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I always travel with my next read in mind. Whether it’s in audiobook form for when I am tired of flipping pages or scrolling through my eBook reader, a good book is essential. During my last trip to Ibadan from Lagos last month, I brought along my copy of The Marriage Class by romance writer Adesuwa Nwokedi. Thanks to that trip, I finished reading the book, which was also great company. Time passed quickly as I followed Nwokedi’s portrayal of struggling couples in the process of breaking up or strengthening their relationships.
What I am trying to say is every trip needs a good book as company. Road trips are the perfect opportunity to start or finish reading a good book. Whether you’re a passenger looking to pass the time or you’re taking a break from driving, a captivating read can make the miles fly by.
In our latest book recommendation, we have compiled a list of seven engaging books that will keep you entertained on your next road trip. Our recommendations include a gripping mystery thriller, a romantic debut novel, a poignant collection of short stories, and more.
Read our recommendations below.
THE SECRET LIVES OF BABA SEGI’S WIVES
AUTHOR: LOLA SHONEYIN
GENRE: FICTION
For a polygamist like Baba Segi, his wives and children are the symbol of prosperity, success and validation of his manhood. Everything runs reasonably smoothly in the patriarchal home, until wife number four intrudes. Bolanle, a graduate amongst the semi-literate wives, is hated from the start. Baba Segi’s glee at bagging a graduate doesn’t help matters. Worse, Bolanle’s arrival threatens to do more than simply ruffle feathers. She’s unwittingly set to expose a secret that her co-wives intend to protect, at all costs. Lola Shoneyin’s brilliant writing exposes not only the rotten innards of Baba Segi’s polygamous household in this cleverly plotted story; it also shows how women not educated or semi-literate, women in contemporary Nigeria can be as restricted, controlled and damaged by men—be they fathers, husbands, uncles, rapists—as they’ve never been. Buy this book here.
AMERICANAH
AUTHOR: CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE
GENRE: FICTION
Ifemelu and Obinze are young and in love when they depart military-ruled Nigeria for the West. Beautiful, self-assured Ifemelu heads for America, where despite her academic success, she is forced to grapple with what it means to be black for the first time. Quiet, thoughtful Obinze had hoped to join her, but with post-9/11 America closed to him, he instead plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London. Fifteen years later, they reunite in a newly democratic Nigeria, and reignite their passion—for each other and for their homeland.
HONEY AND SPICE
Author: BOLU BABALOLA
Genre: FICTION
Sharp-tongued and secretly soft-hearted Kiki Banjo has just made a huge mistake. As an expert in relationship-evasion and the host of the popular student radio show Brown Sugar, she’s made it her mission to make sure the women of the African-Caribbean Society at Whitewell University do not fall into the mess of ‘situationships’, players, and heartbreak. But when the Queen of the Unbothered kisses Malakai Korede, the guy she just publicly denounced as ‘The Wastemen of Whitewell’, in front of everyone on campus, she finds her show on the brink.
They’re soon embroiled in a fake relationship to try and salvage their reputations and save their futures. Kiki has never surrendered her heart before, and a player like Malakai won’t be the one to change that, no matter how charming he is or how electric their connection feels. But surprisingly entertaining study sessions and intimate, late-night talks at old-fashioned diners force Kiki to look beyond her own presumptions. Is she ready to open herself up to something deeper? Bolu Babalola’s debut novel is a romantic delight.
Cassava Republic Press is proud to announce the launch of their inaugural $20,000 Global Black Women’s Non-Fiction Manuscript Prize dedicated to exceptional works by Black women. Deadline: 30th June 2024. Learn more here.
A BROKEN PEOPLE’S PLAYLIST
AUTHOR: CHIMEKA GARRICKS
GENRE: FICTION
A Broken People’s Playlist is a collection of short stories with underlying themes so beautifully woven that each story flows into the other seamlessly. From its poignant beginning in ‘Lost Stars’ a story about love and its fleeting, transient nature to the gritty, raw musical prose encapsulated in ‘In The City’, a tale of survival set in the alleyways of the waterside. Chimeka Garricks’ collection is a mosaic of stories about living, loving and hurting through very familiar sounds, in very familiar ways and finding healing in the most unlikely places. The stories are also part-homage and part-love letter to Port Harcourt (the city which most of them are set in). The prose is distinctive as it is concise and unapologetically Nigerian. And because the collection is infused with the magic of evocative storytelling, everyone is promised a story, a character, to move or haunt them.
HIS ONLY WIFE
AUTHOR: PEACE ADZO MEDIE
GENRE: FICTION
Afi Tekple lives in a small town in Ghana with her widowed mother, spending much of her time in her uncle Pious’ house with his many wives and children. Then one day she is offered a life-changing opportunity—a proposal of marriage from the wealthy family of Elikem Ganyo, a man she doesn’t truly know. She acquiesces, but soon realizes that Elikem is not quite the catch he seemed. He sends a stand-in to his own wedding, and only weeks after Afi is married and installed in a plush apartment in the capital city of Accra does she meet her new husband. It turns out that he is in love with another woman, whom his family disapproves of; Afi is supposed to win him back on their behalf. But it is Accra that eventually wins Afi’s heart and gives her a life of independence that she never could have imagined for herself.
NAIROBI HEAT
AUTHOR: MŨKOMA WA NGŨGĨ
GENRE: FICTION
A white woman is murdered in the US, and the prime suspect is former Rwandan school headmaster Joshua—a hero who had risked his life to save the innocent during Rwanda’s genocide. Ishmael, an African American detective, must investigate the case by plunging himself into Joshua’s past. He travels to Kenya, where Joshua once lived as a refugee, and finds himself unearthing his own African identity as he uncovers this violent crime. Mukoma wa Ngugi’s debut novel is a gripping and hard-hitting detective thriller that questions race, identity and class.
AN UNUSUAL GRIEF
AUTHOR: YEWANDE OMOTOSO
GENRE: FICTION
How do you get to know your daughter when she is dead? This is the question which takes a mother on a journey of self-discovery. When her daughter Yinka dies, Mojisola is forced to stop running away from the difficulties in their relationship, and also come to terms with Yinka the woman. Mojisola’s grief leads her on a journey of self-discovery, as she moves into her daughter’s apartment and begins to unearth the life Yinka had built for herself there, away from her family. Through stepping into Yinka’s shoes, Mojisola comes to a better understanding not only of her estranged daughter, but also herself, as she learns to carve a place for herself in the world beyond the labels of wife and mother. An Unusual Grief is a bold and unflinching tale of one woman’s unconventional approach to life and loss. Buy this book here.