Ruyi's World of Books & Stories

How about starting the new week off with a couple of books I've read recently. I finally found time to read and write the reviews. Been doing a lot of writing myself. And having fun with my critters. SCRAPS OF PAPER By Kathryn Meyer Griffith Turn on the lights, lock the doors, and settle down for a mystery that will make you check all of the locks more than once. When Abigail moves to the town of Spookie to find happiness, she discovers a scrap of paper that changes her life forever, although not in the way she had planned. Kathryn Meyer Griffith has written a story of love, adventure, and danger, along with a cast of characters that I think you’ll remember for a long time after reading about their lives. SCRAPS OF PAPER is the story of people that live in a small town and how they face the dangers that threaten to destroy them. This is good mystery that kept me wondering what would happen next. I recommend it for readers who enjoy suspense and mystery. This is t...

By Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D. Twitter: @farooqkperogi The  Wall Street Journal’s disturbing July 31 report  of the secret mass burial of at least a thousand Nigerian soldiers who were murdered by Boko Haram terrorists has, once again, brought to the fore the conscienceless villainy and duplicity  of the Buhari regime and its illegal service chiefs who have overstayed their statutorily mandated length of service by  several months. The regime never stops to claim that it has “defeated” Boko Haram even when indisputable evidence to the contrary stares it in the face. In late last year, for instance, it was reported that Boko Haram had murdered hundreds of Nigerian soldiers. Yet the federal government did not consider it fitting to acknowledge the tragedy, much less condole with the families of the deceased soldiers. In fact, on the day the fallen soldiers were given an undignified mass burial, Buhari met with APC senators who’d threatened to...

Sunny Jack Obande Wilfred was indeed surprised when he got home at few minutes to six that evening and met Rita’s absence. It was unlike her; she usually arrived home before him especially since her office closes at 4pm, an hour earlier than his does. In addition, on the occasions that she opted to stop over either at her hairdresser’s place or to pick a few confectioneries from the stores, she’d always put a call through to intimate him of her movements. At first, Wilfred figured she might possibly have taken a stroll to the mall in the neighborhood to get one household item or the other. This thought was reinforced when he remembered she had complained days earlier on the need to restock the condiment in their food store, as they were already low on supplies.  He thought to himself that the quarrel they had the previous night might be the reason she had refused to call him. He picked his mobile phone to dial her number to know where she was, but sheer pride got the b...

By Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D. Twitter:  @farooqkperogi I was one of seven professors who facilitated a leadership training in my university here in Georgia for local government chairmen from a major Nigerian southwestern state. In the course of the training, I adverted to a January 13, 2018 column I wrote about how power literally damages the brains of people who wield it and causes them to be dissociated from reality. A few of the chairmen at the training initially said they “rejected” what I said “in Jesus’ name.” But the more I expounded the research on the psychology of power, the less resistant they became. In the light of the interest it excited among these local power wielders, I thought I’d share a revised version of the column for the benefit of other people in power.   On Nov. 20, 2014, Buhari, Amaechi, Oyegun and other APC honchos protested in Abuja against the increased insecurity and killings in the country. Insecurity and killings are worse on...

By Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D. Twitter: @farooqkperogi As a scholar and teacher of journalism, I am troubled by an emerging character of Nigeria’s diasporan and homeland digital-native news formation, which had functioned as alternative outlets for the sort of critical journalism that the homeland legacy news media have abandoned.  They start by attracting attention to themselves through what seems like uncompromisingly adversarial journalism against venality in government. But just when they succeed in persuading people to invest faith in their journalistic integrity, they cash out and become indistinguishable from, and sometimes worse than, the compromised homeland legacy media they were thought to be an alternative to. It started from Elendu Reports, the first successful diasporan citizen media outfit, which, after sensationally unmasking high-profile corruption in the high reaches of government in Nigeria in 2005, turned around to furtively serve as “media consult...

RUBY IN THE SKY By Jeanne Zulick Ferruolo Sometimes, it seems as though everything goes wrong in a person’s life. Is it asking too much to want a true forever home? In Author Jeanne Zulick Ferruolo’s novel RUBY IN THE SKY, Ruby and her mother are moving to their forever home. Only it doesn’t work out the way they had planned. Ruby’s mother is arrested, and that’s only the beginning of events in Ruby’s life. As she befriends an old lady and a boy in school, she learns that people are not always what they seem. RUBY IN THE SKY is a story of family and friendship, forgiveness and bravery, along with a touch of magic and the realization that everyone has his or her own story. I also learned something about the real “Ruby Moon",  which is very rare, sort of like Ruby Moon Hayes in the story. Do you know what it is?  This novel is ideal for school libraries, as well as your own private library. Jeanne Zulick Ferruolo has written a story that will ...

I was born in Lagos and I have no regrets that I have spent my entire life in the city. When I was a boy, I had so many dreams, which shaped my life. I have accomplished some. Others are completely out of my reach. If I could turn back the hands of time, I will certainly do some things differently. For instance, I won’t venture into writing and publishing. I will join the military and save myself the nightmare of an ordinary Nigerian who is constantly at the mercy of a system that has little or no value for life. It is easier to die and harder to live.   If I have a gun as one of the drunken policemen, I have power. To a large extent, my safety is guaranteed. I will sleep at night with eyes closed. Those who know I have a house full of death will avoid me. They won’t want to have anything to do with me. Barring unforeseen circumstances, I will live longer than the man who has no defense, for he has everything to lose including his own life.   One of my dreams as a li...