No comments about Togo: Reflections of an Afro-American in Togo-West Africa.

1 comments about Africa's Animal Kingdom: A Visual Celebration.

1. At over 500 pages, this book would certainly seem to have a lot about the animal kingdom. However, one immediately begins to be wary when the first 100 or so pages are about the environment -- dwelling heavily on Africa's many parks, describing their sizes, briefly discussing the animals, and going into flora, and showing many pictures of nature. Even more daunting is the text -- which may stop mid-sentence before continuing three pages later, thanks to a two-page spread. And the photo captions -- in some cases, the description for the two page spreads are at the end of the SECOND page following it, or in some cases (page 344-5, for example) they have no caption at all.

   With that being said, most of the photos are excellent: A leopard descending a tree, or how an elephant dwarfs the other wildlife at a watering hole. Some aren't as crisp as you'd expect from a book calling itself "A Visual Celebration", and in some cases there are five of one animal and none of the animal following it. Yet all in all the photos are splendid to look at.

   A breakdown, out of a four star projection (without the one guaranteed star that all books get):
   Photos (out of two stars): 1½ stars. The large majority are a pleasure to look at, though the variance in amount of photos from one animal to another loses a half star.
   Text (out of one star): 0 stars. Oftentimes relying on detailed specs in the middle of a sentence describing an animal's size (or a National Park's, for that matter) makes reading cumbersome. Perhaps a spec list at the start of each animal would have made more sense.
   Layout (out of one star): 0 stars. How the text appears on the pages, as well as the poor setup of captions and how one animal's photos may continue pages into the description of another animal was bad enough to take a half star from the photos. Thus why I gave it just two stars.

   Overall, there is a good many better books as a photographic look out there than this one. Not really worth the money. Unless you need to learn how NOT to do a book layout.

4 comments about African Visions: The Diary of an African Photographer.

1. This book contains images of modest nudity, including nursing mothers and children, that would probably earn this book an "R" rating if it were a motion picture.

   Having known of Ms. Mirella Ricciardi's work as a photographer in Africa, I expected this book to be the typical photography book. What I found instead was far more interesting and rewarding. The book combines brief essays about her life in Africa with captioned photographs of her family and friends, and of the scenes she visited, studied, and photographed. Extending from a privileged childhood in what was then colonial British East Africa to recently in Kenya and neighboring nations, you see the collapse of a fantasy-like way of life, the rise of a troubled new one, vanishing wilderness, and the reflections of an intensely self-critical woman. If you are like me, you will be moved by what you see and read.

   First, you will be impressed by Ms. Ricciardi's frankness. "I was a bad mother, a discontented wife and a frustrated photographer." She blames herself for the death of her older daughter, Marina, at thirty-six. "To this day, I am convinced this tragic event was my punishment." Personally, I think she is too hard on herself. Her story shows a warm heart and an eye for beauty that have enriched all those who have seen her work. I hope she finds self-forgiveness in the future.

   Her mother was quite remarkable, as well. Coming from an influential and wealthy French family, she studied sculpture with Auguste Rodin and lived life as an artist in Paris before meeting the author's father, who was an exile from Italy. Relying on her mother's wealth, the couple soon set up a dream-like existence on a vast estate in Africa based in a "vast pink Italian villa" they built there near Lake Naivasha.

   Ms. Ricciardi grew up with great wealth, hunting and enjoying the wilderness, and appreciating the native Africans. Later, she learned how to be a photographer while working with her future husband, and produced her well-known photographic work, Vanishing Africa. You will find many examples of that book as well as the details of how it was shot. Married to this adventuresome man, you get a sense of their time together as well as their discontent. As part of this, Ms. Ricciardi recounts her years with a young black lover, and how they handled the social challenges this presented in the class conscious society. Her two daughters were raised in an unself-conscious way with African children, often cavorting together nude as many young children do. You will enjoy seeing these scenes of carefree youth. Ms. Ricciardi's love of nature is matched by her love of the African people, and you will especially enjoy her images of the Maasai.

   Moving forward in time, you see photographs of white Kenyans who fought the Mau-Mau, farmed and studied wildlife, the destruction that war brought to Africans, and the retreating wilderness. I especially enjoyed her profiles of people who have found a continued life in Africa whose family roots go back to colonial days. Ms. Caroline Roumegeure was especially interesting to me, with her background as the daughter of a Maasai warrior and a French woman in a family with 6 wives and 26 other children. She seemed to blend the best of both cultures together. Ms. Ricciardi eventually became estranged from Africa and has left it.

   The photography captures breath-taking beauty that will stun you with its mystical appeal. You will feel like you are looking at something that is beyond your own understanding, but which will beckon you forward. Ms. Ricciardi's openness to the people, land, and animals will become your own, and you will be the better for it.

   After you finish contemplating this deep and self-critical view of another way of life, I suggest that you think about where you are divided from other people and nature in your community. How can you reach out to bridge the gaps in a loving way?

   Share your love with all around!




2. This was bought as a gift, my dear friend who is also my mom had this on her wish list and I bought it for her birthday.
   I didn't really know what to expect of the book, since it was not I who wished for it.
   When it came, I was completely delighted with it. Not only is it a beautiful, big, coffee-table size volume, but the photographs inside are wonderful! Something else--the text of the book is written in a font that appears to have been written by hand, straight out of the explorers journal. A nice touch when accompanied by these wonderful photos.
   A beautiful book, indeed and the price is very fair, in my opinion.

   It makes a great gift, too! :-)




3. Let me just say one thing: I'm completely in love with this book. It's amazing and full of breathtaking pictures that will take you right away to the very heart of Africa.

   The funny thing is that I got it for a very good price as well. The best purchase of my life!

   Don't miss it if you're interested in Kenya and its surroundings.




4. This is something of a `summing it all up' book for this photographer of Africa. With four books and an entire lifetime behind her, she is looking back over the path of her days and trying to clarify for herself what her relationship with the land of her birth has become. "I am a child of Africa," she begins by saying, and yet as we wander through the pages of her life it is clear that it is never so simple as that.

   The journey that Ricciardi takes us on is made up of long passages of text and an equal abundance of beautiful photographs. This was my first introduction to this talented photographer, and some of her work took my breath away. The photographs each have descriptions and comments written along side them, and I ended up reading these before working through the sections of text.

   Ricciardi's life has been vibrant and is fascinating to read about, though her tone is somewhat melancholy. She is looking back on the Africa that was, the Africa of her youth that has disappeared. She is also looking at it through her `white man's eyes', and realizing that although she may be rooted in the land she has always been a foreigner.

   The photographs moved me and Ricciardi's words challenged me. As a white woman who loved Africa she has in interesting view point, caught between what her people have done to Africa and what Africa has done for her. Sorrow and pain and regret are unavoidable when it comes to the Africa of today, but they are bound up with incredible beauty. This book doesn't so much show us the heart of Africa, but the heart of a woman who has been effected forever by the two faces of this land.

   Although Ricciardi writes eloquently about Africa and shares herself and her deepest thoughts with the reader in a personal, searching way, it is her photographs that tell her story best. She has captured both the last days of the Africa she knew and the beginning of its new life, in this collection of some of her best and favorite work. A beautiful book.

No comments about 2007 Country Profile and Guide to Ghana - National Travel Guidebook and Handbook - USAID, Agriculture, Energy, Business, AIDS (Two CD-ROM Set).

1 comments about John Muir's Last Journey: South To The Amazon And East To Africa: Unpublished Journals And Selected Correspondence (Pioneers of Conservation).

1. Muir's journals were good but I didn't care for the introduction to the journals in each chapter by the author. The intro's went into way to much background detail. I would have been fine with less intro.

2 comments about No Picnic on Mt. Kenya (The Adventure Library , No 16).

1. A climber is captured during the war, and is brought to a camp within sight of Mt Kenya, and the only thing he can concentrate on is to climb the mountain. With all of the difficulties just to get to the mountain let alone climb it with only the crudest of tools, no maps or any other knowledge of the mountain he and two others seek out its summit. Then to try to return into the same POW camp without harming a soul is a remarkable feat in itself, and a tribute to the love of the mountains and climbing them, at all costs.



2. What a delightful story. Italian POWs confined in a British prison camp in Kenya during World War II decide to break out and climb Mt. Kenya. Each day, from their prison confinement they view the 17,000 foot peak in the distance and are captured by its beauty and majesty. Prison is boring, with endless days and nights so anything would be better than just sitting around. How they assemble their supplies and equipment is a major work in deception. Then, their escape and subsequent journey up the mountain is nothing short of sensational. What a bunch of wild and crazy guys! An unusual adventure story, well worth your time.

No comments about Among the Mongols.

1 comments about Liberian Dreams: Back-To-Africa Narratives from the 1850s.

1. This book reflects on the relocation of slaves back to Africa and their resettlement in Liberia. The narratives are all by slaves, some expressing their content and others their discontent. As a Liberian, it was funny to find one of the major complaints was lack of bread, only rice and cassada (cassava as spelled in this writing), our favorite staple foods. Other aspects of life complained about were (which we consider parts of everyday life) : driver ants, palm oil, jiggers, and yes a freed slave in 1853 complains about a skin disease called craw-craw.
   
   The two most interesting points in this book for me: One content slave pointed out that he left America because he knew in his heart there had to be somewhere on this earth where the black man could be free. Another discontent slave, who hustled his way back to America, said he would rather be a slave in America than live in Liberia without any hope.
   In life there are leaders and followers, some saw an opportunity for a new beginning and others saw too much work ahead of them when leaving a country where everything was already established. Regardless of who we identify with, I am grateful to have come upon this work which provided me some insight into the history of my country.

No comments about Dead Men Do Tell Tales: A 1933 Archeological Expedition into Abyssinia.

1 comments about Morocco Map.

1. Very detailed. Sturdy paper and easily foldable. Large map designed for use in an open area and would not be practical in a car.