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^^ p 359 generational differences “It marvels us how much suffering we bore, our parents bore, our ancestors bore, so our children could own cars and forget Kosawa.”

^^ 126 children “Only when we became parents did we realize how we could harm our children in an attempt to clean out for them the smothering decay of this world.”

^^25 “We wanted to be overcome with madness like Konga and relish the fleeting ecstasy wrought of fearlessness…”

Polyphonic narrative in clear, straightforward voice. Members of a fictional West African village fight environmental damage inflicted by foreign oil company. Children sickened & dying, government supporting corporations at expense of citizens, NGOs supportive but limited. No easy answers. Choice to stand against injustice. P 49 “I know nothing about how a girl makes men pay for their crimes, but I have the rest of my life to figure it out.” 2021

In essence, this is a story of colonial experience in many ways. Only in this case the coloniser is a toxic corporation that steals, appropriates, and destroys native land. The story is interesting for sure but could have been held together much tighter - it was far too long with repetitive descriptions. But makes for a compelling read.

Current IRL Book Club read. Looking forward to reading this author again. I did like her book “Behold the Dreamers.”

I enjoyed this as I read it a few weeks ago but it has really stayed with me. It was so tragic and even now - many books later, I still remember the exact feeling I had when I was reading it. It‘s a good example of truth found in fiction. ☠️

In as much as one can enjoy a truly heartbreaking, sad story… I enjoyed this book. Mbue‘s writing is, as usual, lyrical and compulsively readable, it‘s full of great characters, but wow, it‘s so bleak—even more so when you consider how realistic it is for actual African countries exploited by corporate greed.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

My choice for #ReadAroundTheWorld #Cameroon… it‘s set in a fictional country, but the author is from Cameroon so I‘m counting it!

I loved ‘Behold The Dreamers‘ but found this slow and bleak. Mbue has a warm, engaging and compassionate writing style and I‘m sure the book is a rewarding read, but I couldn‘t get into it.

Told from six points of view, one of which is first person plural (The Children) this moving tale is of people determined to gain redress for the environmental damage of ongoing oil extraction on their land. Poisoned water, air and soil. Children dying. It‘s a universal story—tragic, yet epic. Also, inspiring, for their faith that an insignificant village of people in Africa can make a powerful corporation & a corrupt government pay attention.

Life is funny. People fighting over a piece of land that none of them can take along when death comes. How is that not funny? Everyone wanting something to make them happy, only to realize once they get it that they want something else to make them happy. How is that not funny? Life is a chase after the wind. Meaningless. Ridiculous.

Sometimes the girls play separately from the boys and other times we play together, and fight each other, and when we‘re done crying and tattling to mothers who sigh and ignore us, we return to being friends, because we‘ll never belong to a group of age mates the way we belong with ours.

If a man couldn‘t find solace in his own birthplace, what chance did he have at happiness? When we asked Thula the source of Austin‘s unrootedness, she wrote: “I think being born to parents from two different parts of the world made him a man from somewhere and elsewhere, but sadly, from nowhere.”

4.5 ⭐️
Elements I enjoyed:
~The writing is beautiful and it was so lovely to hear about what things were like 'before'.
~There are cases where I am all for vigilante justice, and this was one of them!

Elements I disliked:
~The storyline was too close for comfort. It felt very real, in the saddest of ways.

Here‘s my favorite book from March 2021 @Andrew65

A timely story of corporate greed, political corruption, inequalities, activism, colonialism and the fight to be heard. This book was beautifully drawn, and every word considered. If you enjoyed Chigozie Obioma‘s novels The Fishermen and An Orchestra of Minorities than this book will be well loved. Perfect for bookclub discussion and would work for #pop22 #ManMadeDisaster

This one was a slow burn for me but got into it by the end… I liked the alternating POV chapters & was interesting to rarely get the perspective of the central characters. Depressing though!

This book tells the story of an entire village exploited by a big company. Of lives being traded for profit.

It has a lot of very strong passages that really get to you. But it also has a lot of chapters that feel a bit like they're just there to fill up space, and that's a shame. It's made me sort of unsure of how to judge this one. Was it bad? Certainly not. Was it good? Meh...

I‘m giving it a pick for the writing but overall it‘s a do-not-pick-this-book-up-if-you-know-what‘s-good-for-you. These are depressing times right now & this is the most depressing story I‘ve read in a few years. It‘s all too real & it‘s all too much. Oil companies & corrupt governments destroying a village & its residents, courageous characters who sacrifice themselves for the good of their fellow villagers. For what? Ultimately for nothing.

#curiouscovers #blackandwhite #littenlisten

This book was a really incredible fiction. It was based on a fictional village where the people were taken advantage of by an oil company and the villages fight for their land and culture.

The book is powerful and I do believe its potency outweighs any issues I may have had with it. Through an evident labor of love and heartache, Mbue gives readers a great deal to consider and grieve. She skillfully illustrated the nature of arrogance and the senseless silencing of those who had a right to be heard. This is an important story that deserves to be read and ruminated upon by everyone.

Full review on my Goodreads. Link in bio.

The follow up to Behold the Dreamers again reflects African culture in a fictional village of Kosowa ravaged by American capitalism from the oil corporation Pexton. As the indigenous people suffer from western greed, extremists groups rise forever changing the landscape. At the heart is native girl Thula educated in America who returns to solve her people's problem but gets more than she bargains for in this haunting book

“We were young, but we knew death to be impartial.”

Great book, but so much struggle and sadness. 4 ⭐️

Exciting month ahead - 2 on the fiction list are a must! The tagged one plus Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge.

Not so excited by the non fiction this week

https://lithub.com/the-best-reviewed-books-of-the-month-3-31-2021/?utm_source=Sa...

Found this in the Library, so I started a little early. Had it on my April TBR for #bookspin So far, it‘s really good.

This is a marvelous book about the people of a small village in Africa being exploited by a US oil company then fighting back. It‘s also a wonderful portrait of both family and community in a way I have never and will never experience personally. Fantastic.

I tried. I know I‘m supposed to like this, but it‘s just not sticking with me. I‘m not connecting with it. #ItsNotYouItsMe I‘m sure.

I listened to 20%, put it down. Started from the beginning and listened to 48%, so yeah...I feel like I gave it a fair shot for what I‘m able to read right now. 🤷🏻‍♀️ #audiobook

How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue is a moving story about a fictional African Village told from multiple perspectives. An American oil company causes devastating problems for the people and land.

Thank you Random House for the gifted book and Penguin Random House Audio for the gifted audiobook.

Full Review: https://justreadingjess.wordpress.com/2021/03/11/book-review-how-beautiful-we-we...

Listening in the car while dad has physical therapy. So far, I love it!

SO GOOD!!! Much bolder & braver than Behold The Dreamer but still filled with subtle wit and honesty. It takes awhile for the story to build and to fully settle into the language of the villagers. When Kongo, the village madman hatches a plan his action will reverberate for decades to come. Five PLUMP stars!!! I did an audio / print combo and both mediums were wonderful. Multi cast narration was helpful in establishing certain characters.

I broke down @Megabooks and used my Audible credit 🙌🏻BEST DECISION EVER!!! Audio is UH.MAY.ZING !!!! LOVING this book

Publishes TODAY!!! Im still making my way through the #ARC ~ it‘s a beautifully written story, multi layered and complex but JEEZ....is it ever WORDY!!!! Set in a fictionalized African village, where a greedy American oil company has contaminated the village‘s water system from their drilling. Reminds me stylistically of An Orchestra of Minorities ( which I LOVED)!!

I recommend the audiobook of Imbolo Mbue's HOW BEAUTIFUL WE WERE, available tomorrow. I also highly recommend you procure it from
libroFM to support your local indie. I DO NOT recommend binging it in a single 24 hour period like I just did because 😭😭😭 full cast, multigenerational narrative.

Anyway, thank you LibroFM for the advanced audio copy in exchange for my honest review!

https://libro.fm/audiobooks/9780593209943

http://obsessedbookaholic.com/2021/03/07/how-beautiful-we-were-book-review/

1. Elantris by Brandon Sanderson, Breast and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami, and The Only Plane in the Sky by Garrett M. Graff
2. How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue
3. Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson

#weekendreads

“A masterful exploration of what happens when the reckless drive for profit, coupled with the ghost of colonialism, comes up against one community‘s determination to hold on to its ancestral land and a young woman‘s willingness to sacrifice everything for the sake of her people‘s freedom.” (From the excerpt). This book is a true masterpiece, strong and fierce Thula stands for what she believes in and how important family can be.

This may be a candidate for Best Book of 2020. It's absolutely gorgeous.

A village in West Africa is being destroyed by an American oil company. They have polluted the air and the water and the land. The children are dying. It's stunning. I definitely recommend it.

Publication date is 6/16/2020.
I received an #ARC from #RandomHouse via #goodreads

#BookSpinBonanza book 3
@TheAromaofBooks

Yesssssss!!!! Got approved for the new Imbolo Mbue novel 🙌🏻❤️Thank you #NetGalley #RandomHousePublishing