Category Archives: Guyanese Books

BOOK: The Writer’s Life: Character Development for ‘The Twisted Circle’ – by Rosaliene Bacchus

09/08/2021 – 7:47 am
Aerial View of Ogle Airstrip before Upgrade to an International Airport in 2009 – East Coast Demerara – Guyana

While The Twisted Circle is a work of fiction, it has been inspired by real events that occurred during my final year in a Catholic convent in my native land of Guyana. This presented a challenge when creating unique characters who did not mirror the true-life individuals. To distance myself from the protagonist, Sister Barbara Lovell, I made her a dougla—a person of African and East Indian ancestry, the country’s two major racial and ethnic populations. With a family background much different from mine, her journey led to its own resolution for the character.

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BOOK: Duplicity and Complicity in a Whitewashed Church – By Rosaliene Bacchus

08/27/2021 – 12:06 am

Rosaliene Bacchus –– August 24, 2021– PRESS RELEASE — NEW NOVEL — THE TWISTED CIRCLE

Front Cover The Twisted Circle: A Novel by Rosaliene Bacchus (USA, 2021)

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 24, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Aggrieved, angered, and ashamed by the revelations in the documentary film, Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God, author Rosaliene Bacchus breaks her silence as a former Catholic nun in her novel, The Twisted Circle, and adds her voice for victims of sexual abuse by predatory priests in the patriarchal Catholic Church.

Drawing on her seven-year experience of the religious life during the 1970s in her native land, Guyana, Bacchus explores the abuse of power by members of the clergy. The religious women ensnared in the author’s twisted circle of deceit, are not without guilt. Taught to hate the sin but forgive the sinner, they share silent complicity with the abusers.      Continue reading →

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SWEET DRINK: THE LEMONADE PEOPLE and other Community-based bottlers – By Vibert Cambridge

08/15/2021 – 12:09 am
Stabroek News – By August 1, 2021

One is not certain about the first flavors of “sweet drink” to be bottled in British Guiana.  There is high probability that among the first was lemonade.  According to recipes available from the late 19th century, lemonade may have been the dominant early flavor as the syrup could be concocted locally.

According to Hamid Mohamed of the Verdun Soda Water Factory, “the lemonade formula was straight forward—lemon oil extract, white sugar, carbonated water, citric acid, and sodium benzoate.”  This may explain the proliferation of lemonade bottlers in British Guiana from the early 20th century until their virtual extinction during the 1970s.  Collectively, they are referred to as the “Lemonade People.”    Continue reading →

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GUYANA: Sweet Drink: A Complex Story – Commentary by Vibert Cambridge

07/10/2021 – 12:09 am
STABROEK NEWS- By

Editor’s note: This is the first entry in a series, “Sweet Drink: A Preliminary Exploration of the Social History of Nonalcoholic Carbonated Beverages in Guyana (1870–2020),” based on Professor Vibert Cambridge’s research. 

This is a preliminary history of nonalcoholic carbonated beverages in Guyana over the 150-year period 1870–2020.

It is preliminary because there is still much work to done. It is hoped that this series will stimulate feedback to help to close the gaps in this story about an important aspect of Guyanese life: food and nutrition. We start with a composite snapshot of Guyana’s “sweet drink” market in June 2021.      Continue reading →

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BOOKS: Canada-based Guyanese children’s book now available in Guyana

06/20/2021 – 12:06 am
Yolanda Marshall
Yolanda Marshall
By  June 19, 2021

The children’s book My Soca Birthday Party by Canada-based Guyanese Yolanda Marshall is available for sale at Jars Zero Waste Store and one will be donated to the National Library.

My Soca Birthday Party, which was published last year, by prominent children book publishers, Chalkboard, was among 16 children’s books that were deemed Best Canadian Picture Books of 2020.

The book is a blend of African and Caribbean culture and its heroine Anne, celebrates her birthday party with Soca music played on steel pans and West Africa’s jollof rice.        Continue reading →

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PROFILE: Extraordinary People – Godfrey Chin 1938-2012 – By Ian McDonald 

06/07/2021 – 12:06 am

  By       

In one conversation with Godfrey, amidst the multitude of evocations that continually cascaded out of his extraordinary memory, he told me about bird-whistling competitions and donkey-cart racing in Guyana long ago and described to me the hundred and one manifestations of that condition of bewitched infatuation in a man or a woman called typee.

Godfrey Chin

I urged him to do extended Nostalgias on all these subjects and he promised he would get around to it. He never did. It is immeasurable how much the nation lost in the passing too soon of this absolutely unique chronicler of Guyana’s rich social history. He left behind a thousand golden threads unwoven into the tapestries which were already making him celebrated.        Continue reading →

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BOOK: ZOOM EVENT: Converse with Dr. Frank L. Douglas – Sunday May 30, 2021 4.30-6.30PM EST

05/11/2021 – 12:12 am

     Author of: ‘Defining Moments of a Free Man from a Black Stream’

     BOOK IT is a virtual Book Discussion featuring Guyanese authors.

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GUYANA: Linden: Purchase a copy of the Best of Linden Magazine!

04/19/2021 – 12:34 am

You are invited to enjoy the inaugural edition of our ‘Best of Linden Magazine’.  Take your time, it unfolds with each reading.  The Best of Linden Magazine is a celebration of the best of us, our institutions, ideations, and those of us who are transcendent in style and actions.

“Nice stories, Beautiful photos,  Celebrating Strengths…… Really good read”  – Gordon Moseley

 “Thanks for the magazine, I was last in Linden in 2006, so it’s been a long time.  My parents are enjoying it too.”  – N. Small

Purchase the magazine by completing this Google Form. Then make your payment through one of the options below

Continue reading →

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GUYANA: Extraordinary People – Rohan Kanhai and Jock Campbell – By Ian McDonald

04/02/2021 – 12:12 am
By 

Such men as these walk onto a field of play, or enter a room, and their life-force brings everyone to silence and attention – these were two men who in their very different ways set my mind alight.

ROHAN KANHAI

● The cover driving came from the same place as a Carter poem or an Aubrey Williams vision of an ancient land. His batting represented for me a very good reason why sport is as important as art. I remember my first sight of Rohan Kanhai batting at Bourda in 1956. I wrote that night to my father in Trinidad that I had just been witness to a wonder, the best batsman in the world.    Continue reading →

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TRIBUTE TO ROBERT JOHN (BOBBY) FERNANDES (1947-2021) – By Major General Joseph G Singh

03/10/2021 – 12:59 am

TRIBUTE TO ROBERT JOHN (BOBBY) FERNANDES (1947-2021) – A LIFE WELL SPENT

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Monday, March 1st, 2021 – By Major General Joseph G Singh

Monsignor Terrence Montrose, CCH, Mrs Luana Fernandes, beloved wife of Bobby, and children Christina, Robert, Dominic, Damian, Shad, Nicolette and Chantelle, Chairman Chris the Elder, other siblings, in-laws and grandchildren of Bobby and Luana, extended family members, friends of the Fernandes family here and those overseas, good morning.

I extend on behalf of myself and my family and all those from the hinterland, the rural areas of Guyana and those from overseas – scientists and explorers, who knew and interacted with Bobby, sincere condolences to your family on his transitioning and pray that you be comforted in his physical absence by the happy and treasured memories of the love and the personal and private experiences you shared with him.      Continue reading →

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