Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – …on the B.L.

11… Books for Women’s History Month

March 16, 2020March 15, 2020 RaeAnna

Hanging out in the Iowa State Law Library in Des Moines, Iowa. | Skirt | Sweater | Shoes |

Every year, I like to read books dedicated to a few of the heritage months. Last month, I did not read as much for Black History Month as I’d hoped, oh well. I use the heritage months as a way to educate myself.

The one month I don’t celebrate through my reading list is Women’s History Month. I don’t need to. Not that I’m the most educated person on the topic, most of the books I crack are written by and about women. I find them more interesting. Gender studies is one of my favorite topics to read about. I tend to have to go out of my way to read books by and about men in the fiction genre – history is another story altogether. I just don’t care as much about the protagonists when they’re men. Sorry, but not actually. I have always thought a woman’s story, no matter who she is/was, is far more engaging to me than those of men. Men are great, sure, but I’d rather spend my time reading about my people.

I completely and full-heartedly support Women’s History Month, but I don’t make a point of dedicating my reading list to it. My entire reading list, all year long is a devotion to women, our history, our issues, our future. If you want to read more books about and by women, here are eleven of the books and authors who opened my mind and enthralled me as a young reader, as a student, and as an adult!

Rose in Bloom Louisa May Alcott
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Harriet Jacobs
The Awakening Kate Chopin
Funny in Farsi Firoozeh Dumas
All The Single Ladies Rebecca Traister
Americanah Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Reading Lolita in Tehran Azar Nafisi
Homegoing Yaa Gyasi
Herland Charlotte Perkins Gilman
The Second Sex Simone de Beauvoir
To the Lighthouse Virginia Woolf

bisous und обьятий,
RaeAnna

11..., Reading Lists

11… Black Writers I LOVE

February 10, 2020 RaeAnna

wp-1581366815475 — The Travelers | The Water Dancer | How to Love a Jamaican | A Raisin in the Sun | The Palm Wine Drinkard | Infidel: My Life | I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem | Passing | Half of A Yellow Sun | Homegoing |

Some of my favorite books are written by black authors. The first book I read by an African author was The Palm Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola. It completely opened my mind to a new voice, culture, and world.

Black authors have done more to open my mind than any other demographic. I would not be the person I am today without these authors, their stories, the characters, and the challenges they gave me to face in the mirror and the world.

1. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie… I’ve read all of her books, and they are amazing. Americanah is absolutely stunning. I can’t recommend her enough. She has a uniquely African, American, female, human voice, which creates empathy and understanding by bridging the differences and finding the commonalities.
2. The Palm Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola was my gateway book. Before it, I had always gravitated to the European classics. Tutuola opened my eyes to a more diverse world of literature, and I’ve never looked back. It’s an amazing novel. You should read it.
3. One of the first novels I read by a black woman after discovering Achebe was Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. It is an incredible novel, and I fell in love with Hurston’s prose. She was incredibly talented, witty, and amazing. Anything she wrote is gold.
4. A few years ago, Yaa Gyasi was all over the place because of her debut novel Homegoing. It is absolutely worth the hype. I love the book and reviewed it, here.
5. Ta-Nehisi Coates is a great writer. I really love his essays. They are incredible and insightful. 2019 saw the publishing of his first novel, The Water Dancer, which I’ve just read and I’m in the process of writing a review.
6. The playwright, Lorraine Hansberry, is best known for A Raisin in the Sun, a play depicting segregation in Chicago and the Black Americans living in it. It was the first play by a black, female author performed on Broadway.
7. Alexia Arthurs has an amazing and unique voice. I can’t wait to see what else she brings into this world. Her collection of stories How to Love a Jamaican is wonderful. I reviewed it, here.
8. I love memoirs, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a phenomenal memoirist. She’s had a challenging and tragic life, but she overcame it and created good in the world through her activism and writing. I highly suggest any of her memoirs, but Infidel: My Life is particularly incredible.
9. I recently discovered Nella Larsen and her novella Passing. It was published 91 years ago, but it still holds so much up in today’s world and provides insight into the days of years gone by. Read the review, here.
10. I read Moi, Tituba, Sorcière… Noire de Salem or I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem by Maryse Condé in college. Some of the scenes in the novel have stayed with me ever since. It’s an amazing and heart wrenching novel in the original French and just as powerful in the English translation.
11. Regina Porter’s debut novel The Travelers is fantastic. It’s an amazing snapshot of American history. I reviewed it a few months ago, here.

bisous und обьятий,
RaeAnna

Books

Purple Hibiscus

June 22, 2018 RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 307
Quick Review Set against the backdrop of a Nigerian coup, a 15 year old Kambili learns about love and life outside of her childhood home controlled by a religious zealot.

I love Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. She is my favorite author, and I have now officially read all of her books. Purple Hibiscus is her first novel, and it’s beautiful.

Nigeria is in the midst of a complete upheaval. Kambili, a 15 year old girl, and her brother, Jaja, stay with their aunt and cousins in Nsukka. Kambili begins to realize the extent of her father’s religious fundamentalism and abusive nature when she compares it with the loving, open household her cousins flourish in.

Adichie explores so many interesting themes throughout the progression of the novel. Christian fundamentalism is a looming presence as Kambili struggles with her father’s oppression even when she is far out of reach. She is unable to engage with her surroundings, family, and even herself because she lives in perpetual fear of her father’s wrath and eternal damnation. The physical and psychological abuse Kambili, Jaja, and their mother live with is intense. Aunt Ifeoma and her children are the voice of progressivism.

I love Adichie’s inclusion of Igbo words peppered throughout the narrative.

I seriously suggest this novel to anyone interested in reading. It’s a beautiful and moving novel full of hope and heartbreak speaking to the resilience of the human spirit.

Memorable Quotes
“I was not sure what my laughter sounded like.”
“We didn’t scale the today because we believed we could, we scaled it because we were terrified we couldn’t.”

Title: Purple Hibiscus
Author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Publisher: Collins (HarperCollins Publishers)
Copyright: 2004
ISBN: 9780007345328

Books

We Should All Be Feminists

February 2, 2018 RaeAnna

Read: Yes
Length: 52
Quick Review: An essay about the importance of feminism. Beginning as a Tedx Talk, Adichie redefines feminism for the new generation of feminists.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is one of my favorite authors. If you’re a repeat reader, I’m sure that is clear already. She is one of those writers you cannot ignore. With her unique voice and story telling ability, she has grabbed the attention of the world. I found her about a year ago, in which time, I have read the majority of her works. (I only have Purple Hibiscus left to read.) I am rereading We Should All Be Feminists again because it is just that good.

For the majority of the world when the word feminism is uttered, people immediately and solely think of it as something applying to women or even cared about by women. Feminism is seen as benefiting women.

Adichie begins her essay with a few examples of the differences women face in the world based on their gender. She also turns the idea of feminism on its head by explaining the benefits feminism has for men and boys as well. Without feminism, culture is a hindrance to men because they must conform to the idea of masculinity and “stifle their humanity.” Although Adichie discusses the positives of feminism for men, it is more important for girls. Without feminism women spend their lives defining their place in the world by their relationship to men.

Adichie writes succinctly and effectively. There is a fire in her words fueled by anger and hope. She is one of the most talented storytellers, but she is incredibly gifted as a nonfiction writer. Her novels and short stories take the reader to another place, but her essay grounds the reader in reality. Adichie lets the reader get to know her a little.

I can’t recommend We Should All Be Feminists more. The essay should be mandatory reading for everyone. It is an amazing, concise, and quick read. Taking less than half an hour. Sit down and read it the moment you can!

Memorable Quotes
“… both of us bristling with the half-baked knowledge of books we had read.”
“At some point I was a Happy African Feminist Who Does Not Hate Men And Who Likes To Wear Lip Gloss And High Heels For Herself And Not For Men.”
“But our ideas of gender have not evolved very much.”
“… it is one thing to know something intellectually and quite another to feel it emotionally.”
“There are far fewer guides for men about pleasing women.”
“And then we do a much greater disservice to girls, because we raise them to cater to the fragile egos of males.”

Title: We Should All Be Feminists
Author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Publisher: Anchor Books (Random House)
Copyright: 2012/2014
ISBN: 9781101911761

Books

The Thing Around Your Neck

February 24, 2017 RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 218
Quick Review Twelve short stories in one book exploring women’s lives in Nigeria and America. As always, I highly recommend it because Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is amazing.

Up until now, I have only read Adichie’s novels, so I was excited to read her short stories. She is renowned for her story teller’s expertise, and has been published in some of the best journals including The Iowa Review – a little home-state pride!

Her style, as always, is incredibly straightforward but incredibly nuanced. Her imagery paints a clear picture of the world her characters live in. Her endings are abrupt leaving the reader craving for more yet allowing each person to take away something different. Though the endings are always frustrating, I keep coming back to them wondering what happened.

Adichie explores the realities of womanhood. The meaning of being a black woman in Nigeria and the U.S., and how those meanings and realities differ. The trials and tribulations of being a woman, a black woman, and an immigrant are shown instead of explained. It’s a resonating exploration of how outsiders men, white women, non-immigrants/outsiders of a culture fail to understand the essence of what a black woman’s experience is. Though I share the identity of woman and can identify and understand those trials, I can only read, ask questions, research, but mostly listen to black women (really any woman of color) to understand the obstacles they must overcome, which I do not have to.

I recommend anything Adichie writes. Especially if you want to begin learning, empathizing, and hopefully empowering those different from yourself.

Memorable Quotes
“Then Chika feels a prick of guilt for wondering if this woman’s mind is large enough to grasp any of that.”
“But why do we say nothing?”
“It’s never quite like that in real life, is it? Women are never victims in that sort of crude way.”

Title : The Thing Around Your Neck
Author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi
Publisher: Anchor Books
Copyright: 2009
ISBN: 9780307455918

Books, Fiction

Half of a Yellow Sun

January 8, 2017 RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 433
Quick Review If you want to read a novel about Africa and the consequences of colonization, this is it. It humanizes a continent, issue, country and people the media have consistently dehumanized. Incredibly relatable while highlighting issues spanning the world.

“Flawless” introduced Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to the world’s dinner tables, bars, study halls, car concerts, Grammy’s, and the multitudes of other ways the pop-culturally aware socialize. I am not that person. I listened – just now, by the way – to “Flawless” by Beyonce because of Adichie.

I am the bibliophile extraordinaire. I would love to say I know about what’s going on in the world of Hollywood or music, but I don’t. I knowish what’s going on in the science world. Definitely the literary scene. Linguistics, I’m on top of it. My Western European pop culture references between the years of 1520 and 1890 are pretty top notch, but today’s world I can tell you what lol means. Can someone please explain what smh or af means? Snapchat’s Cosmo thingybopper consistently loses me lexically.

I had a Chinua Achebe revisiting phase a few years back. Adichie’s work was referenced in various places as they are both Nigerian writers of Igbo heritage. I stuck her on my list. Unfortunately, I have a tendency to put contemporary authors towards the end of the must read list. After putting her off for a good three or so years, I finally read one of her books, then a short story, then an essay, another short story, and now another novel.

Half of a Yellow Sun is fabulous, timeless, human, vibrant, and utterly engaging. The narrative follows several different characters through the early and late sixties during the war fought against Nigeria to found the independent nation: Biafra. The different viewpoints show male, female, rich, poor, business person, intellectual, servant, and those in between. With twists and turns, you’re never bored during a story, which could have easily been bogged down by sadness.

Adichie’s writing is graceful, and the five hundred pages go by easily. Though the writing flows, her ability to nuance is unparalleled. There is no wavering in the most difficult passages. She is straight forward with the simultaneous yet contrasting hope and anguish war brings. The imagery is striking and heartbreaking yet quintessentially human.

For a topic I knew nothing about, I could not have become more invested in a story so far away from my own reality. Through Adichie’s story telling, I have learned so much about a country I knew little about. I would absolutely recommend this book.

I watched the movie version. It was good, but like always the book is better. The screenplay had to leave a lot of really important things out, and I was disappointed. In general, I think it completely missed the point of the book: how normal and good people are affected, changed, and ultimately take part in the atrocities of war.

Memorable Quotes
“It did not kill me, it made me knowledgeable.”
“You must never behave as if your life belongs to a man… Your life belongs to you and you alone.”

Title: Half of a Yellow Sun
Author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Publisher: Anchor
Copyright: 2007
ISBN: 978-1400095209