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#guadeloupe
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Dilara
The Story of the Cannibal Woman: A Novel | Maryse Conde, Richard Philcox
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Maryse Condé died last week. To honour her memory, I read one of her novels I hadn't yet read. It tells the story of Rosélie, a Black Guadeloupean woman living in Cape Town, and whose white husband was mysteriously killed while on an errand in the middle of the night. Moving & insightful but requires close reading to get the most of it.

Pic of Cape Town's Malay Quarter (Octagon via Wikimedia), only mentioned in passing in the book, but so pretty

rwmg I recently read this book, a novel about the beginnings of the Cape Malay community 7mo
Dilara @rwmg Thank you for the recommendation: it sounds really interesting! 7mo
35 likes2 stack adds2 comments
review
Hooked_on_books
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Mehso-so

In this book, the narrator tells what she knows of the story of her grandmother, Victoire, who lived most of her life on #Guadeloupe. Parts are really compelling, but as a whole I found it quite uneven. This is my second read from this author and I would read her again.

#ReadingAmericas2023

Librarybelle Do you think the unevenness is from the translation? I know sometimes translations really take the flow away from the original text. 11mo
Hooked_on_books @Librarybelle That‘s definitely possible, though in this case I‘m not so sure. Hard to know without reading the original, I think. And I‘m not steeped enough in analyzing translating works to feel like I can say with much conviction. 11mo
BarbaraBB Interesting. I loved Segú so much and had high expectations but was disappointed by 11mo
Librarybelle That‘s fair! 11mo
34 likes4 comments
review
Andrew65
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Mehso-so

Read to cover #Guadeloupe for #ReadingTheAmericas2023 @BarbaraBB @Librarybelle.

A police procedural set in #Guadeloupe. A female body of a tourist is found on a nudist beach, and it is discovered that she has been raped and murdered. This murder is investigated by Algerian-French judge Anne Marie Laveaud. This book meandered a bit too much for me and was much longer than it needed to be. It was okay but nothing to write home about.

Andrew65 This book is available to download free from Audible if you are a subscriber.

9th book finished during #NovelNovember

24th book finished in November #Rushathon @DieAReader @Ghabi4Roses

#SeriesLove2023 @TheSpineView
(edited) 12mo
DieAReader 👋🏻Another one off #MountTBR 😂 12mo
TheSpineView Every book can't be a winner. Hope the next is better. 12mo
Andrew65 @DieAReader You might enjoy it more than me. 12mo
Andrew65 @TheSpineView This is true, it was okay but wouldn‘t read another one. Too many other better books out there. 12mo
78 likes5 comments
review
Texreader
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Mehso-so

Solitude was a young black woman freed from slavery after the French Revolution. But when Napoleon tried to restore slavery on the island of #Guadeloupe, while pregnant she joined and fought in the resistance. She was captured and executed the day after she gave birth. That‘s basically all that is known, but this author repeats it ad nauseum to fill more than half the book. The second half is a little about the resistance; it lost. The book ⬇️

Texreader has immense potential but is sorely wasted. The author‘s sources: the bulk are…wait for it…himself and other books he‘s written. I‘m very glad to learn about the existence of Solitude in our world history, but this is not the book to read if you want to learn anything more than I‘ve already shared. #readingtheAmericas 12mo
Librarybelle Yeesh. Not the Stephen King of history in my mind…😂 12mo
Texreader @Librarybelle Do you want to know why he calls himself that? Because he‘s “written” over 200 books. Well, when you repeat yourself and self-publish, I can see how that‘s possible 12mo
Librarybelle OMG…totally agree 12mo
44 likes4 comments
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Texreader
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Susanita I‘ve been listening to this podcast in light of the upcoming movie. https://www.noiser.com/realdictators 12mo
Texreader @Susanita Yea I think I‘d like that. Thanks for sharing 12mo
32 likes2 comments
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Texreader
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That man spread so much evil and chaos across the world! #Guadeloupe #readingtheAmericas @Librarybelle @BarbaraBB

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Texreader
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This is my next ebook for #readingtheAmericas for #Guadeloupe. I've been so excited to read this one. I just added it to the Litsy database, so it's worth your while to read the summary. It sounds so good. And, it's only 65 pages! @Librarybelle @BarbaraBB

To be honest, though, I'm not sure what to make of the description of the author: “The Stephen King of History...“

KathyWheeler That‘s a weird description — comparing him to Stephen King. 12mo
37 likes1 stack add1 comment
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GatheringBooks
The Bridge of Beyond | Jamaica Kincaid, Barbara Bray, Simone Schwarz-Bart
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#AutumnPlease! Day 29: There is #Betrayal in this novel - mostly perpetrated by the men in the female protagonists‘ lives. Finished it in less than a week, and read it as part of our #DecolonizeReading2023 theme. Review is forthcoming. Paired with banoffee cheesecake. Delish.

BarbaraBB Such a beautiful cover 🥰 13mo
Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks Everything about this is beautiful 😍 13mo
Eggs That dessert 😋🤤 13mo
48 likes3 comments
blurb
GatheringBooks
The Bridge of Beyond | Jamaica Kincaid, Barbara Bray, Simone Schwarz-Bart
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#IdiomInsight Day 17: This, right here, is the #AppleOfMyEye paired with a #DecolonizeReading2023 title that I have been meaning to get to for the looongest time.

Readergrrl What. Is. That?!?! My mouth is watering! The book sounds intriguing too! 1y
Eggs Wow looks like lava cake a la mode🍰🍫🍨 1y
Soubhiville Mmmmmmm! 1y
56 likes3 comments
review
Currey
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Mehso-so

#Guadeloupe #ReadingtheAmericas2023 I should have started with a different book by Condé as her latest and last book is a parody of the life of Jesus who is born a bastard in Guadeloupe. I did not have the background for it either in her voice or humor. The telling comes very much from the verbal story sharing tradition and there are persistent sneers at history and religion written by colonials but it was slow and pointless to my ears.

Currey I should add that this book was short listed for the International Booker Prize this year, so clearly others did hear her voice 1y
BarbaraBB I didn‘t like this one at all unfortunately 🤷🏻‍♀️ 1y
rockpools Yup. I just did not ‘get‘ it. Felt I was majorly missing the point. 1y
Librarybelle I do like the photo! 1y
18 likes4 comments