There are 68 days left in the year and I have more books on my TBR list. For the Goodreads challenge, so far 63 books of the 70 I read have been acknowledged and some of the memorable titles for me are:
I started reading The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver on October 14th (if you haven’t heard of her or read her works, some of the best known titles she’s written include The Poisonwood Bible, The Bean Trees, The Prodigal Summer and a lot more). I bought this book last year and having moved towns, I stumbled upon the box of books labelled “UNREAD” and it was at the very top.
“A story is like a painting. It doesn’t have to look like what you see out the window.”
Frida to Soli, The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
About the book: The Lacuna is a poignant story of a man pulled between two nations as they invent their modern identities.
Born in the United States, reared in a series of provisional households in Mexico—from a coastal island jungle to 1930s Mexico City—Harrison Shepherd finds precarious shelter but no sense of home on his thrilling odyssey. Life is whatever he learns from housekeepers who put him to work in the kitchen, errands he runs in the streets, and one fateful day, by mixing plaster for famed Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. He discovers a passion for Aztec history and meets the exotic, imperious artist Frida Kahlo, who will become his lifelong friend. When he goes to work for Lev Trotsky, an exiled political leader fighting for his life, Shepherd inadvertently casts his lot with art and revolution, newspaper headlines and howling gossip, and a risk of terrible violence.
And so Sòli goes on to write, of his life as a young boy as Harry, plucked from the United States to Mexico because his mother was restless and while there, he got to meet Lev who opposed Stalin, worked for the painter-Diego, and Frida Kahlo and served as a good cook, typist, secretary, confidant and observer…and then had to return to America because Frida wanted him alive.
🤫: I’d recommend this to anyone who loves stories written in journal format, memoirs, confessions…observations because that’s what I loved most about this book. The stories are not centered around Harry/Soli, but more about what happens daily, the conversations, the turmoil, the love, the people.
Two phrases from the book that I couldn’t help but jot down are:
🖤: “Fury demands fire.” 🖤: “The most important thing about any person is what you don’t know.”
I gave this a 4-star rating on Goodreads.
About the Author: She was born in Annapolis, Maryland, The United States April 08, 1955
I was taken by the title of this book, “Angola is Wherever I Plant My Field,” and it kind of reminded me of the feeling of staying true to your roots, so I requested to read it on Netgalley and let’s just say that there are eighteen (18) stories to take you on a trip full of laughter, moments of reflection and most of all, keep you entertained.
My favorite stories include: ‘Why Aunt Lourdes still has no teeth,’ in which she is displeased that there seems to be a lot of unnecessary services but not a dentist in Jamba. Then immediately after there is the story ‘Sheesh’ that up to date, as I write this review we are still waiting to know the whereabouts of Mister X.
For someone who loves to travel, and has an ultimate list then reading ‘The Secret’ and being met with the opening line “This story happened in Haifa. I have never been to Haifa, but I’ve always wanted to write a story that takes place in the city. Likewise, I will not die without writing a story located in Mexico City, in Venice…”
Of changing times and the yearning for moments of reflection as a society, the author has quite some time for this with ‘Three Endings.’ The writing style is something that also caught my attention, it reminded me of the kind of stories you could be told whilst in the company of a long lost friend, there’s accounts of experiences here and there-some you laugh at, others you sigh, others you just nod and look away afraid that whatever you say would not do it justice. All in all, it was a pleasure reading this book.
About the author: João Melo, born in Luanda, is an author, journalist, and professor. He studied in Coimbra, Luanda, and Rio de Janeiro. He is a founder of the Angolan Writer´s Association. He was a member of the parliament (1992-2017) and a minister of Angola (2017-2019). His works have been published in Angola, Portugal, Brazil, Italy and Cuba. A number of his writings have been translated into English, French, German, Arabic, and Chinese. He was awarded the 2009 Angola Arts and Culture National Prize in literature.
It is 9:17pm as I start typing away and I know it will take me twelve minutes to finish writing what I have to say and hit that publish button. However, my love for referencing time in my blog posts stems from writing in my journal every evening and including the snippets of activities I did during the day.
So, here I am having embarked on a new writing project hoping that the part of me that is a bunch of opinions gets an outlet. I set up another blog this week called Achieng Writes.
I received my September book haul comprised of six books bought from Text Book Centre.
There are two things I am doing more often to improve my writing and that’s: one- writing every morning from nine to ten o’clock and two- taking down more notes, snippets of ideas from k-drama, music and my latest fascination are podcasts.
I started drafting a new book and from the very beginning, it oozes nothing but romance and my younger sister read the first chapter and since then I have been unable to look at it without seeing the sneer in her face!
This year, one of my goals was to publish at least two books and I recently published Laana: Daughter of the Middle World and so far, I still struggle with marketing the book and balancing the networks I have established who always buy my books. The greatest feat for me was connecting with Nuria Bookstore- both a physical shop and online store here in Kenya, to enhance accessibility to readers.
As we move into September, I find myself more at peace reading books written by other writers and taking time off my latest draft. In so doing, I am also listening to more music and the album I have on replay is Chike’s The Brother’s Keeper– the one song that speaks to my worries being Pour me a drink
It’s the seventh day of August and here are seven things I’m into right now.
Tea. I have been drinking lots of tea lately
Stationery. I got some pens and a cute notebook from Miniso in Nairobi, not because I needed them, but because I couldn’t help myself- and now it sits pretty in my bag.
Salman Rushdie’s book called The Golden House
K-Drama: Extraordinary Attorney Woo and Alchemy of Souls, Cafe Minamdang
My books. I am finally getting to the point where I am fully present in accepting the work I put into what I write. I need to market my books more, get more people buying copies-and talking about them, and on my way there, I am in awe of all that I have done.
Listening to music. I listen to music in the supermarket, in the matatu and when I take evening walks.
Writing notes on everything. I find myself scribbling things on notebooks, sticky-notes, supermarket receipts and the one that got me was finally buying a scrap book yesterday because I want to have all of them in one place for future reference.
What is life but a collection of memories? This is what kept playing in my mind today, just thinking about the experiences I have had and how it’s got me where I am.
You could argue that there is more to life, and it’s not just memories- but in my reflection, I could only agree on four things that I definitely need to let go of now and they are:
The idea of a perfect life. I had plans and then I had to seek opportunities and somewhere along the way COVID-19, corruption and the ability of my country to create scarcity of resources at will-had me accept that there’s no such thing as perfect, or soft life, it is what it is that moment.
Over-planning or shall I say too many schedules. I haven’t even started working on this.
Anything I own that does not bring me joy. Look, I got 3 bluetooth speakers, the first one because it looked cute, the second because they said it had bass-but truly speaking it doesn’t even adhere to volume and the final one because it has both FM and alarm clocks. But, I don’t use them often and I found it easier giving them out to close friends, because none of them were in use or thrilling to have.
The constant need to be in control of everything. Listen, I find myself struggling with this especially in wanting to have everything align to my desires and no matter how many times it hits me that the universe does not live for me, I cannot help but want to know- when, how, where, why, what time, what for?
On the flip side of this, are the two things I should let go of but cannot seem to:
Dependency on social media– I love Instagram, and can’t go a day without checking out reels or photos or trending hashtags
Kitenge clothing I haven’t worn in a year: Because well, they are custom made and still fit me and in good condition and just uniquely me. Truly!
At some point, there are things that weigh you down whether its consciously or unconsciously and I am learning that you can work on the outside and people can see it, but unless you work on the inside, you still drag around the baggage.
nilichoandika 