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I am beginning to think that I might be terrible at reading challenges. I had an inkling when I first started blogging that I might be, which is why I only signed up for two at the beginning of the year - Kinna Reads African Reading Challenge and Helen's Book Blog Middle East Challenge. Both challenges were fairly straightforward. Kinna's challenge asked for 5 books over the course of the year - shouldn't be too hard, I thought. I average around 4 or 5 books a month. For Kinna's challenge I decided to focus on North African literature (my reading list is here). To make it even easier for me Helen's challenge included North African literature, and she didn't specify the number of books to be read. I figured I could cheat a little (terrible, I know) and make the two reading challenges overlap. Simple! I didn't want cheat too much so I felt that for Helen's challenge I would try and read 2 or 3 additional books not included in my list for Kinna's challenge. I should add that I also gave myself a personal challenge to read an iconic African author a month (as I realised I read a lot more contemporary African books than I do the classics).

How have I done? Well, we are now in the 9th month of the year and I have read 2 out of 5 (if I am honest 2 out of 7, as ones's a trilogy) books for Kinna's challenge and 2 books for Helen's. I have done even worse on my personal challenge 3 out of 12. I keep a record of my reading challenges here.

I realise I have just confessed that I might actually be terrible at reading challenges (and I'm not sure how that makes me feel. Actually, I do! It makes me feel a little sad), so I am not going to give myself another challenge to finish my challenges, but I'm also determined to finish these challenges. There's more than enough time - 3 months to try and read about 16 novels (5 for Kinna's challenge, maybe 2 for Helen's challenge, and 9 for my personal challenge). Shouldn't be too difficult, especially as for Kinna's Challenge I chose books I wanted to read, and as for Helen's and my personal challenge I decided instead to not make a list but to choose books I felt like reading that were either North African or iconic. 

Am I the only one who is terrible at reading challenges? Has anyone started and finished one? If you have what's the secret to your success? How do you finish reading challenges, because I would really love to know. Also with a few months before the year ends, how are your reading challenges going? I really hope better than mine.

Here's to the next 3 months, my reading challenges and I. Wish me luck!

What the Day Owes the Night by Yasmina Khadra is my second book for the Middle East Reading Challenge hosted by Helen's Book Blog. 


Reading this book reminded me why I chose to focus on North African literature, and honestly why I love books - their ability to transport me to a world I know absolutely nothing about. Set in Algeria, this is a story about love, friendship, family and identity spread over 70 years. 


Younes, our narrator, is recounting his life and it starts when he is 9 living with his family on their farm. When his father, Issa's, farm is destroyed by fire and he is unable to repay his debt, they leave their farm life and move to the nearby town, Oran. Here Younes and his family live in the slum, Jenane Jato, and his father is forced to do whatever he can to make ends meet. After a series of unfortunate events, Issa (who is a very proud man) gives his son to his affluent brother -  a pharmacist living in the European (and richer) part of Oran. The second Younes is adopted by his uncle, his life changes as he becomes known as Jonas. This shapes the rest of his life - as in some ways through the adoption and name change he is saying goodbye to his Arab and Muslim identity. 


We then learn about Jonas' new life with his uncle in Oran, and their eventual move to the European town, Rio Salado. In Rio Salado, Jonas meets a group of boys that will become his long-time friends. Their friendship, and what they get up to as he grows, is the focus of his life in Rio Salado. Here is where he also meets Emile, a girl who will test this friendship, as she is so beautiful they all can't help but fall in love with her. As they grow up, Algeria is also hit by the revolution and we see how the country changes. Emile and the Algerian revolt introduce us to one aspect of Jonas' character - his indecisiveness. 


While Younes is a loveable character, his indecisiveness is grinding, and at times frustrating. Younes is conflicted, and at the centre of his conflict throughout his life is his identity. Is he Younes, the Arab he was before he was adopted by his uncle, or Jonas, the European who he becomes once he is adopted? He is an Arab living in a European world, and while Arabs are seen as "lazy and shiftless" by Europeans, Younes is exempt from this description. He is a hard-working, intelligent man from a good background. 


Yet time and time again he is reminded that he doesn't fit neatly into either box. On one hand Europeans remind him that although he is different from other Arabs, he is still an Arab - like the time when he was young, and a girl who was infatuated with him found out his name was Younes and not Jonas. He goes. ""Everyone calls me Jonas ... What difference does it make?" To which she replies, "It makes all the difference! ... It changes everything". "You surely don't think I could marry an Arab! I would rather die!" While on the other hand, Arabs like Jelloul (one of his friends help) reminds him "You wouldn't understand ... You're one of us, but you live like one of them'. No wonder he was conflicted!


What the Day Owes the Night was on quite a couple of best books for 2011/books you must read in 2011 lists, and I can see why. I really enjoyed it and I found it so easy to read. Most of all, I loved the writing. I loved the way every neighbourhood was described - the slums in Jenane Jato, the affluent neighbourhood his uncle lived in in Oran, Rio Salado, the way the neighbourhoods changed over the years. I loved learning a bit about Algeria and the Algerian revolution. It was like I was there and I was able to envision everything. I was transported to Algeria through reading this book, and in particular to Jonas' life. Sometimes I wanted to shake him and say "Make a decision - good or bad, it's better than nothing!", but even with that I still enjoyed reading it.


A thoroughly enjoyable and beautifully written book and one I would definitely recommend.


5 out of 5 stars.

No Longer at Ease by Chinua Achebe is my third novel for my personal Iconic African Authors Challenge.


Published in 1960, this was Chinua Achebe's second novel and tells the story of Obi Okonkwo, the grandson of Okonkwo from Things Fall Apart. It is 1950s Nigeria and Obi has just returned to Nigeria after 4 years in England studying English. This was made possible by the Umuofia Progressive Union (the villagers pooled their money to create a scholarship), which he has to pay back within four years of his return to Nigeria. The novel begins with Obi on trial for taking a bribe, and then we go back in time to find out how this honest man (who detests corruption), with a UK education, working for the civil service, with a very good salary, could take a bribe.


Just as in Things Fall Apart  I did find a number of themes. After spending four years in England, Obi now struggles with tradition, the expectations of his village, the UPU and his family to not forget his tradition, and a modern lifestyle in Lagos. Being educated abroad Obi was given a "European post", but this prestigious job comes with a lot of responsibilities. Obi has a lot of people to please, but at the same time, his new Western lifestyle comes with a costly price tag. Obi is faced with many dilemmas and unfortunately doesn't handle them very well. There's also the influence education has had on Obi. While it has enabled him to get a good job, it is also the one thing that makes him different in Nigeria.


The major one to me was corruption. This was the story of an honest man trying to survive in a dishonest Nigeria. I asked myself, how do you resist corruption when it is all around you? Or actually how long does it take to become part of Nigeria's corruption? And what exactly leads an honest man, like Obi, to become involved in corruption? No Longer at Ease does give us an insight into the events that led to Obi being on trial for taking a bribe. 


Again I asked myself "Why did it take me so long to finally read it?", and now I am really looking forward to reading Arrow of God.


4 out of 5 stars.

Two quotes stood out for me in the book. One was “What greater honour is there for a woman than to be a mother” and the other was “The joy of being a mother was the joy of giving all to your children”. In The Joys of Motherhood, Nnu Ego works extremely hard to provide for her children, especially her first son, Oshia, with the hope that one day all of her suffering and sacrifice would pay off (i.e. they will come home and look after her in her old age). Even when Nigeria is changing, she sticks to her tradition and beliefs and does everything possible to be a good wife and devoted mother. In the end she ends up all alone. All I kept on thinking while reading was "Are these really the joys of motherhood?"




I really, really enjoyed this book and I am so glad I set myself this challenge of reading Classic African texts because if I didn’t, I would have missed out on such a wonderful novel. And to all the mother’s out there who give all to their children, especially my wonderful mother, I just want to wish you all a Happy Mother’s Day. 


5 out of 5 stars.

Anatomy of a Disappearance is Hisham Matar's second novel. Nuri is filled with a lot of emptiness when his mother passes away. This is until he meets Mona while he and his father, Kamal, are on holiday in Alexandria at the Magda Marina hotel. Nuri becomes infatuated with Mona, but Mona falls in love with his father, and they eventually marry. Unhappy about his father's new found love and happiness with Mona, Nuri wishes for his father to disappear. But you know what they say, be careful what you wish for. As shortly after he starts boarding school at the age of 14 in London, his father is abducted and never seen again. Now Nuri and Mona have to come to terms with the disappearance of Kamal and over the next 11 years they also begin to learn more about Kamal and the secrets he had. 


While all that is going on, there is also a really weird love triangle involving Nuri, Mona and Kamal and when Kamal disappears, this weird sexual tension between Nuri and Mona still exists. Over the years, after the disappearance, the relationship changes but I was really intrigued by this disturbing sexual, step-mother/step-son relationship.


Anatomy of a Disappearance is also filled with  a lot of secrecy. Even when we discover a few towards the end of the book, there is still a lot that is left unsaid. Like what did his mother die of, what exactly was his father involved in (yes, we knew he was living in exile with his family in Cairo but what did he do because even when Nuri was asked in boarding school by his German roommate what his father's job was he wasn't quite sure), and what really happened to his dad? Even Nuri's life in the boarding school was really very vague.


Despite so many unanswered questions, Hisham Matar writes so beautifully. Each page is filled with emotions and intimacy and you feel Nuri's pain - his longing, his desires, his confusion, his loneliness, his unease. I have no idea what it would feel like to lose a loved one but in Anatomy of Disappearance you get an idea of how one copes with such loss. It seems like you are on auto-pilot, doing things to occupy yourself but still always having the memory of your loved ones in the back of your mind. It's also interesting to see how one grows up considering by the time he was 14 Nuri had lost both of his parents. 


The truth is the novel captures some of life's complexities -  sometimes you can't get all the answers. This is a son trying to come to terms with loss of his parents. I also found out after I finished reading the book that Hisham Matar's father also disappeared when he was younger, which could quite possibly add to the complexity of Nuri's thoughts and experiences of loss.


It's a beautifully written book, and despite its complexity it's a really quick and easy read. I read it in one sitting. It was written in a way that I always wanted to find out what was going to happen next. Although I didn't get all the answers, I still very much enjoyed reading it and now I am definitely looking forward to reading In the Country of Men.


3.5 out of 5 stars.


Anatomy of a Disappearance has also been reviewed as part of the Africa Reading Challenge.

This is something different but as soon as I finished reading Things Fall Apart  I realised I didn't want to review a seminal text that has been read my millions and reviewed by many. I actually just wanted to share my thoughts on the book. While I know that Things Fall Apart is cliched and an obvious first choice for someone who has never read Chinua Achebe (I was initially going to read Arrow of God), I chose to read it when I realised that it was the first in a sort of trilogy and No Longer at Ease and Arrow of God featured the descendants of Okonkwo (the main character in Things Fall Apart). Once I knew that, I realised Things Fall Apart was an obvious first choice because I wanted to start at the beginning so I could understand the end.


Things Fall Apart tells the story of Okonkwo from Umuofia (one of nine villages inhabited by Igbo's in Nigeria). It focuses on his life in Umuofia with his three wives and children, his exile from his village, and finally his struggle with British colonialism and Christian missionaries.


The first thing I thought as I was reading it was 'I get the hype'. I get why people rave so much about this book, especially considering when it was written. Here is a book that was trying to inform the world that only knew of Africa as 'backwards', 'the Other', or as Joseph Conrad called it 'the heart of darkness'. The book introduced Igbo culture and traditions with meaning and value.  I also loved the way it was written, very clear and simple, and I especially loved the choice of formal language, which was portraying a different side of Africa and the African (or in the case Igbo) language.


The second was the themes. There were so many themes jumping out as I was reading. Okonkwo, for example, trying to resist the political, cultural and religious changes that were occurring. Masculinity was another. Okonkwo didn't want to be portrayed as weak, as a woman, as his father (who was weak). His own version of masculinity was aggression, anger, never showing any weakness. This was why he didn't think much of his first son, Nwoye, who he saw as effeminate, weak, and not a real man. What was interesting was how he kept on wishing that Ezinma, his daughter and favourite child, were a boy because she portrayed qualities that he felt men should possess. We are also shown alternative forms of masculinity from Okonwo throughout the novel.

After reading the Memory of Love, I wanted something less intense. I also wanted a quick read - and what did I go for? A book about sex and power.


The Yacoubian Building, an actual landmark in Cairo, is a building where the rich and poor of Egyptian society can be found living or working. Poor Cairenes like Busanya and Taha live on the roof, while rich Cairenes like Hatim Rasheed, the homosexual editor of a popular French newspaper, live in the building. Businessmen and politicians are also found here, like Zaki Bey el Dessouki, who works and 'plays' in his office and Hagg Muhammad Azzam, a businessman and aspiring politician. Amongst the other characters linked to the Yacoubian Building are Abduh, Hatim's lover; Souad, Hagg Azzam's secret second wife; Abaskharon, Zaki Bey's 'help'; and Malik Khila, a shirtmaker and Abaskharon's brother.


Yes, there are a lot of characters in The Yacoubian Building, but it doesn't take long to get to know them. They each have their own story, they all have their own vices and their flaws, but really when it comes down to it they are all just trying to make it, whichever way they can, in Egypt. 


Not knowing much about Egyptian society, it was great to read a book that looked at homosexuality, power, corruption, religious fundamentalism, sex and love to name a few. I also enjoyed the lack of chapters - each characters story was separated by a symbol. It was really easy and quick to read, and one I would recommend, especially for those (like me) who are new to North African/Arab literature.


The Yacoubian Building has also been reviewed as part of the Africa and Middle East Reading Challenges.


4 out of 5 stars

I've tried to stay clear of doing too many reading challenges but sometimes its hard to resist a good one - especially when it might quite possibly overlap with another challenge. I just stumbled upon the 2012 Middle East Book Challenge sponsored by Helen's Book Blog and it was pretty hard to resist, especially since North African countries have been added to the list. 


North African literature has always been seen as separate from "African" literature, so it was not something I was ever exposed to. I've always been curious about it, and this challenge, as well as the Africa Reading Challenge, gives me an excuse to explore a region I have been wanting to for a while now. I haven't quite figured out what additional books I will be reading for this challenge, but for now I'm really looking forward to learning more about North African literature through these challenges. If you want to find out more about the Middle East Book Challenge, all the details are on Helen's Book Blog. 

Being new to the book blogging world I haven't set myself very many reading challenges. So far it's been my Iconic African Authors Challenge to get myself to read some of the greats. When Amy over at AmyReads told me about Kinna Reads Africa Reading Challenge, I was excited to find out what it was. And it's finally here.


For the novice, the challenge involves reading 5 books. The books can cover at least two regions, be translated fiction, and can be a mix of contemporary and classic fiction. For the advanced reader, the challenge could involve filling a gap (country, region, language, theme, gender). Am I excited? Yes! Do I know what I want to read? Definitely! I've been wanting to read more books from North Africa, and now I have an excuse to. Here's my list of 5 books.


1. The Yacoubian Building by Alaa al-Aswany (Egypt, Fiction, Contemporary)
2. The Cairo Trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz (Egypt, Fiction, Classic)
3. The Map of Love by Ahdaf Soueif (Egypt, Fiction, Contemporary)
4. Anatomy of a Disappearance by Hisham Matar (Libya, Fiction, Contemporary)
5. The Scents of Marie-Claire by Habib Selmi (Tunisia, Fiction, Contemporary)

A couple of weeks ago my friend and I were talking and we both realised that neither of us have read anything by Chinua Achebe or Wole Soyinka. Shameful I know! Well it's a New Year, and while I've never been big on resolutions, I'm really big on challenges. So I'm going to celebrate the icons. Once a month, I'll read an iconic African author. And by the end of the year, I will no longer say I've never read Achebe or Soyinka. Happy New Year!