Book Club Reviews #ProjectNigeria

REVIEWS

1. AishaUmarYau
Harmattan notes by Timibakole

Written by the punctuation and grammar general himself, I was not surprised when I found close to zero punctuations or grammatical error.

I love your play with words and the puns found here and there in your stories. However, one of your stories titled Nonye, was quite confusing. It took a while for me to get the roles of Timi, Claire and Nonye in the story, the swing back and forth (past and present) made the flow of an otherwise beautiful story muddled.

Then there is Blood and grass, I found it disturbing that you showed that a fulani man's love for his cattle and his willingness to do anything to protect it, had religious backing to it. The cattle, to a fulani man is not just a lifestyle, but life itself. I do however, liked the fact that fact that you brought such sensitive subject to light.

There is no denying that you are a terrific writer.

An enjoyable read👍

2. Miss_Painite

Harmattan Notes by Timibankole

*Title and Cover*
The title is splendid. I wanted to know what kind of 'notes' the harmattan weather can generate. Your cover is also okay.

*Blurb*
Your blurb was okay. I found out through the blurb the kind of topics the stories would talk about and that the book is an anthology. But there really wasn't anything in the blurb to compel me to read the book. Perhaps you could add a summary of 3 or 4 stories you liked the best to the blurb later on. You can do something else, but the bottom line is to make sure the blurb arouses its readers' curiousity.

Your descriptions and diction had me enthralled and the content of the stories was great. 👍

I loved your first two opening paragraphs in *Harmattan is Here*.  They had me sufficiently hooked to the story.

While reading I noticed that you repeated some words twice. Like "rocky, dusty, winding, uphill terrain" in *D-Day* and "transparent opaqueness" in *Harmattan is here*. Was this intentionally done to achieve some kind of effect? I'm simply curious.

The *D-Day* was filled with suspense for me. The thought that the main character was going to commit suicide, one so meticulously planned, and that no one would save him in time had me at the edge of my seat. The way you penned his thoughts was flawless. This story was my favourite.

Your description, grammar and punctuation in all the stories were close to flawless but your narration and characterisation needs a bit of work. Let's move back and forth through your character's mind or narration and not by flashback and flash-present. It was somewhat confusing. Especially in *Nonye* and *A flash in a pan*.

Overall the stories are well written and emotionally touching. I'm glad I read them.

3. thoughtsontext

Harmattan Notes by timibankole

I would especially like to commend your impeccable grammar. Very few authors put so much dedication into editing their books to almost perfection and that in itself increases the interest of the reader.

Your wordplay and descriptiveness are amazing. I felt like I was actually living the life of the characters.

I recommend splitting some especially long paragraphs to avoid them being tiresome.

Since others have already pointed out some confusion in the last story I'll gloss over that.

In all it's an amazing book. Good job