Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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I couldn’t put it down

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

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Many Cannonballers have already reviewed Homegoing, and I doubt I’m going to add any profound insights with my own review. Long story short, I thought this book was amazing. I wish I’d read it much sooner. Homegoing is a family saga, starting with two half-sisters, Effia and Esi, in 18th-century Ghana who don’t know the other exists. Each chapter alternates between their descendants. Effia is married off to a white man from England and lives a fairly luxurious life in a fort, while unbeknownst to her, her […]

Our Man in Ghana

Anansi's Gold: The Man Who Looted the West, Outfoxed Washington, and Swindled the World by Yepoka Yeebo

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Read as part of CBR15Bingo: Africa. This non-fiction story centers around the country of Ghana, which is part of Africa. I didn’t know much about Ghana before picking this one up. Great soccer squad, often the nemesis of the United States Men’s Team. West African location. I had always assumed that the slave trade had ravaged their country but I didn’t know who were the worst perpetrators (the British, who also robbed them of their gold, though they were not alone w/r/t slavery). Fortunately, one […]

A multi-generational exploration of Black experience from the early days of the slave trade through modern day.

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

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CBR 15 Bingo: Africa – The book begins, ends, and half of it takes place in Africa. Yaa Gyasi begins Homegoing with a pair of sisters (Effia Otcher and Esi Asare) separated at birth at the height of the African slave trade.  One sister, Effia, is raised and married off to a white Englishman on the Gold Coast.  The other sister, Esi, stays in a tribal African village.  The story covers seven generations. Each chapter is a new person advancing down the timeline and alternates between […]

A sweeping epic of two families that I could not put down

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

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BINGO – Home Summary: Homegoing follows multiple generations of families that start in 17th century Ghana and track all the way through modern day. Homegoing follows a linear plot structure but each chapter switches from family to family and from one generation to the next. This novel is sweeping in its scope. The culmination of the two stories lines comes together in an expected way but one that is still works. Most vignettes of the families are about finding one’s home or space, trying to […]

What do you do with a girl like Afi?

His Only Wife by Peace Adzo Medie

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I finally finished His Only Wife by Peace Adzo Medie. I say finally as it was a slow read for me. There is a lot going on and yet, it is a straightforward novel. I will start off with it is a “sophisticated romance” vs a “light-hearted romance.”  The biggest difference between the two is in a light-hearted romance you tend to know there will be a happily ever after, and a sophisticated romance might not have a happily ever after for our lovers. Neither […]

Home is something carried with us, in our blood, for better or worse

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

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“What I know now, my son: Evil begets evil. It grows. It transmutes, so that sometimes you cannot see that the evil in the world began as the evil in your own home. I’m sorry you have suffered. I’m sorry for the way your suffering casts a shadow over your life, over the woman you have yet to marry, the children you have yet to have.” I have friends who talk about memory like it is a living thing, ancestors like they have never died, […]



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