Hmm.. 108 people and no one has anything to say?? That's gotta be fixed. I'll start.

Early last year I was presented with an opportunity to go to Kenya, which I wound up missing due to the unrest there at the time. The folks I was supposed to go with wound up rescheduling - unfortunately at a time I was unable to join. Nevertheless they had an amazing time. Before I knew I would miss the trip, I got several books on Kenya - Out of Africa, The flame trees of Thika, and the autobiography of Wangari Maathai, Unbowed.

Since then, I've also recently read What is the What - which was phenomenally written and I highly recommend it - about the Lost Boys of Sudan

The Go Review That Book! group recently assigned me Nelson Mandela's autobiography Long walk to freedom, which I have just started. I openly admit that I know nothing about Mandela or his struggle, which is why I am excited and interested to read his book.

I also have several other books on my TBR shelves, The power of one and half of a yellow sun, and purple hibiscus which I am looking forward to.

So: your turn! What have you read, what's good, what are you looking forward to? Perhaps these can be broken into various threads later on if the conversation really gets going, but I just want to start it out.

Cheers!

The Mandela book is very good and if you don't know this recent history of South Africa it will truly open your eyes. A completely different type of read is Alexander McCall Smith's #1 Ladies Detective Agency based in Gaberone, Botswana. It is a true representation of the culture of the Motswana (people of Botswana). I recently finished Dust from our eyes: an unblinkered look at Africa by a Canadian journalist Joan Baxter. I wrote a review of it www.librarything.com/work/6596657/reviews/40985997. There are many fine books on Africa.

I am enjoying reading Mandela's book and learning from it. I am still fairly early on. One of the ways that he make it quite readable is by not only relating particular stories or incidents in his life, but also comments on them with retrospect, and notices differences between how he viewed the world or situation as a boy or early adulthood, and his views as he wrote. This leads to a much richer understanding of who he is as a person and how he has changed.

In contrast, I felt that Unbowed was a much more dry autobiography. While also an incredible life, her writing is much more matter of fact, and descriptive of the various events as she saw them, with less commentary. On the occasions when she did comment, I often felt it was an afterthought, somewhat disjointed from the telling of the event, and perhaps added as a response to a question by a manuscript reviewer or as something she felt she obliged to include.

Message edited by its author, May 7, 2009, 12:52pm.

I like Zakes Mda's writings on post-apartheid South Africa : Heart of Redness especially. If you're willing to dig deep into some academically dense stuff Patrick Bond's Elite Transition is a good critique of the realities of post-1994 South Africa.