No comments about The Rough Guide to Zanzibar 2 (Rough Guide Travel Guides).

3 comments about Two Weeks in a Land Rover: On Safari in Tanzania.

1. This was a very interesting book that I just finished reading in preparation for my safari to Tanzania. I would recommend it to anyone going on a safari or thinking about going on a safari. It is short for fast reading, but gives just enough description that I can't wait to be out on the Serengeti or riding in a jeep down into the Ngorongoro Crater to experience Tanzania myself.



2. I gave this book to my daughter who is hoping to work in a medical clinic in Kenya someday soon.



3. This book is a must if you are going to Tanzania on safari. I read it cover to cover without stopping. It was interesting and informative. Even if you aren't actually planning a safari and prefer to live your adventure at home through books, this is a good choice.

5 comments about False Papers.

1. Andre Aciman is an astoundingly gifted writer. When I first read his memoir "Out of Egypt" five years ago, I was amazed by its wit and wisdom, its precious and seamless blend of irony and deep feeling. Having followed his career in writing ever since, I am thrilled by the recent publication of "False Papers," a magnificent compilation of fourteen of his best essays from the past few years. These pieces can be seen as a kind of sequel to "Out of Egypt," an extension of its central theme of exile in new, often unexpected directions. In "Out of Egypt" Aciman vividly reminisced about his childhood years in Alexandria up to their dismal end, when amid the virulent anti-Semitism of Nasser's Egypt he and his family were expelled. The essays of "False Papers," by contrast, pertain more to the intellectual and emotional residues of exile-in particular the "confused, back-and-forth, up-and-around" way of thinking, remembering, desiring, and relating to oneself and to others that exile seems to foster. Aciman writes poignantly but analyzes ruthlessly: he may be one of the most introspective of current writers, and at a time when memoirs and confessions line the shelves, but refreshingly, he is also one of the least self-indulgent and complacent. Complexity does not faze him. He excels at finding a concrete metaphor, typically from far afield, to convey some paradox of memory or desire: for instance, his surprisingly apt use of the financial term "arbitrage" to illustrate how one might "firm up the present...by experiencing it from the future as a moment in the past," much like an arbitrageur might trade securities in different markets to benefit from different prices. He can qualify thoughts and impressions without diluting them into a muddle, and even, occasionally, cast doubt on the relevance of his most reliable figures and tropes-to wit, exile-without sacrificing any of his writing's underlying pathos. Few, in short, can match Aciman when it comes to a grasp of the fitful economy of the soul, and even fewer could hope to write about it so deftly and affectingly.

   Those, like myself, who have already read and enjoyed Aciman's essays on their first appearance in print will want to own a book that brings them all together. Those who have not are to be envied the opportunity to read them in "False Papers" for the first time.




2. I found Mr.Aciman's essays suffering from a infatuation with his own self-righteousness. Preachy, bigoted and too often innacurate, he bakes a quite dull mixture of bloated prose and shallow, prejuciced view about many subjects one suspects he knows little or nothing about. The books distils the grandiose retorique of cocktail-party chatter and leaves the reader with a sad sense of having wasted his own time. My advice would be to seriously check it out at a public library before devoting time and money to this thing. Life's too short for this kind of drivel.



3. Andre Aciman is our contemporary Proust--the same elegance, the same penetrating eye, the same love for memory and its cinematic clarities.



4. André Aciman's collection of essays on place and nostalgia is as absolutely gorgeously written as his superb family memoir OUT OF EGYPT, and covers the amazing array of places he's lived and left: Alexandria (first and foremost), Rome, Paris, and New York, with side visits to sites important to his sense of himself, Illiers-Combray (Proust's village) and Bethelhem. At his best, Aciman is funny, incisive and extraordinarily clever; his best essays involve sites where he can focus more on other people than just himself, and he can allow his wit and empathy to emerge. Since his topic is always nostalgia here, it is inevitable that much of his critical focus should be himself (as he points out repeatedly and intelligently, the urge towards nostalgia is always as much a yearning for one's self and one's memories as it is for a particular place). There are times, however, when his interest in his self tends more towards a carefully nurtured narcissism than an incisive self-critique and when you want to roll your eyes at the insufferably precious delight with which he can regard himself.



5. Like other Aicman books rhis really worth reading, some wonderful insights, into a long vanished world.

1 comments about Canary Islands (Eyewitness Travel Guides).

1. I found very little information in this book. The level of detail on what there is to see in the Canary Islands was extremely thin.

5 comments about Africa: Dispatches From a Fragile Continent.

1. Harden brings one of the least reported parts of the world to light, but his reporting is now a bit out of date. It is hard to give a book this good less than five stars, but many things have happened in Africa in the last five years. I would purchase an update in a minute.



2. Blaine Harden's Africa: Dispatches from a Fragile Continent is by far the most interesting book out there about Africa. It is a series of vignette-like true life examples of how the continent is imploding, thanks to "big daddies" and the west's lack of understanding about the people, cultures, values, and even geography of this underdeveloped continent. Truly a masterpeice. It should be required reading in all universities across the country. One of the BEST books I've ever read.



3. It's a pity that the book was written in the early nineties, since the only drawback I can point out of this work is the lack of information about the last fifteen years in the different countries (Sudan, Nigeria, Zambia, etc.) the author describes (this is not his fault, obviously!). Deeply educational, this is phenomenal journalism. If I had to pont out a chapter, the most interesting one is the one that deals with the Turkana tribe in Kenya.
   
   From page one, I was hooked, and I'm looking forward to learning more about Africa, the forgotten continent. This was the perfect starting point.



4. Harden, a first rate writer, researcher and observer, does an excellent job demystifying the African political diaspora with insightful anecdote and personal experience. For anyone that has lived or loved Africa this is a must read - it will remind you of everything that is wrong with Africa and everything that is unforgetable about Africa.



5. When I first read Dispatches some years ago, I was astounded at how a 'parachuted journalist' from the Washington Post could manage to be so empathetic to his new surroundings. Harden displays a questioning and understanding of all the places he reported on in Africa that many who've lived for decades in Africa do not have.
   
   In his travels, it's clear that Harden tries to stick his nose in and experience Africa. He is often more than an observer - he participates first-person - and is therefore able to tell a complete story without having resorting to hollow theorizing and trite conclusions as filler. His trip on the Kisangani-Kinshasa riverboat is a good example where the story and experience tells all - Harden doesn't need to tell the reader what to conclude. Same with his experiences with then President Moi of Kenya. He had the chance to talk to Moi, not just for an interview, but to discuss his deportation! Harden was always personally involved in his stories.
   
   Coincidentally, a few years after Harden's Africa tenure, another Washington Post Africa correspondent based in Nairobi, Keith Richburg, wrote his memoirs on Africa - Out of America: A Black Man Confronts Africa. Though Out of America is a very good book, Dispatches is in another class entirely. It's a must read.

5 comments about Malaria Dreams: An African Adventure.

1. This book, first of all, is not the typical "vacation book" one may purchase to motivate themselves with tales of lovely places and experiences to relish on your long awaited exotic South African adventure.

   It should be acknowledged that this is a tongue in cheek review of either an ignorant gentleman, or an educated travel writer delivering just what the reader loves to read. Taken too seriously, the book is offensive. Taken too literally, one can barely believe anyone so STUPID would undertake an assignment such as the author does with no preparation whatsoever. Taken modestly, with appreciation for the genuine spirit of all people, one can easily see the unique capacity the African people have to live life and share generously with strangers passing by.

   The endemic frustrations of travel are mirrored constantly by Mr. Stevens. In comic reproductions, it is recalled for the benefit of the reader, of course. The stories are hilarious and bittersweet. Many times I relished the fact that I was home and not experiencing the agony he was. Many more times, I assured myself that I would never subject myself to such unprepared punishment. But, this is what titillates a travel reader, experiencing a travel writer's life in the insured lounger of one's insured home. I appreciate those that cast their fate to the winds, and allow their adventures to take shape according to chance. It was just such opportunities that the author encountered. Unexpectantly, and often at times of great distress, he and his companion were invited into the townspeople's homes. Later, after being fed, bathed and liquored, solid friendships formed, and the true spirit of traveling in Central Africa was appreciated.




2. After reading some of the other comments, I can only conclude that there is a serious humour deficit amongst some segments of the Amazon book reviewing population. Only the hypersensitive or the irredeemably politically correct could possibly fail to enjoy this book.
   
   The naysayers make a big deal about the author poking fun at the native Africans, but fail to notice the amount of self-depreciation he also engages in. Ultimately, you get the sense of an inexperienced but well-meaning traveller who was completely unprepared for Africa but who realises it and sees the funny side of his own naivete. He is poking fun at himself as much as anyone else. And assuming that the tales he tells of African bureaucracy are true - and having experienced it myself, I'm inclined to believe them - why on earth should he not have a laugh about them?
   
   As a storyteller, the author has a real gift and I found the book difficult to put down.
   
   One star subtracted only because of the abrupt and wholly unsatisfying ending.



3. I truly enjoyed reading this book. Mr. Stevens does a fantastic job of focusing on what is entertaining and interesting. He does not dwell on useless facts that typically bog a book down; instead he tells witty little stories of his experience. I received this book on a Friday and finished it by Sunday it was a quick highly enjoyable read.



4. I find it amusing that many people feel this book is biased. They obviously have never expreienced first hand what Africa has become two generations out from liberation.
   
   I found Malaria Dreams to be an accurate portrayal of the petty and amusing way of life, at least in Central Africa. I was particularly surprised to be able to actually identify real people in Bangui based on the characters in this book, ranging from ministers to Embassy employees. I was in Bangui for two years and faced with petty bureaucracy -- the customs agent who demanded tax be paid on a $10,000 part the German Government DONATED in an attempt to make the country's electric turbine operational for more than an hour a day, the tax official who held up clearance of diplomatic goods until the Embassy threatened to cancel the shrimp order for the 4th of July reception (the minister's wife had the monopoly on shrim imports).
   
   WHat Malaria dreams shows is that in the wake of colonialism, Africa is decending back into a patchwork of tribal areas and tribal thinking, with the few "Big Men" presiding over tyranny and misery, as in Zimbabwe.



5. Loved this story of a cross-continent trek through Africa. I enjoyed the humor and the sense of reality of the account. The author weaves in political and cultural details bringing to light the different flavors of the countries the travelling pair crosses. I heard it as a book on tape first which I highly recommend. It really puts you on the road with the travellers. When I had to return that to the library I got the book to finish it.

No comments about HEART OF DARKNESS - KINDLE EDITION [ENG].

1 comments about Nigeria Map by ITMB.

1. I am giving a talk to our Womens group in our church on the Country of Nigeria because of a email friend who lives there.

No comments about Rwanda/Burundi Map by ITMB.

No comments about Portraits from Africa 2009 Wall Calendar (Calendar).