Book club: The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After
Christine Nechesa, founder of Page Turners book club.
What you need to know:
I read over 100 books in a year.
I started Page Turners in 2019.
BOOK CLUB: PAGE TURNERS
REVIEWER: CHRISTINE NECHESA
I enjoy reading. I am fast at it and you can bet that I read over 100 books in a year. In 2019, I started Page Turners. This was for reading and networking with other readers. We have an active membership of seven. Members are allowed to bring on board their friends or family.
How do you select the book of the month?
Each member picks two books at the beginning of the year and we randomly select from the list. However, we lean more on books that focus on stories we can relate to.
What book is the club currently reading?
The Girl who Smiled Beads by Clementine Wamariya. It is a young woman's personal perspective on the Rwanda Genocide.
As a woman, what lessons do you draw from the book?
A lesson of survival. Allow me to quote Clementine Wamariya, Survival, true survival of the body and soul, requires creativity, freedom of thought, collaboration. You might have time and I might have land. You might have ideas and I might have strength. You might have a tomato and I might have a knife. We need each other. We need to say: I honour the things that you respect and I value the things you cherish. I am not better than you. You are not better than me. Nobody is better than anybody else. Nobody is who you think they are at first glance. We need to see beyond the projections we cast onto each other. Each of us is so much grander, more nuanced, and more extraordinary than anybody thinks, including ourselves.
