Noonya Books Blog is Back!

After a long hiatus...due to forgetting key elements of the access to the blog's contents, I could not write on this blog. Every week, I missed this place, like a person feels a missing tooth. Like a  person longs for butter on plain bread. Like a person pines for lost love, I refused to start any new relationship with any blog (kes:). Somehow it did not feel right. I felt like to do so, would  make this blog be gone forever.

So here I am today. Thanks and Glory be to God! For those who believe in God, I can only attest to His Goodness for this..and of course to Google and Blogspot who kept this place running for all these years and never shut me down. Unlike one of my bankers did recently; despite a nearly 20 year old relationship!,  once I did not add more money to our relationship (my account)..and they had whittled away the few hundred dollars  I had in there by deducting various fee charges regularly, they  Bank ended our relation-and they did not even let me know they had moved on:( ...I am not mentioning names, don't worry. With not so much as a bye-bye. Like that hoity toity relative who does not like to talk to you anymore when you do not have the bucks. I should have known better; that relationship was, we know,  all about the money anyway from the very start. We both knew that; the bank and I.

So Noonya Books Blog, Welcome me back. With a big hug to a good book.

Briefly, the current book under review is;
Becoming Yourself by Irvin D. Yalom.
Oh my  A beautiful book about life. About living and growing into yourself by Irvin D Yalom. a psychiatrist. I understand why all those people gave him so many awards for his other books. He is a great writer; healing with his words. If I could translate that book into my mother tongue, I would.. and into so many other African languages. Beautiful book written by a human who  is wise and gentle as he navigates through life  like we all do in our little corners of this beautiful earth as he.consistently seeks to learn from and teach others . Becoming Himself.
May we all do similarly.

Go buy or read that book soon.  Please. It is availablel on Amazon and may other places.
(Amazon and Noonya Books blog don't have any relationships, in case you are asking.. we.just share this particular interest;  books).

https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Myself-Psychiatrists-Irvin-Yalom/dp/0465098894

Have a great rest of the year and  welcome you and I, back to Noonya Books Blog!

Writers Collective Starts in Uganda. December 6th 2015

Noonyabooks is now part of the Writers Collective. We encourage others to join this group where we will join with other wirters of like mind to write and publish!!

TERRY HAYES' I AM PILGRIM IN CAPITALS!

A Very Interesting Book

 The book ' I am Pilgrim' by Terry Hayes is such a  fantastic read that after I lost my new first copy when i was halfway though it (probably to another enthusiastic reader), I immediately bought another copy as soon as one crossed my sight and read it non stop till i finished it.
The characters in the story are so believable and so alive that i felt I was talking to them even as they ran the gamut of Europe's and Asia's secret side in the fight for and against terrorism. Each of the scenes are described so vividly that you could be touching the protagonists. Some too horrific that I turned my eyes away and actually did not read one or two paragraphs. 

Some of the current ongoing wars and their extent and horror, the author would never have imagined but he comes a close second or may even be ahead of some of the things the world has heard or seen. 

This is said to be the author's first novel though he is said to have written several screenplays. I can only say 'hats off to you Mr Terry Hayes'. You wrote not only a great book, you have changed my perspective and I am sure the minds of many even as they read your book. The book is great and I would recommend it to almost everyone.  If you need a good read, please go out and buy or borrow  'I am Pilgrim' by Terry Hayes, a thriller if ever there was one.

Beverley Nambozo Nsengiyumva and BNP Poetry: Inspiring Poetry in Africa

 A Morning of Poetry

Recently we were lucky to be part of a morning of love poetry organized by Beverly Nambozo in Kampala. Under a shade, with vrooms of distant boda bodas in the distance, we set off on a magical morning journey of poetry. A number of poets read their poetry about the theme of  'love romance nebigenderako' which in luganda could be loosely translated as ' love romance and the extras that go with it'. The poetry book A Thousand Voices Rising was on sale and i got myself a copy.
Good choice i made.  I have been able to read it between traffic jams, before going to sleep and when in line for the many things i chase down Kampala's busy streets.  The book is full of poetry from all over Africa and the diaspora. Beautiful, engaging, fresh. Like a rose in full bloom.

A Blossoming Rose.

 I was captivated by the new and not so new poetic voices coming out of Africa that were featured in there.  Poetry has been a bit of underground for so long in most of East Africa. but so have books in general. This is hopefully changing before our very eyes.  Publishers in East Africa have been accused of being more focused on textbooks as a Kenyan writer said recently.  The now vibrant scene of poetry in Uganda was given a big prod by the Lantern Meet of Poets, a group of young poets in Uganda but generally the scene has been  quite laying a little low. The publishing of poetry especially has not been as alive as in some Latin American and Persian speaking countries.   Though the tradition of oral poetry can be found among most ethnic groups in Uganda eg the baGanda, baSoga, baHima, banyaRwanda and baKiga ethic groups, a lot of this great poetry has not been widely distributed in the written word.

BNP Poetry and Beverly Nambozo ( Vice Versa)

Beverly Nambozo's push therefore to encourage the submission of poetry and the publication of poetry such as in the A Thousand Voices Rising book of which she is the editor,  is really admirable. She s an inpiration and  encouragement to many aspiring  and established poets. For this particular poetry morning,  she brought together poets, singers and spoken word artists that made that morning memorable and beautiful for all who were there. Her coordination and wonderful set up of this meeting for a mid morning reading of poetry about ' love, romance nebigenderako' was brilliant. She is also organizing a poetry award for unpublished poetry, the BNP Poetry Award competition running up to May 2015. Her  dedication and work is a gift to the many poets in Uganda and a  bright hope for the future of poetry in Uganda and Africa.

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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