diane wrote: "I will be reading Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta."

Great Diane, I really loved that book!

[Anetq, Tour Operator & Guide]

I will be reading Xala by Ousmane Sembène - this yellowing paperback from a library with very very small print has been staying with me for too long, it is time!

[Diane , Head Librarian]

Anetq wrote: "I will be reading Xala by Ousmane Sembène - this yellowing paperback from a library with very very small print has been staying with me for too long, it is time!"

Great book!

[Anetq, Tour Operator & Guide]

Thank you I hope I'll like it - it's been lying around for way too long :)

[Margaret]

Where do we find the list? I don’t understand this challenge. I don’t find any lists.

[Anetq, Tour Operator & Guide]

Margaret wrote: "Where do we find the list? I don’t understand this challenge. I don’t find any lists."

Hi Margaret - you make your own list, in this folder: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group...

[Anetq, Tour Operator & Guide]

Rules for this challenge here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Good luck :)

[Anetq, Tour Operator & Guide]

Anetq wrote: "I will be reading Xala by Ousmane Sembène - this yellowing paperback from a library with very very small print has been staying with me for too long, it is time!"

Done!! I am loving this challenge already!
Xala was in deed a great book - and I am also relieved to take it off my dusty pile of long-term library loans!

[Wim, French Readings]

Anetq wrote: "Done!! I am loving this challenge already!
Xala was in deed a great book - and I am also relieved to take it off my dusty pile of long-term library loans!"


Happy you liked it: I also love Ousmane Sembène's books. My favorite is L'\Harmattan, but it is hard to find...
I still have to read Xala.

[Cam]

I've only read God's Bits of Wood and really loved it, but thanks Wim and Anetq for the recommendations, I'll look up some of his other works!
I will be reading Tropical Fish: Tales from Entebbe by Doreen Baingana, which I swapped into my list as an afterthought as my list had become a bit Nigeria-heavy.

[Diane , Head Librarian]

February's number is 5.

What will you be reading?

[Diane , Head Librarian]

I will be reading Butterfly Burning by Zimbabwean author Yvonne Vera. I read another of her books (The Stone Virgins) a few years ago and enjoyed it.

[Anetq, Tour Operator & Guide]

I will be reading The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I absolutely loved her Half of a Yellow Sun but the rest of her books have just been piling up around me while I have been reading other things...

[Cam]

Exciting! I will be reading Thomas Sankara Speaks: The Burkina Faso Revolution 1983-87.

[Tinea, Nonfiction Logistician]

La guerre du Cameroun. L’invention de la Françafrique-- I'm going for it!!

Cam, I'm still winding my way through the Oct-Dec Nonfiction read on Burkina Faso, just got through the incredible chapter on the Sankara years. So many great quotes in there. I'm interested how the speeches read by themselves. Enjoy!

[PS, Short Story Reading Chief]

I’ll be reading On the Postcolony by Achille Mbembe. I’ve ordered a copy from my university library and skimmed through the ebook - looks appropriately dense. But I seem to be drowning in literary/cultural theory anyway these days so why not add another book into the mix.

PS: So happy to be active on GR again. I’ve missed this group!

[PS, Short Story Reading Chief]

Anetq wrote: "I will be reading The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I absolutely loved her Half of a Yellow Sun but the rest of her books have just been piling up ..."

You’re in for a treat. I particularly love the final (?) short story on the historian. So so good!

[Anetq, Tour Operator & Guide]

Oh is it short stories? Cool! And great to have you back PS :)

[Wim, French Readings]

I will be reading Black Mamba Boy by Nadifa Mohamed.

PS: Welcome back!

[Nan]

Thanks for this Challenge. It has helped me look at the books I already have and inspired me to read what I have before I buy more.

Right now I’m finishing Dust. To be honest I used a study guide to help me think about what I was reading.

[Diane , Head Librarian]

March's number will be 17. What will you be reading?

[Nan]

I’m listening to Americana.

[Nan]

It’s Americanah that I’m listening to.

[Wim, French Readings]

I will be reading Bitter Leaf by Chioma Okereke in March. Looking forward!

[Diane , Head Librarian]

Nan wrote: "I’m listening to Americana."

Love that book!

[Diane , Head Librarian]

I will be reading Men of the South by Zukiswa Wanner.

[Anetq, Tour Operator & Guide]

oooh new number already - I am half way through Adichie's The thing around your neck (which is pretty amazing), so still loving this challenge :)

Seems I'll be reading crime fiction in March:
17 Wife of the Gods by Kwei Quartey

I had no recollection of owning this or putting it on a list, so there's a surprise, but variation is good - so I'm looking forward to that too!
- Also he will do nicely for my A-Z challenge elsewhere, an author beginning with Q √

[Tinea, Nonfiction Logistician]

I am so behind but the year is young! January's Benin book is still on the shelf back home, February's La guerre du Cameroun. L’invention de la Françafrique is in my luggage-- will get to it soon, I hope-- and for March now I'll need to pick something to complete the Tour d'Afrique from Gambia or Gabon. Better get on it...

[Cam]

I'm still slowly making my way through Thomas Sankara's speeches... March will be Kateb Yacine's Le Polygone Étoilé, which I've been putting off tackling so far so this is a good nudge.

[Anetq, Tour Operator & Guide]

I finished #17 Wife of the Gods by Kwei Quartey, and wasn't very impressed, really.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

But I'm hanging in there with this challenge, and chewing my way through the piles, which is very good :)

[Cam]

Thanks for your review Anetq, I've removed the novel from my TBR pile as well!

[Anetq, Tour Operator & Guide]

Cam wrote: "Thanks for your review Anetq, I've removed the novel from my TBR pile as well!"

...Normally not trying to discourage from reading books, and it wasn't a horrible book. But. You know, don't feel obliged to read it :)

[Diane , Head Librarian]

April's number is 16. What will you be reading?

[Diane , Head Librarian]

I will be reading The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I have thoroughly enjoyed all of the books I have read by her so far, and I'm sure this will not be the exception.

[Anetq, Tour Operator & Guide]

I'll be reading:
16 Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta

[Anetq, Tour Operator & Guide]

Diane wrote: "I will be reading The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I have thoroughly enjoyed all of the books I have read by her so far, and I'm sure this will ..."

I read it for february in this challenge - it's great!

[Wim, French Readings]

I'll be reading Sundowners by Lesley Lokko in April. 654 pages, seems like the perfect book for this period!

[Nan]

I’ll be listening to Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth.
Also because I’m “staying in” and have more time, Sundowners. Agree with Wim. Seems like a perfect book for this period. Thanks for reminding me to take a look at it.

[Cam]

I'm still slowly going through February's read and haven't even opened March's so I have some catching up to do! April will be another Algeria read with Samir Toumi's L'effacement.

[Tinea, Nonfiction Logistician]

I'm still midway through Feb's La guerre du Cameroun. L’invention de la Françafrique, but I will need to rethink my list. I had several library reads in my list to finish up the countries I missed in the Tour d'Afrique, but as I got a slow start and now libraries are currently closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, my Jan, March, and April numbers won't work for now. I'm going to take another look at the books I actually have on hand and replace the library reads with books from my actual shelf.

[Diane , Head Librarian]

Tinea wrote: "now libraries are currently closed due to the coronavirus pandemic..."

Good point, Tinea. Since library books are hard to get these days, feel free to make changes to your list or pick alternate choices, as needed.

[Anetq, Tour Operator & Guide]

I really haven't read anything since we closed down 11th of March - Things have been crazy busy at work (I teach how to teach digitally, guess who had all the 'customers' in the world, when the whole uni got sent home with no warning...) Also I guess the whole situation has just been ...unsettling, I guess. Sometimes that makes for a lot og reading, sometimes not. But hey I am behind on this, but can still make it in time, so "Under the Udala Trees" here I come! With two weeks to go, I can do this!

[Anetq, Tour Operator & Guide]

Also I had ...ehem maybe kinda hoarded a stack of African reads from multiple libraries before they all closed, so if only I could get some reading in, I could really catch up?

[Wim, French Readings]

Under the Udala Trees is a great book Anetq, I enjoyed it a lot. Good luck with combining your busy work program with reading, always a challenge!

[Diane , Head Librarian]

May's number is 6. What will you be reading?