Monthly Archives: March 2016

Book Review: Twisted in a Positive Way

31 Thursday Mar 2016

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Review by Rebecca Markus

Twisted in a Positive Way is a charming novel by UK author Chikamso Efobi. I love a good coming-of-age story and this one doesn’t disappoint. The story follows Adaugo, a young Nigerian girl on the brink of big life changes. She comes from a large and happy family who encourage her to strive for success.

When Adaugo is ten she leaves home for boarding school. That’s when she discovers a voice inside her that helps guide her through these difficult new experiences.

As an adult Adaugo is expected to conform to cultural standards. She has a job, lives in her father’s house, and is supposed to be finding a husband. But she knows that she wants something more for herself. She realizes that she has to stop caring about the opinions of others and take a chance on her future.

Twisted in a Positive Way is elegantly written. I felt the nervous excitement of Adaugo as she left home as a little girl and the heartbreak when she struggled through the trials of growing up away from her family. The contrasts of Adaugo’s world to my own are what kept me glued to the story.

Chikamso Efobi has painted a stunning picture of Nigerian culture. I loved that this book took me into a world that’s completely unfamiliar to me. By her use of dialogue, the reader is immersed in the language and culture of Nigeria. I could hear the voices and inflections of the characters in my head. Efobi explained her style to me:

“I wrote the story to reflect the local Nigerian expressions. Translations of most of the expressions are written immediately after, so as not to lose people who are not very familiar with how Nigerians speak in an informal setting. Nigeria has over 52 languages and it is not uncommon to find the average Nigerian inserting words from various languages into one sentence. There is also a lot of animation when we speak, that’s why you may see the odd ‘o’ here and there.”

If you’re looking for something beyond the same old story, Twisted in a Positive Way is definitely a novel of substance. This book will inspire you to strive for the things you’re told you can’t have. If not, well your life must already be pretty awesome.

Twisted in a Positive Way is on a 3-day sale for Ā£0.99 (75% off) on Amazon UK for a limited time between 31 March and 02 April 2016. Click here to grab your kindle copy

Check out the original review at Nevermind the Furthermore

A Lesson from my orchid

13 Sunday Mar 2016

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I hope you are having a restful weekend.
Today’s post was inspired by my little orchid. (Read another lesson from the orchid here)

6 weeks ago, I was wondering what was happening to my orchid plant. A bit of background info: i have very little experience with orchids and growing plants in general. So to me, this little plant looked dry and dead (picture on the left). Looking at it, I contemplated throwing it in the bin because to my untrained eye, the plant was simply done.

However, I followed my gut to keep feeding and watering, just to see what would happen. Two weeks ago, to my surprise and relief, the first sign of a flower appeared. Now it looks beautiful (picture on the right).

I believe that this same principle could apply to life as we know it. You may be reading this and wondering when your efforts towards a particular venture or job would start paying off. You may have sunk in a lot of money, made so many calls…with nothing to show for it.

If you are convinced that you are on the right path, follow your convictions and continue to push and who knows, with time, just like my little orchid, your efforts could pay off.

Now, in hindsight, I can now see that in the picture on the left, there were little bubs which to someone who had more experience with plants, would have meant that the orchid really was not dead (or dying). But, isn’t this the whole point? Sometimes what you see does not necessarily reflect reality.

If you enjoyed reading this, and you know someone who may benefit from reading this message, please feel free to share this with them.

Peace and love to you and yours šŸ™‚

The Guest House – a poem by Rumi

09 Wednesday Mar 2016

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The guest house

Happy “hump day” to every one. I hope everyone has had a good week so far.

For people who know me or have been following my personal posts on this blog, you would know that in addition to being a book addict, I am also a bit of a music junkie.

On Sunday night, I came across a Facebook video which was posted by a pilot friend of mine, who has a habit of posting videos of himself driving to work. So I played this particular video and there was this song playing in the background which I instantly liked. I started to type a comment to find out what the title of the song was, when I remembered that I could “Shazam it”.

I instantly opened the app, and found out that the song was, “A Head Full Of Dreams” from Coldplay’s new album. Within five minutes, I had downloaded the entire album on Spotify and I haven’t stopped playing the album since then. Now, I listen to it every chance I get.

One of my favorite songs from the album is a short song titled, “Kaleidoscope” which begins with the voice of a man reciting some words, and is then followed by the voice of another man singing “Amazing Grace”. Naturally, I became curious and wanted to find out what the man was saying, so I consulted Google. To my utmost surprise, the man singing was none other, than President Barack Obama.

I also found out that the words were an excerpt from a beautiful poem by Rumi (above). I hope you find it as insightful as I did.

Enjoy the rest of your week.

Love,

Chika

Image credit:Ā http://genius.com/Coldplay-colour-spectrum-lyrics