QUIET... PLEASE, SUSAN CAIN GENTLY SAYS

On the recommendation of my dear brother, I have been reading a book by Susan Cain titled "Quiet". It is a wonderful read and I will not say you can just race through it, I am still reading it...quietly. 

This book is for all people..the quiet by nature and the not quiet by nature and the in-betweens. People like me and you.  People who talk all the time and enjoy talking will learn a lot from it. So will people who do not talk much.  This great book makes you realize that some of our greatest thoughts,  even among talkers, come from our moments and times of quiet. Susan Cain makes you think about all the great things that have been done by quiet people who have not made any noise about what they have done and still continue to do go about life; making a difference. Many  quiet people do much of what really makes the world go round...and do not make noise about it. They live quietly without taking much credit for their great contributions. Some end up in the limelight as we call it, many more do not. Not being in the limelight or being known for their work, does not make their work any less important.

She also awakens us to the dangers of those who will magnetize  and mesmerize you with their many words and hype but are actually saying nothing.  All over the world, many of these would even milk people out of their hard earned little money using many words, noises and songs and are they loud? Yes sir, they are.  In a world where the loudest and not necessarily the most knowledgeable on a subject, are heard more, her book is a god-send to thousands who need to walk cautiously or end up being eaten alive or falling in a ditch amidst the noise.

Susan Cain argues the points so well, pointing us to many earlier writers  in psychology and communication.  She highlights many important issues and calls us to quiet down ourselves, celebrate the many quiet people among us and celebrate the quietness within and around us. In her book she encourages people to value quietness of soul and helping us all to value better, the quiet parts that reside in each one of us. Thank you Susan Cain for writing this great book and enabling us to question all the noise and to value silence and introspection.

Please go out and buy that book by Susan Cain soon as you can. The kindle edition is even cheaper at around 5000 Uganda shillings or 2.5 US dollars.

Meanwhile,

Happy Christmas and a Prosperous New Year to You all.

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Nakibogo at Noonya

Jason Elliot Delivers a Masterpiece: Mirrors of the Unseen

Mirrors of the Unseen

Mirrors of the Unseen, a book by British writer Jason Elliot has been on my mind recently.
I read this great book and it was as if my mind was opened to a new world. Suddenly my universe was expanded. A wonderful new world was now part of my imagination..and a real world at that. Full of poets I had only heard of in passing, kings  read of in the Bible and some in old history books. Cultures only hinted at by Richard Burton and the old stories about the Moors and great Sultans and of course Scheherazade. What girl has not heard about Scheherazade? Imagined her night after night making up tales to save her very life. 

The Medes and Persians...and more

The architectural works of the Medes and Persians and the great Sultans are to many only known from old History books and Bible stories. In Mirrors of the Unseen, they are described in very realistic terms. On the ground and in the mosques, Jason Elliot  brings to life a world both steeped in old traditions and struggling to maintain a great culture in these modern trying times. He has with great effort, (including learning Persian) enabled many to read and know about cultures new and old that not many have dared to record in recent years.  Elliot, a traveller and scholar delivers a beautiful description of Iran and the wonderful Persian culture of long ago which has left traces that he helps us to start to imagine. He has described architectural wonders that many of us may never have the chance to see except in pictures. He sets forth on trips through cultures whose great architectural buildings still exist and need to be preserved as a world heritage. The mosques at Isfahan, the Persepolis, great natural expanses, nomads still living off the land; are all described in great detail with very few pictures.
Please visit this website to see some of the beautiful iranian architectural art; http://www.yomadic.com/imam-mosque/
 and to see other great pictures of these mosques that Elliot describes, please visit bored panda.com at the link;   https://www.facebook.com/boredpanda/posts/10152610400539252

A Service to Mankind

Jason Elliot has done mankind a great service in writing this book. The past belongs to all of us and we should learn from it. The present too, is ours to live in with respect for all around us. We need to learn from other cultures. That is what civilization means, building onto what good foundation has gone before. Leaving out the harmful practices, preserving the good. Some of the greatest cultures are still preserved right under our noses and we continue to let them crumble, without learning from them, sometimes even denigrating them without even trying to understand. We need to open up our eyes, question the very status of published accessible learning.  Learn more. We need good teachers and guides to help us do this. On the great Persian civilization and culture, Elliot has proven the best guide I have ever met and to many who are not scholars in the history of Persia and Asia like myself (and I would guess even to scholars in the area) may be one of the very few and best. Join me in thanking Jason Elliot for a job well done.

Susan Kiguli: A Wonderfully Great Writer

Ugandan writer and poet Susan Kiguli wrote a great anthology of poems  titled 'The African Saga'.
Published by Femrite (1998).

This great book of poems,  i hope will be required reading for Literature throughout Uganda schools soon (if it has not been already). The book resounds with such beauty, there is resonating truth, warmth and hushed drama in her many and varied poems.  Poems about love, the longings of men and women,  about war, about Amin and the struggle to understand who we are as Africans. Poems about just being African.   The African Saga should be on everyone's shelf  and desk. The book is preferably read while reclining with a cup of tea and a couple of samosas on a quiet evening.

What a refreshing array of poems from one of our very own and a  truly great writer. Susan Kiguli is refreshing in her writing and ability to communicate so well about the beauty and tears, the triumphs and the paradoxes associated with living in Africa.

Author Susan Kiguli; A Ugandan Great Writer

 Her book is available at Femrite Offices and in many bookshops in Uganda and can also be bought online at www.amazon.com.

Susan Kiguli is inspiring  the present and next generation of writers. 

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Needed; Book Readers and Publishers in Uganda

We attended a book fair  held on the 14th March 2014 at the Uganda Manufacturer's Association  Show Grounds in Lugogo, Kampala, Uganda.
The book fair was a quiet affair attended by not more than 200 people in the time I was there. The publishers who made their appearance included Moran Publishers, Fountain Publishers, Vision, Femrite and a lot of newer publishing groups like MK and Longhorn. The effort made was very commendable; by the organizers and the publishers who bought stalls. They deserve great thanks. The future of book publishing in Uganda looks bright but could be brighter. More numbers at the book fair would have made us more sure about that.

The Ugandan community needs more readers and more people who can share their resources by helping people and children especially to read. The city lacks libraries.  It is a glaring absence. The one or two public libraries available cannot even attempt to cater to the population of two million plus people in Kampala.   An organization called Children International Uganda is doing something extra for book reading and had a booth at the show. They have box libraries and support different people to host small reading groups mainly for children. It is a great idea that will hopefully expose more children ( and adults) to book reading beyond the curriculum textbooks and  will increase the book reading culture in Uganda. We need it, all societies need a book writing and book reading culture. We hope that at Noonya Books we will contribute to that movement; towards more reading and more reading material accessibility for our communities.

Best,

Noonya Books

Amit Majmudar; A Great Writer

The Book of the Season for me is ' Partitions' by Amit Majmudar.
 Published by Oneworld.   I read it last week and i am sharing it with whoever crosses my path.

Amit Majmudar Author

This great beautiful book looking at, not..viewing, no...sensing the great pain that wrapped the Greater India and Pakistan region during the splitting of the nations in 1947 is one of the finest books i have ever read. Mr Majmudar also shows the great,  usually overlooked men and women who inhabit even the darkest places, bringing healing.  It is a book of realities, stark horrible truths as well as hope.   I hope this writer wins whatever prizes are out there to be won. Even if he doesn't, he has still written one of the best books for me. His book joins my literary favorites.  It is a book that listens to the human heart, that points us to a path greater than our selfish ways.

After reading it i wanted to go learn new surgical skills to save more lives, start a blog to encourage the sad, do better. I wanted to tell the world that all persons are the same. The author made me remember the children's book that said; 
" Little One, people are the same; wherever they are, whatever they are all over the world".  Please go out and buy the book Partitions , read it and  live better.