Africa Books

Im new to the world of historical fiction and this book got me reading all sorts of historical fiction. Just after the first page you cant put it down. Its great at the begining, middle, and end. I HIGHLY RECCOMEND this book. Best of all after the end it explanes some of the things at the end about some things that happen in the book that you might not understand or know about in the book. I've read other great books but this is in its own league.

This odyssy-like adventure takes the reader from the embalming tables of ancient Egypt in Greco-Roman Alexandria, in a treacherous voyage across the mediterranean, to many of the major sites and into the path of many of the major players of the era. Damon, the young medical student from Alexandria, and his best friend seek to take a message to Damon's Roman soldier father and in the process they meet Cleopatra, Cicero,and Caesar Augustus. They attend a gladiator fight at the Colloseum, they witness a peasant uprising, and they view Caesar's war in the border area of far off Spain. Moving from one action packed calamity to another, the excitement never slows. This well-researched historical novel is fun to read as well.

Damon, a young medical student in Alexandria, and his friend Artemas set out on a journey to find Damon's father. Damon's mother has just died and the two boys wish to tell Litigus of his wife's death in person. Their journey is full of peril and excitement -- from shipwreck to shark attack, from meeting Cleopatra and being sent on a mission by her to meeting Caesar. The adventure never ends for these two boys. The setting is Ancient Egypt during the time of Cleopatra, but don't let that discourage you. This book is highly entertaining. Each chapter leaves you at a suspenseful moment and you can't wait to continue. Perfect for a read aloud. There is a glossary and an author's note in the back. The glossary will be especially useful. Highly recommended.

This story kept me hooked from first sentence to last! I don't want to give away juicy details, but the author reveals the culture of the time in vivid and exciting scenes. It all becomes so real and you find yourself caught up in Damon's adventure. Wow! Boys and girls alike will eat this one up.

Written by Book of the Year award finalist Steven Gills, The Weight of Nothing is a novel about money, regret, revenge, and forgiveness. Two friends, each carrying a burden that has haunted him for years, resolve to travel to Algiers and confront their demons. When terrible tragedy strikes, it poses a difficult question - how resolve years of squandered ambition, lost chances of love, and continue living past unspeakable violence? A poignant and memorable chronicle of the long, difficult journey of the human spirit.

The Weight of Nothing is a huge novel. While you could read it in a leisurely fashion, enjoying the characters and the plot at a superficial level, there is a wealth of appreciation for art, music and philosophy. After a few pages I picked up a pen and started highlighting passages I liked and wanted to mull over later.

The two central characters are connected by an act of violence when the office building that Niles father works in is blown up by Bailey's brother in a terrorist bombing. Niles not only loses his tycoon father, but also the love of his life who was on her way to confront his father. A strange sympathy develops between Niles and Bailey. Bailey tries to save Niles from the somnambulant masochism that Niles tells Bailey he's developed, and Niles tries to keep Bailey from losing Elizabeth, a pianist who has lost her arm.

I love Elizabeth--she is the first real challenge to Bailey's self-protective philosophies. "You're all gusto and wild performance," she tells him after hearing him play piano. Her bluntness is offset by how deeply she cares for Bailey, evidenced not only by many of the things she says but also by her willingness to put up with Bailey's emotional stagnation. Bailey's determination to "want for nothing" eventually sends Elizabeth away though. While in general Gillis complicates issues very satisfyingly, it is clear that the philosophies and attitudes Bailey has cultivated to protect himself are the very things that will hurt him the most in the end, if he cannot overcome them.

Bailey and Niles are both deeply wounded characters, who cannot stop wounding themselves. They creatively, endlessly, try to work through their problems. Both have lost their girlfriends, and both have overbearing fathers (who Gillis manages to paint huge in only a few brushstrokes). In the end, they travel to Algiers for what proves to be a life-altering--and for one of them, life-ending--journey.

I found myself not only enjoying TWON for its plot and characters, but also for the philosophical questions which were explored throughout the book. The author developed certain themes and questions over the course of the novel which I poured over after reading it. Besides those themes in bold on the inside cover (Memory Regret Revenge Forgiveness) there were several passages about time that I loved--some related to memory, "There's no order to memory after all, is there? I mean, once something happens, it's there in your head with all the rest," and others about the weight of time and its effects. In the end an unusual therapy is used on Bailey to undo this weight, and after this Bailey reestablishes contact with Elizabeth. As with all of the rest of the book, this attempt to reach out to Elizabeth is strange, compelling and beautiful.

Steven Gillis' novel, The Weight of Nothing, explores complex and deeply personal and painful issues, and he does that through wounded characters struggling to find answers to those issues. However, the answers they are searching for may not exist.

Bailey Finne is a talented musician who doesn't fully develop or use his talent. What he does is become a professional student of Art History and makes excuses to the PhD. Committee about why his dissertation hasn't been completed. His problems revolve around the death of his mother, and his father's inability to move on after her death, as well as a troubled love life.

Niles Kelly was born to a wealthy man via a surrogate mother that he had no contact with following his birth. Niles rejects his wealth but is haunted by the violent deaths of his father and his lover.

Bailey and Niles travel together to Algiers to confront the ghosts of their past, hoping that the journey will help them excise those ghosts.

The Weight of Nothing is well-written and a deeply moving piece. Gillis' prose is compelling as he weaves the characters through the labyrinth of life.

"There's a point in every piece of music when the melody completes itself and what's left is a final refrain. Occasionally an aria will vary its rhythm just enough to reinterpret the music through a less predictable finish, and other times an arrangement ends so suddenly the audience isn't quite sure the music's over until the last echoing notes have faded and the room falls eerily still. Either way, the song is done."


Steven Gillis quietly set the literary cognoscenti on alert with the publication of his first novel WALTER FALLS last year. As always the question arises when a `first novel' suggests a talent of depth: Is there more? With the writing of THE WEIGHT OF NOTHING Gillis proves that his prelude, no matter how accomplished that was, served as only as intimation of the talent of this new American writer of substance. Gillis is that rare breed of writer who understands how to grasp the reader's attention, secure a train of thought in content and technique, assuring that once the written journey has begun, the only choice is to hold on with mind and emotion to the anticipated conclusion.

THE WEIGHT OF NOTHING intertwines the lives of several young people in quest of the answer to the universal question of `Who Am I?' in a way that avoids the predictable and in essence incorporates their ephemeral acts with paired explorations in philosophy, art, music, religion, and global socioeconomic problems. In short, this is a story of two men whose early lives were set in motion by traumatic confrontations with loss and the aimlessness that accompanies that unleashed spectre.

Bailey Finne is a gifted natural musician, Secretly learning piano from his musical mother until she is lost to him in childhood in a freak death that pushed his alcoholic father further away from his two sons (Bailey's older brother Tyler responds to this death by fleeing into a life crime, the military, and eventually terrorism). Descrying his father's flaccid, empty life, Bailey embraces music, being able to play all manner of music by ear but settling for entertaining folks in a bar rather than pursuing a career in classical music. He eventually becomes an art history major in college and blithely approaches his dissertation on an obtuse recluse of an artist (L.C. Timbal) with the same glib attitude that has become his life signature. He has girlfriends who try to encourage his gifts, but none more significantly than Elizabeth, a music major/pianist/composer who lost her right arm in a vicious dog attack. Bailey's obsession with her after she leaves him because of this immature, slothful attitude towards things she considers important propels Bailey on his journey to discover what is meaningful in life. "It's the conflict between what ends and our need to continue that causes trauma."

Niles Kelley is the only son of a megalomaniac capitalist who unsuccessfully attempts to mold Niles into a template of his design, seeing no value at all in Niles' preoccupation with literature and philosophy - especially his `hero' the nihilist Camus - nor his relationship with Jeana, a free spirit who encourages Niles' dreams and sees the evil in the capitalistic empiricism of Niles' father. In a auspicious moment of time Niles loses Jeana as she enters the building where Niles' father controls industry: the building is exploded with terrorist bombs placed there by one Tyler Finne and his roommate, the Muslim Oz, a lad who loathes American capitalism and has grown disenchanted with his own father's superficial use of religion to camouflage his own power brand of capitalism. The result of this tragic loss of his beloved Jeana and the collapse of his father's influence drives Niles into a state of self-mutilation, an illness for which he seeks the advice of a Muslim philosopher/healer who encourages Niles to go to Algiers to better understand the writings of Camus and find healing for his malady and his need for forgiveness for Jeana's useless death and his father's `part' in that calamity. In Algiers he hoped to find "the surrounding silence Camus wrote of as weaving together the hopes and despairs of human life."

Bailey and Niles, fellow students at a university, grow close at the funeral for Jeana and eventually accompany each other to Algiers, Niles to seek forgiveness and healing through Camus, and Bailey to finally focus his diasporic creative mind on finding the elusive painter Timbal - the subject of his long avoided dissertation. Bailey tends to Niles' somnambulistic wanderings and self-mutilations while Niles encourages Bailey's efforts to bring closure to his fragmented life. As Bailey discovers Timbal and confronts his own vacuous artistic and spiritual life, Niles wanders the desert and encounters Aziz, a man who assists him in finding the perpetrator of Jeana's death and Niles' life ends in a way that brings him into the ring of closure of his author hero Camus wrote in A Happy Death. Devastated, Bailey returns home, begins therapy with Emmitt who slowly helps Bailey become grounded into finding peace through a long series of self-imposed deprivations meant to clear the slate of his life and allow him a starting point afresh - "to achieve a point of nothingness and return to a natural state of being." "The idea that examining our past will lead us to a clearer understanding of ourselves, and in turn a more constructive life, is egocentric....Self-knowledge is unreliable at best and at times a danger. The emphasis should be not on remembering but forgetting and returning to a point where no wounds exist."


Steven Gillis draws such exquisite characters that each becomes wholly believable, even at their obtuse edges. The story is told in a series of explanations introduced very slyly by a page or two of what we eventually realize are on-going therapy sessions with Emmitt for Bailey and Massinissa Alilouche for Niles. But the real wonder of Gillis' writing stems from his obviously profound depth of knowledge about art (here is a fine synopsis of the works of Bacon, Gorky, Diebenkorn, the abstract Expressionists, etc), of music ( Bailey's turning point in his break with Elizabeth is his ability to play an Etude by the obscure composer Nikolai Roslavets (1881-1944), a Russian composer who did exist and married the styles of Debussy with Scriabin and Rachmaninoff and Shostakovich with his own Messiaen-like sense of atonality), of the very current schism between American imperialism and the view of the Muslims we are now breathing, of the great literature of the 20th Century, of terrorism, and of world politics. He writes poetically about the smells and vistas of Algiers in a way that would suggest that he has lived there extensively. At the same time he is able to make wry tongue-in-cheek diversions by naming the buildings that housed the fathers of Bailey and Niles "Ryse and Fawl" and "Reedum and Wepe"! It is this sophisticated mixture of parody, metaphor, depth of factual material from disparate fields of knowledge, and impressive sense of structural detail that makes his fascinatingly unique and timely story and characters burst off the page. Steven Gillis enters the ranks of the important writers and thinkers of the 21st Century. With THE WEIGHT OF NOTHING he assures us his future is solid.

West African Rhythms for Drumset is hands down one of the BEST books ever. The writers and editors did their homework because they have given the drum world a true gem. There is so much valuable information in this book its hard to desrcibe in a simple review. Any drummer or hand percussionist can and will benefit from this masterpiece. 5 stars and a total A++++++++++. Larry Salzman www.larrysalzman.net

Had this book nearly a year, recommended to anyone seeking to add to their drumset vocabulary. Material is well presented and structured, how these Ghanaian traditions and styles adapted on to the drum kit, it has given me plenty of ideas about concept of timeline, creating diff.textures, use of brush/stick/hands on drums, 12/8 melodic phrases etc. Study of these rhythms will greatly add to your grooving abilty and improve co-ordination, internalize them and then improvise and have fun with them, buy it.

I would like to post the following quote from Modern Drummer Magazine (September 98) in the interview with drummer Billy Martin of Medenski Martin & Wood.

MD Do you have a particular mode of practice?

BM I highly recommend Royal Hartigan's book West African Rhythms for Drumset. I feel that if drummers would check out some of the patterns in this book they'd really get a lot out of it. What's great about it is you're playing some traditional rhythms that are adapted for drumset, which I think is important because they've been tried and tested over hundreds of years. It's good for coordination, and these rhythms are musical, they're not just technical exercises. And Hartigan talks a little bit about the history. I think it's one of the best books our on drumset stuff.

MD So this book is a real source for you?

BM Well, It's one book that I would pull out if I needed some inspriation as far as really trying to get into into playing something different.

Tha! nks! Please feel free to contact me if you want to find out more about it.

This book and accompanying CD are essential to any real drummer. These rhythms are the real deal and if you can learn to play them, you will have a great foundation to play with anyone (Afro, Latin, Jazz, etc.). Even if you are NOT a trap drummer but play traditional african music, this book gives you the traditional fokloric ensemble set up with examples on the CD. I like that these traditional ensemble examples on the CD have each instrument/part come in announced succesion against the bell. I used to live in Ghana playing drums and I really learned a lot from this book. It has something for everyone, no matter what your skill level! OK enough gushing! Buy it you won't regret it!

I lived in beautiful Zimbabwe for 4 years in the 80s-90s, I didn't want to leave I loved it so much and to this day still think about Zim (and consider it my home more than where I live now - for 10 years!) I've seen first had what Mugabe is capable of doing and it is sooo sad what he has done to a beautiful place like Zim!

Mr. Hill has performed a great service to the world at large. Most leaders and other figureheads believe that once Mugabe goes it will all be roses. Hill explains how difficult it is to recover from a bad regime, especially one that has been entrenched in power for so very long. You must read this book.

President Mugabe has entrenched himself in power, but his time may be coming to an end. South African resident Geoff Hill envisions a future without him in WHAT HAPPENS AFTER MUGABE? CAN ZIMBABWE RISE FROM THE ASHES? From how an incoming leader will handle a nation rife with unemployment and poor social standards to how outgoing tyrants will be punished, WHAT HAPPENS AFTER MUGABE is a pick for any who would understand the politics and changes of Zimbabwe.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

As Zimbabwe plunges deeper and deeper into chaos the question we all ask is 'will the madness ever end?' It is impossible to see light at the end of the tunnel given the depths to which Zimbabwe has sunk. The book gives a brief history of the country and paints a picture of the dismal current state of affairs. However, Geoff Hill optimistically outlines a rough framework of the process involved in returning Zimbabwe to self-sufficient democracy after the fall of Mugabe. He covers all of the most important areas; personal freedom and law and order, independence of the judiciary, provision of food and the land question, education, health and the task of luring back the millions of Zimbabweans in exile to support the reconstruction process. He interviews numerous prominent Zimbabweans (most in exile) including Geoff Nyarota, Basildon Peta, Gerry Jackson as well as other Zimbabweans from all walks of life, including plicemen, school leavers, MDC supporters and exiles in England and South Africa. Their opinions and ideas for the future are diverse and insightful. It would be easy to dismiss the book as being overly optimistic filled with nostalgia for the Zimbabwe of the 1980's and early 90's. Geoff Hill, however, includes numerous examples of other African countries including Rwanda, Kenya, Mali, South Africa and Nigeria that have managed to heal to a degree and return to states of relative peace and democracy after horrific pasts. As Zimbabwean in exile I felt as if the book was written for people like me, but it is well written and widely researched and I believe anyone with an interest in Zimbabwean affairs would find the ideas fascinating and informative.

We bought three book by nick greaves while travel in south Africa. We buy books for our three grandchildren( age 4,6,8) while travelling in South Africa last year. We have given them so many books through the years from around the world. They love these books so much. First the parents read to them,every night now the oldest reads to the younger ones. I wish the author writes more books for children.

My 9-year old son came home from school today very excited about this book, which his teacher had started reading to the class. He took out his wallet, counted his money, and asked, "Can we go on line and buy this book right now? I have enough of my own money to buy it." This is enough proof for me that kids love it.

The sub-title "And other tales from Africa" seems to suggest that this book was written for children, but it is fun to read for adults as well. Nick Greaves tells stories, tales, fables and legends from the African tribes about different animals and after each section gives facts about them. By doing this especially for tourists the book gives a general idea of the wildlife one might come across while traveling in Africa and furthermore the book supplies the not native speaker with useful vocabulary. The illustrations of Rod Clement are just as good as photos, sometimes even better, because good close-ups of mainly the small and nocturnal animals are quite rare. "When Hippo Was Hairy" was followed up by "When Lion Could Fly", which is highly recommendable, too.

We recently moved to South Africa and, prior to our first visit to a game park we bought this book to read on our adventure- it is wonderful, full of short entertaining stories that were gathered from the various tribes of Africa to explain why certain animals have spots, long trunks, sleep standing up etc....

Our children loved it and we bought the other 2 in the series.

Can I give this more than 5 stars? My kids love this book (and so do I). When we read it, they take turns on alternate pages "finding" Manyoni (almost like a "where's waldo" thing). The illustrations are breathtakingly beautiful. The story is simple and sweet. And did I mention the illustrations? You'll love it as much as the kids will!

My girls (aged 7 and 2) both loved this book. We treated it as a mystery--after each page asking "where is Manyoni going?" It really kept the girls' attention while we looked at the beautiful illustrations and tried to guess her destination. I agree with the other reviewer's comparison to "Where's Waldo?". In the illustrations, it gets progressively more difficult to spot Manyoni as she gets smaller and smaller in relation to the surrounding landscape. My 2-year-old often could spot Manyoni much more quickly than I could. This book is a simple but entertaining story, beautifully illustrated and a nice introduction to southern African ecology and culture. Highly recommended, especially for pre-school children and those with an interest in Africa!

I am actually the author/artist of this book. I have illustrated over eighty books but this is my favourite one, probably because I enjoyed working on it so much. I went to my sister's farm in Zimbabwe with another story in mind, but tossed it aside and did this one in a heightened moment of inspiration, much to the concern of my editor in New York. I want to thank the private Amazon reviewers for their enthusiasm. It is is still selling well, although was initially received without much fanfare from the editorial reviewers when it came out eleven years ago. Time Magazine chose it as one of their ten favourite children's books of the 1994.

This is one of my favorite books for young children. It raises the "Waldo" and "I Spy" concept into the realm of Art, while telling a lovely story about an African girl and her way of life. It encompasses a lot of real-world wildlife education, a little mystery (Where is Manyoni going?), and gentle multicultural comparisons which open up great conversations during and after reading. One of my children loved this book when she was 2, another is still reading it at 5, and my 9 year old used it recently to research what a wildebeest looks like. It is informative without being "teachy", and the pronunciation guide at the back makes it accessible for reading-aloud parents! Stock's illustrations are beautiful, and her gentle telling of a simple but profound story is perfect. I'll be treasuring this book for years, and giving it as a gift to little friends as long as I can!

This beautifully illustrated book tells a simple story that can be appreciated on many levels. I used it in a mixed age Sunday School class (4-10 year olds) and I think all the kids enjoyed it AND got something out of it.

I am so thrilled to see that this lovely book is available again. My grandson received this book from my sister as a christening present and we have read it together more times than I can count. The beautiful pictures and soothing tone of the book held his attention when he was very young, and Zenele's question and the wonderful answers from the animal kingdom intrigued him as he grew older (3 and up). I plan to buy 2 more copies right away - one for my church's nursery and one as a first birthday present. Don't be concerned that this book is religion-specific; it works for anyone willing to consider the question, "Who made me?"

Zanele has one big question. Who made her? to help her find the answer, she turns to her friends, the animals of the African bush. What she discovers by the end of the day is wiser than she ever imagined. Cathie Felstead's spectacular artwork is a perfect showpiece for Shirley Tulloch's engaging and delightful story.

I really enjoyed this book - it's written and illustrated beautifully. The US Publishers Weekly calls it 'quiet and reverend', 'a book that captures the vastness of the African landscape'. That is exactly how I felt when the author presented me with a copy! The story is deceptively simple, and becomes ever more beautiful as it sinks in. It makes an excellent christening present.

Ms. Ford has courageously put a face on the shameful epedemic and barbarian act of child abuse and AIDs ignorance around the World and specifically South Africa. This is an intimate and eloquent chronicle of how Ms. Ford and her daughter Vyanna's life intersected at precisely the right moment when the world needs to hear God..

This story gives us a glimpse of what happens when we open our hearts, excercise our faith and believe that, all of us, must take responsibility for the children.

African American, globetrotter, midwife, activist, scholar, feminist, author, mother, Claudia J. Ford is an extraordinary woman who has lived many places in the world while honing her expertise of issues of international development while raising three sons. On December 2, 2001, in a ghetto porn theatre in Johannesburg, a five-month-old girl was sexually violated -- gang raped and left for dead. Within two weeks of this incredible assault, little Vyanna would find herself in the care of Claudia Ford. In Why Do I Scream At God For The Rape Of Babies? Claudia candidly addresses an horrific reality. In South Africa more than 15 percent of all reported rapes are against children under the age of eleven. 26 percent are against children ages twelve through seventeen. In the year 2000, fifty-eight children a day were raped or the victims of attempted rape. This seminal, ground breaking memoir is a testament woven of journal entries, poems, epigrams, letters, and even portions of scholarly papers, and is specifically intended to lift the veil of silence and secrecy on this widespread atrocity. Why Do I Scream At God For The Rape Of Babies? embraces the power of love, courage, faith, and hope to change the world into something better for the sake of future generations. Would there were more autobiography voices against other such social injustices in the modern world.

How can we live in a sophisticated high tech world where desperate ignorant men rape babies to rid themselves of AIDS, addicted and abused women allow their babies to be brutalized, and governments play games with HIV/AIDS statistics to make sure tourism is not undermined in their country? When I finshed the book and wiped my tears, I too felt angry and wanted to scream. This poignant journey of one strong woman and one strong-willed woman-child changes the screams of anger into shouts of victory. Ford embodies the strength that we all need to make changes in our "sophisticated" societies ... we can each stop screaming and start doing something about the challenges we see every day. Ford did that. A powerful book from a powerful spirit.

This book is engaging, moving and unforgettable. It will toll in your heart like a bell.
The reader begins a journey with Ford at her first meeting with the baby, a survivor of rape at five months old. Ford asks us how the world became complacent, how we lost feeling, lost compassion, and then takes the reader by the hand, and says "walk with me" and we begin to regain our senses. Through the clarity of her writing we allowed into Ford's tears, her grappling, her powerful mother's love and her struggle for solutions. Our Compassion is restored. This book will change you forever.

The story, part of ancient Nigerian lore, is an intriguing one, providing insight into non-Western folktales. However, it is the illustrations that truly make this book. They are stunning in their vibrancy. My toddler son really enjoys this book and I love reading it to him.

Buy this book for the illustrations. They're spectacular. You'll want to frame each one and hang them on your wall. Of just leave it on your coffee table for people to ohh and ahh over.
For anyone who can't afford an original Carla Golembe -- she's a famous artist who exhibts in Mass. and Maryland -- this is the next best thing.

I find myself struggling to get my daughter to eat foods good for her body and read books good for her mind. This book accomplished what I wanted -- it teaches about a different culture, taking care of the environment, and how greed leads to punishment. It did this with an entertaining story and beautiful pictures, fully deserving it's prominent place on my daughter's bookshelf.

Why the sky is far away is a great story that teaches important ecological and moral values in a fun way. The illustrations are amazing and the story is delightful.

I thought this was a great book. This type of trip is what a lot of us dream about, but would never have the nerve to do. After reading it, I realized how difficult a trip like this would be for the average person to do. The boarder crossings were especially scary. They were indeed very brave to undertake this but at the same time the feeling came across of how much they enjoyed it and learned much from it. I especially thought the epilogue was interesting when Richard reflected back on what little necessities a person really needs to exist and be happy. I also visited their web site as suggested in the book where many photographs are posted, which brought the people that much closer.

The book starts in San Diego and whisks you off at the speed of a VW van to Mexico and Africa. The best part of the book is the honesty of Richard Ligato. He doesn't make you think its an easy trip, in fact, he and his wife Amanda have to overcome all kinds of obstacles. However, he remains very reflective and humbled by the whole experience. This book really draws you in to their world. A great read for anyone interested in traveling outside of the US. Lots of interesting facts and bits of trivia too.

This book is great! I couldnt put it down. Takes the reader along on the adventure and shares unique cultural insights. Truly an amazing acomplishment, both the trip and the book.I hope the Authors write another soon.

A truly fun adventure in which the reader experiences life on the open road, exploring new countries and cultures, and gets a taste of what it would be like to live a more simple life.

Informative, fun, and inspiring!

The Ligatos have accomplished a goal that most of us only dream of. Their 3-year adventure is both heartwarming and nail-biting. They tell their stories with such clarity and passion that you can't help but get wrapped up in their adventures.

Being totally non-mechanical, I was fascinated with their tales of keeping their old VW running -- but they met such wonderful characters because it, that it wouldn't have been half as much fun in a more modern cruiser!

This book is a must read for anyone who has ever dreamed of just taking off and letting life happen. A truly great read.