This week’s announcement that Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie won a prestigious MacArthur Foundation “genius grant”, reminded me to make a quick post that our book club discussed her fabulous novel, Half a Yellow Sun last week (please note we selected this over a month ago — do we have great taste or what?) The fact that she received her B.A. from Eastern Connecticut State University in 1991 makes me feel mighty old! I can’t say enough great things about this book — rich character development, intriguing setting, powerful historical events interwoven with heart-wrenching personal life experiences. I knew almost nothing about the Biafran/Nigerian civil war (in fact, African history is a big black hole in my historical knowledge), so it was great to read something way outside my area of expertise. Highly recommended, must read.
Our selection for next month is much lighter — Deaf Sentence by one of my favorite authors, David Lodge. His classic books about academia, most notably Small World, are what inspired me to become a professor. Let’s hope this one lives up to my expectations. Also, because it is about a disability topic, I can sort of count it as research, right?
[speaking of Small World, Lodge’s humorous satire on the strange world of academic conferences — I hope to have a conference report on my recent trip across the pond shortly!]
Knitting Clio 
I never could get into Lodge’s novels–and I’ve heard mixed reviews of _Deaf Sentence_. I’ll eagerly await your review–I think we have similar literary tastes.
For my money, the best academic novel EVER is Kingsley Amis’s _Lucky Jim_. Hands down!
Our group read Half a Yellow Sun last year — I agree, it was riveting. (Not always cheery, but riveting. I’ll look forward to your review of Deaf Sentence — I read Lodge’s Thinks recently, and found it very interesting for the levels of engagement. Though of Lodge’s novels, I still love Small World the most, and think that scene at the conference in Israel when the Legionnaires outbreak is one of the funniest ever. Though my conferences are rarely in the nice places Lodge describes!