STORYMOJA

We are on a crusade, and we are firmly convinced that a Kenya that accepts, appreciates and embraces reading will be in a thousand ways better than it currently is. One of the biggest obstacles we face in changing the attitudes of Kenyans is a belief that reading is a drudgery that teachersmake us do as some sort of punishment for being in school. We book lovers know that nothing could be further from the truth. Books are wonderful things; what pleasure couldpossibly equal that of holding an unread book and wondering what lies in the numerous pages within? What rivals the thrill of being lost in some countryside in Europe or a homestead in West Africa as the plot weaves through from one exciting hill to another? What satisfaction matches that of closing the final chapter of a wonderful read and thinking back on the story and characters that held you enthralled for hours? Did not the great Mark Twain declare that good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience made an ideal life?

But the thrill we get from books will not help others unless they can all share our joy. We who have found and tasted the holy grail of reading must then spread our passion abroad to those who are still living in the dark!  We will start slowly, one convertee at a time and soon the whole country will be reading!
And what a great joy it would be to stop by the supermarket and browse through great and exciting titles by our own brothers and sisters about our own country? This is the aim of our book club and other projects that Storymoja is currently engaged in to promote reading and a love for books in our country.

Unfortunately we have had to move our book club at Nu-Metro to Galitos restaurant just next to Nu-Metro Westgate. We hope this will be just a temporary move. Please lets meet on Thursday the 11th of September at the same time (7pm to 9pm) at Galitos Restaurant, 2nd floor, Westgate to discuss the book ‘Poisonwood Bible’ by Barbara Kingsolver. The discussion will be round a coffee table and will be led by Caine Prize nominee Muthoni Garland. Please come prepared to buy a cup of coffee and a snack for yourself.  And come along with a friend! Please confirm your attendance with Marie at bookclub@storymojaafrica.co.ke  before the date to make it easier for her to make sitting arrangements with the restaurant.

ABOUT ‘POISONWOOD BIBLE’ author Doreen Baingana says:
“After reading so many books about whites based in Africa, I picked up ‘The Poisonwood  Bible’ with some trepidation. Would this be another bad copy of ‘The Heart of Darkness’? I am happy to say I was proved quite wrong. ‘The Poisonwood Bible’ is a beautiful, deep, and searing account of an American family’s fate in deep Congo in the nineteen-fifties and sixties. It is narrated by four sisters, daughters of a zealous and autocratic Baptist missionary. After a central tragic event, each sister’s life unfolds differently and dramatically; one becomes your typical priviledged mzungu in Africa, another goes back to the United States but keeps reminiscing about their childhood, and the third marries an African man, a supporter of the late Patrice Lumumba. Their poignant story humanizes the political upheavals that followed Lumumba’s assasination, and we vividly relive that period with the narrators as we read on. I highly recommend ‘The
Poisonwood Bible’ as a wonderful, important and superbly written book.”