The Thing Around Your Neck (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 2009)

Book club selection (via Rose; session held January 22, 2017).

Typically I avoid short stories.  And contemporary authors.  Would have been a mistake to miss this collection, however.  And perhaps I need to revisit my book selection guidelines?

Author communicates things like:  (1) challenges of the immigrant - seemingly mundane things like English usage, grocery store navigation; larger things like attitudes of locals; (2) challenges of the newly-emigrated in dealing with those-who-emigrated-just-a-few-years-earlier; (3) challenges of being female in situations where males are favored - without being preachy or annoying about it; (4) the disorder and perhaps charm of a place like Nigeria.

My favorite stories:

--story #3 - two women in a store during a riot

--story #4 - retired university professor runs into someone he thought had be3n killed in the war following Biafran independence

--story #10 - aunt/uncle arrange their niece's marriage to an American doctor (previously had emigrated from Nigeria) - she meets the doctor - not in love but sticks it out - interesting stuff about transitioning to America

--story #12 - only story set earlier in time - arrival of white men, protagonist's son becomes one of them, next generation rediscovers earlier culture - well written

Thought-provoking throughout, good.

Brideshead Revisited (Evelyn Waugh, 1945, revised 1960)

Charles Ryder becomes close college friend of Sebastian Flyte - then develops relationships with Sebastian's family (wealthy English Catholics with their core estate named "Brideshead", where Ryder often visits).

The book starts with Ryder - in the British army in preparation for WWII - unexpectedly ending up at Brideshead, which had been taken for army use - this about 10 years after his last visit.  (The book also ends with him there.)

Not sure what to make of the "Catholic" angle here - clearly very important for the author, who had converted to Catholicism (interesting that he wasn't the only English author with this facet).  But it's hard to say that Catholicism was very uplifting as experienced or applied by the characters here - hmm.

Sebastian's sisters:  Julia and Cordelia.  His mother - who seemed to be hard to deal with.  His father - in Italy until end of the story.  His brother - an odd character.  Anthony Blanche.  Julia's husband - Rex.  Ryder's wife Celia - his career as an architectural artist.

I did like it well enough;kept pulling me along.