Reading With R Ayamba LitCast

A Place Called Hell
Ruqayyah: [00:00:00] Well, hello there. Welcome to reading with R and today, as I promised on the last episode, I have a sister shaped surprise. Drum roll please.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have with us. Hauwa Hala Nuraddeen, my sister and author extraordinaire on the streets. So, Because she is my sister and you know, because I'm also, I'm awesome and amazing and all, I am the first person that has the privilege of interviewing her about her book that came out a few days ago, A Place Called Hell.
So here she is. 
Hauwa Hala: Hi. It's so, it's so cool to be here. . 
Ruqayyah: Okay. Oh, and as we all know, she's the first guest on our podcast. We'll see how this goes. You know, if it goes well and you guys love it, we'll probably make it a [00:01:00] regular thing, having guests on the podcast. So, as I was saying, A Place Called Hell is the first book in the Abdul Malik Trilogy, The title of the book is...
Oh, how many times am I going to see it? Anyway, I'll say it again. A Place Called Hell. We will link the information on how to get the book, where to get it, how much it is. Don't worry, all of you can afford it. All of you have to buy one. And, uh, without further ado, let's get into it. So Hauwa, please introduce yourself.
Hauwa Hala: Uh, okay. Wow, this question is so annoying. , cuz I never know what to say, but, um, my name is Hauwa Hala Nuraddeen and, I guess I, I guess I wrote a book, , and that's why I'm here. But, um, I'm a student and, you know, it's always so funny when people find out I'm a science student [00:02:00] that writes, they always make such a big deal out of it, but it's like, I have hobbies, you know, I'm, I'm 18.
That's really cool for me. And the book got released on my birthday, which is something that I really like and I, I don't know what to say again. 
Ruqayyah: Oh, I actually wanted to spill that little tidbit about how it was released on her birthday. So anyway, every year on the 23rd, October, On the day that Hauwa became an adult, she turned 18 on the 23rd, A Place Called Hell gets a little bit older.
So it's like, awwwwn, the day she became an adult, she had her first baby . Okay, pretend that is not weird. 
Hauwa Hala: I never thought of it that way. I never, it never occurred to me. But no, I can't stop. You know, like 
Ruqayyah: It's valid, I guess 
Hauwa Hala: It is. 
Ruqayyah: So, um, to paint a picture for you guys, even though, uh, the, the image for this episode is going to be a cover of the book.
It is pink and it [00:03:00] is blue and we love it. We love it. So, so much. So let's get started on the questions. As we all know, your host extraordinaire has a huge issue with recording and talking about books without giving spoilers. But this time around we are not going to have any of that problem. So to give you an idea of what the book is like, I will read the blurb, 
Two Families, Two Lives, and an Invisible Girl.
Aala Abdulmalik is the girl that doesn't exist. As the Abdulmalik family's best kept secret, Aala has seen little more than the walls of her home and her hill. A wallflower shackled to the family that doesn't want her. Spending her days alone, steeped in loneliness. [00:04:00] However, this changes the night she meets Nassar Abiodun, a boy looking for an escape from the problems of his home.
When a series of events intertwine these lives and bring Aala's existence to the spotlight , what is to become of the girl who isn't supposed to exist? So, Hauwa Hala, 
Hauwa Hala: Yes ma'am. 
Ruqayyah: Let's start with the questions. What were your inspirations to write this book? 
Hauwa Hala: Wow, well, um, okay, so this is kind of like I just, I drew inspirations from a lot of places, but the main idea came.
As of on a very random Saturday, I remember cuz I was in the car with my dad and we were talking and my dad and I were pretty close. Like, we talk a lot about different topics. We have similar interests. So then I just had, you know, a what if

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Well, hello there. Welcome to another episode of reading with R. I am Ruqayyah Nabage your host extraordinaire, podcaster extraordinaire, reader extra-ordinaire people. So on this podcast, we review books, we fan girl over books. That's what we do. So if you're interested in that type of thing, tune in every month for a new episode, if you have a particular book you want me to review. Send me an email at ruqayyah.nabage@ayambalitcast.com, or you could send me a DM to any of my social media platforms, or ayambalitcast's platform. And a website is available to listen on all podcasting platforms. So without further ado, today's episode ladies and gentlemen drum roll- it is home going by Yaa Gyasi.
This book is written by a Ghanaian. Um, I think she's Ghanaian American, not too sure. I didn't do a lot of research into the author, but the book is amazing. You know, I saw it quite a lot before I read it. And then, um, surprise, surprise. I found out that my husband had a copy, so it was a particularly enjoyable read for me because I was able to read it in hard copy.
So the book is about two sisters. Yeah. Two sisters that were born from the same mother, but had different fathers whose lives turned out to be completely different from one another. So we followed the individual stories of those sisters and their descendants, through the years. So it's like, um, the first sister, um, uh, I have the book here with me.
So for reference purposes. So I don't mix up anybody's name. The first sister is Effia. Yeah. And the other is Ese. So what happened was the woman, her name was Maame, she was a slave. To a man. That was how she bought her first daughter. After she gave birth to the daughter, she ran away and set everything on fire.
Then she was found by a different man in a totally different town who married her. And she had a second daughter Ese. So technically, no, not really technically, literally both sisters never knew that the other existed. So we go through the lives of both sisters, we go through the lives of their children, their children's children like several generations down the line.
And the interesting thing is that one family, the first sister, her whole life and her generation, they stay in Ghana while the other is sold into slavery. And which takes her to America. Slavery, plantations and all of that. It's a very interesting journey. And, um, we will see how it's like parallels yeah?
What could have been. It's now that I'm talking about it. I remember this, um, movie that I've been seeing on Netflix about how one, I didn't actually watch the movie. I saw the trailer it's like parallel lives. What could have been. So this book is literally showing us what could have beens in the life of the two sisters, how they could share the same mother, but live such different lives.
How, like they have the same blood, but how, like the children, their descendants live such completely different lives. And you know, the ones in Ghana, obviously it's a lot easier for them to keep track of their lineage. But somehow, even though like they have power and stuff and they're still in their homeland, they still lose themselves.
They still lose that ancestry, their bloodline, they don't know their lineage due to, you know, circumstances. That I will not divulge because I want you to read the book and find out by yourself and then the other sister. The one in America, she loses, they lose their own lineage to, at a point it cuts off.
They don't know where they come from. I think the author probably did it deliberately. I think it was around the same generation that they both lost touch. And interestingly enough, there are some ancestor like descendants sorry not ancestors descendants that see Maame, the woman that all began with in their dreams and stuff.
And of course people call her crazy and all of that. It's really beautiful. Um, and, uh, it's just, it's amazing. It's, it's a feat of beautiful writing and the story

On this episode of Reading with R, Ruqayyah reviews the book Slammed by Colleen Hoover. The novel propelled her into the world of poetry, particularly slam poetry. Listen to the show to find out how?

The views and opinions expressed on this podcast do not necessarily reflect that of Ayamba LitCast. Enjoy the show!

IntroWell, hello there. Welcome back to another episode of Reading with R. It's your girl Ruqayyah, in your speakers every month, talking about books with you, her favourite thing to do. You can catch us on our website, Ayamba LitCast website, or Spotify or iTunes or Apple Podcast or Audible. Anything that is your favourite podcast listening app, whether just search Reading with R, or you could search Ayamba LitCast and listen to our other amazing shows as well.
So, on today's episode, it is a Colleen Hoover special. Yes, Colleen Hoover, ladies and gentlemen. I think it's very apt that I start my very first Colleen Hoover review with my first ever Colleen Hoover book that I read. Which, coincidentally, was also her debut novel, 'Slammed.'

Slam PoetrySo as the name implies, 'Slammed,' your heart will literally get slammed into when you read that book. Like, practically all Colleen Hoover books are like that. But, no, that's not why it's named 'Slammed'. It's named 'Slammed' because there's a lot of slam poetry in it. So, a funny story. That book was my introduction to slam poetry, spoken poetry as a whole.
I had never heard of spoken poetry before. So, when I read that book and I saw that you could perform poetry, I was intrigued because you know, as your typical student in my junior classes, my lower-level classes. We had poetry as part of our English and it was all William Wordsworth, Shakespeare, you know. No shade to those guys, but like, you know how they go.
And then our teacher was like, "Oh, we're doing the romantics." And in my head, I'm like, "Whaaat!? Are you sure this is an appropriate curriculum?" You know, teaching little kids, romance and lo and behold, I found out that apparently, romance meant love of nature. And I'm like, I can't believe how the world has evolved and what it has turned into these days.
But anyway, back then when I was taking Shakespeare awards, William awards with all those, oldies, I convinced myself that I wasn't a poetry fan. That was what I told myself because it was so hard to understand. I didn't really get that you could just take only some of the figures of speech and do what you wanted with them.
I thought poetry had to be complicated and just weird and just something I didn't get. So, reading Slammed, I could say opened up a whole new world to me because from there I found modern poetry, I started listening to spoken word poetry on YouTube and I was opened up to a whole new world. And I was like, I can't believe I used to say I don't like poetry, so yeah. Thank you, Colleen Hoover, you did that.
You know, not just the world of spoken word poetry, Colleen Hoover, and the fandom has just been an amazing space. You know, recently I even saw a lady on Book Tok. She makes these mini books. You guys have to check that out. I think it's @TVandJohn on TikTok. She makes mini books, it's so cute. Honestly, she makes all these mini books and then she fills a jar with them. It's like her TBR or maybe books she has read.
Anyway, it's a cool hobby. I've been saying I want to do that, but I haven't gotten around to it. I'll do that inshaallah. I know maybe we could do a mini-Reading with R library. You know, with mini books of all the books that we have reviewed. And, you know, if anybody wants to give me free books as well, I'm down for that. So, back to Colleen Hoover - Slammed.
The best part about this is that. I read Slammed quite a while ago, but the main idea or like the shape of the story is in my head. Fortunately for everyone involved, I don't remember so much as to spoil it for everyone. So, like all Colleen Hoover books, it was a very real book. It was very heartrending.

In this episode, Ruqayyah lets her inner fangirl out as she reviews the book Insomnia by Sarah Pinborough. Find out what she thinks.

SleeplessWell, hello there. Welcome back to another episode of Reading with R. Another month, another episode. It's your girl Ruqayyah over here. So, for our new listeners, you're welcome, welcome, welcome. Reading with R is a review show where we review a book that we like. Ugh, at this point, I feel like I need to stop saying review, more of fangirl really. That's all I do with these books every month. So I'm Ruqayyah and I fangirl over books, once a month, every month, inshaallah.

So at the end of each episode, I give three books where you get to choose the one that you want. Just send over the title to my email, ruqayyahnabage@gmail.com. Make sure you spell it the same way the title of the podcast is spelt. Oh, not the title of the podcast. Sorry. My name underneath the title of the podcast. R U Q A Y Y A H, ruqayyahnabage@gmail.com or, even easier, send it over to my Twitter handle @anchoredbywords. Okay, so let's jump into it. This month, we're reviewing, drumroll please, Insomnia by Sarah Pinborough.

Okay! Okay! Okay! I have to give a very big warning at the start of this episode. This book is a psychological thriller people, and I kid you not, you will feel as if you are going crazy at the same time as the heroine. This woman is crazy talented. Yeah, she is very, very talented. A book of hers that I have read before is "Behind Her Eyes". In fact, Behind Her Eyes is being turned into a TV show. So Insomnia is her new book. It was recommended to me by a friend of mine. Shoutout to Umaymah. She inspired this and I finished the book in less than two days, I think. It was so crazy. Like the title, leads you to believe the book is about this lady that has insomnia and she starts going completely cuckoo

It's a psychological thriller, yeah. So obviously the grip of it is the weight, the anticipation, while reading, where you're doubting everything. And, one of the best things I find about psychological thrillers are unreliable narrators. Yeah, mostly because it's the main character who is the one that is going crazy or who is the one that the things are happening to, is the one that is narrating the story.

So you have this skewed narrative where just, you don't even know if what you're reading is real, if it's what is actually happening. So the fact that you know that the book you're reading is a psychological thriller, you will have that going on in your mind when you are reading. Even if the author does nothing to assert that view or opinion. So it's this woman that has her husband and her kids and her mom before she went crazy before her 40th birthday. She had insomnia. The lady also gets insomnia some weeks before her 40th birthday, and she just starts panicking that she's going to go crazy like her mom. What her mom did when she turned crazy was this big mystery that we'll find out along the way when you read the book, because, you know, even though I am fine going over the book, you should still give it a read.

We basically have a front row seat to the unravelling of her mind. The becoming of her madness through insomnia. I know scientists really hammer on the fact that we need to sleep well. And in this generation we tend to not give it that much importance, you know, living the night, our life still waking up early to make it to our jobs. So on a slightly more serious note, please get some sleep loves. Get some sleep, and if you can't sleep, see a doctor. Sleep is important, have healthy, sleeping schedules and in order not to be a hypocrite inshaallah I'll try and clean up my own sleep schedule. So yeah, on that note sleep well, please do. Not sleeping can lead to a lot of things, not just madness or something like that.

Back to the book. Our heroine is scared of going crazy, like her own mother did when she turned 40 years old. So we go through how her own mom went crazy throu

In this episode, Ruqayyah reviews yet another book about twins — Ghana must go by Taiye Selasi. The author’s Nigerian and Ghanian heritage is evident in its pages as she weaves a tale about family and all forms of love. Find out what Ruqayyah has to say about one of the best written books she’s ever read.

Here is next month's selection of books; 
Insomnia by Sarah PinboroughThe Maidens by Alex MichaelidesVerity by Colleen Hoover
To vote, simply state the title of your pick in the comments and the book with the most hits wins.

See you in a couple of weeks!

In this episode of Reading With R, Ruqayyah reviews Brit Bennett’s novel, The Vanishing Half. Join her as she delves into the world of two twins in a tale about colorism.

Be sure to vote for next month’s book from the list below.
Ghana Must Go - Selasi, TaiyeBeautiful World, Where Are You by Sally RooneyTake Me Apart by Sara Sligar