All things Books!!!
“The oldest technology in Africa is storytelling” Ben Okri
Stay updated with the latest trending Pan-African literature scene. Housing a variety of book reviews and recommendations, interviews with writers, book events and a network of writers and readers.
Odd Bookers: A tree, a bud and a flower
By Radiyah Manjoo Greetings reader, So many countries, so many choices. This month, I took the path most taken – I’m sorry, Robert Frost and hipsters. This month, we review Nigerian books. …
Odd Bookers: Books I Am Anticipating for 2021
By Kelly Ansara There is nothing more that gets me wide-eyed with excitement than a publisher announcement. They usually come from behind a wall with no warning on social media or email (depen…
Odd Bookers: The Moralist
By Joshua Marcus Joshua Marcus’s 2020 novel, The Moralist, is a fast-paced thriller with a literary bent, delving into the inherent grey in the concepts of morality, crime and punishment, an…
Odd Bookers: The Oracle’s Journal
by Dimitri Liountris The Oracle’s Journal, published in 2020, is an urban-fantasy epic set in the early 2010s and spans four volumes. In the time of the gods, a Great War between sixte…
A Tree, a Bud, and a Flower
By Radiyah Manjoo “You read African literature. You could write something”, she said. I shivered at the thought – African literature, so loaded, so vast. Yes, I read African literature, m…
The Flowers of Evil
By Ibanez What is the story of Flowers of Evil? What was there in it that captivated me, so that now, I feel compelled to write something down, to find its essence, so that it will not be lost, so t…
BOOK REVIEW: “BOOK OF THE MISSING”
BY NKATEKO MASINGA Title: Book of the Missing Author: Heidi Grunebaum Year Published: 2019 Genre: Poetry Publisher: Praxis Magazine Heidi Grunebaum’s Book of the Missing reads to me lik…
Book Review: Holes
By Melissa Fortuin Author: Louis Sachar Publication date: 1998 Genre: Adventure As the days pass by and the weather gets colder, one picks up a sense of a collective restlessness. I think we…
Book Review: The Pardoner’s Tale
By Melissa Fortuin Author: Geoffrey Chaucer Year Published: c.1400 (from the larger work The Canterbury Tales, incomplete upon Chaucer’s death) Genre: Satire Happy Halloween Odd readers. It…
Book Review: The January Children
By Melissa Fortuin Author: Safia Elhillo Date Published: 2017 Genre: Poetry When it comes to poetry, if I have not before I can recall saying I love to read the words of the dead. It’s not …
Book Review: Selected Works of Robert Frost
By Melissa Fortuin Author: Robert Frost Year Published: 1969 Genre: Poetry As Winter slowly comes to a close, and the first blooms of Spring appear, the cold and barren landscapes give birth to …
Book Review: The Alchemist
By Melissa Fortuin O Alquimista Author: Paulo Coelho Year Published: 1988 Genre: Quest, Adventure fiction, Fantasy fiction Lately I’ve made a promise to myself to try and expand on my geographic…
Book Review: Jane Eyre
By Melissa Fortuin Jane Eyre Author: Charlotte Bronte Year Published: 1847 Genre: Bildungsroman, Gothic, Mystery It wasn’t so long ago that we dealt with the dark and stormy windswept moors …
Book Review: The Grapes of Wrath
By Melissa Fortuin The Grapes of Wrath Author: John Steinbeck Year Published: 1939 Genre: Naturalism, Realism, Historical Fiction For all you Orwellian peeps out there fighting the Man. Thi…
BOOK REVIEW: “GAU-TRAINED: POEMS AND STORIES”
By Nkateko Masinga Author: Flow Wellington Year published: 2018 Genre: Poetry, Prose Publisher: Poetree Publications (Pty) Ltd This way I salute you: My hand pulses to my back trousers pocket …
Book Review: If They Come For Us
By Nkateko Masinga If They Come for Us Author: Fatimah Asghar Year published: 2018 Genre: Poetry Publisher: One World/Penguin Random House “If we know, then we must fight for your life as …
Book Review: Milk and Honey
By Melissa Fortuin Milk and Honey Author: Rupi Kaur Year Published: 2014 Genre: Poetry For this months issue, I’ve decided to review some poetry, and in particular, something acclimated to mo…
BOOK REVIEW: “THE CARELESS SEAMSTRESS”
BY NKATEKO MASINGA Author: Tjawangwa DemaYear published: 2019Genre: Poetry Publisher: University of Nebraska Press Cover artwork: Mary Sibande “That childhood is stitching together …
Book Review: Frankenstein
A Book Review By Melissa Fortuin Book name: Frankenstein Author: Mary Shelley Year Published: 1818 Genre: Gothic, Horror Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble! I think I’m quoting the wron…
Kill A Mockingbird
A Book Review By Melissa Fortuin Author: Harper Lee Year Published: 1960 Genre: Southern Gothic, Bildungsroman It wasn’t so long ago that on one of my usual Netflix and ch…
Book Review: Persuasion
A Book Review By Melissa Fortuin Author: Jane Austen Year Published: 1817 Genre: Romance, Comedy It’s the end of the year pretty soon and I know you need a well-deserved break fro…
Meditations by Lucinda
Books We Love To Read By Lucinda de Leeuw This month I go on about what I love about one of my favourite books: White Oleander by Janet Fitch. “I’d spent the last three years trying to bu…