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Find the Perfect Bookish Gift for Any Personality (Plus: Sample Excerpts)
Jingle all the way – find the perfect bookish gift for every guest at your Christmas party! Christmas is but a jingle bell away and many of us are yet to fill the stockings with our last-minute...
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8 Jaw-dropping South African True Crime Books from 2015
According to novelist, historian and politician John Buchan, “Every man at the bottom of his heart believes that he is a born detective.” This year, there are a number of great true crime books on...
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12 Key Moments from 2015: The Biggest Books News of the Year
2015 was a big news year for Books LIVE; we broke a number of stories and even found books and authors making an impact in mainstream news media. This is not merely a reflection of good reporting on...
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Read Lauren Beukes’ Story from Pwning Tomorrow – A New Spec Fic Anthology...
As part of the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s 25th anniversary celebrations, it has released an anthology of new speculative fiction, Pwning Tomorrow: Stories from the Electronic Frontier, with...
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All the South African and African Literary Award Winners of 2015
2015 was a year of near misses for African literature. Nigerian author Chigozie Obioma came painfully close to winning the Man Booker Prize for his debut novel The Fishermen, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o once...
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In Memoriam: A Tribute to the Writers Who Passed Away in 2015
2015 marked the passing of some of the greatest literary giants of our time. Worldwide readers mourned the death of André Brink, Terry Pratchett and Jackie Collins, who led the charge for decades in...
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“Literature Should be Taken to the Street”– 6 Quotations on African Writing...
Literature should be taken to the street. That is where, in Africa, it must be. The path of literature is the assured way to human salvation and to civilisation. I hail the power of the pen. - Ken...
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“I Just Want to Tell True Stories”– 17 Inspiring Quotations by Chimamanda...
We can’t get enough of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and when she speaks, we listen. From the author of Half of a Yellow Sun, Americanah, We Should All Be Feminists, The Thing Around Your Neck and Purple...
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2015 BSFA Awards Longlists Announced – Sarah Lotz, Nnedi Okorafor and Richard...
Alert! The longlists for the 2015 British Science Fiction Association (BSFA) Awards have been announced and include six African writers. Sarah Lotz has been nominated in the Best Novel category...
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“A Writer Can Have Only One Language”– 5 Quotes on Multilingualism in Literature
The following five quotes – excerpted from A Quotionary: The Ultimate Collection of Quotations About Writing and Writers, by Jenny Hobbs – grapple with the issue of multilingualism and whether or...
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“Africa is a Land Bristling with Too Many Stories”: 10 African Authors on...
The art of storytelling is integral to the African way of life. To celebrate this, here’s an excerpt from A Quotionary by Jenny Hobbs, a book published by Sunday Times Books: * * * * * * * * *...
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Fiction Friday: Wole Talabi’s British Science Fiction Association...
This Fiction Friday, read a short story by Nigerian author Wole Talabi that has been longlisted for a 2015 British Science Fiction Association (BSFA) Award. The BSFA longlists in the categories...
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Ikhide R Ikheloa Reviews The Book of Memory by Petina Gappah
Verdict: carrot Interesting and ambitious: Those two words best describe The Book of Memory, Petina Gappah’s new work of fiction, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. It is an interesting book,...
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RIP David Bowie, Legendary Musician and Voracious Reader
Don’t you love the Oxford Dictionary? When I first read it, I thought it was a really really long poem about everything. - David Bowie Legendary English musician David Bowie died yesterday, after an...
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Book Bites: 10 January 2016
Liar Liar: A DI Helen Grace Thriller MJ Arlidge (Penguin) ***** This red-hot police procedural plunges Detective Helen Grace into a hellish inferno, with three fires ravaging Southampton in a single...
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Shadowed Giant: Ray Hartley Reviews Richard Steyn’s Jan Smuts: Unafraid of...
Smuts won the world’s admiration, but a momentous failure haunts his legacy, writes Ray Hartley First published in the Sunday Times Jan Smuts: Unafraid of Greatness Richard Steyn (Jonathan Ball) *****...
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The most exciting new books of 2016, from Autumn to Zero K
By Michele Magwood for the Sunday Times There’s a parade of heavy hitters warming up in the wings for 2016: weighty award winners, buzzed-about first-timers and perennial favourites. There’s even a...
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Leticia Lara reviews Afrosfv2, edited by Ivor Hartmann
Verdict: carrot There is something that attracts me in science fiction written in other countries. That something is diversity. The use of elements from the traditions of each area can give quite...
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Announcing a new award for African writers and artists: The Gerald Kraak...
The Jacana Literary Foundation (JLF) has announced a new award for 2016: The Gerald Kraak Award and Anthology. The award was announced at an event at the Jacana offices in Auckland Park,...
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Sabo Kpade Reviews Foreign Gods, Inc. by Okey Ndibe
Verdict: carrot But what grips the reader in Foreign Gods Inc is the empathy for the book’s protagonist Ike and his pursuit of Ngene a once powerful war god, whose likeness he steals he plans to steal...
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