SOME BOOK RECOMENDATIONS

No Spoiler Alerts!

The holiday season is upon us and what better way to spend it (aside from family and friends) than to curl up in bed or on the sofa, draped over a warm blanket, a glass of our favorite champagne in hand, and be engrossed in the pages of a good book. And talking about books, I have been doling out recommendations lately to friends who are looking to add to their reading list for the holidays.The books I have recommended below are therefore an extension of that list. Books that I found interesting enough to want to share with you, my friends.

The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami:

Murakami, I realize, is not one of the easiest writers to recommend. Not so because his writing lacks genre classification but because his books often leave the reader with more questions than answers. Questions that lead to more questions until it forces the reader to delve deeper into their subconscious and make meaning of the world that the writer had set out to create. The Wind-up Bird Chronicle tows that same path. The premise of the story is very basic: Toru Okada is in search of his missing wife and their cat. What follows is a man who traverses various landscapes that blurs the line between the physical and metaphysical, meeting people along the way whose stories force him to reappraise his life, his knowledge of Japanese history, and the power of introspection. It is a work steeped in mysticism and quite an enjoyable read. And if you haven’t read a Murakami book before, then this is a worthy introduction to his body of work.

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie:

Before her phenomenal work, Half of A Yellow Sun, or the often-cited novel: Americanah (check out her TED Talks: The Danger of a Single Story and We Should All be Feminists), Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie had gifted us Purple Hibiscus. The novel is a bildungsroman about Kambili, a teenager trying to break free from her father’s overbearing presence. A visit to spend the holidays with their aunt, Ifeoma changes everything. Purple Hibiscus portrays the family dynamics in Nigeria and offers laugh-out-loud moments and characters that would stay with the reader for some time.

The Moor’s Account by Laila Lalami:

One of the reasons I like historical fiction is its near-factual representation of actual events. This next recommendation does justice to that. The book is a fictionalized memoir of Estebanico (Mustafa al-Zamori) chronicling the Spanish Narváez expedition and how one man’s resilience and ingenuity in the face of adversity is able to bring redemption to his crew. The language and style of the book are reflective of the era it depicts and once the reader is patient enough to get past the first few pages, is rewarded with a fully developed book about the narratives of one of history’s less documented perspectives.

I hope you find these books an enjoyable escape and a diverse perspective on the human experience, which is what the power of storytelling is all about.

Happy holidays and wishing you a prosperous 2023!

Louis Ogbere