Reading is an interesting habit or hobby. It helps widen your imagination, knowledge and builds up your emotional intelligence. This day and time, as things are moving and changing quickly, it is important to take time out with a book or two to learn and enjoy something new. Here are a few picks worth reading;
- Stay with me by Ayobami Adebayo; is a fictional story about Yejide and Akin. They have been married since they met and fell in love at university. Though many expected Akin to take several wives, he and Yejide have always agreed: polygamy is not for them. But four years into their marriage–after consulting fertility doctors and healers, trying strange teas and unlikely cures–Yejide is still not pregnant. She assumes she still has time–until her family arrives on her doorstep with a young woman they introduce as Akin’s second wife. Furious, shocked, and livid with jealousy, Yejide knows the only way to save her marriage is to get pregnant, which, finally, she does–but at a cost far greater than she could have dared to imagine.
- Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell; if you want something sweet, this is a good story about young love. Eleanor and Park Slowly, steadily, through late-night conversations and an ever-growing stack of mixtapes, fall for each other. They fall in love the way you do the first time when you’re young, and you feel as if you have nothing and everything to lose.
- Love is power or something like that; stories by A. Igoni Barret; if you don’t want to get into anything deep this book comes in handy with its different interesting short stories. When it comes to love, things are not always what they seem. They can be trophies or status symbols. Or they can be overwhelming in their need. In these wide-ranging stories, A. Igoni Barrett roams the streets with people from all stations of life. A man with acute halitosis navigates the chaos of the Lagos bus system. A minor policeman, full of the authority and corruption of his uniform, beats his wife. A family’s fortunes fall from love and wealth to infidelity and poverty as poor choices unfurl over three generations. With humour and tenderness, Barrett introduces you to an utterly modern Nigeria, where desire is a means to an end, and love is a power as real as money.
- Memoirs of a geisha by Authur Golden; this book is a brilliant historical fiction about Japan’s most celebrated geisha. You are taken into a world where appearances are paramount; where a girl’s virginity is auctioned to the highest bidder; where women are trained to beguile the most powerful men; and where love is scorned as an illusion. It is a unique and triumphant work of fiction – at once romantic, suspenseful – and completely unforgettable.
- The secret lives of Baba Segi’s Wives by Lola Shoneyin; this is a fictional story that looks at the depths of polygamy in modern-day Nigeria. The struggles, rivalries, intricate family politics, and the interplay of personalities and relationships within the complex private world of a polygamous union come to life.
“A book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a party, a company by the way, a counsellor, a multitude of counsellors.” – Charles Baudelaire
Book synopsis references from www.goodreads.com
