Book picks similar to
The White Man of God by Kenjo Jumbam


fiction
africa
african-literature
cameroon

Butter Honey Pig Bread


Francesca Ekwuyasi - 2020
    Kambirinachi believes that she is an Ogbanje, or an Abiku, a non-human spirit that plagues a family with misfortune by being born and then dying in childhood to cause a human mother misery. She has made the unnatural choice of staying alive to love her human family but lives in fear of the consequences of her decision.Kambirinachi and her two daughters become estranged from one another because of a trauma that Kehinde experiences in childhood, which leads her to move away and cut off all contact. She ultimately finds her path as an artist and seeks to raise a family of her own, despite her fear that she won't be a good mother. Meanwhile, Taiye is plagued by guilt for what her sister suffered and also runs away, attempting to fill the void of that lost relationship with casual flings with women. She eventually discovers a way out of her stifling loneliness through a passion for food and cooking.But now, after more than a decade of living apart, Taiye and Kehinde have returned home to Lagos. It is here that the three women must face each other and address the wounds of the past if they are to reconcile and move forward.For readers of African diasporic authors such as Teju Cole and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Butter Honey Pig Bread is a story of choices and their consequences, of motherhood, of the malleable line between the spirit and the mind, of finding new homes and mending old ones, of voracious appetites, of queer love, of friendship, faith, and above all, family.

David Mogo Godhunter


Suyi Davies Okungbowa - 2019
    Despite pulling his biggest feat yet by capturing a high god for a renowned Eko wizard, David knows his job’s bad luck. He’s proved right when the wizard conjures a legion of Taboos—feral godling-child hybrids—to seize Lagos for himself. To fix his mistake and keep Lagos standing, David teams up with his foster wizard, the high god’s twin sister and a speech-impaired Muslim teenage girl to defeat the wizard.

The Book of Chameleons


José Eduardo Agualusa - 2004
    He lives on Felix Ventura's living-room wall, Felix, the lizard's friend and hero of the story, is a man who sells pasts - if you don't like yours, he can come up with an new one for you, a new past - full of better memories, with a complete lineage, photos and all."

An Elegy for Easterly: Stories


Petina Gappah - 2009
    Petina Gappah’s characters may have ordinary hopes and dreams, but they are living in a world where a loaf of bread costs half a million dollars, where wives can’t trust even their husbands for fear of AIDS, and where people know exactly what will be printed in the one and only daily newspaper because the news is always, always good.In her spirited debut collection, the Zimbabwean writer Petina Gappah brings us the resilience and inventiveness of the people who struggle to live under Robert Mugabe’s regime. She takes us across the city of Harare, from the townships beset by power cuts to the manicured lawns of privilege and corruption, where wealthy husbands keep their first wives in the “big houses” while their unofficial second wives wait in the “small houses,” hoping for a promotion.Despite their circumstances, the characters in An Elegy for Easterly are more than victims—they are all too human, with as much capacity to inflict pain as to endure it. They struggle with the larger issues common to all people everywhere: failed promises, unfulfilled dreams, and the yearning for something to anchor them to life.At the sound of the last post --An elegy for Easterly --The annex shuffle --Something nice from London --In the heart of the Golden Triangle --The Mupandawana dancing champion --Our man in Geneva wins a million euros --The maid from Lalapanzi --Aunt Juliana's Indian --The cracked, pink lips of Rosie's bridegroom --My cousin-sister Rambanai --The negotiated settlement --Midnight at the Hotel California

Guinness World Records 2021


Guinness World Records - 2020
    The fully revised and updated best-seller is packed with thousands of incredible new feats across the widest spectrum of topics, providing a whistle-stop tour of our superlative universe.Our ever-expanding pool of international consultants and experts help us make sense of the world around us and the cosmos beyond. So join us as we embark on a voyage through the vast panorama of record-breaking in 12 fact-packed chapters:- Travel through the Solar System and see the planets come to life with a free Augmented Reality feature- Encounter the cutest, weirdest, most dangerous and exotic creatures on our home planet- Meet the world's tallest, shortest, hairiest and heaviest humans- Marvel at the latest high scores, speed runs, and players at the top of their game in eSports and beyond- Get the lowdown on the world's most successful and prolific actors, musicians, TV stars and influencersWe've also selected the best of the newly approved claims from the 50,000 applications received from the public over the past 12 months. But don't just be a tourist: try some of our specially created try-at-home challenges that could see YOU listed in the world-famous book of records. If you want to be one of those lucky few, check out our Against the Clock chapter--we might even see you in next year's edition!Finally, be inspired by the latest inductees to the Guinness World Records Hall of Fame, including the real-life Captain Nemo who's traveled to the deepest point in every ocean, the fearless campaigner for human rights who risked her life to make the world a better place, and the teenage millionaire who made his fortune playing Fortnite.It's a big world out there! Let Guinness World Records 2021 be your guide!

Xala


Ousmane Sembène - 1973
    A biting satire about the downfall of a businessman-polygamist who assumes the role of the colonialist in French-speaking Africa.

This Son of York


Anne Easter Smith - 2019
    A man. A king. A legend. He ruled England for only two years, but the legacy of Richard III remains both fascinating and divisive. From his childhood in the intensely loyal and close-knit York family to his rise as a thoughtful but troubled ruler, This Son of York is a passionate and deeply personal account of the life of Richard III. A man who loved his family and his country. A king who struggled to overcome the challenges not only of a turbulent time but his own human frailties. A legend whose true life is only now coming to light. Inspired by the discovery of Richard III's grave and its revelations, award-winning author Anne Easter Smith brings together her decades of intense research, five celebrated novels on the Wars of the Roses, and her sustained passion for Richard III in this culminating book on the last Plantagenet king.

Biker


Mike Baron - 2013
    Ginger Munz, a woman dying of cancer hires him to find the son she lost as a baby. The child’s father is a sadistic sociopath named Moon who has vowed to kill her and Josh’s girlfriend Cass, for ratting him out. The trail leads to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally and west into no-man’s land where Josh learns the monstrous fate of the stolen child.Josh is the BIKER, caught up in a race for survival against a human monster on the road between heaven and hell at the end of which lies either salvation or damnation. Baron spins a tale of unrelenting suspense and horror that moves across his narrative landscape like the roar of a chopper’s engine.

Silence is My Mother Tongue


Sulaiman Addonia - 2018
    In this crowded and often hostile place, she must carve out her new existence, always protecting her mute brother Hagos.A moving portrait of a woman of courage and intelligence, an insider’s view of the textures of life in a refugee camp, and a compelling story of exile, survival and love, Silence is My Mother Tongue bears vivid testimony to the power of imagination and illusion and the infinite reach of human minds to reinvent themselves.Both intimate and epic, Sulaiman Addonia’s extraordinary, subversive and sensual second novel dissects society’s ability to wage war on its own women and explores the stories we must tell to survive in a broken, inhospitable environment.

No Sweetness Here and Other Stories


Ama Ata Aidoo - 1970
    Tradition wrestles with new urban influences as Africans try to sort out their identity in a changing culture. True to the tradition of African storytelling, the characters come to life through their distinct voices and speech. If there is no sweetness, there is the salt essential to life, even if it comes from tears, and the strength that comes from a history of endurance.

Magna Carta: The Medieval Roots of Modern Politics


David Starkey - 2015
    Along the way, he shows how the Magna Carta laid the foundation for the British constitution, influenced the American Revolution and the U.S. constitution, and continues to shape jurisprudential thinking about individual rights around the world today.In 1215, King John I of England faced a domestic crisis. He had just lost an expensive campaign to retake his ancestral lands in France, an unfortunate adventure that he had funded by heavily taxing the baronial lords of England. Sick of the unpopular king's heavy-handed rule, and unimpressed by the king's unsuccessful attempt to seize Normandy, the feudal barons united to make demands of their sovereign for certain protections. These demands, the "Articles of the Barons," were submitted to the king in rough draft after the rebels occupied three cities, most significantly London. A few years later, after being edited and amplified by the then-Archbishop of Canterbury, the Articles would come to be known as the Magna Carta. The self-interested barons couldn't have known it at the time, but those demands would one day become the bedrock of democratic political development around the globe--even though that influence was largely due to mythologizing by later scholars who warped the symbolism of the document to support their arguments in favor of the rights of all citizens.Although the Magna Carta itself made no requests on behalf of the peasantry, in its structure the outlines of modern democratic reform are plainly visible. Among other things, it demanded limits on the ability of the crown to levy taxes; protection of the rights of the church; the guarantee of swift justice; and a ban on unjust imprisonment. Those protections and guarantees were strictly intended for benefit of feudal barons, but the free citizens of today's democratic nations owe an enormous debt to this history-changing document.

Martha Quest


Doris Lessing - 1952
    She is a romantic idealistic in revolt against the puritan snobbery of her parents, trying to live to the full with every nerve, emotion, and instinct laid bare to experience. For her, this is a time of solitary reading daydreams, dancing -- and the first disturbing encounters with sex. The first of Doris Lessing's timeless Children of Violence novels, Martha Quest is an endearing masterpiece.

Lone Star: A History Of Texas And The Texans


T.R. Fehrenbach - 1968
    Never before has the story been told with more vitality and immediacy. Fehrenbach re-creates the Texas saga from prehistory to the Spanish and French invasions to the heyday of the cotton and cattle empires. He dramatically describes the emergence of Texas as a republic, the vote for secession before the Civil War, and the state's readmission to the Union after the War. In the twentieth century oil would emerge as an important economic resource and social change would come. But Texas would remain unmistakably Texas, because Texans "have been made different by the crucible of history; they think and act in different ways, according to the history that shaped their hearts and minds."

The Voice Imitator


Thomas Bernhard - 1978
    At once pessimistic and exhilarating, Bernhard's work depicts the corruption of the modern world, the dynamics of totalitarianism, and the interplay of reality and appearance.In this stunning translation of The Voice Imitator, Bernhard gives us one of his most darkly comic works. A series of short parable-like anecdotes—some drawn from newspaper reports, some from conversation, some from hearsay—this satire is both subtle and acerbic. What initially appear to be quaint little stories inevitably indict the sterility and callousness of modern life, not just in urban centers but everywhere. Bernhard presents an ordinary world careening into absurdity and disaster. Politicians, professionals, tourists, civil servants—the usual victims of Bernhard's inspired misanthropy—succumb one after another to madness, mishap, or suicide. The shortest piece, titled "Mail," illustrates the anonymity and alienation that have become standard in contemporary society: "For years after our mother's death, the Post Office still delivered letters that were addressed to her. The Post Office had taken no notice of her death."In his disarming, sometimes hilarious style, Bernhard delivers a lethal punch with every anecdote. George Steiner has connected Bernhard to "the great constellation of Kafka, Musil, and Broch," and John Updike has compared him to Grass, Handke, and Weiss. The Voice Imitator reminds us that Thomas Bernhard remains the most caustic satirist of our age.

The Ex Files


Morgan Elizabeth - 2022
    A favor for a friend in college who was afraid she’d been catfished soon turned into a full-blown business. Now, as the owner of The Ex Files, a matchmaking service based Ocean View, she dates men nearly every day of the week in order to vet them, assuring the matches she makes are perfectly informed and free of heartache.With her job comes pitfalls, though: every man she meets is hiding something, trying to impress, and not showing his true colors. It’s just not worth the emotional stress to even try anymore. But when she has to attend her father’s wedding, the man who once lived his own double life, she realizes after years of matchmaking, she has no date of her own to bring to the event.His sisters want him to have the happily-ever-after their parents do.When mechanic Luke Dawson helps a woman on the side of the road, he didn’t think it would be the matchmaker his sisters set him up with. But just one date is all it takes for him to decide that he’s not going for a match - he’s interested in the matchmaker herself.Now it’s his job to convince her to give him a shot without scaring her off. But try after try, he’s hitting obstacles in the form of the strict and uptight rules she’s crafted in order to protect herself.Can he get past her walls and make her see they’d be a perfect match if she let herself fall?