The Bookhive List: 'Americanah' by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has absolutely exploded in popularity in the past year due to a little ditty by one Beyonce Gisele Knowles Carter called 'Flawless.' If you're unfamiliar with it, I'm not sure what you're doing here...? Anyway, the song features an excerpt from Chimamanda's extraordinarily important and influential TedTalk from a while back (which is how I came to know of her). To hear someone articulate the meaning of feminism so clearly and beautifully was striking, and the fact that the speaker was young and gorgeous and very fashionable resonated with so many young women who had previously felt that Feminism had no room for them.

Meanwhile, as her definition of Feminism became part of a pop cultural anthem, Chimamanda published her third novel to universal praise; most people had never heard of her before 'Flawless' but in the publishing world, Chimamanda was a talented young writer whose first two novels had set high career expectations for her (and 'Half of a Yellow Sun' is truly, truly excellent, but one of the toughest books on war I've ever read. I cried so much while reading it. It is criminally underrated, and I haven't read a better, more insightful narrative of the moral ambiguities of warfare).

I read 'Americanah' immediately after it was published, and for me it was very directly linked to a conscious effort on my part to read more contemporary fiction, especially by women. It was a good choice in that sense because it feels so modern (not Modern). I would liken it to something by Zadie Smith, but with less stylized prose, although that's not to say the prose is not stylish because every sentence is perfect and beautiful. It all comes across so effortlessly, and if you're a writer she will make you very jealous. It is also a really genuine, human love story and at no point does it indulge in any kind of sentimentality or emotional shorthand. The two central characters fall in love and grow apart and evolve and meet again and it all feels so organic and real. As if that weren't enough of an accomplishment, it is also a novel that fearlessly and insightfully takes on race and succeeds. It is certainly one of the best novels in the recent past and I feel certain it will become a Classic. 

The Bookhive List is a weekly recommendation of my all-time favorite, must-read books.

What I'm Reading: 'Code Name Verity' by Elizabeth Wein

Every time I write about a YA book, I begin with the caveat that I don't often read YA. Generally speaking, I still think this is true, because in the grand scheme of all my reading material, YA probably makes up less than 5%. However, I feel the need to write disproportionately about YA books for the blog because its a genre that sees far more female success than literary fiction, and I suspect that Bookhive readers, like myself, don't read much YA fiction, and thus would appreciate thoughtful recommendations from the genre.

Thus, Code Name Verity, a YA novel that greatly benefits from its context in WWII, because it avoids one of my greatest YA pet peeves, which is an inundation of pop culture references that say more about the author than about the characters (Rainbow Rowell, I'm talking to you). The novel is told through a really tightly structured narrative of written confessions by 'Verity' a British spy captured by the Nazis in France. To describe it in more detail would be to give away far too much, because it is a serious page-turner with plenty of unexpected twists and turns. This is one of those examples of a YA book seeming like more of a marketing choice than anything else, because the characters are young, but more like young adults than teens; with the strong female-driven action adventure elements though, I can see why a publisher would see it as a natural inheritor of all that Hunger Games enthusiasm, and the fact that it's historically grounded rather than dystopian makes it a refreshing addition to a blockbuster genre of the moment. I read it fully expecting to dislike it, because the premise seemed so implausible and contrived, but I was really quickly disarmed by it.

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There really is something enchanting about girls  in this context, subverting all the gender expectations they were raised with, because of a national crisis. It operates in the same space as Rosie the Riveter or Agent Peggy Carter or the truly delightful Manhattan TV series, which I cannot recommend enough.

This Week in Books: Patti Smith Woke Up Like This.

First of all, this happened and it's everything.

I've stated before that I'm not really doing YA coverage, but if I were, I'd start with Francesca Lia Block, probably the most influential writer of my teen years. I read all her books, and I hope they're still in a box somewhere (Mom?) so I can revisit them someday. This interview she did with The Rumpus was excellent, but also made me feel out of touch because she has published so many new titles since I stopped paying attention.

Flavorwire is one of my favorite sources for literary coverage on the web, and no one understands my love is reading lists more than they do, which is why the new "50 Novels by Women Under 50" list made my week. Besides the obvious cross-over appeal between the list and what I cover on the blog, it also had everything I want from a reading list-- I got to feel smug and proud about the books I've already read; I got affirmation on a lot of books that are on my radar, waiting to be read; and I got to discover so many new books that I trust I'll enjoy, because their other recommendations are so spot on.

Patti Smith reviewed the new Haruki Murakami novel for the NYT. Nothing else to say.