REVIEW: And Then Run by Eric Hublot

Source: Netgalley
Publish Date: August 21, 2013
Publisher: Roland Media Distribution
ASIN/ISBN: 9780980144666
Format: ebook
Genre: Adult, Mental Health
Pages: 427
Date Read: January 4, 2014

Description
And Then Run follows the life of anti-hero Jerome Esterson. Jerome has everything - looks, money, women, friends. And yet he seems to be fighting a losing battle with reality.

The novel takes place in two time periods. One, when Jerome is a 25 year old maverick entrepreneur, with limitless passion and rockstar charisma. In the second time period, Jerome is a blunted 39 year old lobbyist, who also happens to be a blunted serial killer.

Parental Advisory: This is an X rated novel, with heavily objectionable content, including sex, violence, a psychopathic lack of morality.

---

Review
On the one hand, the book is thought provoking and sometimes I actually have to pause and reflect on what I've just read. and it's funny sometimes. On the other hand, it's overly vulgar and disturbing. The discussions. The dialogue. The main character himself. Most of the other characters are flat and don't seem to be important.

After a while, all the talk about Sisyphus, challenging the norm, polygamy and all that shit gets really old and annoying.

I can't seem to understand what point the author is trying to make. A lot of things are happened but I don't get the end.

Towards the last few pages, I was really confused and I still don't get the point of any of the characters. Including Jerome (main character).

The language is strong and may be offensive to some people. Most of the topics that are touched in the book are[can be] unsavoury and it sounds obnoxious.

---

Book Links
Amazon || BN.com || Goodreads || iTunes || Kobo

Author Links
Goodreads

Rating
3 Stars

Recommended
It makes for an interesting read. A lot of points that could be brought up in a discussion group (book club).

REVIEW: Ghana Must Go by Taiye Selasi

Source: Borrowed

Publish Date: March 5th 2013

Publisher: Penguin Press HC

ASIN/ISBN: 9781594204494

Format: ebook

Genre: Adult, Literature

Pages: 310

Date Read: December 22, 2013

Description

Kweku Sai is dead. A renowned surgeon and failed husband, he succumbs suddenly at dawn outside his home in suburban Accra. The news of Kweku’s death sends a ripple around the world, bringing together the family he abandoned years before.

Ghana Must Go is their story. Electric, exhilarating, beautifully crafted, Ghana Must Go is a testament to the transformative power of unconditional love, from a debut novelist of extraordinary talent.

Moving with great elegance through time and place, Ghana Must Go charts the Sais’ circuitous journey to one another. In the wake of Kweku’s death, his children gather in Ghana at their enigmatic mother’s new home. The eldest son and his wife; the mysterious, beautiful twins; the baby sister, now a young woman: each carries secrets of his own. What is revealed in their coming together is the story of how they came apart: the hearts broken, the lies told, the crimes committed in the name of love. Splintered, alone, each navigates his pain, believing that what has been lost can never be recovered—until, in Ghana, a new way forward, a new family, begins to emerge.

Ghana Must Go is at once a portrait of a modern family, and an exploration of the importance of where we come from to who we are. In a sweeping narrative that takes us from Accra to Lagos to London to New York, Ghana Must Go teaches that the truths we speak can heal the wounds we hid

---

Review

For all the hype, Ghana Must Go is terribly underwhelming.

It is not "electric" or "exhilarating". The narrative is not "sweeping".

There are interesting moments, heart warming words and great use of words but they're easily forgettable in the midst of all the "poetic" stuff.

The technique is terrible and leaves you confused for the most part.It's a great idea but it didn't work. It felt disorganised sometimes.The first part of the book is tedious and difficult to follow. I had to reread pages several times to get the point.It got better after half of the second part.

It's a great story, there are some nice characters (Olu & Kehinde are my favourites) but for all the hype, I expected more.

---

Find The Book

Amazon || Audible || BN.com || Book Depository || Goodreads || iTunes || Kobo 

Find The Author

Goodreads || Twitter (@taiyeselasi) || Website

Rating

3 stars

Recommended

to no one really. If you think you can get past all the "poetic" nonsense

Blog Tour: From Rum To Roots by Lloyd G Francis [Review & Giveaway]

In 1937 near Portland Cottage, in southern Jamaica, on a huge sugar estate, Linton McMann, the illegitimate son of the owner of the plantation, works making rum.
Meanwhile in Kingston, Daisy, helps her mother managing an ice business and dreams of joining her elder sister (Iris) in New York.
Seeking opportunity, Linton leaves the deep Jamaican countryside for New York and the collapse of the ice business and family crises force Daisy to leave Kingston, seeking a new start in the United States.
They encounter a vibrant Jamaican-American community in New York, where they meet at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem. Becoming American citizens, they marry, and start a family. Ambition drives them to start a business and Linton capitalizes on a skill he learned as a young man in Jamaica, making a drink known in Jamaica as “Roots.” It proves wildly popular and the company, Family Roots, prospers beyond Linton’s and Daisy’s wildest dreams.
By 1986, the drink is a sensation. Money flows in, but something is missing. Happiness is as scarce as freshwater in the middle of the sea.
Wrestling with their past while living in a land of plenty, Linton and Daisy discover that truth is the only avenue to happiness.
Amazon || BN.com || Goodreads || Kobo || Sony Bookstore
Edition: First Edition Format: eBook and Paperback Publication Date: August 6, 2013 Publisher: Marway Publishing ISBN13: 9780989216104

---

Review
I'm not using my usual review format for this book.
I don't know what exactly I was expecting but this book is better than anything I could expect.
Now and then it’s good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy.
This is an emotional and deep story of the longing for a better life.
The book is mostly in English with most of the dialogue in Patois (Jamaican dialect). At first, the Patios slows you down but you get used to it and it becomes easier to understand.
It is very well written. No plot holes. No unnecessary details. It's perfection
The book pulls you in and you feel like you're a one of the cast.
Every character is well developed and adds to the story. Each scene comes to life.
The novel, although enjoyable and interesting, isn't for light reading.
You should take away the lesson on the importance and value of life, hope, forgiveness and most of all; family.
“Linton,” he said, “yuh will not know happiness without forgiveness. Yuh can’t make dem scars on yuh back disappear, but you can make these scars, in here––” he thumped his chest with his fist,”–– dem can heal. Dat’s forgiveness.

---

Author Bio
Lloyd was born in Oakland in 1961, a first-generation American child to Jamaican parents. As a child his trips to Jamaica in the 60's and 70's shaped who he became.
Growing up in Hayward California he was steeped in the island tradition of reggae, Jamaican cuisine, and patois.

After studying engineering, Lloyd became a staff photographer for the San Jose Mercury News. He left newspapers to work for Yahoo Financial News Network and returned to journalism after 9-11. In 2001 Lloyd reported from Iraq for Newsweek Magazine, and went on to cover the war in Afghanistan. In 2004 he accepted a job with the Army Times Publishing Company and worked in Iraq intermittently for two years.
Examples of his work can be found here and here .

Lloyd returned to San Francisco in 2006. He lives with his wife, Leanne, his two sons, Marley and Waylon, a yellow nape Amazon parrot named Aquila and a rambunctious Red Lored Amazon parrot named Cosmo. He frequently takes long walks around San Francisco and Golden Gate Park, looking for great Instagram photographs.
Goodreads || Instagram || Twitter || Website
Enter my giveaway here
Enter giveaway on Closed The Cover

Who Is Alice Munro

Alice Munro is the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature winner.

The 82-year-old had been among the favourites to win the prize, along with the Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami and the Belarusian journalist and author Svetlana Alexieva.
According to NobelPrize.org, her prize motivation is "master of the contemporary short story"

Earlier this year she announced her retirement from writing.

In 2005, Munro was a TIME 100 Honoree. TIME wrote , “Alice Munro is 73 now, and she deserves the Nobel Prize. Her fiction admits readers to a more intimate knowledge and respect for what they already possess.” She also won the Man Booker International prize in 2009. She is the 110th winner, the first Canadian winner and the thirteenth female winner.

sources
TheGuardian.com
Time.com
NobelPrize.org

Surprisingly, I've never heard of Alice Munro.
Now I'm very interested in her. She has written over 70 distinct works.

Have you read any of her books? Did you like them? What books would you recommend to someone who wants to start reading her.