Book Talk: What is everyone reading?

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Hello Everyone,

As we approach mid week, hope you’ve had a chance to sink your teeth into  Half Of a Yellow Sun!!

We invite you to share with others which page you’re on and some initial impressions on reading the book. It could be anything…from a simple “I like/dislike it so far” to a more reflective comment on the theme/author’s style etc.

Please post your response as a comment to this post.

10 comments

  1. Pritha Sardessai

    waiting to get my hands on it. should arrive by tomorrow

    1. Pritha Sardessai

      got the book just today.a page down and i can see myself drowning in soon.Easy language, detail just enough to grip and create a splendid imagery…

  2. cd

    I just got my copy yesterday and will hopefully jump right into it some time today!

  3. sujata

    Hi all,
    We are actually reading with a purpose, if that is not enough to have me excited then Half of a Yellow Sun is doing the rest. I am well into my book, loving it for its style and rhythm and bracing myself for the plot which will emerge.
    So far,I am struck by how Chimamanda takes me as a reader into the lives of a community and context I have not experienced. Since so much of my understanding is through an experiential lens, my slipping into the worlds of Nsukka and Lagos, allowing Igbo words like ‘Ngwa’ and dibia to slide off my tongue, are testaments of an absorbing book, for me.
    My most powerful imagery till now, rests on page 40 and with Abdulmalik and Olanna – ” he had that expression of people who marvelled at education with the calm certainity that it would never be theirs.” – did this resonate with anyone else? What strikes you so far, pray tell and booktalk.

  4. cd

    What a delicious book! I wish I had 24 hours to myself just so I could curl up in a corner and devour it.

    Adichie’s prose is beautiful and makes me want to get out my notebook and copy out some of the phrases for savouring later. I enjoyed her description of Ugwu’s first interaction with a tap – it reminded me of my little fellow and his exhilaration when he gets close to one.

    I was also struck by Odenigbo’s explanation of what a map was (to Ugwu) (pg 10). It never occurred to me to think of it that way and I wonder what it would look like if we tried to re-draw the planet with the north and south hemispheres interchanged…

    Looking forward to chapter 2 and to a lively discussion.

    What do you think about the book, so far?

    Chryselle

  5. Edith de Sa

    Still no book. Just clattering my teeth waiting to sink them!!! got some information on the writer and the book from Google though

  6. Karen Almeida

    Very, very absorbing! She’s such a fabulous story teller, I can’t wait to get back to the book every time I put it down.
    Yes, I love her prose but also particularly her characterization – each one of her characters is so well developed.
    I am intrigued by Kainene and actually start thinking about her and wonder what she must be thinking at various stages in the book.

  7. Jennifer

    What struck me about the book is how it manages to evoke a sense of similarities across cultures, despite conveying a distinctly African flavour. I often catch myself juxtaposing situations and social class to an Indian context. Isn’t Ugwu a lot like the Man Friday we see and read about in Indian fiction? Isn’t Olanna, traditional despite her earnest desire to be revolutionary? In fact even Ugwu’s kitchen carries, for me, a whiff of the familiar. I think it is in this ability to portray a community so different and yet so easy to identify with, that makes Chimamanda’s style endearing.

    Her writing is just SO vivid and captivating….I almost missed my train stop today because of her!
    🙂

  8. Meghna

    I’m quite intoxicated by the book!

    I’m constantly being pulled back to it, unable to rest without reading “just a little bit more.”

    What I’ve enjoyed so far is the changes in perspectives that come with the chapters. It’s lovely seeing the world from the eyes of one person, and then swiftly move on to another’s point of view. In the beginning, I was getting used to perceiving things as Ugwu did, when Olanna came and took over and then Richard. And the way I’ve been feeling has been changing with each predominant character.

    And yes, Karen, Kainene is so wonderfully created, so intriguing and distant and enigmatic.

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