Americanah

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Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Reviewed by Jess
📕📗📘📙

If it’s on your to-read pile, I would recommend bumping it up higher! ⁣
At its core it’s portrayed as a love story - Ifemelu and Obinze are childhood sweethearts, and the story centres itself on their lives both apart and together, but really it’s so much more than that.⁣

It’s an adept commentary on immigration, success as an immigrant, western culture, class and even black hair, but importantly it’s about race and America’s attempts to reconcile with its past racism and segregation. Ifemelu blogs about her experiences as a black woman and I imagine these excerpts will be uncomfortable and eye opening to those who have not witnessed it. ⁣

She’s a very real, flawed character and I kind of loved that too.⁣
What I liked the most was the fact that this easily span two decades of their life but you never lose touch with what’s happening, and also the rich immersion into Nigerian life and culture, which was new to me! And I loved it.⁣

Overall though? I think the book was maybe a little too long and some of it was superfluous, but it’s clearly passionately written and a very human story.

Jess Pancholi

I’ve got to start this off by thanking Linda for putting together this amazing group of ladies who I love dearly! Linda was my uni/PhD wife for 8 solid years and books were one of the many things that bound us together - pun intended! I really think our book family is amazing, diverse and we really influence each other to push our reading boundaries (and crack each other up with our banter and jokes haha!) The family extends to you followers too - and we are just getting started!

According to everyone in my family and numerous home movies I was forever reading books.  Spot the Dog and anything Beatrix Potter were my jam. They say your love of reading never dies and I can absolutely say that is true! The books might be more grown up but I’m still there, book in hand (and snacks to boot!) ready to lose myself in a story.I can’t say for sure what my preferred genre of book is - I’ve read everything from biographies to epic modern novels and classic tales too - and of course as a scientist I dabble in a little popular sci lit on the side. I’m always willing to try something wacky and weird, even if I don’t like it in the end but I guess that’s why I’m part of The Candid Book Club, eh?

If you asked me to recommend some books to you, I would say that Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy is my absolute favourite ever; its worth it, I promise!I also love: Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli (shout out if you read this in high school - it’s YA that really sticks with you) Brave New World by Aldous Huxley The Good Immigrant edited by Nikesh Shukla (this is ESSENTIAL reading) Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami A Little Life by Hanyayan Agihara, Yes Please by Amy Poehler. And of course- The Tale of Jemima Puddleduck by Beatrix Potter

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Girl, Woman, Other