Our author today for Authors in Our Midst is Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi, whose book was just released last week! Let’s give her a warm welcome!
If you are an Author or an Artist who is interested in having your work featured, just let me know.
Hi Balloon Juicers, my name is NaijaGal (not my usual BJ nym) and I’ve been mostly lurking on Balloon Juice since John was a Republican and I wanted to understand how principled Republicans thought.
Over fifteen years ago, I started writing a book, a novel in stories inspired by my experiences growing up in Nigeria. It features four friends who meet in a Nigerian all-girls boarding school, three of whom migrate to the US. They go back and forth between the US and Nigeria and visit other countries.
The book covers a timespan from 1897 (featuring a grandmother of one of the girls) to 2050, when the girls, now women, are in their seventies.
The last story was my first time trying my hand at speculative fiction and I’d love to know what you all think. Some of the stories were previously published in literary journals but the majority are new.
It took me so long because my full-time job involves teaching graduate students and writing or working on NIH grants. There were years when I didn’t even touch the manuscript because I didn’t have the bandwidth.
As you can imagine, I’m very excited that the book is finally published and thrilled that it got a great review in the New York Times Book Review (sorry DougJ)!
From the press release:
Nigerian author Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi makes her American debut with this dazzling collection of interlocking stories, which explores her homeland’s past, present, and possible future through the eyes of three fearless globe-trotting women.
Nonso, Remi, Aisha, and Solape meet as young, impressionable students at an all-girls boarding school, quickly forming a lifetime bond when they stand up to an older girl’s attempt at hazing. Their sisterhood is soon challenged, however, when they participate in a school rebellion, the uprising causing repercussions that will forever change their lives.
Illuminating the ties of friendship, the tangled bonds of family, the isolation of being an immigrant, and the need for belonging, Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions offers a nuanced portrait of these women as they look back in their attempts to move forward.
Me, again, WaterGirl. Here’s the beginning of NaijaGal’s lovely review in the NYT.
In the nearly 20 years since I first learned of Aristotle’s belief that the best story endings are “surprising, yet inevitable,” I have rarely been as blindsided — in the best possible way — by the final moments of a book as I was while reading Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi’s “Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions: A Novel in Interlocking Stories.”
The final chapter will shock you. You will likely pause, flip back a few pages, certain that you missed something. Then you will realize that you did not, in fact, miss anything. You might scream, close the book, go for a walk and return to it, still shocked.
The brilliance of Ogunyemi’s writing is that after that walk, you’ll realize that from the book’s earliest pages (which are set in 1897) to its final pages (set in 2050), she lays out exactly what is to come.
The book can be purchased on IndieBound (preferred) or Amazon.
WaterGirl
NaijaGal, congratulations on your book! Please let us know when you get here!
Dorothy A. Winsor
The book sounds wonderful. Congrats
PS: It’s on its way to my kindle
cain
Congratulations on the release of your new book – I look forward to reading it!
RedDirtGirl
How exciting! Congratulations!
NaijaGal
Thank you WaterGirl! Hi everyone! Please let me know if you have any questions :).
Baud
The New York Times Book Review is … not garbage.
Congratulations!
UncleEbeneezer
Wow. Very cool. Will add this book to my list. I think my wife would dig it too. Congrats on the publication and good reviews!!
MazeDancer
Well done! Congrats on such a well-placed, excellent review.
eclare
Congratulations! That sounds like an intriguing book, I’ll have to check it out.
It is at my local independent bookstore, yay!
oldster
“thrilled that it got a great review in the New York Times Book Review (sorry DougJ)!”
No need to apologize to DougJ. Both of you in your own ways are pursuing writing projects that are assisted by the NYT — heck, his writing is even more dependent on them than yours is!
(Though it might be a dependence he’d be willing to break — i.e., he’d happily stop mocking if they’s stop being so mockable.)
NaijaGal
Thank you everyone for the kind comments! Please let me know if you have any questions.
CaseyL
Oh, this sounds wonderful – can’t wait to read it, and thank you for unlurking to talk about it!
NaijaGal
Thank you everyone for your kind comments! WordPress doesn’t seem to like me today, so I hope this attempt goes through.
Please let me know if you have any questions and thanks to WaterGirl for posting.
WaterGirl
@NaijaGal: You are all good for posting under this nym now. :-)
Steeplejack
Congratulations, NaijaGal—an auspicious start! Just purchased your book from the universally reviled Amazon because Kindle.
WaterGirl
Since this is an Author’s thread, I will include a reminder that we will be talking about gwangung’s play in tonight’s Medium Cool. So it’s not too late to watch it if you want to!
Details, trailers and the link to buy a $10 ticket are all in this Balloon Juice thread.
gwangung
Ah! This is cool!
WereBear
Congratulations on a wonderful achievement.
Alison Rose 💙🌻💛
This sounds amazing and totally up my literary alley! Gonna hop over and order it now.Congrats!!
Starfish
This book sounds amazing, and it is wonderful that you persisted over such a long time line.
Steeplejack
@WaterGirl:
Bought a ticket.
Another Scott
Congratulations NaijaGal!
That posted excerpt from the book review could not be better.
It sounds fascinating. Thanks for sharing your work with us.
Purchased. Good luck!
Cheers,
Scott.
NaijaGal
@gwangung: Thank you! Congratulations on She Devil of the China Seas. I hadn’t heard about Ching Shih until I read your post on BJ and her story sounds absolutely fascinating.
WendyBinFL
I now have a happy helping of Jollof Rice on my Kindle! Yum!
Anyway
Congratulations. How exciting!
I read -Americanah- by Adichie when it first came out and enjoyed her take on the immigrant experience.
NaijaGal
@Anyway:
I love, love, love Chimamanda’s work! I liked Americanah but my favorite Adichie book is Half of A Yellow Sun, which explores the Biafran War.
Ajabu
@NaijaGal:
One question: My oldest granddaughter just turned 13 yesterday. Is the book appropriate for her? Me and grandma are doing our very best to make her Afrocentric…
kalakal
Congratulations! What a great review
NaijaGal
@Ajabu: My 16 year old cousins are reading it but I don’t think it’s appropriate for a 13 year old. I’ll admit that I’m being kind of a hypocrite because I used to sneak my mother’s books when I was 10 and got bored reading children’s books. (Thing is, she didn’t know about it and I couldn’t ask her about the things I didn’t understand).
arrieve
Congratulations! The book sounds wonderful and is now on my Kindle. I can’t wait to read it.
Anyway
@NaijaGal:
Oooh, I remembered another recent favorite –“My sister, the serial killer”. Loved it and made my book group read it.
Sorry for being one of those people –reciting all the Nigerian authors I like…
KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager))
I went to Amazon to put it on my Kindle WishList, and decided on impulse to click the Purchase button instead. I just finished reading a fun finding-wellness/crime novel (‘Kismet’ by Amina Akhtar) so I’m ready for a new read. This one sounds like an especially good one, and a real change of pace. Looking forward to diving in!
MagdaInBlack
More and more I find myself reading non-american born women authors. Doing so makes me look at the world from a different perspective. I look forward to reading this.
zhena gogolia
Congratulations! Sounds very good.
Anyway
@MagdaInBlack:
Check out -My sister, the serial killer- set in contemporary Lagos.
eclare
@Anyway: The title is fantastic! And my library has it!
MagdaInBlack
@Anyway: I will! Thank you.
Alison Rose 💙🌻💛
@Anyway: Nah, it’s always a good time to share books we love, especially if they are from underrepresented voices. Another wonderful novel by a Nigerian woman author I would recommend is Stay With Me by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀.
NaijaGal
@Anyway:
I read My Sister the Serial Killer (by Onyinkan Braithwaite) in one go, only stopping for meal breaks. It was soooo good (although I’ll admit that the police bits only work in Nigeria).
eclare
@NaijaGal: I have done that with books before…thanks for the heads up! Looking forward to both yours and this book.
MagdaInBlack
While not in the category I mentioned ( non-american born) “The River Where Blood Is Born” Sandra Jackson-Opoku, just blew me away. I’ve had to read it several times to just figure it all out.
NaijaGal
@Alison Rose 💙🌻💛: I have Stay With Me on my to read list; my editor thinks it’s an amazing book. So many books to read, so little time.
My dream job would be getting to read books I choose randomly (without having to write reviews ;-)).
Baud
@NaijaGal:
Same, except it’s getting massages instead of reading books.
NaijaGal
@Starfish:
“…it is wonderful that you persisted over such a long time line.”
I had people nudging me along the way (my brother, my husband, the characters that kept popping into my head at inopportune times, especially when I was trying to sleep). I’m really glad that I was able to finish writing it.
NaijaGal
@Baud: And here I thought it would be running a never-ending presidential campaign, with unlimited virtual donations 😂.
Alison Rose 💙🌻💛
@NaijaGal:
Saaaaaaame :)
AJ of the Mustard Search and Rescue team
Congratulations to you and what an honor to have you here! 💕
WaterGirl
@NaijaGal: Stay as long as you like, I just want to thank you for this post before I wander off to do something else.
Please check back in the morning for comments – people often catch threads long after one might think they are dead.
So in the author / artist threads, there are often questions for the featured person awaiting them in the morning.
CCL
@NaijaGal: Congrats!
NaijaGal
@WaterGirl: That’s good to know! I’ll hang around for another half hour then check back tomorrow morning.
A friend of mine is competing in the UCI Master’s (indoor cycling) championships today at the Velo Sports Center so I’ll be leaving to see that. For those in the LA area who like indoor cycling – check it out, it’s free to the pubic.
NotMax
Cannot be the only who at first read that in the little right-hand tab as Ninjagal.
;)
Kristine
Congratulations on the glowing reviews.
Bought the book from Apple Books because I’m a Mac person.
Anyway
Added “Jollof Rice”, “Kismet”, “Stay with Me” and “Half of a Yellow Sun” to my to-read pile. Sadly work is kicking my ass at the moment but I am excited to have so many good reads to look forward to!
mali muso
Congrats on what sounds like a fantastic book! And now with all of these mentions of jollof rice, I am hungry! Making a west African dish here for our dinner (poulet yassa). Nom
Almost Retired
This looks wonderful. It looks like you’ll be doing a signing sort of near me at the Book Jewel later next month, so I’ll come and get my copy signed!!!
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
@Baud: sounds like a job with a happy ending.
Hey you were wondering about the full context of the Obama video – here it is (clip).
Also too, this is still my favorite clip of him – he’s exhausted from the jet lag and a full day of work and he’s still 100 times sharper than the a very quick comedian (video).
eclare
@mali muso: Googled and bookmarked a recipe, sounds delish! What kind of onions do you use? Regular white?
ETA> I see the recipe calls for yellow.
Baud
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch:
Thanks!
NaijaGal
@Almost Retired: Wonderful! Look forward to meeting you!
NaijaGal
@Kristine: That’s great, thank you! I’m a mac person too but never got into Apple Books.
NaijaGal
@mali muso: Yum!
Oh and of course even though Nigerians claim to make the best jollof rice in West Africa, I have to acknowledge that we owe a debt to the Wolof people of Senegal and Gambia, without whom there would be no jollof rice :).
NaijaGal
Thank you to everyone who commented with congratulations and jokes, my everlasting gratitude to those who bought the book, and thanks to WaterGirl for putting together a great post!
I’m off to watch indoor cycling and will check back tomorrow morning as WaterGirl suggested. Have a wonderful rest of your day.
mali muso
@NaijaGal: Yeah, I must grudgingly admit that most of my favorite Malian dishes actually have their roots in Senegalese cuisine (yassa, mafe, jollof rice).
WaterGirl
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: I thought for sure that was going to be the Conan O’Brien clip from before he was president. That one was hysterical.
If you find it, share it here. Please.
apieceofpeace
Thanks for giving me something to fill the empty spot in my bookcase. And congratulations! I look forward to reading it.
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
@WaterGirl: Ahhh, yes. I remember that. That was him at his most charming; it was a big hit. He came out on stage at the Chicago Theater to John Mayer’s “Waiting on the World to Change” (video)
eclare
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: Thank you for that clip, so funny!
WaterGirl
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: Oh, thank you for finding that!
Barack and Conan just riffing off one another. What a great time that was, in every way.
eclare
@WaterGirl: Loved the barbershop talk!
prostratedragon
Congratulations to the author. I must get this book, because a) sounds like a good read and b) Barnard!
JoyceH
Please tell me I’m not the only person who had to google ‘jollof rice’…
UncleEbeneezer
@NaijaGal: Love your glasses in that pic!
cleek
@JoyceH:
in case anyone wants a recipe, allow me to give a shoutout to my sister in law:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/24/dining/nigerian-food-yewande-komolafe.html