I've thought up some really random ways to choose the rest of the books. I hope you'll enjoy them. Sorry the writing is so small--you might need to zoom in (command + on a mac).
Now the results for...
Here are the books you unwittingly voted on...
Nigeria: Half of a Yellow Sun by Adichie, and The Bride Price by Emecheta
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| "Biafra’s impassioned struggle to establish an independent republic in Nigeria in the 1960s, and the chilling violence that followed." |
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| "A powerful story of a modern Nigerian girl who rebels against traditional marriage customs." |
Kenya: The In-Between World of Vikram Lall by Vassanji
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| "Against the unsettling backdrop of Mau Mau violence, the grandchildren of an Indian railroad worker search for their place in a world sharply divided between Kenyans and the British." |
Lebanon: DeNiro's Game by Hage
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| "about a Lebanese petty criminal during the bloody civil war, who is only a little more ethical than a shithead." (Goodreads reviewer, lol) |
Egypt: The Cairo Trilogy by Mahfouz
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| "the engrossing story of a Muslim family in Cairo during Britain’s occupation of Egypt" |
Turkey: My Name is Red by Pamuk
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| "At once a fiendishly devious mystery, a beguiling love story, and a brilliant symposium on the power of art" |
India: The White Tiger by Adiga, and Q&A (Slumdog Millionaire) by Swarup
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| "unsubtle look at 21st Century India... told by a working class fellow who, through ambition, intelligence, and a willingness to be utterly ruthless is clawing his way up the rungs of the Indian class ladder." |
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| "a kaleidoscopic vision of the struggle between good and evil - and what happens when one boy has no other choice in life but to survive." |
And so, Yellow Sun, Red, and the Cairo Trilogy make it on the longlist. Thanks again for the help! I'm enjoying our little democratic game.
BONUS! Most douchey review I came across on Goodreads (ohhh the hipstertude of it all!)
"Postcolonial
lite. I feel like this is what I'm supposed to be reading while I
listen to MIA and rock last season's mirrored "ethnic chic" from Urban
Outfitters. To show that, you know, I'm a citizen of the world, and a
really hip westerner who gets the shifting forces of globalization.... did I feel a bit pandered to? I did feel a bit pandered to. ... To be honest, I might have given it three stars if it hadn't won the Booker and made a bunch of Best of the Year lists."
5 comments:
My Name Is Red sounds good. Luck to you with your last days this visit and your preparations.
All of those books sound so good.
I read Purple Hibiscus [by Adichie] but I don't think I've read anything by any of the other authors.
I want to read them all now though. Too bad we don't live nearer one another and I can't just stop by and take the ones you're leaving behind.
I never got the people who do reviews like that. They all sound good. (Not enough hours in my day for reading! Someone needs to get on that.)
The penile sleeping seahorse ... chortled into me bacon-n-eggs I did!
I presume it wasn't a straight-forward sort of thing?
@JJJ It sounds really unusual. Pamuk won the nobel for lit, which was why I bought one of his books.
@Nancy At least maybe it will one day be possible to loan ebooks to friends.
@Delia Desperate to make themselves feel smart, I guess. Superior to the nwashed masses.
@Widders What a mental image, eh?
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