For some unclear reasons (basically laziness and procrastination), I have not filled an entry here in a long one. I have not stopped adding to the library but I have just stopped updating these pages. I just found this photo in the gallery of my phone and decided to use it here before deleting it. This was taken about two months ago after I unpacked the parcel from the delivery man.

Random Haul

I was cleaning the bookshelves months back when it occured to me that there is a disproportionate amount of male-authored fiction books in my library. I decided to be more deliberate in buying fiction written by men.  Within days I read an old piece on So The Path Does Not Die and decided to get it.  I noticed Fred Khumalo gushing about Walter Mosley and the same week he was awarded the National Book Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award . When I checked his catalogue I was shocked that I had not read or even seen any of his books in the past. Lots of his work are crime fiction and while that is not my favourite genre, I still found a lot of his books that ticked a lot of boxes for me and I started the collection. The man in the Basement, Fortunate Son and his most recent offering – The Akward Black Man, were contained in this particluar parcel.

I can’t for the life of me remember where I saw The Color of Water being recommended as an exceptional memoir. I got it months back but decided to find some fiction written by James McBride and ended up with Five Carat Soul collection. Short stories collection are not my first port of call but the reviews and synopsis of this collection seemed tempting enough.

I recently discovered StoryGraph and while it is still in beta stage and obviously its infancy, I like it a lot more than Good Reads. Two top recommendations I came away from that site are A Lucky Man by Jamel Brinkley and Brother by David Chariandy. The synopsis of both books seem to proof that the site profiled my taste correctly.

It was not an all-male haul. Maryse Condé was honoured at this year’s Ake book festival and after reading the oline citation, I was keen to see what her catalogue seemed like. The Wondrous and Tragic Life of Ivan and Ivana seemed interesting to me and it completed this haul.

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