South Africa Books

It never entered my mind that so few could be so deperate enough to be so evil. These all seem so calculated, which is in a way more disturbing that someone who is just a psycopath.

Ms Pistorius is unbiased and very factual and I enjoyed reading her account.

Well researched.

A friend gave me Feather Fall for Christmas two years ago, thinking I would enjoy reading it. For some reason I put it on the shelf and forgot about it for several months. When I picked it up and started reading it, I called her to say what a fantastic book and that she must read it! Since then I have been trying to read everything by and about Laurens van der Post. He has led me into a discovery of the people and geography of South Africa, but more importantly has helped me on my spiritual journal.

Featuring full-color photography of over 1,200 insect species, Field Guide To Insects Of South Africa is a comprehensive guide to insect fauna of South Africa, now in an updated 2004 edition. Senior Zoology Lecturer Mike Picker, Associate Zoology Professor Charles Griffiths, and retired entomologist Alan Weaving combine their knowledge and expertise in this guide that offers extensive identification details, maps of regional habitats, and basic biology information allowing for quick and simple field identification of insect species. An index of scientific names, and an introduction to insect hunting and classification round out this easy-to-use guide for amateur nature lovers and professional zoologists alike.

This is an excellent guide to have if ever you wanted to go South Africa for the first time.

This is a fabulous book. Very well & clearly illustrated. It includes trees from the surrounding countries of Zimbabwe, Namibia & Botswana. Very easy to use as a reference book in the field, or when you want to identify a tree at home. It gives the Latin name, as well as the English & Afrikaans one & often the African name for each tree. Equally useful for an expert, or a novice in the field of trees. Lovely man - having met the author - & would strongly recommend buying this book if you are interested in trees of the Kruger region.

This is a gut wrenching, eye opening book to read for a white South African who was kept in the darkness about the atrocities of apartheid. At the same time, Caesar Molebatsi's testimony of love and faith is inspiring. He shares honestly and bluntly his journey and struggle to be faithful to the call of reconciliation in the midst of opposition and persecution. I take my hat off to him. A true hero, a real Christian!

In less than 100 pages Sandile Memela efficiently deals with the impact of HIV/AIDS on families, access to treatment, stigma and the testing experiences of being a woman, young and black growing up in Soweto. The story is told against the backdrop of post-1994 South Africa and her people's struggle to find their place in the new dispensation. The issues are not new, neither are the experiences of the characters unique; but the book brings them to the fore in an engaging and inquiring manner, leaving the reader to look deep into themselves and ask what they are doing to change things for the better for our children, the flowers of our nation.

I just finished reading this delightful African travel and cooking book and I also just finished tonight's meal which was a curry from this book, inspired by the cooking of Madagascar. Tomorrow I must return the book to the local library from which I was lucky enough to obtain this copy. I think it is selling for $150.00 on the Amazon used book site so I consider myself lucky that a South African migrant friend pointed it out to me.

About a month ago I finished Theroux's "Dark Star Safari: A Journey Through Africa" so I was interested in seeing the two very different approaches taken by the respective authors to the Africa through which they journeyed. Both saw Africa through massively different eyes and as a result the lucky reader is able to mentally glue both impressions together and arrive at a reasonable picture of a continent I unfortuneatly will never see.

Floyd's anecdotes provide for a quick, extremely pleasant read and his recipes and cooking observations contribute to this excellent book. Although he drew inspiration for his dishes from the areas through which he traveled, Floyd would be the first to admit that the people of these countries would rarely be able to afford the ingredients for the particular dish he was preparing.

Floyd used the recipes in this book as part of cooking demonstrations for a British TV channel. I am sure that most of the recipes are of Floyd's own devising; however, that in no way detracts from the book's African theme because the ingredents, if not directly attributable to the cooking of the particular region, at least derives its inspiration from historic product availabiity because of trade or European imperialism or foreign migration. For instance as he points out, there is a great Indonesian population and therefore influence in Durban, South Africa.

If you have an interest in Floyd's vision of his contemporary African environment or its foods, cooking and recipes, then you owe it to yourself to try and locate this marvelous book.

This is first hand experience at its best. Dr Coan not only shares his opnion on African Methodism on African soil, but also his experience in the Mother-land. Not for the faint-hearted who always likes to be patted on their back for their achievements, but rather a realistic call for Africa to be allowed to floursh and move towards total freedom of self help and self awareness

I have to say that I had no real desire to visit South Africa until I got this book and now it's on my travel list of possible destinations along with Hawaii, Antarctic, Canada, Alaska, Italy, Spain, France, etc. The book is beautifully written, researched, and explained well by the co-authors Francisca Kellett and Lizzie Williams. On the cover, Michael Palin CBE said "Great traveling companions, constantly entertaining and they know what they're talking about." Anyway, the colored photos of nature and culture in this book are first rate. I used the pages about apartheid to teach my students about it in literature class. South African writers like Doris Lessing CH, Nadine Gordimer (Nobel prizewinner 1991) and J.M Coetzee (Nobel Prizewinner) are all wonderful to read but Lessing wasn't mentioned. I wished they had mentioned Rhodesia but this book is tour guide and not a history book but it does delve in the dark history of apartheid. It does give you warnings about how to be careful when you are visiting South Africa. I still would love to visit South Africa and desire one day to go and see not only the natural beauty, enjoy the beaches that look incredible, and see wildlife in it's natural environment.