Five books for such a time like this

With the Emab plaza bombing in Wuse 2, Abuja early in the week, all my permutations have changed.  I know the area well; I am a frequent shopper at that plaza. I have hairdressers there; I go to a super market there. I am familiar with a lot of women who sell bananas and groundnuts […]

With the Emab plaza bombing in Wuse 2, Abuja early in the week, all my permutations have changed.  I know the area well; I am a frequent shopper at that plaza. I have hairdressers there; I go to a super market there. I am familiar with a lot of women who sell bananas and groundnuts there. Today, following the blast mid-week in this mall, most of these women have left their children motherless, and random people who go in there to shop like me have either become widows, widowers, or are dead. This is our reality. I am so shaken that I can only go to books at this time. But I am also a spiritual being and know that this too shall pass. Here are books to help us cope as we sorrow deep.

(1) Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s collection of short stories, The Thing Around My Neck, is so Nigeria, it drives you to tears. The strength is in the setting (mostly Nigerian) and the dialogue which resonates with all Nigerians no matter where they are.  Chimamanda’s constant touchdown with her home country makes her one of the most relatable contemporary Nigerian writers of our time. While there are issues of fact and fiction and research sensibilities running through her second book, Half of a Yellow Sun, my favourite of all her writings so far has to be the short story form. This is because she represents  us well,; our joys, our challenges, our peculiarities, our uniqueness, our humanity and our charity  At  a time like this, let us read The Thing Around My Neck,  to console us  and remind us that we are a great nation of good people no matter what,  and that the challenges are temporary.

(2) Any book by Ben Okri; The Famished Road and Stardust transport us to a fresh new world of magical realism. Described by many as Gabriel Garcia Marques’ protégé,  Ben continues to dazzle with his many stories that help us to disappear into his many magical stories, momentarily removing us from the pain of our reality. We are hurting, true, but we can disappear into a new world, just a bit, to ease the pain; and Ben Okri’s books are a sweet surrender to all things magical.

(3)Terry McMillan – A Day Late and a Dollar Short.
This is the book that takes the cake for the ultimate family feud.; the worst and the best of a family. For me I think it represents a typical African country like ours that is growing experientially with different interest.  It’s hard to find a book of interesting activities with a family like this one. An  Uncle in an incestuous relationship  with their nieces ,sisters permanently at war, sons in laws who loathe their mothers-in-law and vice versa, men that are drugged and drunk, young girls with all sorts of agenda, women with incredible surprises, a rather good man, a rather good woman  and all sorts of other things going on.  It is delicious to read, racy, interwoven and full of suspense; pretty much like a mini-nation. A Day Late and a Dollar Short drove me to tears, made me laugh out loud and made me cringe. This is all us, a strange remembrance of Nigeria, a microcosm where the good co-habit with the bad like any other nation. We are our brothers’ keepers as well as our brothers undoing. This is a book to read at this time to get us all more conscious of how we relate in our families, even in the larger community. Are we the clogs in the wheel of our family, are   we the black sheep in our communities? When last did we check to see if we are the obstacles to the progress of our nation? Corruption, insurgency, kidnapping, poor work ethics, lousy customer service are perpetrated by us, not aliens from another land. We can make Nigeria better.

4) Reader’s Digest
This used to be a family staple, a book- like magazine that became a part of my most important collection of reading materials since I was 10 and still is. I read it to remind myself that we still have heroes around us. A man dives into a dangerous body of water to rescue a drowning child, a man lands a plane with a failed engine through sheer grit and people risk their lives to get people trapped in an avalanche. Apart from the knowledge it brings to the table, including but not limited to health news, vocabulary, funny stories and educational feature I read this gem of a book magazine for heroic stories.
At the site of every bomb blast since we suffered these indignities, have been men and women who have become our national heroes. Security operatives who go to cordon the site at a risk to their own lives, our security operatives who fight off insurgents, who track down perpetrators and arrest fleeing offenders, ordinary men and women who help take total strangers to hospitals and help dignify the dead, doctors, paramedics, fire officers, emergency management operatives, the religious, national leaders who have visited the wounded and the traumatised, as well as hospitals who have offered free medical service. What about ordinary men and women who have been charitable at sites of tragedy? The list is endless. Let us celebrate our Nigerian heroes because in spite of our many challenges, they still exist, giving selflessly of their time.
5) Chicken Soup for the Grieving Soul. This is a soothing book for all those who have lost loved ones in this recent bomb tragedy in Abuja. The stories are as heart-warming as they are heart breaking. Beautiful stories of how people have healed after a loss, funny stories about losing someone you care about, and tearful stories about the death of loved ones. This is a book for all mortals, knowing that at some point or the other we will have to grieve as this is the portion of men. No book has given such closure, such a soothing balm and has helped me to reflect on life and death like this book has. It does not deepen your sorrow; it is just gentle and comforting.
BONUS BOOKS: Newspapers, national and international, to keep you abreast of security issues and all the views on what is going on in your country. Stay safe, read about what is trending around you. Don’t go to crowded places. In the end we shall overcome.