StoryElimu

The Girl With a Winsome Smile ©2011, 2018, 2020 Kitui Wakape Image©cottonbro pexels Dedication To all those whose hopes and dreams keep them alive... When the world says, "Give up," Hope whispers, "Try it one more time." Chapter One Central Prefecture Town An octogenarian stood inside a rickety, wooden kitchen detached from the main house. His unsure eyes stared at the misty white valley below as if searching for something. With froth forming on either side of his sperm-whale lips, he kept mumbling to himself. Addressing no one in particular, he declared, "She'll never succeed! The seed of her womb will amount to nothing!" He spat on the fire and opened his trouser zipper with shaky, heavily veined, and calloused hands. Within a few seconds, a jet of yellow liquid shot into the fire, the half-burnt wood hissing in effect before the fire went out. After he was done, he spat on the fire again before leaving the kitchen through a creaky door...

After Vanessa breaks up with Richard, his life becomes a rollercoaster of sorts. He gets into his mother's bad books for lying that he'd gone to meet Gerald, his best friend. Similarly, his sister gives him the cold shoulder because he travelled to Narok without fully involving her. Pressed from all sides, he starts penning a novella, detailing his love life. He at the same time tries his best to be reconciled with Vanessa, including using Vanessa's friend Fiona. However, his efforts bear no fruit. Eventually, after Vanessa bluntly says no to a reunion, intimating a relationship with Martin, Richard decides to give up on her. Does this spell the end to their relationship, or will Vanessa turn around and accept his apology?  To find out, read the book via this link  https://books2read.com/u/boDnvR

Title: Den of Inequities Author: Kinyanjui Kombani Publisher: Sasa Sema (Imprint of Longhorn) Year: 2013 Reviewer: Kitui Wakape As a novel targeting the  mature general public and to some extent university students most prone to insecurity, Kombani's Den of Inquities might as well be an unofficial indictment to the National Police Service on extra judicial killings that have bedevilled our police force for ages. Going by the reports of police killing innocent civilians on the premise of maintaining law and order, reading Kombani's work will click on the reader's subconscious the numerous TV reports on police killings. It would be an understatement to say that his story sounds and reads like the truth inside of fiction. Coming hot in the heels of his bestselling novel The Last Villains of Molo on post election violence, Kombani's writing places him as an authority figure on matters  criminal justice system in Kenya. The author uses the Aliston Report on extra...

Writer tackles incest, betrayal and murder in outstanding novella Title: Tracking The Scent of My Mother Author: Muthoni Garland Publisher: StoryMoja Year: 2007 Reviewer: Kitui Wakape If you've ever had doubts on whether Kenya has great novelists or not, then you may have to consider Muthoni Garland's novella Tracking The Scent of My Mother. This book was a shortlist of the prestigious Caine Prize in 2006 as a manuscript and was completed in Naivasha during a Caine Prize African Writers' Workshop. Set in the rural Mukuruweini and Ithanga, Garland's story looks at the brutalised life of Scholastica who was born into a polygamous household with her senior mother having five daughters and her mother having two. She develops a certain bond with her mother that she guards jealously as they work the fields and do house chores together. It is this jealousy that leads her in killing her 14-year-old half sister at a rickety bridge over river Ragati. She was just nine...

 A witty tale on romance, immorality and the wages of crime Title: The Minister's Daughter Author: Mwangi Ruheni Publisher: East African Educational Publishers (Spear Books) Year:1975( Reprinted nineteen times ) Reviewer: Kitui Wakape Going by recent media reports where high school teens have been caught red handed; high on alcohol and drugs while engaging in ungodly acts, one may wonder why today's teens are so obsessed with misbehaviour, especially during holidays. But a more poignant question would be: where do parents go wrong? In this novel written four decades ago, Ruheni seems to provide answers albeit with a humorous touch. It rings with truth, reflecting the current Kenyan society way of life. The author successfully manages to weave a witty narrative that brings to the fore issues of teenage love and pregnancy, materialism, religious hypocrisy and moral decay. Ruheni does this through Jane Njeri, a timid girl raised by staunch christian parents. Her father...