Great African Reads discussion

okay...let's see if we can collectively decide on a book (or two) for an october discussion...pretty much all the books in the second thread for booksharing ideas are by african authors, and since the list is long, i only took suggestions from the original thread that are books by non-african writers. but there are many months ahead, so we can revisit all suggestions in the future!

i'm not sure if richard de nooy considers himself african but his book is "six fang marks and a tetanus shot" and perhaps he'd join us in discussion, as would manu herbstein, whose book is in the list that follows:

African writers:

Alan Paton, "Ah, But Your Land is Beautiful"

Chinua Achebe, "Things Fall Apart"

Manu Herbstein, "Ama, a Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade"

Wole Soyinka, "Ake: the Years of Childhood"

Uwem Akpan, "Say You're One of Them"

Camara Laye, "The African Child" also published as "The Dark Child"

Peter Godwin, "Mukiwa: a White Boy in Africa"

non-African writers:

Barbara Kingsolver, "The Poisonwood Bible"

Deborah Scroggins, "Emma's War"

Adam Hochschild, "King Leopold's Ghost"

Paul Theroux, "Dark Star Safari"

and i will try to add them all to the group bookshelf to help everyone make up their minds...

Thanks Marieke for being the driving force here! :)

my votes are based on which books I can actually get hold of, haven't read yet and what I feel like reading at the moment (they all sound great though). Listed are my three choices in order of preference.

1. "Ah, But Your Land is Beautiful"
2. "Ama, a Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade"
3. "The Poisonwood Bible"

i'm not sure i can handle two books, either! i'm keeping my fingers crossed one of them is one that i've already read and i can still follow/participate in the discussion...
i hope everyone else is close to making a decision (or two)!

happy october!

I vote for Ake: The Years of Childhood and The Poisonwood Bible.

I will be happy to read whatever the group picks. Pretty much all the books on your list above are books I have either already read or are sitting in my stack waiting to be read so I know I'll enjoy discussing whichever book is chose. I like the idea of looking at both fiction and non-fiction as well as books by African authors as well as non-African authors (although I am slightly more inclined to go w/ African authors). Having some authors join our discussion sounds fantastic.

Wendy

at the moment it looks like the selections will be "ah, but your land is beautiful" and "the poisonwood bible"...so if anyone else wants to chime in with a vote, please do so in the next day or so...i'll post the selections on sunday morning (east coast U.S. time)....

marieke

I've read (and have) both Poisonwood Bible and Ake. I don't have the Alan Paton and am not a great fan of his writing anyway. So my vote is for Poisonwood Bible. How does this work?
Manu

hello everyone...it is sunday morning on the east coast of the united states...i just tried to tally the votes and it's a little confusing. the only thing that is 100% certain, is that "the poisonwood bible" is the non-african selection for october. i think "ah, but your land is beautiful" is the african selection...i am uncertain because manu placed a vote for "the poisonwood bible" but it seems like he would also like to vote for "ake," which would create a tie for "ake" and "ah" with two votes apiece.

would it be too crazy to have three discussions going on? i just feel like there must be plenty of people here who have read each of these and would have thoughts to contribute to discussions.

i propose this:
green would like to focus on reading just one of the selections and voted for the alan paton book, so that is a definite selection. the poisonwood bible got the most votes, that is also a selection. bonus selection could be wole soyinka's book for anyone who read the other two selections and would like to read something new, or anyone who isn't interested in the other two. and it creates space for SuperReaders who read super fast and also like to discuss everything they read.

obviously, anyone is free to start a discussion on any book they wish to here, it's just nice to have simultaneous efforts and it's nice to be as inclusive as possible...not very many people voted, but hopefully there are two or three times as many members who would participate in these focused readings and discussions.

for the november selection i'd like to suggest that perhaps we agree on a theme first, and then make suggestions for voting...perhaps we can take turns suggesting themes rather than voting on the theme and then on the books. but we'll figure it out! this seems like a really fun group!

apologies for the long message...happy reading!

marieke

Thanks, Marieke. Great idea! I look forward to reading and discussing.

Thanks Marieke for pulling it all together!!

I like your suggestion re. theme for Nov and then vote for books - sounds like a really good idea. :)

I'm not sure how I will go with reading two books in Oct, it's a pretty busy month for me, but I might turn into a SuperReader in Nov given that I'll have plenty more time available then.

I think I'll start with the "poisonwood bible" and then move onto Alan Paton's book. Looking forward to discussing them!

I have read the Poisonwood Bible and would like to re-read it. I was just looking at it on my shelf a week or so ago and wanted to pick it up again. Perfect opportunity. Looking forward to discussion.

it looks like most people are wanting to focus on one book and that the book should be the poisonwood bible... so i guess we should make that our discussion priority for october...however, if anyone already read it and is not interested in discussing it and IS interested in discussing "Ah" please chime in so that another group can quickly form to create a second discussion.

i have not read either of them yet and would look forward to a discussion on both...but i'm not sure i can read two books, which means i will focus on the poisonwood bible initially and see how my time this month shapes up. it's already the 7th!!

whenever someone is ready to start a discussion on kingsolver's book, please feel free to start a new topic...and maybe someone who has already read the book has a couple of questions for us to keep in mind as we read? hope? manu? just an idea for inspiring discussion...

marieke