This is also a book I picked up at Winter Institute.
This is the debut novel by Rwandan–Namibian author Rémy Ngamije. It is a semi-autobiographical, coming-of-age story about a young man name Séraphin, whose family left Rwanda during the 1994 genocide and for Namibia. The story follows Séraphin from his high school years in “boring” Windhoek to college in cosmopolitan Capetown. We are introduced to his traditional family trying to make a new life for themselves as immigrants. We also see Séraphin’s many colorful friends, lovers, and acquaintances struggle through the African continent’s current racial and sexual politics.
This is definitely a great, witty read from a new voice in African literature!
The Eternal Audience of One by Rémy Ngamije. Published by Scout Press on August 10, 2021.
This is another book I found out about on Book TV. You Don’t Belong Here: How Three Women Rewrote the Story of War by journalist Elizabeth Becker is about three groundbreaking women journalists who covered the Vietnam War. I was intrigued by this book because I don’t remember learning about any of these women in journalism school.
I even took a foreign correspondence class and the history of women journalists was very limited. While I never wanted to cover war, I briefly had an interest in becoming a foreign correspondent when I was in college. At that time, there weren’t many female correspondents who covered war, except Christiane Amanpour.
I ended up taking a slight detour into marketing communications for international NGOs.
So, it was really cool to read this. If I had known about these women in school, I might have had a different career trajectory!
I found out about this book while watching author Julia Cooke on Book TV. I’m so glad I read it because I learned a lot about the airline industry. Come Fly the World: The Jet-Age Story of the Women of Pan Am follows the many stories of female flight attendants during the height of the airline’s popularity in the 60s and 70s. It truly is a feminist story because being a flight attendant at that time was both restrictive and revolutionary at the same time.
I don’t read a lot of fiction, but when I do, I prefer historical fiction. I like this genre because it is based on real people and events. Island Queen follows the true story of Dorothy Kirwan Thomas, a Black woman from the West Indian island of Montserrat during the 18th century who bought herself and her family freedom from slavery and became one of the richest and most powerful landowners in the Caribbean.
I was initially attracted to the book because I am interested in learning more about slavery in the Caribbean and books that are not centered on Black trauma. Yes, slavery itself was a traumatic experience for Black people. Thomas goes through some horrific events throughout her life, including being raped twice by her white owner/stepbrother. But she was able to rise from these horrors and build a successful life for herself.
Clocking in at nearly 600 pages and through many decades, Island Queen is not only a sweeping epic about Thomas’s life but also the lives of free women of color at that time who were both enterprising in their own right. Thomas earned enough money during her enslavement to free herself, her mother, and her sister and build a housekeeping and hotelling business.
However, most of the book focuses on Thomas’s many romantic relationships with wealthy white baby daddies. She had ten children with at least three men during her life. Readers might think Island Queen is an epic “romance” novel. There is a huge market for romance novels. However, I personally have a hard time with any depictions showing a Black woman and a white man during slavery as “romantic.” Most Black women during slavery – both enslaved and free – were not in consensual relationships with white men. Many readers might come away from this book and think of Thomas as a “bed wench.” But as the author notes in the epilogue, her choice of men had less to do with race and more to do with the power and influence white men had to help her grow her business and protect her family.
With that said, I wish the author spent more time discussing how Thomas specifically ran her businesses. She eventually became a slaveowner solely to protect other enslaved people from the horrors she suffered. I would have like to have seen how she interacted with her slaves.
Also, the book is too long! I don’t think it needs to be 600 pages. The book could have easily have been edited down to under 400 pages, and it still would have been effective in telling the story. I felt like there were whole chapters that could have been rewritten in two or three sentences. Cutting down the pages would have been most useful in the last quarter of the book because Thomas had ten children and their numerous spouses, children, and grandchildren, whose names were hard to keep up with. I only wished the editor would have put a diagram of the family tree in the book for reference because I became confused about who was who!
However, the book being 600 pages doesn’t take away from the quality writing. I prefer to read books that concise and to the point. However, some readers might not mind the book’s length. Island Queen is also full of drama and mess! I can totally see a Shondaland adaptation of this book soon.
This book comes out at the beginning of the summer season. This is a great read for people who are maybe vaccinated and now have the freedom to go away on a long summer vacation, and they can only take one engaging book with them. This book will definitely keep you entertained.
One other recommendation: instead of getting the 600-page hardcover book, get the e-book!
Island Queen by Vanessa Riley. Published by William Morrow on July 6, 2021. Buy the book here.
This is also a book I picked up at Winter Institute.
This is another book I found out about on Book TV. 