Books you need to read this year

It is a new year and just like every time in a new year, we reflect, strategise and plan. Each year, there are people that promise themselves to read, collect or pick up books and incorporate reading in their hobbies. This is a list of books that can usher you into this hobby. These are not new books on the market, but easy reads from various Ugandan authors.

Manchester Happened

Jennifer Makumbi Nansubuga

This is yet another interesting book by internationally acclaimed Ugandan writer Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi. Manchester Happened is a story that looks at the journey of Ugandans who made England their home. The story weaves between Manchester and Kampala, which easily relates with many people who know what it means to search for belonging. The book is divided into two parts, departing and returning; the first part is set in Manchester while the latter is in Uganda. The beauty is Makumbi’s imagination that time travels as far as the 1950s to the present day.

Tropical Fish: Tales From Entebbe

Doreen Baingana

Doreen Baingana’s Tropical Fish: Tales From Entebbe has been with us for years. Tropical Fish: Tales from Entebbe is a story of Christine. The character is pivotal through the different short stories you find in the book, other characters met in the book include Patti and Rosa, the daughters of a senior government official who becomes an alcoholic and loses it all.

We are introduced to Christine as a child. In the play though, she is relatively a young woman waiting for an old friend who is returning from England.

It is during this wait that we start learning a thing and more about Christine, the friends she hangs with and Peter, a white businessman who used to sell fish abroad. The book was a subject of a theatre production adaptation of the same name that was staged in various places in Kampala in October 2021.

The New Headline That Morning

Kagayi Ngobi

Kagayi Ngobi’s The Headline That Morning was originally published in 2016 by Sooo Many Stories, then early on in 2021, he started promoting The New Headline That Morning. It is not a sequel of the first book but a reproduction of it with some new material.

This makes it worthwhile even for those that read the original book when it was released in 2016. The New Headline That Morning features all the poems that made the book a classic.

Look at poems such as In 2065, Nightmares, The Audience Must Say Amen, Family Portrait and the title poem, The Headline That Morning.

This book is a subject of two different productions where Kagayi brought some of his poems to life.

Crossroads: Women Coming of Age in Today’s Uganda

Various writers

Launched during the Writivism Festival in 2015, Crossroads:Women Coming of Age in Today’s Uganda brings to life stories of different female authors from Uganda. The anthology brings different stories told by modern Ugandan women who  are trying to redefine their place in a society that may not offer much.

Each story has a different aspect of life it follows yet, at the end they still find a way to fit within the title of the book, a woman at crossroads. The book features writers such as Harriet Anena, Shifa Mwesigye, Nakisanze Segawa, Lydia Namubiru and Carol Ariba.

Edited by journalist Christopher Conte, the book’s strength is in the way these stories are personal and dear to the writers, this helps the reader connect to them more and understand their point of view. 

 Odokonyero

Various writers

This is one of the various anthologies that have been produced in the lead up to the Writivism Festival. Published in 2018, Odokonyero is a celebration of Ugandan emerging writers such as Irene Abalo, George Ocen, Charlotte Akello, Esther Mirembe and Edna Ninsiima.

Most of these authors tackle a wide range of topics ranging from identity, sexuality, forgiveness and life in general. The fact that many of the writers hail from different backgrounds makes the collection powerful for readers but beyond the power, it criticises society in a way we had not seen young people do. 

Nugget

Knowledge

Everything you read fills your head with new bits of information, and you never know when it might come in handy. The more knowledge you have, the better-equipped you are to tackle any challenge you’ll ever face.Additionally, here’s a bit of food for thought: should you ever find yourself in dire cumstances, remember that although you might lose everything else—your job, your possessions, your money, even your health—knowledge can never be taken from you.

-lifehacks.org