Great African Reads discussion

French-speaking Africa
Red cover
Published Before 1969
Female Protagonist
A book about Love
Published After 2000
Free Choice (you pick any African read)
Portuguese speaking Africa
A Book by a Caine Prize winner
A book about War
Animal In The Title
A Regional Group Read
A Group Read Short Story
A Debut
An Award Winner/A Shortlisted Book
Written in an African Language

Good luck! Are you going for a full bingo?

Anetq wrote: "Good luck! Are you going for a full bingo?"

Hi Anetq,thanks. I think I will try for the full bingo! What about you?

Cool! That's my plan too :)

I've completed the first square for my bingo challenge.

A book about war: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Half of a Yellow Sun

I've completed a second square of the bingo challenge

French speaking Africa: Leonora Miano - La Saison de l'ombre

I completed a third square

A group read short story: Makuchi - Your Madness, Not Mine: Stories of Cameroon

Completed a fourth square

A book with a red cover: Damon Galgut's Beautiful Screaming of Pigs

Well done Val! I loved Half of a Yellow Sun, could be used for both love & war I guess, but definitely about war!

Anetq wrote: "Well done Val! I loved Half of a Yellow Sun, could be used for both love & war I guess, but definitely about war!"

Thanks. I really enjoyed Half of a yellow sun as well. I decided to log it under war as I already had another book in mind for the love prompt (Leila Aboulela's The Translator).

Completed a fifth square

Animal in the title: Yasmina Khadra - Qu'attendent les singes

Completed a sixth square

A Debut: Gael Faye - Petit pays

Completed a seventh square

Published after 2000: Uwem Akpan - Say You're One of Them

And with this, I also got my first bingo (second row down)!

Completed an eight square

Female Protagonist: Ananda Devi - Ève de ses décombres

Completed a ninth square

A Regional Group Read: Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor - Dust

Completed my tenth square

Written in an African language: Richard Ali A Mutu - Mr. Fix It (translated from Lingala)

Great reads, very varied. You've almost cleared the board!

Valerie wrote: "Completed my tenth square

Written in an African language: Richard Ali A Mutu - Mr. Fix It (translated from Lingala)"

This book sounds quite interesting and I'm pretty sure I would never have come across this title on my own, so thanks for sharing your challenge!!

I would certainly recommend the book. Another one for this prompt which I found and hope to read this year is The Rich Man of Pietermaritzburg, which is translated from the Zulu. I have been really enjoying this challenge and searching for interesting books to read.

Completed my eleventh square

A book by a Caine Prize winner: Lyrics Alley by Leila Aboulela

Valerie wrote: "Completed my eleventh square

A book by a Caine Prize winner: Lyrics Alley by Leila Aboulela"
Great job - and ahead with the summer reading I see :)

Thanks Anetq. Feel like I am on a high-speed reading train this summer : )

Finished my twelfth square, which means another bingo. Four more books and I will have cleared the board!

A book published before 1969: The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon (originally published in 1961)

Completed a twelfth square.

Free choice: The Gold Diggers by Sue Nyathi

Thirteenth that is. You're going fast and reading great books!

Wim wrote: "Thirteenth that is. You're going fast and reading great books!"

Indeed, thanks for pointing this out Wim! Reading a lot is clearly affecting my ability to count, lol.

Completed a fourteenth square

Portuguese speaking Africa: Abdulai Sila's The Ultimate Tragedy , the first ever Guinea Bissauan novel translated into English! It is a bit unconventional in narrative structure but I really liked it. Beyond its seemingly simple style of writing, I found it to be a heartbreaking and an unflinching look at the effects of colonial rule.

Completed a fifteenth square

An Award Winner: Cola Cola Jazz by Kangni Alem (won the Grand prix litteraire d'Afrique Noire in 2003)

Only one more square to go to complete the bingo card!

You're almost done! Well done :)

Completed my sixteenth and final square

A book about love: Ama Ata Aidoo - African Love Stories: An Anthology

I enjoyed this anthology. Not all the writing was stellar, but I liked that the book adopted such a wide variety of perspectives on love.

Wow! Congrats on finishing the full bingo!
Also: if you have any ideas or suggestions for a 2020 bingo - please add them in the bingo thread here https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Anetq wrote: "Wow! Congrats on finishing the full bingo!
Also: if you have any ideas or suggestions for a 2020 bingo - please add them in the bingo thread here https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/......"

Thanks Anetq. It was a lot of fun and got me to discover so much new African novels. I will think about some suggestion for the 2020 bingo.