Cultural genre books (420)


351.

The Queen's Gambit by Walter Tevis EN

Rating: 5 (2 votes)
Description:
When the janitor teaches Beth Harmon how to play chess, she discovers a way to escape every day life in the orphanage. It soon becomes clear that she has talent as she goes on to play in championships.

352.

The Rape of Shavi by Buchi Emecheta EN

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Country: Africa / Nigeria flag Nigeria
Description:
A group of Europeans fleeing a nuclear holocaust, crash-land in the west African kingdom of Shavi, presenting King Patayon and his people with a set of problems that not even Ogene, the all-powerful goddess of the lakes is able to resolve. With the voice of an accomplished story teller, Nigerian born Buchi Emecheta has created a moving story set partly in Britain and partly in an imaginary country on the fringes of the Sahara.

353.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid EN

Rating: 4 (7 votes)
Country: Asia / Pakistan flag Pakistan
Description:
Changez, a young Muslim American, is living the American dream, with a Princeton education and high-paying job, until the events of September 11th force him to confront his personal allegiances.

354.

The River Between by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o EN

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Country: Africa / Kenya flag Kenya
Description:
Explores life on the Makuyu and Kameno ridges of Kenya in the early days of white settlement. Faced with an alluring, new religion and "magical" customs, the Gikuyu people are torn between those who fear the unknown and those who see beyond it.

355.

The Sabi by Diane Brown EN

0 Ratings
Description:
She does not know how, but has a sabi from her earliest memory that she was different. What she does know is that 'difference' had currency in the past, and it certainly still has currency today. The Sabi will have an effect on you - have no doubt about that. In her debut novel, Diane Brown takes a scenic and open-eyed walk down memory lane to the 1960's when apartheid was in full swing to the early 1990's when South Africa was beginning to sense freedom. She ventures further back in time to help solve the puzzle of the current time, how did South Africa become so angry and so violent? Writing... continue

356.

The Sandwich Swap by Queen Rania of Jordan Al Abdullah EN

0 Ratings
Country: Asia / Kuwait flag Kuwait
Description:
Lily and Salma are best friends. They like doing all the same things, and they always eat lunch together. Lily eats peanut butter and Salma eats hummus—but what’s that between friends? It turns out, a lot. Before they know it, a food fight breaks out. Can Lily and Salma put aside their differences? Or will a sandwich come between them? The smallest things can pull us apart—until we learn that friendship is far more powerful than difference. In a glorious three-page gatefold at the end of the book, Salma, Lily, and all their classmates come together in the true spirit of tolerance and acceptanc... continue

357.

The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives : A Novel by Lola Shoneyin EN

Rating: 4 (3 votes)
Country: Africa / Nigeria flag Nigeria
Description:
African-born poet Lola Shoneyin makes her fiction debut with The Secret Lives of Babi Segi’s Wives, a perceptive, entertaining, and eye-opening novel of polygamy in modern-day Nigeria. The struggles, rivalries, intricate family politics, and the interplay of personalities and relationships within the complex private world of a polygamous union come to life in The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives—BigLove and The 19th Wife set against a contemporary African background.

358.

The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson EN

Rating: 4.8 (5 votes)
Description:
"Compelling . . . The Seed Keeper invokes the strength that women, land, and plants have shared with one another through the generations." --ROBIN WALL KIMMERER

359.

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich EN

Rating: 5 (2 votes)
Description:
In this powerful and timely novel, National Book Award winning author Louise Erdrich explores how the burdens of history, and especially identity, appropriation, exploitation, and violence done to human beings in the name of justice, manifest in ordinary lives today. Revolving around a small independent bookstore in contemporary Minneapolis, The Sentence follows a turbulent year in the life of a strong though vulnerable Ojibwe woman named Tookie. After serving part of an outrageously long sentence, Tookie, who "learned to read with murderous attention" while in prison, naturally gravitates tow... continue

360.

The Simple Past by Driss Chraïbi EN

0 Ratings
Country: Africa / Morocco flag Morocco
Description:
The Simple Past came out in 1954, and both in France and its author’s native Morocco the book caused an explosion of fury. The protagonist, who shares the author’s name, Driss, comes from a Moroccan family of means, his father a self-made tea merchant, the most devout of Muslims, quick to be provoked and ready to lash out verbally or physically, continually bent on subduing his timid wife and many children to his iron and ever-righteous will. He is known, simply, as the Lord, and Driss, who is in high school, is in full revolt against both him and the French colonial authorities, for whom, as ... continue