Five books to start to wind up the year
1) For world travellers like me, it is important to read travel magazines and books in order to understand what is trending in different parts of the world. One of my favourite go to books at the end of the year is A.A Gill’s Here and There. Well written, hilarious with stories from different parts […]
1) For world travellers like me, it is important to read travel magazines and books in order to understand what is trending in different parts of the world. One of my favourite go to books at the end of the year is A.A Gill’s Here and There. Well written, hilarious with stories from different parts of the world, I never tire of reading Gill’s collected travel writing. Television and restaurant critic for the Sunday Times and a contributing Editor to Gentleman’s Quarterly, Vanity Fair and Australian Gourmet Traveller Gill is a witty and entertaining writer who always gives perspective to every city or place he has been to and makes you want to go to all the exotic places he has been exploring. A.A Gill is recommended as are all travel writing books, useful for planning your end of year Holidays.
2) Seasons of Crimson Blossoms by Abubakar Ibrahim. Award winning writer, Abubakar Adam Ibrahim is not only a younger brother but he is my page Editor for this column in the Trust. His journey in the writing world is a good story to begin to wind up your year on a positive note. Starting with an award winning short story which won the BBC African Performance prize 2005, Abubakar’s literary career has continued to soar. I am very proud of his recent move, a novel. Ibrahim says the novel explores “love, desire, heartbreak, hope, the human condition and our collective humanity.” Coming after his being shortlisted for the Caine prize in 2013, this is certainly a great move to end the year. I wish Abubakar great success with his literary career.
3) It is always a moment of thanksgiving and prayers as the year comes to an end. Thanksgiving that you have been so preserved and prayers that God will sustain you to the end of the year. It is in the spirit of this prayer and the need to take stock of the year that I recommend Books of Quotations a collection from the Geddes and Grosset stable. I love the quotation by former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill on the blurb of this book. “It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations…the quotations when engraved upon the memory give you good thoughts. They also make you anxious to read the authors and look for more”.
4) I hardly read romantic novels. I have difficulty in dealing with all that smooch, heart on fire business that goes on in romantic novels. A lot of romantic novelists just give us unrealistic men, tall handsome, sexy and rich with a foreign accent. Unachievable in most instances or they give you a flawless, well behaved, san trouble, beautiful like a mermaid girl, who cooks like a Michelin chef and is great at home making. Any takers? Anyway I just don’t care for all this mushy love stories, so for a love story to grab me means it’s not only well written but has a truly realistic story. I always encourage such a story for everyone at the end of the year to help us all quiet our pain in love or our disappointments in love. But it also helps us celebrate those of us in love. I love family sagas, epics and only love stories with a twist. Well, here is one I am reading A Curious Earth by Manbroker prize finalist Gerard Woodward. A heartbreaking novel about growing old disgracefully and about love. Enjoy an end of the year romantic novel. Grab one for your sense of balance and romance.
5) When God Doesn’t make sense is an incredible book about holding on to your faith even when it doesn’t make sense written by Dr. James Dobson. This is an immensely practical book for those who are struggling with trials and heartaches they can’t understand. Why does disease, natural disaster, divorce, rejection, death or some other sorrow seep into our lives when we are trying to serve God? Drawing on his long experience as a psychologist and family counsellor, Dr. Dobson brings hope to those who have almost given up. The book is described in the blurb as “an immensely practical book for those who are struggling with trials and heartaches they can’t understand…this book deals unflinchingly with life’s most troubling question-the awesome “why?” Drawing on his long experience as a Christian psychologist and family counsellor, Dr. Dobson brings hope to those who have almost given up. When God Doesn’t Make Sense also helps believers avoid the “betrayal barrier”-the sense that God is abandoning them amidst the storms of life”. In the face of the bombings in Paris and Kano, this is such an important book to lift our spirits and help us hold on to our faiths as the year comes to an end.