HELP! I am Joining the African Reading Challenge.
If you want to learn more about the reading challenge visit Dave… and he will tell you all about it!
Ok everybody… I need some serious help. I am both overwhelmed by the options and frustrated at the lack of options. So general search on Amazon yielded some good results for general non-fiction type stuff. And I am tremendously interested in these three books and hope to learn alot from them.
New News Out of Africa Uncovering Africa’s Renaissance
However when it comes to the fiction category I am a little annoyed. EVERYTHING seems to be about South Africa. And while these two book looks quite good I really was hoping for a bit more scope.
You Can’t Get Lost in Cape Town
And then this also looks interesting but is a FOURTH book to the non-fiction category. And I really want THREE solid Fiction books.
Africans
Plus I would really like to add a memoir to the mix, but all I found was one on Nelson MAndela. And I love the guy… but I was hoping for some untrodden ground for me and he sure as heck aint that. Plus it is South Africa again.
And this list makes my eyes cross. I have no way to make a choice and googling all 100 has no appeal. So I guess what I am saying is HELP. I need to eliminate 2 books out of my non fiction category… Maybe New News out of Africa and the Trouble with Africa? (Or maybe my list is eight books long… lets see how the first picks go and see if I don’t add the others back in… I do like to read!) Leaving space for a nice memoir. Maybe the King Leopold Book? Seems very interesting and leads me to Congo and out of SA. Leaving me with a big gaping hole where my novels should be… And this, I ask the impossible. If you were me, what would you fill that hole with?
I’m currently reading “Half of a yellow sun” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi, I absolutely love it! Check it out here: http://www.halfofayellowsun.com/index.php
Check out some of the recommended books on my website.
http://uncleiggy.spaces.live.com/
Stay away from “New News Out of Africa”, I implore you. It is a well intentioned book that hits way off the mark. In Hunter-Gault’s world the standard of any interesting policy on Africa is set by South Africa. It is an incomplete blah read. Stay away.
Some of the books I have sourced for the Africa Reading Challenge I have bought from African Book Center.com. They have a good selection of books from all over the continent. I’m expecting my purchases to come in this week.
Welcome to the fun!
I read The Trouble with Africa and was not impressed (here were my thoughts: http://www.amazon.com/review/R1VJO04WXNMUMS/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm). I also started Africa Unchained and couldn’t get through the writer’s style; just personal preference. Two excellent and readable nonfiction books are King Leopold’s Ghost and We Regret to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families.
my favorite memoir out of africa is alexandra fuller’s don’t let’s go to the dogs tonight (then Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe), although mandela’s long walk to freedom is amazing even if you’re familiar with mandela.
and for fiction, a personal favorite is Half of a Yellow Sun by adichie, which tells a powerful story with the backdrop of Nigeria’s Biafran war in the 1960s.
Ok, there is the help you KNOW you need and the help you did not even know you needed. THANK YOU all for the help. There is nothing worse than getting excited about a book and having it let you down. Sadly three of my non-fiction choices seem to have fallen into that unfortunate category. Grumble, grumble…
Olmoti8 & Dave: Half Yellow Sun it is! Number 2 on my fiction list YAY!
Tumwijuke: Thanks for the online source! That should help ALOT. I will stay away from New News from Africa on your rec. I was afraid it might be something like that, but was hoping for the best. Sigh.
Dave: Great review on The Trouble with Africa. Maybe I will do White Man’s Burden or The Bottom Billion instead? Don’t Lets Go to the Dog’s tonight, and We Regret to Inform you came up in my searches as well… I’m going to add those to the list as well.
Humm… will need to post a revised list later. I’ll be checking your blog too Otim. Sadly I must get dressed and go to work now.
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