Early in 2015 I figured wacha I start reading for fun because it was sold to me then and always that reading makes you a better person,Well I can for sure say it doesn't make you a better conversationalist because a lot of people read different things and you couldn't possibly read the same books to have these good conversations with every one,but if you are ever stuck in an uncomfortable silence with someone you could tell them a good story from a book, Also its fun and a constructive way to spend your free time and you learn a lot of new stuff.
You know when you start on something new, to test the waters you will always think let me not spend a lot on it before I can fully commit, I decided to get books from those street book vendors and I got lucky twice but the third time I got such a bad book(to me) that I cannot remember its title!! So here goes the list of the books I read in 2015.
Very Valentine
This book I got off a street vendor for 100 bob and it was such a good book that it has to be the best bargain I got last year hands down.
Its about a girl whose grandmother is shoe designer but is currently struggling because she makes couture shoes and they are therefore expensive and not a lot of people are buying them despite them be really pretty and classy.They travel to their home country(Italy in this case) to go purchase leather and materials to make the shoes.Then there is a competition by a big shoe retail brand that asks designers to make shoe designs and the one that wins this competition will have their shoe design made at scale and sold across the country(in this case being America).She enters the competition and finds out that all the big designers with far much better resources than her and her grandmother's shoe business have are competing but they think what do we have to loose and they pack their bags and go to Italy and get the best material, give their best and they win(ofcourse :-)) the book ends with the lady,her mother,and grandmother celebrating looking at their shoes on the displays of this retail store.
Skinny Dip
Its about a rich farmer who farms along a river/or some water source and he farms tomatoes but in the place they are there are some restrictions on what kind of chemicals(pesticides and fertilizers) you could use on your farm and to ensure that this is done their equivalent of ministry of environment takes water samples to ensure that there are always acceptable levels of the said chemicals in water but this farmer sees that there is no way he can continue maximizing his yields without using said bad chemicals in huge quantities.What to do, he hires a scientist who he pays to collect samples but always fake results on content levels of the bad chemicals to ensure that they always seem acceptable.
This scientist is some sort of male gold digger who is also married to a lady because she has rich father and has a big trust fund.One day as he is he looking at his fake data she walks onto him and he thinks she has found out his secrets(she supports environmental causes) and decides to kill her by throwing her into the sea,but she can swim and she swims to shore finds a guy there who saves her and they take their revenge on this bad and all his bad doings are found out.
Book whose title I can't remember
This book I read until the end because I thought there has to be a point at which it will get interesting but it didn't.It was about two siblings and how they were trying to make it in fashion and they became big and had a friend who worked for them who became gay and got HIV/AIDs when no one knew what it was and was wasting away and smoking too much cigarettes.......................
Americanah
I loved loved this book,its this story a lot of people can relate to(not the going abroad part of it) but the relationships people have in the book,their struggles and stories.When I read it first I skipped the whole Obinze in London segment but I finished and came back to it and found it was quite nice.
The book tells the story of two people Obinze and Ifemelu who were high-school sweet hearts who went to the same campus in Nigeria but then Ifemelu got a chance to go to America and left Obinze behind in Nigeria and they had a plan to stay in-touch and make things work,but Ifemulu went and so to say forgot him dated other guys,earned a degree,made money became a famous blogger and even went to Princeton but she then decides to return home...................
Obinze on the other hand remained behind,finished univeristy in Nigeria and struggled to get a visa to go to America,his mum is a proffesor and she gets a trip to go to London and takes him as his assistant so that he can go and leaves him there,but he struggles so much and he is even deported back to Nigeria,Where he comes,gets the right connections makes MONEY, marries and has a daughter.............
When Ifemelu comes back he is already rich,married and has a daughter and .......................(you'll have to read the book) but its such an interesting book
And the mountains echoed
It starts with a story about a village and a div(ghost),that will attack any village it chooses and takes the fattest child to go and eat(or this what the villagers thought).Then one day it came and it took the youngest son of a certain man and he was so sad,that he decided he will go to the mountains and fight the Div on his own and bring his son back.He walked and walked and when he reached the mountains he found that the Div did not eat the children but took good care of them and gave them good education(generally a good life that their parents couldn't give them). The father requested to see his son but the Div gave him a choice to see his son and go home with him to all their struggles or leave him there and have him have a chance at a better life...........................as any good father would do he chose to leave his son with the Div and cried for years.
Its set in Afghanistan and it tells a story of Kabul and its wealthy before and how their lives were, the war,its effects and the current situation through a lot of different people including some humanitarian workers(a doctor and a nurse-all the time I thought shout-out to MSF). There are some Afghans who were able to escape and are now returning for short visits either to reclaim their old possessions(land and houses) and others want to help/just see how it is.
It's divided into parts and each part tells a story of different people but at the end all the stories are connected.
The book has questions at the back,so if you read it my suggestion is to read the questions at the back first and then read it as they will help in understanding it.
A thousand splendid suns
This book will break your heart!!.
It's also set in Afghanistan and it tells a story long before the war,how people lived such happy and good lives field with laughter and parties.Those who stayed behind during the war because they had a strong belief that their army will overcome the bad guys,who got killed as their only daughter watched,child marriages and people who love each other so much that they sacrifice their lives so that the other can live.
I got A thousand splendid suns and And the mountains echoed on the same day but if you want to read only one Khaleid Hosseini book I highly recommend A thousand splendid suns.
Its a really good book,that tells you how to be better at what you do and be the best irrespective of wether you are a CEO or the tea-girl.
It shows you this through stories told by people called teachers in the book and each teaches something different but my best was the one who taught the acronym FMOB which means you have to always be the first,the most,the only and the best :-).
The art of war for women
Its a re-make of Sun-Tzu's famous Art of War and making it suitable for women and its a really really good book.It was a real eye opener for me and now I approach situations differently :-) with a lot of tact :-) :-)
Nice girls still don't get the corner office
Honestly who doesn't want the corner office,where all you do is sit,eat all the donuts in this world (because what else do owners of these corner office do :-)) and earn big bucks.
This book has an evaluation at the beginning that asks you to rate yourself and guides you on what chapters in the book to focus on to improve yourself and stand a better chance of getting that corner office :-).
This year I have a list of book to read lets see how that works out :-) but its flexible so if you read this and have good book suggestions please let me know :-).
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