in Authors, Books, Video, Whatcha Reading
Web Series: Whatcha Reading, Helon Habila?
“Whatcha Reading?” is a new web series from Ron Hogan in which authors recommend a great book.
Helon Habila’s latest novel Oil on Water isn’t just a gripping story about two Nigerian reporters who journey up a river in search of the kidnapped wife of a British oil executive. It’s also an uncompromising look at the political and corporate corruption of modern-day Nigeria, and it asks tough questions about the limits of journalism to instigate social change.
Habila’s reading recommendation is The Memory of Love, in which Aminatta Forna tells stories of the war-torn Sierra Leone of the 1990s. Earlier this month, reviewing the novel in The Guardian, he wrote, “Forna writes like a scientist, not only in the accuracy of her descriptions but in the way she selects which incidents to highlight, turning each scene into a metaphor that reverberates with meaning beyond the event itself…[Her] writing is not lyrical; you feel that what she is reaching for is economy of phrasing, aptness of imagery, exactness of description, and she achieves that perfectly.”
About The Author:
Ron.Hogan
Ron Hogan helped create the literary Internet by launching Beatrice.com in 1995. His most recent book is Getting Right with Tao, a print edition of his popular online “translation” of the Tao Te Ching into modern vernacular. He is also the author of The Stewardess Is Flying the Plane, a visual tribute to ’70s Hollywood, and a contributor to the New York Times bestseller Not Quite What I Was Planning and the critical anthology Secrets of the Lost Symbol. Ron Hogan is a member of the inReads Advisory Board.
