No comments about Dogon: People of the Cliffs (Imago Mundi series).

No comments about Eastern Cape (Eazimap).

No comments about South Africa from the Air.

5 comments about Wired: Contemporary Zulu Telephone Wire Baskets.

1. This book documents a marvelously vital art form and is itself a beautiful work of art. It is obviously expensively produced and carefully executed. The jacket, the cover , the paper, everything about it is absolutely first rate. An informative and very entertaining documentation of this fascinating art form. The photography by Andrew Cerino and the well known interiors photographer Peter Vitale is brilliant and voluptous (the color reproduction is astonishing).
   I couldn't be happier with it and I think it will soon be a very valuable and much sought-after reference source.



2. This is a great book on the Zulu art of making baskets out of colorful telephone wire. Not only is this a fascinating collection of images that jump off the pages, but it gives this art form its due. The use of wire in sub-Saharan Africa is explained and adds some historic context to this contemporary art form. The development of this form by the pioneers of the craft - the true night watchmen, is also documented here for the first time. The book also highlights the masters of this art form, with some personal history and images of each person's work. This is a highly recommended addition to you collection of books on African Art.



3. I just got a copy of this book and it is extraordinary!!! I travel to South Africa frequently and have several telephone wire baskets. I often wondered who made these baskets, and how they were connected to traditional African baskets and crafts. Well, this book answers my questions and more. The history is well written, including a GREAT foreword by Karel Nel, THE expert on South African art. In addition, the book gives the artist's their due, highlighting 14 weavers (or should I say artists), with their personal story and images of their work. I can now identify baskets in my collection, some by these weavers. This is a book you will love.



4. This is an extremely high quality "art book" which will be at home on any coffee table or in any library of people interested in baskets, Africa or any indigenous arts and crafts. The photographs are outstanding, the paper weight feels wonderful in your hand, it's a very well produced volume. I especially enjoyed the introduction by Paul Mikula which gave a great context for how difficult the baskets are to weave and spoke to the history of the weaving from more of the standpoint of the Zulu people. I have been carrying these types of baskets for over 3 years now and there has been a big void in the world for information on these baskets. This book fills the void plus some! Thanks to the authors for a great information source!



5. Wired is a beautifully produced book from cover to cover. This extraordinary art form is depicted eloquently in text and photos and is the perfect addition to any art book collector's library. I found Mr. Arment's historic representation of the craft to be informative and the featured artisan weaver's stories to be both compelling and personal. The contemporary design, exquisite photography and high quality of production contribute to an outstanding book.

No comments about Living Africa.

5 comments about Lost Cities and Ancient Mysteries of Africa and Arabia (The Lost City Series).

1. David Hatcher Childress' Lost Cities series has proven to be consistently interesting, and Lost Cities and Ancient Mysteries of Africa and Arabia is no exception. Taking the everyman approach to travel writing, Childress' accounts of his travels through Arabia and Egypt are very interesting and insightful, full of both interesting travel advice relevant to the regions he travelled through and accounts of personal experiences that make his stories very interesting to read. He thoroughly covers all of the major and most of the minor historical sites to be found throughout Africa and Arabia, often at great personal risk. It took guts to make the journeys he has made, many of which were in areas very dangerous for Americans, and a talent for writing to make them interesting. I thoroughly recommend this and all of the other Lost Cities series of books to all would-be travelers with an open mind and an interest in the unusual.



2. Let's face it: this isn't a very good book. Then again, "Godzilla vs. Monster Zero" wasn't a very "good" (if we must assign labels) movie. Childress, a "maverick archaeologist" who seems to spend most of his time floundering around grimly impoverished Third World locales and getting nowhere with evasive women at bars, provides an insanely amusing travelogue of his journeys through the jungles and exotic landscapes of Africa and Arabia, commenting along the way on the unknown Atlantean, Lemurian, and other civilizations that flourished once upon a time and were responsible for the Pyramids, THE MAHABHARATA, and presumably Jimmy Hoffa's and D.B. Cooper's whereabouts. The most insane thing about this book is that a lot of it might be true. So far as I know, we still know very little about the Neolithic era, and the concept of "lost" civilizations would imaginably appeal to many readers depressed at the state of the world (including myself). However, I must agree with the other negative reviewer that Childress offers no convincing evidence to support his theories (and not very much UNconvincing evidence, either). The only sources he uses are hopelessly mossbound Victorian "explorers" (who knows how many African bearers' lives they may have used up to supply this book with fodder for speculation?) who had their own "issues" to deal with. Don't even get me started on the possible cultural-studies implications of this book. That being said, it WAS a lot of fun, and he does occasionally come up with some exciting memories and fantastical theories that NEARLY make up for my having read this book.



3. I picked up this book not realizing that I had already read excerpts from it in another of Childress' books. I was headed for Jordan and was interested in reading up on Petra when I found this book. As I read more, it began to get really interesting. His broad coverage of various theories of ancient civilizations is fascinating, if sometimes hard to believe. But, that being said, there are so many unexplained civilizations out there that, however fanciful the explanations may be, who knows, some may even be correct!! It's an entertaining read, and really causes you to reconsider some very basic historical facts that may turn out to be in error. How DID those guys at the Temple of Ba'al move 2 million pound stones?!? Makes you wonder!!



4. Ok, let's get one thing out of the way. David Childress is not an archeologist. Some people seem to get hung up on this, so let's make that real clear. I always see his books in the "Travel Narrative" section of the bookstore, and that's exactly what they are... great travel narratives.

   The books has two modes. Mr. Childress' travel stories, and his telling of "wacky" theories of the places he visits. Within the first 25 pages, you have stories of ancient nuclear weapons, flying machines, and continent spanning civilizations that no one has heard of! And he explains that this is the "easiest" way of rationalizing the things he has seen! (Such as, giant blocks of stone that are too big to move, "even by modern engineering").

   On the whole, this is a great read if you want some insight into the crazy ideas that exist out there. Childress seems to have a mainline into most of them. His travel writing is pretty good too.

   One note: the editing is terrible. Spelling and typos all over the place. The typography & layout of the book do leave something to be desired.




5. A synopsis of the first chapter: around 12,000 BCE, three very powerful civilizations existed in and around the Mediterranean. Atlantis was a mini-continent in the Atlantic Ocean west of the Straight of Gibraltar. The Osirian Empire was located in the basin of what is now the Mediterranean Sea and the Rama Empire existed throughout Persia and into India. The civilizations of both Atlantis and Rama possessed flying airships, very similar to those commonly reported as modern-day UFOs. In addition, the Rama Empire had some type of laser-based weapon. They used anti-gravity technology to levitate giant cut stones weighing three million pounds into position at a site in modern-day Lebanon as a landing pad for their airships.
   
   According to Jared Diamond, a preeminent cultural anthropologist, the development of agriculture did not occur until around 11,000 BCE and was localized in the Fertile Crescent until 7,500 BCE. Since one can trace food surpluses as a requirement for the settlement of cities and subsequent development of technology in cultures all over the world, it seems unlikely, at best, that the Rama Empire possessed airships, laser weapons and anti-gravity technology before humans domesticated the pea (in 8,500 BCE). It just seems a little difficult to believe that in between hunting and gathering, people had time to construct flying ships, weaponize lasers and employ anti-gravity technology. This is especially remarkable given that it took humans 14,000 years to redevelop the technology for flight and we still haven't been able to weaponize lasers or develop anti-gravity technology.
   
   The book may appeal to people looking for an interesting read, but it should not be taken as a scholarly work. In fact, the author's attempts to cite scholarly sources and research to justify his claims are laughable. Also, there are numerous typographical errors (mostly omitted prepositions and possessives as well as punctuation errors).

1 comments about Sahara: The Forbidding Sand.

1. This book took me back to Africa...soft sand everywhere, the burning air entering my lungs, the red sunsets... Makes me want to go back again!
   --Vicki Landes, author of "Europe for the Senses - A Photographic Journal"

No comments about Great Style South Africa: Unique Hotels, Lodges & Guesthouses Of The Western Cape.

No comments about Abuja: Readings in City Planning.

5 comments about Vertical Ethiopia, Climbing Toward Possibility in the Horn of Africa.

1. This is an amazing book. Both the writing and the photography are incredible - you get a real feel for the experience of climbing in a gorgeous and rugged landscape, and at the same time you learn a tremendous amount about Ethiopia and its people.



2. I am neither a rock climber nor an adventurer so when a friend sent it to me, I wasn't sure it was my kind of thing... but wow! Its a great read! The pictures alone are well worth the cover price, but it is
   Burkhardt's writing that is really fun and compelling, and often downright funny. Initially I wasn't aware that the intro was written by someone else and was a bit bored by mundane geography and geology facts, but within the first paragraph of Majka's writing she had me laughing out loud at her childhood impressions of Ethiopia via dinner table commands to finish her food due to African famines and singing all the verses of We are the World out loud with her friends. That was my first impression as well and I didn't know much else about the country today until I read this book. The rock climbing shots are amazing and the photos of the locals are truly beautiful. My favorite part of the story was a hair- raising tale of the climbers ascending some gnarly vertical spire only to get to the top where a bunch of village kids met them after scrambling up the back. I learned alot about Ethiopia and rock climbing, but mostly I enjoyed Majka's stories and Rogel's photos. I read it in one long sitting and leave it out on my coffee table to thumb through the pictures over and over...!



3. The incredible photography is what first grabs you - and indeed, it's published as a beautiful coffee-table style book. But once you start reading the text, it's hard to stop. Burhardt is a gifted storyteller and a poetic wordsmith. She shines an insightful light on a country that is so rich and complex - and so misunderstood. You will feel as if you are living the adventure with her - which is the sign of any great read.



4. This book is cool! Burhardt's photos and text capture the collage-like qualities of true adventure. Along with Burhardt and her intrepid companions, we get to feel our way through the colors, textures, people, and, of course, rock of Ethiopia. What a place, what a journey, what a story.



5. Spellbinding. The introduction, written by a different author, presented a history of exploration in Ethiopia in relatively dry mountaineering terms -- typical "stiff upper lip" and all that. I was prepared to wade through a pedestrian account of a climber in a remote corner of the world. What I found, however, was the sheer joy and exuberance of a young climber rediscovering a forgotten gem. The climbing, though superbly photographed and described, takes a back seat to well-limned essays about Ethiopia itself, and the author's incredulity at the history, beauty and current state of the country and its people. Highly recommended for travelers and climbers alike.