Books
What I've Just Read
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. This is the first novel I've read by Adichie, and, wow, it won't be the last. Sprawling, emotional without being melodramatic, it got me inside of the Nigerian culture in a way I never imagined I would be and its lead character, Ifemelu, is a complicated woman, and I love complicated women. It isn't perfect, I would have preferred to strictly stay in Ifemelu's pov and there where times when I felt the narrative was rushed and didn't delve deep enough into the complex emotions the characters were feeling, but this wasn't enough to distract me from the beauty of the prose or the emotional heft of what Adichie was trying to achieve here. Yes, there definitely needs to be more than ONE STORY told if it gets me beautiful, full books like this one.
What I'm Reading Next
I've started The Woman Who Would Be King: Hatshepsut's Rise to Power in Ancient Egypt by Kara Cooney, which is pretty info-rich and I'm only 15 pages in, so I'm hoping it doesn't read like a 300 page info dump and gets to the creative part of the creative non-fiction I thought I was getting.
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs was recommended to me by someone who's taste I trust, so I'm excited about that. Yay, books!!
Also, I just completed my first day of mini-nanowrimo and I'm excited. I set a goal of 150 words a day and that feels very doable; I need to ease back into a writing schedule but I don't want to cause myself anxiety which will only work to silence my muse. Here's to a great writing month!
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. This is the first novel I've read by Adichie, and, wow, it won't be the last. Sprawling, emotional without being melodramatic, it got me inside of the Nigerian culture in a way I never imagined I would be and its lead character, Ifemelu, is a complicated woman, and I love complicated women. It isn't perfect, I would have preferred to strictly stay in Ifemelu's pov and there where times when I felt the narrative was rushed and didn't delve deep enough into the complex emotions the characters were feeling, but this wasn't enough to distract me from the beauty of the prose or the emotional heft of what Adichie was trying to achieve here. Yes, there definitely needs to be more than ONE STORY told if it gets me beautiful, full books like this one.
What I'm Reading Next
I've started The Woman Who Would Be King: Hatshepsut's Rise to Power in Ancient Egypt by Kara Cooney, which is pretty info-rich and I'm only 15 pages in, so I'm hoping it doesn't read like a 300 page info dump and gets to the creative part of the creative non-fiction I thought I was getting.
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs was recommended to me by someone who's taste I trust, so I'm excited about that. Yay, books!!
Also, I just completed my first day of mini-nanowrimo and I'm excited. I set a goal of 150 words a day and that feels very doable; I need to ease back into a writing schedule but I don't want to cause myself anxiety which will only work to silence my muse. Here's to a great writing month!