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Things Fall Apart: A Novel
Chinua Achebe
Anchor, 1994
What makes fiction important
I know this is the classic debate of all time when it comes to literature: Is it about beautifully written prose (THE STORY OF EDGAR SAWTELLE, incidentally, is a good example of this problem) or does it tell a compelling story? (yet the prose itself is not its strong ...
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When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa
Peter Godwin
Back Bay Books, 2008
Wonderful!
This is simply one of the best books I've "read" in many, many years. I first listened to it on tape while I was painting and then ordered this copy for a friend. I would love to pass it along to any thinking person who is curious about Africa -- and why we should ...
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The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel (P.S.)
Barbara Kingsolver
Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2005
My Introduction to Writing
This is a book folks have probably already described as one of those you'll compare all that you've read before and since. I will describe it as my introduction to literature, to writing. Perhaps I'm late to the party, what's new? The book was an Oprah book, so lots of ...
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A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
Ishmael Beah
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008
INCREDIBLE AND HEART FELT
When I put this book down all I could say was, "Wow." You feel the pain he must have been going through when he lost his family, you feel his anger at the way he was treated by the Rebels and you are shocked when the Rebels who claim to be siding with the people are ...
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The Unofficial Guide Walt Disney World 2009 (Unofficial Guides)
Bob Sehlinger, Len Testa
Wiley, 2008
The best Disney guide, hands down!
I just bought the 2009 version of this guide to plan our November trip to Disney. I used it in 2004 to plan our first trip and it was awesome. Everything it said was right on the money, from the hotel descriptions, advice on room requests, schedules to go by, ...
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The House at Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood
Helene Cooper
Simon & Schuster, 2008
A Search for Roots and Reconciliation
I got lost in The House at Sugar Beach. When I figured out where I had been, 352 pages and five hours later, I had learned much about the 1980 coup that turned Liberia upside down.
Journalist Helene Cooper is a descendant of the original settlers who left New York ...
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An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943, Volume One of the Liberation Trilogy (The Liberation ...
Rick Atkinson
Holt Paperbacks, 2007
US Army and its WWII baptism
A in depth and fair treatment of all the partys involved in Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of North Africa.
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Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust
Immaculee Ilibagiza
Hay House, 2007
Left to Hope
As a Franciscan Sister of Christian Charity I look to St. Francis who found the depths of hope in Jesus Christ. Immaculalee also confirms that hope ('...only when the future is certain as a positive reality does it become possible to live the present as well'-On ...
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The Power of One: A Novel
Bryce Courtenay
Ballantine Books, 1996
Inspiring
I just happened upon this book at the bookstore, one of the employees highly recommended it to me. It was magical; the writing was to me reminiscient of the works of Mark Twain. I am a history buff so the fact that it it takes place in South Africa during World War II ...
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King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa
Adam Hochschild
Mariner Books, 1999
The facts of Western Civilization
There are few stories that shock you with horror and this is one of the stories that make you wonder about greed and inhumanity of men. The grounds one of Africa's largest region was granted continue to this day(we all remember democracy for Iraq)was to end the ...
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Cry, the Beloved Country (Oprah's Book Club)
Alan Paton
Scribner, 2003
It's on my Top 10
How much can a man love his country? How much can he love his son? His God? Can justice prevail when man cannot? What is forgiveness? Redemption? Grace? To consider all these elements in one novel is not possible. Or is it?
"Cry, the Beloved Country" is all these ...
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Our Lady of Kibeho: Mary Speaks to the World from the Heart of Africa
Immaculee Ilibagiza
Hay House, 2008
An Incredible Book!
Our Lady of Kibeho is a well-written account of the visionaries of Kibeho and their apparitions. This book relates the stories of eight visionaries who the Blessed Mother and/or Jesus appeared to. Our Lady of Kibeho is the first and only Vatican-approved Marian site ...
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The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and ...
Philip Jenkins
HarperOne, 2008
Prepare to be challenged beyond your comfort zone
This is an astounding book. I suspect that the majority of potential buyers who find their way to this book on Amazon are going to be either Roman Catholic or Protestant Christians of European-American descent, they are the ones who really need to read this book. The ...
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Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation
John Carlin
Penguin Press HC, The, 2008
A Mandela For All Seasons
This dazzling book could have been called "Loving the Enemy." That is, in fact, what Nelson Mandela did to prevent a much feared bloodbath in South Africa as it passed from the hated Apartheid regime to majority rule.
"Playing the Enemy" shows how he did it - first by ...
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Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood
Alexandra Fuller
Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2003
great book
An amazing book that brings Africa to life. It is a vivid portrait of a family and a continent in a very particular period. Deserves rereading as there is so much to it.
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