Five books for the Rainy season
This season is a season of mixed feelings. We are always thankful for the rain to improve the harvest, give us more food and calm the temperature. My favourite snack is corn on the cob, I am a sucker for corn, roast or boiled with pear or with coconut. My mum used to cook the […]
This season is a season of mixed feelings. We are always thankful for the rain to improve the harvest, give us more food and calm the temperature. My favourite snack is corn on the cob, I am a sucker for corn, roast or boiled with pear or with coconut. My mum used to cook the best corn meal ever, an excellent mix of corn and beans, red oil and smoked fish; for me, the best meal in the entire world, my comfort food. There are many reasons why people like corn as a mid-day snack or even at lunch break. All these are possible with the rainy season. But it is not all the time that the rainy season is fun, it can lead to flood that can sink an entire community. There will be displaced persons who have lost everything, there will be poverty and desperation, then there are those who will be prone to light diseases and more complicated diseases. Those who have asthma for instance will not cope very well, and there are those with upper respiratory tract diseases like pneumonia, chest infections, sinuses, common cold and cough. These are people that do not look forward to the rainy season. On a lighter note, there are those who get soaked to their pants because they don’t have an umbrella or they don’t have a car. Conversely there are those especially the very young who enjoy playing in the rain.
1. The Sustainable Vegetable Garden: A backyard guide to healthy soil and higher yields- by John Jeavons and Carol Cox. Illustrations by Sue Ellen Parkinson: This book is good for all those who might want to start a vegetable garden in their backyard this rainy season and have no clue. Nigeria has some of the finest soil for gardening and with tomatoes skyrocketing and the price of vegetable going up, you might want to start your garden and learn something new. It is refreshing.
2. When it rains, love is suddenly in the air, as is earthy smells, the unique smell of water and dust, heady, calming and re-assuring. It is a good day to curl up in a chair and read a good book. It is a good day to re-establish your relationship with an old friend. It is a good period to fall in love, validate your love and show you care. When it rains, you sleep better, seek warmth of blankets and a loved one. This is the time when asleep on the couch, a loved one covers you with a blanket or wears you socks. This is the time to read that book you have left off for a long time, a cup of tea by your side. Nuts, sweets, chocolate and all of that. One of those nonsensical books like Alice in Wonderland which I have read more than fifty times, full of magic, joy and sheer pleasurable nonsense is a good book to read at this time. Another good book to hold unto is Bad Taste in Boys reviewed by Maja (The Nocturnal Library). For want of a better way to do it and since it is so well captured, here is the review as it is for your pleasure.
“Most authors have this overwhelming need to make sense, but Carrie Harris suffers from no such limitations, and I adore her for it. She would never let a small thing like sense get in her way. Sense is overrated anyway. The best way to enjoy Carrie’s debut is to jump in and hold on for dear life. The plot has more holes than Swiss cheese and the entire thing is like an episode of Looney Tunes, but if you can relax and just go with the flow, you’ll get to laugh until you drop.”
3. With the zika virus plaguing Latin America and with Nigeria so prone to mosquitoes and malaria, the rainy season is a good time to study malaria and all its related issues especially since collected water from rain yields to more mosquitoes and malaria. Mosquito: The story of mankind’s deadliest foe by Andrew Spielman and Michael D’Antonio is a fascinating study of one tiny insect, its devastating role in history and its growing threat to mankind. Did you know that the malaria strand in East Africa is more deadly than the Nigerian strand? Do you know the difference between cerebral malaria and ordinary malaria? This is a good time to study anything malaria and protect yourself. Add this too, The Fever: How Malaria has Ruled Humankind for 500,000 years described by the New York Times as a “tour de force history of malaria … riveting.”
4. This is a good time to deepen your faith. As it is Ramadan, it helps to read a book, to reflect on life during those long days of fast. Reading a book helps keep your mind focused on the reason for your fast and the cleansing therein. Read a book that would help you understand your purpose in life. An enriching, inspiring book to help you along.
5. Any book on love: once it rains, we must think about children at IDP camps who have no cardigans, no books, no food. Let us show love to each other and to the less privileged. Think about those sleeping rough, homeless children whose only shelter is under a bridge. Think about how you feel when you are drenched and you have a home. Think about how those without shelter feel in their clammy and wet clothes. Think about charity, think about love.
Bonus book
Any books about Love, faith, fashion and gardening. Love: Immeasurable. Faith: She takes her religion very seriously. Fashion: Because her elegance is bespoke. Gardening: Because at 75 she is still planting.
Enjoy!