What are you reading the week of January 30, 2016?

Nnedi Okorafor (full name: Nnedimma Nkemdili Okorafor (previously known as Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu) is a Nigerian-American writer of fantasy, science fiction, and speculative fiction.

The American-born daughter of Igbo Nigerian parents, she has been visiting Nigeria since she was very young. During her years attending high-school, Okorafor was known for being a star athlete tennis player and dominant in science studies, regarding the academic material as an engaging hobby more-so than a task. Upon discovering her diagnosis of scoliosis and the consequent surgery to resolve it, Okorafor's student athletic career was ultimately impeded along with her ability to walk. It was during this time that Okorafor redefined herself, as her condition prevented her from continuing her previous athletic career, let alone able to excel in it until after recovery. Thus, during this phase of recuperation, she spent her time free-writing as a hobby.

“I was 19, and I woke up paralyzed. ... My surgeon was crying — I had just been named Athlete of the Year in Illinois. I went from being the super athlete to being paralyzed within 24 hours. I could either have gone mad in that hospital bed or found some way to keep myself from going mad. The only way I could stop myself from going mad was by writing stories.”¹

Her novels and stories reflect both her West African heritage and her American life. Okorafor is a 2001 graduate of the Clarion Writers Workshop in Lansing, Michigan, and holds a PhD in English from the University of Illinois, Chicago. She is an associate professor of creative writing and literature at the University at Buffalo (SUNY) and lives between Buffalo and Illinois with her family.

Okorafor received a 2001 Hurston-Wright literary award for her story "Amphibious Green." She then published two acclaimed books for young adults, The Shadow Speaker and Zahrah the Windseeker. Zahrah won the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa. It was also shortlisted for the 2005 Carl Brandon Parallax and Kindred Awards and a finalist for the Garden State Teen Book Award and the Golden Duck Award. The Shadow Speaker was a winner of the Carl Brandon Parallax Award, a Booksense Pick for Winter 2007/2008, a Tiptree Honor Book, a finalist for the Essence Magazine Literary Award, the Andre Norton Award and the Golden Duck Award and an NAACP Image Award nominee. Okorafor's children's book Long Juju Man was the 2007–08 winner of the Macmillan Writer's Prize for Africa.

Okorafor's first adult novel, Who Fears Death, won the 2011 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, was a 2011 Tiptree Honor Book and was nominated for the 2010 Nebula Award. In 2011 she returned to young adult with Akata Witch, which was a Junior Library Guild Selection, and nominated for the Andre Norton Award. It was also on the American Library Association's Amelia Bloomer Project list honoring children's books with feminist themes.

Okorafor's short stories have been published in anthologies and magazines, including Dark Matter: Reading The Bones, Strange Horizons, Moondance magazine, and Writers of the Future Volume XVIII. A collection of her stories, titled Kabu Kabu, was published in 2013. It includes the titular piece, co-authored by Alan Dean Foster, and six other previously unpublished short stories, as well as 14 stories that had been previously published in other venues since 2001, and a foreword by Whoopi Goldberg.

In 2009 Okorafor donated her archive to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) Collection of the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections at the Northern Illinois University Library.

Gary K. Wolfe wrote of her work: "Okorafor’s genius has been to find the iconic images and traditions of African culture, mostly Nigerian and often Igbo, and tweak them just enough to become a seamless part of her vocabulary of fantastika."

In February 2014, it was announced that Okorafor would be Young Adult Author special Guest of Honor at Detcon 1, the 2014 North American Science Fiction Convention; Detcon1 was putting special emphasis on YA science fiction.

¹UB Reporter

I'm reading The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair by Joel Dicker. I'm about halfway through Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel but don't know if I'll finish it.

I read an article about Nnedi Okorafor yesterday. (It's the footnote above.) She seemed intriguing, so I thought that I would make her this week's author. I'm interested to see if anyone has read her work.

I've been working like dray horse (figuratively) all week to meet a deadline. I didn't make much progress in Giles Goat-Boy. But with only 200 pages to go, I should be finished this weekend. I'm still enjoying it.

Next up will be Black Wings has my Angel, by Elliott Chaze. It's a postwar noir novel set in the deep south. It's a recent reprint from NYRB — always a source for great books.

Finished the collection of short stories What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver, sparse and sometimes grim stories about connections between people and the pain of those connections breaking.

I'm just past the halfway point of Joan Rivers' memoir, Still Talking. She was an interesting and thoughtful person, very well read. She tells great dishy stories about her heyday in Vegas and Hollywood, but also provides a lot of insight into the insecurities that drove both her and her husband, Edgar. The book, in fact, begins with a howl of pain as Rivers describes Edgar's suicide and the awful days and nights that followed for her and her daughter, so you know right away this is not going to be a book of fluff. The book is well written, too.

Still working on The Mirror Empire and Renegade's Magic.

Thanks for starting us again, Fred. She's a new author to me.

Ru was very good. Now I'm reading Tokyo Decadence by Ryu Murakami, an author I've been wanting to try for a long time. Enjoying it so far.

I'm reading Catch Me if you Can by Frank W. Abagnale. We watched the movie yesterday (for the third time), and I'm sort-of enjoying the book. It is so sexist, and if he calls a woman a "broad" one more time, I may throw it through the window! However, the con artist angle is so interesting that I've continued reading it.

I'm still reading both Jamaica Inn and Fifth Business and loving them both!

I also spent 30 minutes with We Should All Be Feminists. Well worth reading.

I have three books on the go, something I've admired others do and have never achieved myself before.

Just a few chapters into Soulless first of a paranormal series, too early to tell how much I'll like it yet.

Daytime book is Robert McCammon's Boy's Life which is more like a series of short stories. At the one-third point and finding it well written.

60% through the historical fiction Katherine by Anya Seton which is more romance than I thought it would be. Enjoying the writing, but not sure I'm loving our protagonist as much as I did earlier in the story.

*Touchstones are being goofy today.

I've just started Lila by the remarkable Maryilynne Robinson, which is my Book Club's current selection.

I'm reading The Invention of Wings

>10 Zumbanista:
Boy's Life is one of my favorite novels, a perfectly balanced mix of bildungsroman and magical realism. Loved every moment of reading it.

Am juggling books.
Border Town a Chinese rural romance and modern classic;
The Hut Six Story by one of the Bletchley whizzes who discovered how to break Enigma in WWII, extremely detailed;
The Postmistress CD novel, finely narrated, but uneven and occasionally purplish prose that tells the story of a postmistress in a small MA seas-side village who stops delivering letters during WWII.

Read half of The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry in one sitting today. It is a fast, easy read, though predictable and very Hallmark Hall of Fame-feeling, but I am enjoying it a lot.

>10 Zumbanista:
>13 Limelite: I absolutely agree about Boy's Life. It's one of those I wish I could read for the first time all over again. That was a winner, for sure!

I've still got Stanley & Twain Enter Paradise going and I like it. I'm interested to see where it's headed. I was looking over The Mersault Investigation and noticed that people recommended reading The Stranger along with it. It's not my typical read but I'm enjoying it.

Also, I've been dipping in and out of Interviews With Francis Bacon. As a painter I find him fascinating and a bit repellent and these interviews are focused his technique and influences. This was recommended to me by David Bowie! Well, kind of. This was on his list of his 100 favorite books. I love that David Bowie's favorite thing to do was read, it makes me like him even more.

Knock wood, I think my reading doldrums have passed.

I've not slept in 48 hours, as the part of my brain that controls shutting itself off to sleep seems to have malfunctioned. I'm going great guns, though, finished three books, and went to the gym at 1:00 a.m. Read Catch Me if you Can - 3 stars, but so sexist; Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend - 4.5 stars, really sweet; and Girl in Translation, which got 5 stars, and kept me rapt and attentive from the first page to the last.

Dickering about trying to decide what to read next. It can't be anything too weighty, as I'm living in an insomnia-induced fog, but Ted Dekker's The Bride Collector is looking inviting.

Back again! I was casting about for something gentle after reading The Stranger and I found Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont on my kindle. I loved it. Perfect for any fan of Barbara Pym or Muriel Spark. Really, really good!

Finally finished Renegade's Magic and thereby the whole Soldier Son trilogy by Robin Hobb. OMG. Reading them was like trying to do the breast stroke in cement while handcuffed to a lead weight. And what finally turned out to be the weapon the protagonist was supposed to wield? Gossip and greed. Yikes.

I flew through Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress and really enjoyed it. I think Limelite on this thread recommended it - thank you! The ending was a little rough and felt a bit hurried, otherwise it was a fine novel. It looks like Dai Sijie has another novel out, Mr. Muo's Travelling Couch and I'm ordering that. He strikes me as an author that will get better with each book. Strangely though, neither Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress nor Mr. Muo's Travelling Couch are available on kindle! What's up with that?

I finished The Truth About The Harry Quebert Affair today and have decided to re-read The Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie.

Just finished Orphan X. Very good story.

About half done with Charming by Elliott James.

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Just Finished reading the memoir book Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed .

>21 PattyWheelz: I just started Orphan X last night. The plot sounded kind of like the old Equalizer series with my favorite actor, Edward Woodward.

Finished The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith today. Read that really fast, couldn't put it down. Tonight I started one from the library Ways to Disappear by Idra Novey. It's short and very engaging. Takes place in Brazil.

Downloaded and started Without You, There is no Us by Suki Kim last night. Seems good so far. I need something fast that'll pull me right in. Am taking a break from The Heart Goes Last for a bit.

Tokyo Decadence was excellent. Still reading the chunkster The Aeronaut's Windlass and enjoying it, and just started Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, the new Vorkosigan book that showed up this week and jumped the queue.

Currently reading Code To Zero by Ken Follett, So, Anyway by John Cleese and Bad Days in History by Michael Farquhar.

Finished Charming.

Started A Death in Sweden by Kevin Wignall.

I loved Orphan X- it was just the ticket to make me forget the world. It's like Jason Bourne and the Equalizer all rolled into one hard to put down thriller. Very unexpected and it was refreshing that the heart of it was NOT about a murdered child or children. I've been noticing in the past few years, a disturbing trend toward child murder or serial killers who focus on children. That's just too close to reality for me.

I've just started the non-fiction Mr. and Mrs. Disraeli by Wendy Hay. I'm not very far into it but I like it so far. Both of the Disraelis seem interesting and a little zany.

I finished Joan Rivers' memoir, Still Talking, which I found it well written, an interesting and rewarding reading experience, although quite sad in many spots. As usual, you can read my more in-depth review on the book's work page or on my 50-Book Challenge thread.

I've started Fireproof, a magical realism styled novel about the results of an outbreak of anti-Muslim violence in the city of Ahmedabad, India. The book is written by Indian author Raj Kamal Jha.

>31 rocketjk: Did you ever watch the very good documentary on Joan Rivers called A Piece of Work? I had been put off by her relentless plastic surgery but this documentary made fall in love with her. What an interesting woman and a reader, as well!

One of my favorite books!

#32> No, I've never seen that documentary, but I would like to, now. As to her reading, there is one spot early on where she is on somebody's yacht in the early days of her celebrity, unused to hanging out with the upper crust, although she has already become a regular on Johnny Carson's show. She talks about feeling like a fish out of water and says, "I kept waiting for somebody to ask me about Henry James . . . or Ed McMahon!" Later, after her husband's suicide, when she is contemplating a move from LA back to New York City, she talks about looking forward to filling her new apartment up with "books, books, books."

Hey, how do you do that thing everybody seems to know how to do but me, where you turn the post you're referencing and the person you're replying to into a link? Somehow I didn't get that memo.

>34 rocketjk: you want to type the greater than sign, >, followed without a space, by the number of the post you want to reference.

>35 Copperskye: So like this?

Ah . . . Cool!

Reading, and enjoying Bring On the Empty Horses by David Niven and Pulling a Fast One by Roger Protz.

Reading Trees of the Smokies (ok, I couldn't leave the Friends of the Library sale empty-handed) when I take breaks from my Coursera Modern Art & Ideas class. Listening to public domain classics on Librivox. Currently, Wives & Daughters by Gaskell (Elizabeth Klett is a great reader)

>37 cappybear: Loved both of David Niven's books which I read long ago. Try The Moon's a Balloon which is also very good. I just read the best seller The Girl on the Train because it was selected for book club and was pleasantly surprised by its page turner quality.

Just finished The Aeronaut's Windlass, a fun steampunk swashbuckler. I'll be starting A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, while continuing with Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen.

Finished A Death in Sweden by Kevin Wignall. Meh.

About to do a reread of The Apothecary Rose by Candace Robb.

The new thread is up over here.

>35 Copperskye: Thanks for the tip!

I just finished the solitude of prime numbers by paolo giordano. A story that follows two kids from elementary school to the end of University who are outsiders, depressed and lonely. A very depressing book with no real solution or progress for either of them. What disturbed me the most was how easily those around them gave up. They were impatient and cruel and allowed them to fall through the cracks. so now I am going to read a lighter novel perhaps more uplifting ( haven't picked it out yet).