1 comments about The Africa Letters.

1. This is a wonderfully written account of Bror Blixen's experiences as big-game hunter and safari leader in East Africa during the 1920s and '30s. Blixen was a larger-than-life settler and safari leader who many believe was Ernest Hemingway's model for the masculine heroes in his books. In letters to friends, Blixen gives us his perceptions of the breathtaking beauty of Africa at that time, and a glimpse into that world before overhunting and progress changed forever the fate of the wild animals.

1 comments about My Life and Travels: An Anthology.

1. Wilfred Thesiger was one of the great explorers of the age of the British Empire, perhaps the last great explorer. This book is a great collection of the most interesting articles describing his travels in Imperial Ethiopia, Darfur, the Sahel, Arabia, Kurdistan, the Hindu Kush and more, that will delight the reader who doesn't have the time to read the books from which the articles are excerpted.
   
   I highly recommend it, but not as a substitute for the books in full.

4 comments about My Malawi Journal.

1. Bea Buckley's approaches her Peace Corps experience with trepidation and a kind of self-imposed ageism. Though no doubt well-intentioned, she worries and whines during her few months in Malawi concerned with toothpaste and clean underwear. Only once--this when she is waiting for a ride to the airport to go home after qutting--does she allow herself to see the beauty and possibilities of the country. Whether the Peace Corps failed her by not screening its candidates properly or whether Buckley failed herself hardly matters. Overwhelmed by depression and worries about physical illness, she cannot continue. Her family, for whom she claims this book is written, should never have allowed her to pubish it. The writing is atrocious, needs editing, and the product is not what it claims to be--about the poverty and hunger in a Third World country. It is about a woman who is so self-involved that she cannot see beyond her own minor discomfort (on a bus, with the food, outhouse, darkness, even Athlete's foot!) to allow herself the compassion necessary to identify with those more needy than she. As a reader older than Buckley, I resented her ageism. As a person who has frequently traveled to impoverished countries, I found her desperation (She brushed her teeth with perfumed soap, for heaven's sake!) pathetic.



2. This book badly needed editing once the inexplicable decision was made to publish it. Buckley does not give us a sense of the history of the country, the political situation, environmental problems or anything else connected to Malawi. Most of the text (laden with exclamation points tagging the most trivial observations) is concerned with the author's intestinal problems; thus the claim that the book is about Malawi is misleading and the title should have been "My Truncated Experiences with the Peace Corps in a Generic African Country." Truly a squandered opportunity.



3. If you are interested in the Peace Corps and/or Malawi, avoid this work. Filled with misspellings and completely lacking in content and depth, this book is a waste of time.



4. In a way, this book is a superb treatise on how to take a miserably short-sighted, self-centric stance in unfamiliar or potentially frightening circumstances. It is a book about how to cling to your native customs and standards of cleanliness; how to forget that you are but a temporary visitor, while the neighbors have no recourse but to endure their conditions for their foreseeable futures. The book describes in frequently minute and often awkwardly-worded detail how to, through a variety of doubtlessly well-intentioned but poorly considered methods, set one's self up for failure. This is a text on how to sweat the small stuff.
   
   I think all travelers have moments when they are appalled, uncertain, sick -- when they simply want to go home. Recalling a few pages from this book goes a long way, in my own moments, towards reminding me how juvenile, small, and unworthy those thought-patterns typically are. Page through this book in the library, if you ever get a chance, and take a moment to internalize a couple of the life lessons the author chose to ignore.

5 comments about Dancing with the Witchdoctor: One Woman's Stories of Mystery and Adventure in Africa.

1. I've lived and worked in Africa and these stories did not ring true with me...great adventures, based on some experiences, maybe...but biography??...I just don't know. Would love to know and would be happy to eat my words.



2. Avoid the nit-picking reviews over whether it really happened to her or not;it is labeled "fiction".I savored her stories like the finest chocolates;I wanted to read them all at once but rationed myself to one a night.Anybody criticizing her either cant write or is destined to fish discount books out of the clearance bin while stomping their feet that they teach literature.
   You want a book filled with travel,mysticism,endurance and the overall goodness of people,then by all means buy it.I wish she would write another book!



3. This book is a thoroughly good read. If you've been to Africa, or dream of going there, by all means have a look. However, I'm also intrigued by the negative review below by the English literature professor who "found this book in the bargain isle ..." Exactly where is the Bargain Isle and can I book a cruise there? Sounds like a shopper's dream.



4. I was prepared not to like this book; usually I am not a fan of short stories. After I read the first page, I could not put it down. Each story is a unique tale about the strength and power of women. The writer's straightforward and realistic writing style was refreshing. My husband loved the book - amazing adventure stories for all.



5. this book is so entertaining. it makes me envious of the adventures.
   I couldn't put it down, often waking up to read a few more pages...

3 comments about The Prester Quest.

1. In 1177 Pope Alexander III wrote a letter to the Priest-King of the Indies and chose his physician to delivery it -even though the legendary monarch's kingdom was hidden. Master Philip set out to find it and delivery the letter and vanished: centuries later author Nicholas Jubber fond a copy of the pope's original letter and decided to deliver it himself. THE PRESTER QUEST blends history with an adventure travelogue to make for an extraordinary odyssey.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch



2. The participants in this mission, Nicholas Jubber and Mike Hirst set out to deliver a letter written by Pope Alexander III in 1177 to Prester John.
   
   On their journey to deliver (albeit 824 years late) Nicholas Jubber manages to combine historical knowledge and legend with contemporary reality in a way which is simultaneously eccentric, amusing and highly informative.
   
   There are a number of different journeys being depicted in this novel, and they are each worth reading about. Read it as a contemporary travelogue on a medieval mission, read it as a commentary on some of the issues that are as topical today as they were when the original 12th century missive was written. You choose!
   
   I recommend this to anyone with an interest in the legendary Prester John, as well as to anyone who likes reading about the travails of travel.
   
   Jennifer Cameron-Smith



3. This is a terrible book that could be a good book. The IDEA for the book was solid, and some of the historical tidbits are interesting.
   
   It COULD have been an entertaining quest, but there is one enormous problem: the author is a pretentious, self-centered, pseudo-intellecutal child with a very high opinion of himself and the most irritating writing style known to man. Don't waste your time with this book unless you enjoy being patronized.
   
   Shame.

No comments about Egypt (Everyman Guides).

No comments about Eyes over Africa XXL Collector's Edition 1-300.

1 comments about Guide to Madagascar (Country Guides).

1. Excellent - one of those guides that make you feel you've already been there. Given the size of Madagascar and the difficulty of its internal communications, the update is as good as one could reasonably demand. Ms Bradt knows her subject, from terrain to people to unique wildlife. No visitor should be without this invaluable publication

No comments about Elephant Have the Right of Way.

No comments about Die Aromunen: Ethnographisch-philologisch-historische Untersuchungen über das Volk der sogenannten Makedo-Romanen oder Zinzaren. Band 1: Land und Leute (German Edition).