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It Ends With Us

Book Review

Author : Colleen Hoover

Genre : Romance

Publisher : Simon & Schuster

Year of Publication : 2016

Number of Pages : 384

My Rating : 5 out of 5

Lily Bloom is upset following her father’s very emotionally draining funeral and just wants to be alone on a rooftop where she can breathe in the fresh air and unwind. She does not count on meeting handsome Ryle, a neurosurgeon with whom she makes an instant connection. During their brief chat, they tell each other some ‘naked truths’ about their lives.

Lily is trying to overcome complicated feelings around her father’s death and the life that she left behind when she moved to Boston. Ryle is struggling with his own demons that plague him. After their initial rooftop encounter, Lily doubts she will ever see Ryle again, as they want different things from life. When they reconnect several months later, she finds herself unable to resist him.

In addition to starting a new business, and settling her mother in Boston, she reminisces about her first love, Atlas. She met Atlas as a teenager, at a time when he was lost, and she saved his life. When she unexpectedly bumps into him again, she believes she will finally get the closure she needs to be able to move on with her life.

This is a love story, but not just the usual love story. It is a love story that almost made me cry in some parts and left me frustrated in others. Colleen Hoover is a bestselling author of romance, young adult, thriller and women’s fiction. “And maybe a ghost story soon,” as she says in her Goodreads Bio. It is no wonder then that this was not just a romance story, even though romance is at the heart of the book.

I really rooted for Lily and Ryle and the twist caught me by surprise. I honestly did not see it coming. As it turns out, this is a tale about life and relationships – and how complicated both can get. I found the story gripping, even as it took an unexpected turn. The author uses first person to narrate the story, so I felt all of Lily’s emotions intensely, as I followed her thoughts and experiences.

I loved Lily as a character and wish I had her strength. The other characters were also well developed and easy to relate to. This story seemed so familiar to me, yet the author managed to show me that some circumstances in life are not as they seem at first glance. She shows how easy it is to judge people unfairly when we do not fully understand what they have been through and what makes them act the way they do.

Ultimately, this is a story about one woman’s journey and her quest to overcome her past and build a fulfilling, meaningful life for herself. It tells us that we are not bound by our past – or even our present circumstances and we can make the decision to break patterns. No matter what path we take, there is always time and space to course-correct. This may not always be easy and it requires a lot of reflection to recognize where we went wrong and the right path. It also requires the courage to do what is right as opposed to what is easy.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and rate it 5 out of 5. I recommend it to anyone who loves a good story with romance and a bit of a lesson.

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The Classics Club

I am joining a classics challenge! I was super excited to come across this challenge. It is run by the classics book club which is a community of lovers of classics. The idea is to read at least 50 classics and blog about them, within a period of 5 years.

This is meant to increase the number of people blogging about classics. Since I love classics, I have decided to join the challenge. Not bad, yeah? I can do that in 5 years. It is bound to be a refreshing experience.

My first task is to choose 50 classics that I would like to read and review. In selecting my list, am including books that I have read in the past and would like to blog about. That’s not cheating, it’s allowed.

The first one on my list has to be Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, my favorite romance. I’m looking forward to blogging about this one! I have read it multiple times. I picked it up again last year after watching the 1995 BBC adaptation (yes, the one with Colin Firth diving into the lake). I don’t know why it took me so long to find this series, but I loved it once I did.

I am also including several others that I read years ago, as it has been a while and I need to refresh my memory to do them justice in a blog post. The Classics Club has helpfully provided a list to pick from, though you can include any book that is considered a classic. I have created a separate page for this project here where I will update my progress and post my reviews. Feel free to either join me or follow my progress!

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Americanah

Book Review

Title : Americanah

Author : Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers

Date of Publication: 2013

Number of Pages: 477

One of the most outstanding books that I read in 2018 was Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, so I have decided to write my first review on it. Americanah won the National Book Critics Circle Award and was named one of The New York Times Top Ten Best Books of 2013.

Chimamanda is a Nigerian writer who grew up on the campus of the University of Nigeria in Nsukka. Americanah is her third novel. Her debut novel was Purple Hibiscus which was followed by Half of a Yellow Sun. She won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (2005) and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award (2004) for Purple Hibiscus. Half a Yellow Sun got her the Orange Prize in 2007 (presently called the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction). Chimamanda has also written a collection of short stories – The Thing Around Your Neck and an essay titled We Should All Be Feminists. Her most recent book is titled Dear Ijeawele or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions. She is additionally a prominent speaker and thought leader.

I have read her first three books and am planning to read all her publications and share my views. I was first drawn to Chimamanda after watching her 2009 TED Talk titled The Danger of a Single Story. Not that I had never seen her books in book shops, I just hadn’t come round to reading them. Half of a Yellow Sun seemed a very abstract title to me, so I did not pick it up. Understandable as that was the phase of my life when I was more interested in much lighter fare for my reading table. Once I read Americanah, I instantly became a fan and picked up her other books as well. I only wish I had started reading her books earlier!

Americanah is a beautifully narrated story of the journey of Ifemelu, a young Nigerian girl who grew up in Lagos, Nigeria. A teenage Ifemelu meets and falls in love with Obinze whilst in High School. The two move on to the University of Nigeria in Nsukka. The country is under military rule and mismanagement prevails. Soon the students start a riot to protest the lack of water and electricity. Lecturers strike to protest a lack of pay, which necessitates the closure of the University. When the lecturers’ strikes become commonplace, many students leave for the US. Ifemelu also eventually joins her aunt who is already in the US with plans that Obinze will join her there after he graduates.

Unfortunately, Obinze is not able to move to the US after he is denied a visa. He ends up in the United Kingdom on a six months’ visa. He unsuccessfully tries to legalize his immigration status and after three years, he is eventually deported. Fortunately, back home, he builds himself up and becomes wealthy.

Ifemelu, on the other hand, struggles to settle down in her new life but is eventually able to make a good life for herself. She still yearns for home and in the end decides to go back to Nigeria. She then has to come to terms with a new Nigeria where she is referred to as an Americanah. Chimamanda explains this as a term used to refer to Nigerian immigrants who return home with affectations such as pretending not to understand Nigerian languages and speaking with an American accent. Ifemelu’s strongest desire is to settle down and to re-connect with Obinze, her old love.

This is a compelling story of genuine self-discovery and personal growth told along with a critical exploration of what it means to yearn for and eagerly seek greener pastures. The prolific author shows us the struggles that lead Africans to leave their homes and the daunting challenges they inevitably encounter trying to fit in in overseas countries like the US and UK. I love the way she uses Ifemelu’s and Obinze’s contrasting lives to show us two different immigrant experiences. One immigrates legally on a valid student visa and achieves a measure of success. The other travels on a short term visa and struggles to obtain residency. Even though they leave on different terms, they both end up going back home.

Most importantly, Chimamanda carefully explores controversial issues on race, through Ifemelu’s personal experiences. An interesting illustration of this is when her class watches scenes from the TV series Roots. A spirited discussion inevitably ensues between an African and several African American classmates around the bleeping of the N-word in the classic film. This gives us a glimpse of the diverse perspectives held by Black Americans on race as opposed to Africans, who have not been exposed to racism on the same scale.

I love how Chimamanda uses Ifemelu’s blog titled – Raceteenth or Various Observations About American Blacks (Those Formerly Known as Negros) by a Non-American Black – to bring out what may have otherwise been tricky to discuss. She gives a frank and unadulterated view. Examples given include – how surprising it is for Africans to always be labeled ‘black’ ; how it can be difficult for Africans to recognize racists statements/questions (Do you like watermelon?) ; and how strange it feels to be asked to give ‘the black’ perspective. I particularly liked that she showed the backlash that many black women face regarding the way they choose to wear their hair.

All in all, this is a story of how it feels to be caught between two distinct worlds. It is about the struggle to remain authentic to who you are, whilst desperately trying to fit in and gain acceptance. It is also a charming love story, and a tale about growth and enduring love for home. I recommend it for anyone who loves a good tale with strong well developed characters, and most especially for anyone who would genuinely like to get a better understanding of the unique experiences of black immigrants.

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Books Books Books

I love reading and consistently have. I fondly remember eagerly reading as a young girl. I would bury my head in a book and get taken away into a new world. A world that originally only existed in between the pages, but which came alive as I began visualizing it. I visited enchanted lands on The Magic Faraway Tree, went on adventures with the Famous Five, and solved mysteries with The Secret Seven, Moses and Nancy Drew.

With age, I was typically drawn to other books like the Sweet Valley High series which was irresistible to my teenage self. I also discovered successful comics like The Adventures of Tin Tin, Asterix, and the Archie series. There were many other titles I read during this period whose names am not able to recall, either because they were not as popular, or they were standalone and not part of a series. I vaguely recall some hardcover books that I discovered during the one-hour library session that we had in my primary school which featured young girls and their love for horses and riding. No one else even perused these books and there were in pristine condition. Whereas I scarcely remember their titles or authors, I know I found them very interesting. This was to the surprise of my classmates who considered them extremely serious, long and boring. Which they were not, at least not to me.

Other books that I enjoyed reading though many of my friends did not were classics like – The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; Little Women; Pride and Prejudice; Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights; Oliver Twist; A Tale of Two Cities; Treasure Island, and The Three Musketeers. Looking back, I am not totally certain what initially drew me to these publications. I was slowly becoming a voracious reader, and if in print, I was going to read it!

Over time, I must have read over 500 Mills and Boon and Harlequin Romance series books! I honestly found them irresistible, even as I typically began finding the familiar plot rather predictable. I would save up my pocket money in High School, so I could go purchase a couple of these books when the school closed. Thankfully, I also discovered espionage and conspiracy genres as authored by Tom Clancy, Jeffrey Archer, and Robert Ludlum. Never has an excellent publication thrilled me as the Matarese Circle invariably did!

During my prime High School years, I read esteemed African writers like Chinua Achebe – Things Fall Apart, No Longer at Ease and A Man of the People. Also Ngugi Wa Thiong’o – A grain of Wheat and The River Between. I should have read all their books. Things Fall Apart was required reading for our exam, and we analyzed it thoroughly in class. I suspect that I did not fully appreciate the message in the other books by these literary giants, possibly due to my maturity and general awareness at the time. I therefore intend to re-read them together with the rest of their collection. It will most likely be a different, insightful learning experience.

This looks like a great reading list. Yet I have scarcely touched on what I read post-high school after discovering John Grisham and Robin Cook. Nor did my genuine love of Danielle Steele, Jackie Collins, Agatha Christie, Lee Child, James Patterson, and Paulo Coelho even come through! Or that time I borrowed a fascinating volume of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare and worked through it, story by story, instead of the business book I should have been reading. Or how I am currently reading A Song of Ice and Fire after watching Game of Thrones! Nor how The Richest Man in Babylon and Who Moved My Cheese are my favorite books of all time! I now realize it is not possible to list all the authors I love and all the books I have read over time!

Possibly, what this means is that, invariably, I have lots of essential material for a lively blog on books. My reading habit has stayed comfortably with me, though it suffered a bit of hiatus at times due to extremely busy periods at work combined with after work studies! I continue reading. I love books. Books have defined me and will undoubtedly continue to do so. I proudly accept the noble title of ‘bookworm’ with no apologies. Not even to the dear auntie who always shakes her head in wonder, saying what she recalls of me as an adolescent was the book in my hand! I take it as an ideal compliment, though it is understandable she does not get how a young girl could genuinely enjoy reading so much!

Ergo, as long as authors keep writing, I will keep reading and will indeed re-read what they wrote many years ago. Mostly to see what new lessons I can glimpse that may have subtly escaped me then. And I will continue connecting with other readers to share ideas and get tips on wonderful new books to add to my collection! And who knows, maybe one remarkable day, eventually write a brilliant book too!