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Man Gone Down by Michael Thomas won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. I have never heard of this book, and it doesn’t really appeal to me. Has anyone read it?

Unfortunately this advert was created for April Fools Day, but I’m sure we are in no need for it, as we all have enough old books lying round the house to smell while we’re reading!

I found this interesting post about the seven types of customers in a book store. I think I can hold my hands up to being all of them at some point – including the idiot!! I tend to be a seeker though, by TBR pile is too high for aimless browing at the moment! Which type are you?

Kim at Sophisticated Dorkiness wrote a great post on non-readers. I can feel her annoyance oozing through the words!

Awards

I am honoured to have received two awards this week. Carrie from Books and Movies gave me the Literary Blogger Award, and Louise from Lous_Pages gave me the Lemonade Award.

Thank you so much! The awards have brightened my day!

This is the best selection of short stories I have ever read! Chimamanda’s ability to draw you into each of the characters in such a small space of time is phenomenal. The short stories are focused upon Nigerian life, but many of them are based in the west. The balance between tragedy and happiness is perfect, leading to a book which does not dwell on hardship, but shows vivid glimpses of it, making the messages come across far more powerfully than continual horrific scenes.

Each story is unique, and although they all contain Nigerian characters, none have the same atmosphere or feel like repetitions of the same idea. The book is very easy to read, and is the perfect introduction to her writing style, as Half of a Yellow Sun, although I’m sure it will be amazing, is very long.

The only flaw in this book is that I was left yearning to know more about each character. I could easily have read whole novels based on each short story, in fact I’d be happy to read a book written by her once a month for the rest of my life! She gets my vote for a Nobel Prize – how many books do you have to have written to qualify as a ‘body of work?’ Sorry for gushing, but talent like this needs to be read by everyone!

Highly recommended to everyone!!

I’m really looking forward to reading Half of a Yellow Sun next week, and hope it will have the character depth and plot complexity to become my third, five star read of the year.

Is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie one of your favourite authors?

Which of her books do you like the best?

Will you be rushing out to buy a copy of this one as soon as it is released?

If you can’t wait until June then you could order a copy from the UK – just click on the book cover above!

Have you ever ordered a copy of a book from another country, just to get it a few weeks earlier?

I’ve ordered a copy of Sarah Water’s new book, The Little Stranger from America, just so I can read it a few weeks before it is released here in the UK!!

I look forward to hearing all your thoughts!