🥤It's September: Read a Book

📚 PAGE & PULP

👋Hi there! Happy new month. We didn't plan for this issue to be about families, and yet. Five novels about relatives behaving badly, plus a backlist gem where a boy gets sent away to be fixed. Make of that what you will.

In this issue:

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Is blood really thicker than water?

You hear some family stories and start to wonder if blood really is thicker than water, or if family ties are truly as unbreakable as we like to believe. From sibling rivalries and parental expectations to buried secrets, resentment, and the things families choose not to say, sometimes family can become a battlefield. 

This week, we’re recommending five books that explore the complicated realities of family and the conflicts that can come with it.

Grace - Chika Unigwe

Grace has plenty of grace to give. In her work as a midwife, she helps teenage girls navigate unwanted pregnancies and even runs a maternity home where they can leave their babies in the hope of giving them better lives. However, the person she has never been able to forgive is her mother.

Forced to give up her child and cut ties with her mother after years of pressure and resentment, she eventually built a life of her own with two daughters and the family she always wanted. How do you love the family you've built while carrying anger towards the family you came from? And when the choices that directed your life were made years ago, can you ever really escape their consequences?

Chika Unigwe’s Grace takes you into the grey areas of family, motherhood, forgiveness, and the difficult decisions that can follow us long after we've made them. Available on Masobe Books and Spine and Label Books.

Years of Shame - Obinna Udenwe

What does one do when an ancestor takes a step that spoils the well for future generations and leaves them to pay for it? That is the fate awaiting Patrice after his strong-headedness and refusal to take advice lead him to a dreaded ritual oath of loss. What seems like one man's mistake soon becomes a generational curse, with his descendants forced to live with the consequences of a decision they never made.

And Years of Shame doesn't tell this story through words alone. The book comes with ten accompanying tracks that foreshadow the emotions and twists waiting within its pages.

Find out just how far one man's mistake follows his offspring in Years of Shame. Copies are available on Amazon, Rovingheights, and Bookpeddler.

Born in a House of Glass  - Chinenye Emezie

If the dysfunctional family in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus had you turning pages, add Chinenye Emezie’s Born in a House of Glass to your TBR.

Udonwa grows up believing her religious-leader father loves her, even as she watches him rule the rest of the family with an iron fist. But when she moves to Awka with her newly married sister, that picture of her father begins to crack. Her sister’s marriage exposes her to another kind of tyranny, one that looks painfully familiar.

For Udonwa, leaving her father’s house means stepping outside the bubble she knew and confronting uncomfortable truths about the people she loves, the homes they build, and the things families choose to hide.

Born in a House of Glass explores domestic violence, secrecy, hypocrisy, and the complicated ways we come to understand the people who raised us. Available on Goodreads and Amazon.

Don’t Tell Daddy What Happened in Lagos - Yemi Odunfa

What happened in Lagos, and why is everyone so determined to make sure Daddy never finds out? Yemi Odunfa’s Don’t Tell Daddy What Happened in Lagos is a funny, dramatic play where a family funeral becomes the perfect setting for secrets to come tumbling out.

As the Oyes prepare to bury their father, all three children have something to hide, and unfortunately, their secrets are no longer interested in staying buried. Their mother, determined to protect her late husband’s legacy, soon finds herself dragged into the mess.

With grief, family responsibility, and plenty of plot twists, Don’t Tell Daddy What Happened in Lagos is a lighthearted and easy read that comes with its fair share of family drama. Get your copy from Amazon or Roving Heights.

The Fishermen - Chigozie Obioma (Top Recommendation)

Can a prophecy from a madman really be enough to break the bond between four brothers? Our top recommendation this week is Chigozie Obioma’s The Fishermen, where one prophecy sets off a chain of events that slowly turns brother against brother and threatens to bring an entire family crashing down.

Benjamin, the youngest of the four brothers, tells the story through his innocent eyes, peeling back the layers of what happened and how a family once held together by love begins to fall apart.

The Fishermen takes you from sunny days of football, laughter, and boys on adventure to looming dread and heavy emotions. Get your copy from Amazon, Roving Heights, or Cassava Republic.

NIFS Lagos 2026 Brings Nollywood’s Global Future into Focus

The Nigerian International Film Summit (NIFS Lagos) held its 2026 edition from August 25 to 27, bringing together film and television industry leaders, creators, investors, and other stakeholders to analyze the business of entertainment and the changing landscape of global distribution.

The first two days, held at Glover Memorial Hall on Lagos Island, focused on the business and commercial side of Nollywood. Discussions explored global distribution models, talent economics, financing, executive leadership, and the changing structures in the film and television industry.

The program also featured educational masterclasses designed to provide practical insights for industry professionals and emerging creators.

The three-day summit was based on industry conversations with cinematic exhibitions, creating a space for stakeholders to discuss the present and future of the film business.

Beyond the conversations and screenings, NIFS 2026 highlighted the need to strengthen the connection between the creative and business sides of Nigeria’s film industry. By bringing filmmakers, executives, investors, and other stakeholders together, the summit created room to exchange ideas, explore new distribution and business models, and address challenges limiting industry growth.

Its focus on both industry development and cinematic exhibition reinforced the importance of building a more sustainable film ecosystem where Nigerian stories can reach wider audiences and creators can build viable careers.

How Busayo Makinde built a 2,000+ member book club  

We love talking with book club members and getting to know them. In this issue, we introduce you to the founder of the Bookaholic Club Community, who discusses how she grew a book club from 4 to over 2,000 members, the challenges she faced, and so much more!

Running the Bookaholic Club Community for over two years is no small feat. How did the idea begin, and when did you realise you wanted to build a second community in Lagos?

The Bookaholic Club started in January 2024 with just four people. I’ve always loved books, but I also knew that loving them in isolation is different from experiencing them in community.

I started Bookaholic in Ibadan, and it grew much faster and more organically than I expected (from 4 to 2,000 members across Ibadan and Lagos), with more than 50 curated meetups across both cities. Lagos felt like a natural next chapter, but building there reminded me that Bookaholic’s heart isn’t really a location. It’s the feeling of finding your people through books.

What does it actually take to keep a book club running beyond simply getting people to read? What goes into planning meetings, choosing books, and keeping members engaged?

It takes more than people realize. Starting a book club is easy, but keeping people interested beyond the excitement of the first few meetings is the real work. Every meetup has to feel intentional, from the book itself to the experience around it. Choosing books is a balancing act: they should spark conversation without feeling like an assignment. 

Sometimes we pick books because they challenge people, reflect culture, or simply because we know there’ll be a lot to say about them. And engagement doesn’t end when the meetup does. Our WhatsApp conversations, recommendations, and small interactions all help people feel part of something. 

What has been the most challenging part of running the communities, and how have you learnt to deal with it?

The hardest part has been sustaining the vision while managing the realities of running a community. People see the beautiful meetup pictures and online conversations, but not always the work behind them or the moments of doubtful questions like “Are people still interested?” “Are we doing enough?” or “Is this growing in the right direction?”

I’ve also learnt to delegate, build systems, and accept that I don’t have to carry everything myself. The more Bookaholic grows, the more I understand that a community cannot depend on one person’s energy.

You now have communities in Ibadan and Lagos. What differences have you noticed between the two, and what does each community respond to most?

The beautiful thing is that both communities have different personalities, even though they share the same DNA. Ibadan feels more intimate, with a warmth and familiarity that comes from being where Bookaholic began. People have watched it grow, built relationships over time, and feel comfortable enough for conversations to become personal.

Lagos has a different energy. A mix of young creatives, professionals, writers, and people seeking new experiences, connections, and ideas beyond their immediate circles. But beneath those differences, the same thing happens: give people a good book and a safe space to talk about it, and they will surprise you. That’s what connects both communities.

What has surprised you most about the books people gravitate towards and the conversations they have around them?

I’ve been surprised by how little you can predict what a community will connect with. A book you expect to be difficult can become the one everyone gets deeply emotional about, while something you think will be universally loved can spark completely different interpretations. 

But the bigger surprise is how quickly conversations about books become conversations about people’s lives. We might start with a character’s choices and suddenly find ourselves talking about relationships, family, ambition, grief, identity, society, or personal experiences. 

From building these communities, what do you think Nigerian book culture needs more of, and what would you tell someone hoping to start their own book club?

I think Nigerian book culture needs more access, community, and intentional investment. We need spaces where reading feels social and exciting, not something associated only with school. We also need to see books as part of our cultural and creative economy, not simply objects we consume.

That’s why our work has gone beyond monthly meetups. Supporting the Smart Library Project in Ibadan and organising book drives showed me that building a reading culture also means asking who has access to books in the first place.

For anyone looking to start a book club: start small, but start sincerely. You don’t need 100 people, a fancy venue, or all the answers. Start with four people who genuinely love books, create a welcoming space, listen to your members, and be consistent.

Our old gem for the week is Chukwuemeka Ike’s The Potter’s Wheel, a 1973 prose that was popular after its initial release and again in 2012-2017, when the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board incorporated it into its exam curriculum for high school leavers.

Context: Chukwuemeka Ike was an academic and one of the first-generation writers in Nigeria and the first African registrar of the West African Examination Council (WAEC). He wrote 11 books in his lifetime from 1965 to 2007.

Origin: The Potter’s Wheel is a satirical prose set in the Eastern part of Nigeria. The story was written during the period of the Second World War.

It follows the growth and development of a child sent far from home to become a domestic help to a childless schoolmaster, with the intention that the learned individual would contribute to the child’s life. This practice was common amongst illiterate parents who wanted the best gift of education for their children. It was rampant in the past and continues in some areas now.  

Why Read?

You get to see an overpampered, sickly child who was domestically abused by strict guardians he had to live with because his rich family wanted more for their only male offspring.

The story is full of Igbo idioms, riddles, and proverbs while also educating readers on Nigeria’s involvement in the Second World War. In summary, it shows how certain experiences can mould a child into an adult, as the title implies.

📌 Semilore Dare-Atunse’s This Seat Is Taken paperback is available for purchase September 7

This Seat Is Taken, the first book in the Love and Legislation series, will be available in paperback from September 7.

The young adult campus political romance follows Edidiong “Edidie” Kamla-Akpio, a brilliant, sharp, and unapologetic student politician navigating a male-dominated House of Parliament. As she fights for her constituents, an enemy-to-lovers romance lies in wait for her.

📌Ezioma Kalu’s debut novel On Rainy Days, I Think of Flowers gets cover reveal

Ezioma Kalu has unveiled the cover of her debut novel, On Rainy Days, I Think of Flowers, ahead of its May 31, 2027 release.

The novel follows fifteen-year-old Chiefo Akukalia, who has learned not to trust the voices in her head but has never stopped trusting one memory: seeing her father responsible for her little brother's death. As she faces a schizophrenia diagnosis, the line between reality and memory begins to blur.

Today’s quote was brought to you by one of our community members, Hafsoh Ibraheem. Catch up with her on TikTok: hafsyyybooktok. 💛

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