Coucou all

and welcome back to SammyFaces!!



First we talked about movies, now let's talk about books because turns out reading is one of my favourite hobbies after sleeping, travelling, dancing and well... shopping or should I say curating ;-)

Ok maybe I digress. Back to reading and especially the kind of reading which inspires and awakens the urge in me to write, to dream, to share and to read some more. I would need to pause and add as a disclaimer that I also very much enjoy reading the French (especially Camus, Flaubert and De Beauvoir) and British classics (Orwell, Tolkien or Woolf). However I also associate them with high school reading (especially the French) hence it took me some time to go back to read them and truly appreciate their meaning in ways that could impact me.  Naturally I am being overly dramatic as it is often the case with any selection but when it comes to inspiration, I truly believe the following authors and their books literally changed my life in some shape or form.

And with no further due, here they are:

Paulo Coelho
The Alchemist was THE eye opener for me. An epiphany which opened my mind and my soul to the realm of consciousness everything. It's very hard to explain in simple (non-woohoo) terms but this book changed my life in ways I can only think of as a before and after reading it. Years later when I read it again I surprisingly found a new meaning which resonated with my life at the time. From then onward, I enjoyed reading other books written by Paulo Coelho and found they were either very good "morale lessons" to be learned or a bit of a repeat. So if there are 3 books I can take with me on a faraway desert island The Alchemist would make the list.
Chimamanda Adichie
I have professed my love for this author before  so it won't come as a surprise that I am a die-hard fan of this woman's writing from  "Half of a yellow sun" to "Purple Hibiscus" and famous "Americanah" to "Dear Ijewuele" and I absolutely admire everything she does including  how she uses her somewhat "celebrity" status to celebrate African fashion designers (check her IG!!) or open the door to many more  (non-African American) African authors. To be honest for the longest time I associated African authors to school books during my childhood from Cesar Senghor, Camara Laye  to Andre Brink... Then I fell upon Fatou Diome and later on read all (and I mean ALL) of  Chimamanda's books and found myself thirsty for more female African authors. I am glad I continue to find great jewels along the way and can highly recommend "Homegoing" by Yaa Gyasi,  "Ghana must go" by Taiye Selasi, or "Behold the dreamers" by Imbolo Mbue. Also special mention to Laura Miano.

Jane Austen
Does she even need an introduction? I talked about the movie adaptation of "Pride and Prejudice" before so I guess this won't come as a surprise.

Henriette Anne Klauser 
"Write it down make it happen" was a magical read for me and my first dive into self development books. To this date I recommend it to everyone and all I can say is it works!

Added bonus because there is always a bonus ;-)

Michelle Obama
Becoming

Elizabeth Gilbert
Eat Pray Love

Eckhart Tolle
The power of now
And many others: Murakami, Maya Angelou, Baldwin, Elena Ferrante, Ta-Nehisi Coates




Now tell me which book is your all time favourite?

till next time

-S