Short Story - from The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngoi Adichie

The Thing Around Your Neck 
Chimamanda Ngoi Adichie
2009; Anchor Books, Random House
Nigerian American woman
12 short stories
I purchased a paperback copy of the book

"Cell One"
p. 3 - p. 21
read Sat. 1/14/17
Adichie put me in Nigeria immediately.  I instantly knew the four characters in the story, the teller, her brother, Nnamabia, and her two parents.  When Nnamabia is thrown into jail because he stayed out past curfew and was with cult (gang) members in a bar, the family drive to visit him every day.  His cockiness slowly ebbs and his humanity shines through as he witnesses humiliations to a 70-year old man.  The abrupt ending put me off a bit.  I wanted more.  Good story.

60. Little Bee - Chris Cleave

read by Anne Flosnick
11 cds
288 pages

Adult Contemporary Realistic Fiction

Finished: 11/9/12

2008, Simon  & Schuster

Goodreads’ rating:  3.53

My rating: 4/Really liked it

Acquired: TPPL audio

Setting: Contemporary London and Nigeria
from GoodReads:  British couple Andrew and Sarah O'Rourke, vacationing on a Nigerian beach in a last-ditch effort to save their faltering marriage, come across Little Bee and her sister, Nigerian refugees fleeing from machete-wielding soldiers intent on clearing the beach. The horrific confrontation that follows changes the lives of everyone involved in unimaginable ways.Two years later, Little Bee appears in London on the day of Andrew's funeral and reconnects with Sarah. Sarah is struggling to come to terms with her husband's recent suicide and the stubborn behavior of her four-year-old son, who is convinced that he really is Batman. The tenuous friendship between Sarah and Little Bee that grows, is challenged, and ultimately endures is the heart of this emotional, tense, and often hilarious novel.Considered by some to be the next Kite Runner, Little Bee is an achingly human story set against the inhuman realities of war-torn Africa. Wrenching tests of friendship and terrible moral dilemmas fuel this irresistible novel.

Reflections: Fantastic writing, incredible story, but it was almost like he had to throw in every sort of sadness and non-happy ending (to MANY of the part of the story) that he possibly could. Yes, there was a lot of humor, too...5+ for the delicious words, 5 for the storytelling, 1 for the incredible sadness. This book has made me rethink what it is that I want in a "good" story.....I listened to this on CD and the reader was amazing. She read Little Bee's part in an English accent with the deep lilting tones of a Nigerian/Jamaican and Sarah's parts in a wonderful British accent. When she spoke as Andrew she gave Scottish inflections....it was really wonderful to listen to

One Big Family: Sharing Life in an African Village - Ifeoma Onyefulu

Illustrated by Photographs
Frances Lincoln Children's Books, 1996
28 pages
For: anyone interested in Africa or Nigeria
Rating: topnotch
Endpapers; Brown handmade-looking paper with large black stenciled designs

Of all the reading I've been doing about Africa, this has been one of the most informative and interesting.

Eastern Ethiopian villages have ogbos (or-BOs), which are groups of people of the same five-year age span. They exist as almost a part of the family unit, and members are always a part of that ogbo, no matter how old they become or where they live. Each ogbo has different jobs to help the community, from cleaning and tending and caring to building and ruling the village. In some villages, ogbos ange spans may be just one year, or two, but in Obioma's village of Awkuzu, ogbos have a five year age span.

So we get to see, and visualize (because of Onyefulu's lovely photography) what life in an eastern Ethiopian village looks like. This was a meanignful, helpful glance into a way-of-life that most Americans can only imagine, and it was like a gift. I loved it.

I'm on the way to the library right now to find more of her books. Thank you, Ifeoma Onyefulu!