Simi Joel’s ‘Scarred’ is riveting for many reasons. First, it addresses a topical issue in our society. Second, it tells the story of sexual abuse, trauma, love, loss, heartbreak, hope, second chances and renewal. It also delves into how we deal with life challenges amid our human frailties.  Teni and Ranti are friends-cum-housemates who both love God, are successful and navigate each day as it comes.  However, uncannily, they both experience significant life changes on the same day, threatening to pull apart the seemingly peaceful lives they have built. As the story progresses ..read more

Visible Strengths combines two subject matters in its exploration of what forms our unique strengths and how they can be translated into creating long-lasting values in and out of our workplace setting. It is a detailed scrutiny of the height that self-aware people operate from, focusing on their strengths, values and visibility. Divided into three different parts, Visible Strengths tackles the subject of strength and its many merits in the first part, emphasising how to discover, clarify, manifest and capitalise on those strengths. According to Gallup, to learn what makes you excellent, you ..read more

When Oyeronke Oyewumi told me about An Ordinary Wonder by Buki Papillon, I was intrigued and eager to read it. I quickly bought a copy and I was not disappointed. The novel, published by Pegasus Books, is the first book of fiction to win the Maya Angelou Book Award in 2022. An Ordinary Wonder was also awarded Fiction Honors at the 22nd Annual Massachusetts Book Awards. This book made me laugh out loud. It has a rich tapestry of beautiful proverbs which warm the heart. An Ordinary Wonder does two things for me. First, it reveals the fact that we need to have a serious conversation an ..read more

Building wealth is not gender-specific and Stripped is Solape Akinpelu’s ingenious attempt at introducing new perspectives to building generational wealth, especially as a woman. While aspiring to a luxurious lifestyle and an appellation of “emi oga” is not such a hideous thing, striving personally to bequeath wealth that would transcend generations sounds better. Women cannot keep conferring the job of wealth-building to their male counterparts and expect history to rewrite itself.   In the first few chapters of this book, the author takes us back to pre-colonial African women, and ..read more

Navigating life without a clear purpose or a sense of direction is a recipe for unfulfillment. Mediocrity flourishes in this state and talents are forgotten and left to rot. When this happens, it is difficult to believe the words of Catherine Pulsifer that say, “we all have genius within us, never doubt that fact.” Foluso Gbadamosi‘s Unleash Your Superpowers was written to reaffirm Catherine’s words. This book redefines what self-awareness is, connecting it to the innate talents and abilities that make us unique from the rest of the world and empowers us on our journey of self-improvement. We ..read more

The epigraph of Tomorrow I Became a Woman introduces how attention-catching and affectionate the book will be. The epigraph, “’She’s a woman now, a true mother,’ I heard them say as they scattered the dust on my grave. ‘She’ll watch over us from the other side,’” welcomes us to the exciting experiences in the book that will captivate the reader and make it difficult for them to put it down. Aiwanose Odafen wrote a spellbinding and unapologetically Nigerian book that explores the reality of women in Nigeria. Split into three parts, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, we are immersed in the lives of ..read more

If there is one thing Peter Chika’s debut collection screams, it is “Come for the title, stay for the creativity.” It is not the title of this collection that will make you turn the last page of this book, but the compelling narrative voices the author employed. Seventeen stories in all, we journey through multiple continents to experience the realities of different characters whose stories are reflections of our own. There is such beauty and pain in the fact that these stories are brief, yet they are just enough. Their brevity makes them memorable.  The first story, The Condom, exp ..read more

Learning never exhausts the mind. It is the one thing that we cannot stop doing until we cease to live. Either formally or informally, it is what keeps our minds active and alive. In Abiola Nurtures’ Learning How to Learn in A-to-Z Ways, we are introduced to an alphabetical way of expanding our mental bandwidth. She simplifies the learning process with the English alphabet, exploring the 26 different ways we can maximize our learning abilities. In Applying, we are shown the best way to apply knowledge directly, indirectly, for immediate use and for future use. Subsequently, Abiola moves on to ..read more

If there is anyone Curtis Jenkins is referring to in Vision to Reality: Stop Working, Start Living when he says, “It is an acceptance of being uncomfortable that drives change,” it is Azeez Amida. From an early age, he has been curious about the business of living. The idea of ‘comfort zone’ is foreign to him and this transcends into his adult life. He did not let his background or limited opportunities growing up box him in. Now, he is a ‘Nigerian business executive working globally to support career professionals, entrepreneurs and corporate brands with cutting-edge growth strategies ..read more

Beyond entertainment, Colleen Hoover has a history of tossing her audience into utter shock with the style she tells her stories. It Ends With Us is no exception to her magical creations. From start to finish, I flipped each page eager to quench the insatiable thirst dented by the overwhelming jittery. If it is suspense, this book has it in piles. Multiple times, the book will leave you smiling sheepishly, dropping your jaw in awe, holding onto your throbbing heart and whispering several cuss words under your breath. The romance story will have you lost in fantasy and question your sanity on ..read more