Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Books About Africa

Can you recommend any books to read before I head out to Kenya?

Right now, I'm reading "Imperial Reckoning" by: Caroline Elkins. It’s very well written, but has uncomfortably disturbing content.

I just recently finished "We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families" by Philip Gourevitch. This is another very well written one with disturbing content. It’s not necessarily set in Kenya, but is a neighbor of theirs (Rwanda).

On the shelf to be read is "Unbowed: a Memoir" by Wangari Maathai. She is the first African woman, and the first Environmentalist, to win the Nobel Peace Prize, back in 2004.

These will give me a fairly good understanding of Africa and/or Kenya, as well as the people who live there. But I love to read, and have months ahead of me - so am always looking for more information.

Some time ago I read "The River" by Edward Hooper. Perhaps I should get that back out and read thru it again, since there is so much HIV and AIDS there.

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous9:41 PM

    weird... my first response to a BLOG? I have a friend ( of course!) in NAWIC who has made dozens of trips to Africa - a land surveyor in New York State. She has done massive amounts of charity work over there and should have good suggestions. I will e-mail her address to you. Evie

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