Vitabu Books

Man cannot live on Adichie alone, not if you are like me and you find yourself always hankering for delightful and beautifully written love stories - Ainehi Edoro (Bella Naija Book Review: Ainehi Edoro’s Review of “Nothing Comes Close” by Tolulope Popoola, February 28th, 2013) Brittle Paper's Ainehi Edoro did an ace review of Tolulope Popoola's new book in Bella Naija . Like Edoro, I also found Nothing Comes Close a "delightful and beautifully written" love story this past weekend. For protagonists Lola and Wole, nothing really comes close to what they feel for each other. Popoola's sizzling romance, published by her own label, Accomplish Press , is set among a well-heeled circle of  twenty-thirty somethings at personal and professional crossroads. The novel kicks off in Lagos with an intriguing scene before coursing its way through the lives of five very different Nigerian women--the talented and tragic Maureen, Temmy, Titi, Funmi and Lola--all base...

Yema Lucilda Hunter is Sierra Leone’s first female novelist. Her novels include  Road to Freedom, Bittersweet, and Redemption Song . She was invited to write an article on the Sierra Leonean-Ghanaian literary figure, Gladys Casely-Hayford, for the Dictionary of African Biography (Oxford University Press) after publishing her biography  An African Treasure, in Search of Gladys Casely-Hayford, 1904-1950.  Vitabu : When did you discover books? Yema Lucilda Hunter: I learned to love reading soon after I learned to read because I lived with my maternal grandmother who took me to the British Council library where there was a children's section. In those days there were no books for children written by African authors. In fact, the only stories about Africa that I remember reading as a child were in a series called Jungle Doctor. They were written by an English doctor and set in East Africa. Vitabu : Tell us about some of your favorite books written by African authors. ...

Thursday, March 21 was UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) World Poetry Day. In keeping with the message from the director-general of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, I recited home-grown poems that I'd found to be the “purest expressions of lingusitic freedom.” The verses hold a special significance for me because they were penned at a time of great dread. "[P]roduced by a group of Sierra Leonean writers who met regularly throughout the war,” wrote Penny Boreham in “ Sierra Leone's poems of war ”  for BBC African Performance Freetown (May 2007). The landscape of Sierra Leone's decade-old civil war [1991-2002] seems to drape most of the poems by Oumar Farouk Sesay, observed one reviewer . Sesay, one of the poets Boreham spoke to, has been published in many anthologies of Sierra Leonean poets, including Songs That Pour the Heart and Kalashnikov In The Sun.  He told Boreham: “[E]very individual in Sierra Leone was confronted with his ...

Vitabu had a telephone interview scheduled with Deji Olukotun on International Women's Day but the flu got in our way. As luck would have it, we are publishing the writer's answers to questions we sent him by e-mail on Vitabu's third anniversary, reason enough to name his newly released e-book, Nigerians in Space , as our best choice for World Book Day . Olukotun is a lawyer and and writer with global development and advocacy experience. Deji Olukotun’s debut novel, Nigerians in Space, defies categorization—a story of international intrigue that tackles deeper questions about exile, identity, and the need to answer an elusive question: what exactly is brain gain? --Ricochet Vitabu: What inspired you to write "Nigerians in Space"? Deji Olukotun : I'm Nigerian-American, so I have always been interested in Nigerian history and culture—but also the country's future. I traveled to Nigeria at the beginning of the tech boom, and I heard the phrase ...

There's a dirty war in Mali: Crowds gathered round amputated limbs which have been hacked of as an act of terror and/or revenge remind me of gory days in Sierra Leone. The west African nation is at peace now but Arab rebellions are in the news again. Three days ago, Aljazeera ran a commentary headlined " In the Arab world's deepest state, the revolution continues " by Mark Levine. A professor of Middle Eastern history at UC Irvine, Levine is also the author of a soon-to-be-released book about revolutions in the Arab world. Al Jazeera was probably one of the first outlets to report on the Arab Spring. About this time early 2011, my eyes (probably all eyes) were trained on rapidly unfolding events. First, Hosni Mubarak was forced out by a groundswell of protest in Egypt, then there was the Bahraini uprising followed by the unstoppable opposition to Muammar al-Gaddafi's rule in Libya. 24/7 media coverage on the Arab world set me on a virtual voyage of discov...

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the award-winning author of  Half of a Yellow Sun , writes on Facebook: Coming May 14, 2013:  a powerful new novel: A story of love and race centered around a young man and woman from Nigeria who face difficult choices and challenges in the countries they come to call home. As teenagers in a Lagos secondary school, Ifemelu and Obinze fall in love. Their Nigeria is under military dictatorship, and people are fleeing the country. Ifemelu--beautiful, self-assured--departs for America to study. She suffers defeats and triumphs, finds and loses relationships and friendships, all the while feeling the weight of something she never thought of back home: race. Obinze--the quiet, thoughtful son of a professor--had hoped to join her, but post-9/11 America will not let him in, and he plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London. Fifteen years later, Obinze is a wealthy man in a newly democratic Nigeria, while Ifemelu has achieved success as...

Beth Fish Reads is hosting the sixth What's in a Name challenge. On her blog, she writes that the challenge was originally started by a young blogger named Annie, who hosted it for two years. But when Annie decided to give up on being the host, Beth Fish Reads took over the challenge. Here's How It Works: Between January 1 and December 31, 2013, read one book in each of the following categories: A book with up or down (or equivalent) in the title: Deep down True, The Girl Below, The Diva Digs up the Dirt A book with something you'd find in your kitchen in the title: Loose Lips Sink Ships, The Knife of Never Letting Go, Breadcrumbs A book with a party or celebration in the title: A Feast for Crows, A Wedding in Haiti, Cocktail Hour under the Tree of Forgetfulness A book with fire (or equivalent) in the title: Burning for Revenge, Fireworks over Toccoa, Catching Fire A book with an emotion in the title: Baltimore Blues, Say You're Sorry, Dreams of Joy A book w...