An Evening with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie!

On Tuesday night, I had the opportunity to see Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, author of books like "We Should All Be Feminists" and "Americanah" speak. She was speaking as part of the One Maryland, One Book program. Her debut novel, "Purple Hibiscus" is the book for this year. I was super excited for this event and I was not disappointed. If you ever have the chance to see her, run, don't walk!

Adichie gave a rousing talk that touched on everything from feminism to storytelling.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from her talk:

• "I revisited Purple Hibiscus and realized, I'm no longer that writer. But I also thought, 'not bad...'"
• "Violence can breed silence."
• "It's very easy to dispense advice when you don't have to follow it."
• "If a child has both parents, a child deserves to actually have both parents."  on parental equality
• "We have to name a problem in order to solve it."
• "Lots of women give up and give in when it comes to expecting fathers to take an equal share in child rearing"
• "Feminism is not just for women. If we lived in a feminist world, both men and women would benefit."
• "Dissent is not treason."
• "So to prevent violence, which I don't condone, I don't read reviews."
• "I think there are some things that are too big to forgive."

I also got to get books signed by her! She was wonderful! I got to thank her for the inspiration she's given me in raising my girls to breathe fire! When I told her I had twins, she said "That's delicious!!!" This has to be my favorite response ever! I think the second picture might be just after she said that.

It was a great night for this bookworm!