About Red Sorghum by Nobel prize winner Mo Yan.
In this episode you'll hear about my preparations for a book club discussion on Red Sorghum by Chinese author Mo Yan at Saint-Germain, 44Stanley in Johannesburg. Mo Yan is the only citizen to date awarded the Nobel prize in Literature, which he received in 2012.
After announcing the book to our group, a loyal member, an award winning teacher, Natalie Alexander, approached me and told me her mother had grown up in China.
This sparked the idea to prepare for book club together, as Natalie could offer insights into Chinese customs and culture that I wouldn't discover on my own.
I take you through our journey of uncovering what makes Red Sorghum unique, from cultural details remembered by Natalie to the telling techniques Mo Yan uses.
I discovered the acceptance speech of Mo Yan on the Nobel prize website and I quote from this speech. I believe it is an exceptional speech. The acceptance speech gives us clues on how to interpret several telling techniques, like repetition and colour.
Together, Natalie and I developed discussion questions for the club, grappling with the novel's vivid depictions of extreme violence, committed by both Chinese and Japanese characters, and the surprising use of dark humour, which I initially missed. I share with you what the response is from the book club members.
And Natalie Alexander presents a letter she wrote to the group, in this episode she reads it to us as an interlude. And when my episode is finished we have a chat about how it was for her to hear me telling about our preparations and the book club evening we hosted together. I close this episode with a short story I wrote myself, an attempt to echo some of the storytelling techniques we believe Mo Yan used in Red Sorghum. Mo Yan's acceptance speech for the Nobel prize of literature in 2012 · Penguin Random House, represents Mo Yan · ChristiSa.com · Connect with Christi on LinkedIn · Follow Christi Sa on Instagram · Follow Saint Germain on Instagram
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The Brontës: A challenge accepted | Hamilton Wende
in conversation with award winning journalist Mr. Hamilton Wende.
In this episode, I have a captivating conversation with award-winning journalist, war correspondent, television producer, and children’s book author Mr. Hamilton Wende.
With this podcast, I aim to continue having one-on-one conversations about books. When I approached Mr. Wende, he immediately said yes and suggested we discuss the Brontë sisters: a subject he finds deeply fascinating.
Mr. Wende proposed we focus on three major Brontë novels, along with the renowned biography by Juliet Barker. Although Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, featured in my previous episode Jane Eyre in Africa, was still fresh in my mind, I felt a flicker of panic. I realized I’d need to read the 800-page biography, immerse myself in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë, and reread Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. Since the biography had been on my reading list for years, I decided to accept the challenge.
In this episode, you’ll hear us talk about when and what Mr. Wende reads - and why. He explains his fascination with the works of the Brontë sisters. Together, we explore the recurring theme of abuse in their novels, a subject we find both intriguing and disturbing. Mr. Wende’s extensive knowledge of European literature guides us through a wide array of literary and historical references; many of which I now feel inspired to explore or revisit. Hamilton Wende, a South African award winning journalist and writer. · Juliet Barker, author of The Brontës. · ChristiSa.com · Connect with Christi on LinkedIn · Follow Christi Sa on Instagram · Follow Saint Germain on Instagram
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Talk about Bullying
What can go wrong, and how it might go right.
In this episode, I share how I prepare for the bookclub evening at Saint-Germain; a popular gathering spot in 44 Stanley, Johannesburg. The evening will centre around Heaven, a novel written in 2009 by Japanese author Mieko Kawakami.
Kawakami won the Murasaki Shikibu prize for this book in Japan, and the English translation by Sam Bet and David Boyd was shortlisted for the International Booker prize in 2022. A bookseller from Exclusive Books in Hyde Park, Johannesburg, had recommended this book to me. The book is about teenagers who are being bullied at school. Bullying is a subject that I believe needs our full attention. That's why I choose it for the book discussion.
I'll take you inside my thought process when preparing the questions that form the basis of our bookclub conversation. For example, my first question is inspired by an Instagram reel featuring influencer Mel Robbins and Dr. Gabor Maté. This prompted me to start the discussion with the question: "What is the real trauma here?"
I explain the construction process of the other 4 questions too. And I share what unfolded during the evening; how bookclub participants responded, where we found agreement, and where not... I end the episode with some afterthoughts.
If you have seen the Netflix series 'Adolescence' you'll probably recognise it leaves you with a horrifying, barbed wired knot, in your chest. I'll compare the two stories and explain why I think the ending of Heaven (which definitely leaves us with hope) makes these kind of stories crucial to be read in our world. Mieko Kawakami - an award-winning Japanese author · Mel Robbins podcast: Dr Gabor Maté on trauma and how to heal · ChristiSa.com · Connect with Christi on LinkedIn · Follow Christi Sa on Instagram · Follow Saint Germain on Instagram
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The perfect beach read
About how and why to read beach reads.
In this episode, I share my reading experience and interpretation method with two books I read during the South African long summer break. The two books I read and discuss here are 'The lack of Light' by Georgian writer Nino Haratischwili and 'There are Rivers in the Sky' by Turkish-British writer Elif Shafak. I explain to you why 'The lack of Light' resonated with me despite the story being set in a horrible war. I share with you how I - after finishing this book - while on holiday in The Western Cape end up in a small mall in Noordhoek and find this amazing gem of a bookstore called Wordsworth Books.
I introduce to you my book buddy from The Netherlands, who relentlessly recommends books to me. And, I share with you a method to interpret the story using one of the motto's of 'There are Rivers in the Sky'. This book has four motto's. I use the one that is from 'The epic of Gilgamesh', to explain how I make meaning and interpret the writer's intention. It's my attempt to inspire you to reread the motto of a book after you've finished it. Wordsworth Books is a well-stocked and inspiring bookstore · About Nino Haratischwili on Goodreads · About Elif Shafak on Goodreads · ChristiSa.com · Connect with Christi on LinkedIn · Follow Christi Sa on Instagram · Follow Saint Germain on Instagram
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Jane Eyre in Africa
How to read Jane Eyre in Africa.
In this episode I talk about my experience when I discussed my favourite book, Jane Eyre, with a group of teenagers in Hillbrow at the Windybrow Arts Centre in Johannesburg.
I share with you what I discover about this book during this journey. Jane Eyre not only is a white classic which in itself makes it a complicated choice, yet it also, as I learn along the way, has a racist element in it that can not be excused. At the Windybrow Arts Centre I used the children's version from Tanya Landman, first published in 2020 by Barrington Stoke, an imprint by HarperCollinsPublishers. This - in my opinion - very good retelling of Jane Eyre does not talk about the colour of the skin of the characters. But how do we read the original nowadays? I don't believe we should stop reading important stories from the past. On the contrary we should read them and look at what they tell us about ourselves. And talk about it with each other. Windybrow Website · ChristiSa.com · Connect with Christi on LinkedIn · Follow Christi Sa on Instagram · Follow Saint Germain on Instagram
What is the outlook of a story?
Hello listener, welcome to my podcast series: The Story explorer. I am a reader who has the need to talk with others about what I’ve read. I have started and joined many book clubs. I now run one in a little café in Johannesburg. You are all welcome to join. But because time is sparse for many of us and Johannesburg is not within travelling distance for many readers I am taking up the challenge to talk about books in a podcast. I believe a story always is embedded in something else. This will be the starting point of this podcast journey. I want to look at what is around the story; what is the location? Who are the characters? What is it that happens in the story? What does it do within me, the reader? What do I think the author wants to say? What does this story make me think about? These are questions I want to explore with books that I think are important. Books I believe we all should read and talk about.
South Africa