Africa Books

This book is very important to read: mostly because so few people know about the bushmeat trade in Africa and its impact on the great apes. The book goes into why apes are worth saving, the contribution of logging to crisis, how the crisis is kept hidden, and suggestions on how to alleviate the problem. You will be very surprised to learn the lengths, difficulties, and dangers the contributors of the book go through simply to bring this issue into the spotlight. I also found it very shameful how the crisis has been ignored and exacerbated by the media and the conservation groups.


Honestly though, I felt the book was a little long. It's not actually a long book, but its longer than it needs to be. It seemed to get a little repetitive as the author kept hammering the same points over again. Also, though the author does include an aside on vegetarianism and its merits (while discouraging veganism), he is not a vegetarian himself. While this is, of course, not the subject of the book I feel that if he is going to argue to protect the great apes on the grounds of their sentience, than it is wrong to overlook the sentience of cows, chickens, and especially pigs (who have the same mental capacity as a dog). This is just a minor criticism, but it did bother me a little throughout the book.

So yes, you should read this book. Its very thorough, detailed, complete, and compelling. You will learn a lot and, if the authors have succeeded (and I think they have), you will be sufficiently outraged and willing to contribute to the cause.

Sometime far in our past, humans took up rocks and sticks to hunt food instead of scavenging from other predators. With our meat available today in shrink-wrapped containers it's easy to lose sight of that long-standing tradition. Others in the world still obtain meat in the traditional environment. The difference is that instead of spears, the weapons are high-powered shotguns. Instead of skulking through the forest seeking prey, hunters are now given rides by timber carriers using deep-penetrating access roads. In this book, Dale Peterson reveals the transformations forest hunting has undergone in West African nations. It's not a
pleasing picture, but it's valid and it's important. And it must change.

The bushmeat trade has many implications, but Peterson has chosen three significant ones. One, of course, is that by killing chimpanzees, bonobos and gorillas for food, we're consuming our nearest relations. The primate line divided only 12 million years ago, with the descendants of one line becoming today's mountain gorillas. The other line led to chimpanzees and bonobos with a spur turning off about 7 million years ago leading to you and me. The proximity of chimpanzee and human DNA patterns is no longer news, but the reminder needs to be flashed occasionally.

Another implication is health. With so much attention given to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, it's worth reflecting on its origins. More importantly, as Peterson reminds us, is to consider how it works. HIV/AIDS appears to be a recent evolutionary virus quirk. It adapts and evolves with amazing speed. The roots of it remain in the African forest and a new strain can emerge at any time. The best means of transmission from ape or monkey to human is through blood - that stuff the hunter is soaked in as he butchers his forest kill.

The third theme is the question of human relations with the rest of our environment. Human population growth is presented in a novel framework. How many humans come into existence every day is contrasted with the great ape population. Peterson calculates that the entire gorilla population is equalled by new humans every twelve hours. Population pressures in the "developed" world lead to demands for African timber products. In turn, the timber firms are cutting great swaths of forest using displaced populations for labour. To feed these workers, hunters are hired or loggers hunt and apes, due to their availability and size, become a major food source. In a feedback cycle of habitat reduction and hunting, the apes are simply being exterminated. Recovery would require sharply reduced logging. Peterson notes that trees are being taken that began growth in Michaelangelo's time, but their replacements will be cut in only forty years.

Peterson is effusive in his description of the significant role played by Swiss photographer Karl Ammann. Ammann's chance encounter with a logging truck driver revealed the role international logging firms play in the ape slaughter and the extended bushmeat trade. The logging firms, particularly CIB, contend they are providing "employment for locals, health services, food and education". Peterson explains the falsity of this contention, with "health services limited to a nurse and schools and teachers paid for by the workers' families.

Peterson argues that the long-established bushmeat tradition is already lost, displaced by commercial logging practices and new, mass hunting methods using guns, sometimes lent by government officials. If we can change a culture, such as was done with slavery, hunting traditions no longer tenable can be modified, as well. He cites the willingness of Americans to spend minimal annual funds to protect wolves, bears and other fauna. Why not establish a fund for ape protection. He calculates that US$1 billion per year could be raised with an individual contribution of but US$50. Not an enormous sum, given that other donations and military expenditures far exceed it. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

What animals we eat are selected by what culture we grow up in. Distant societies think nothing of eating dogs. Some closer ones think eating horse is completely acceptable. Then there are frogs, snakes, and insect larvae. It is all a matter of getting enough protein. One man's protein is another man's atrocity. Americans are used to eating meat they find in Styrofoam trays wrapped in plastic, but the indigenous peoples of central Africa have always eaten the animals living around them: elephants, antelopes, porcupines, rodents, and so on. They don't mind a stew of gorilla or a chimp's sirloin, and what of it? It's the way they have always done things. Tribal languages, in fact, often use the same word for wild animal as they do for meat. The world, however, is not the way it always was, and a shocking book, _Eating Apes_ (University of California Press) by Dale Peterson, shows that apes on the menu is not something the world ought to continue to accept.

We ourselves are members of the tribe of great apes; chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans are on the branch with us. But if African tribes don't share our scientific view or our squeamishness, traditional hunters, in predation balance over the centuries, surely are not going to do lasting harm. Traditional hunting, however, is no longer traditional. There has been an invasion from outside the continent by logging companies, making huge profits from our demand for hardwoods. The companies have lots of workers, many of them from the region, and all the workers have to be fed. Hunters, many of whom are also from the region, are hired to bring in the protein. Bows, arrows, and nets have given way to the far more efficient and deadly wire snares and automatic rifles and shotguns. Perhaps if greater firepower were the only threat to our primate cousins, they could still make it. But we are destroying their habitat (again, mostly by logging), and primates will suffer before other species because of their slow rate of reproduction. There are plenty of species headed toward extinction, but few because we are eating them, and none so close to us evolutionarily. In addition, butchering the apes may be the way humans got HIV and Ebola viruses. It may well be that you haven't heard of the problem of eating apes into extinction because the conservation organizations are keeping quiet about such a downer of a message, and because they are, believe it or not, in partnership with the loggers.

What will be needed is the courage to challenge cultural convictions. It is possible for the West to value (or at least claim to value) sensitivity to other cultures, but in the case of eating apes, it will have to impose scientific knowledge of close kinship, risk of disease, and impending loss of primates to get the native cultures to change. It may even be possible within the corporate culture, which mines habitats to get at profits, to insist not just on sustainable development (a nebulous idea the logging companies pay lip service to) but to take on a wider view of environmental improvement. You can figure up the odds of occurrence of these cultural changes, and especially if you look at our past record, you will not be optimistic. Peterson includes an appendix of what you, and what conservation organizations, can do; he obviously is not giving up hope. Perhaps it is a sign of hope that his reasonable and dispassionate account of this disaster will start many people thinking about the previously covert problem of the loss of the apes. Nevertheless, this is a profoundly disturbing and sad book, and will not be forgotten by those who can get through it.

American and international conservation organizations may be doing little more than feel-good guilt assuaging with many of their slick magazine glossy photos, while ignoring a huge elephant right in front of the world's faces and refusing to show readers the problem.

So says Peterson in the challenging and disturbing book Eating Apes.

Peterson writes about the hunting for bushmeat in Central Africa, specifically hunting great apes - gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos. He accuses the Wildlife Conservation Society of doing little more than giving PR flak to a German logging concern in the Congo, CIB, a decade ago, just at the time public pressure was starting to ratchet up on the issue, in large part due to photographer Karl Ammann.

He also accuses Wildlife Conservation, the magazine of WCS, along with National Geographic and other such magazines and other media for generally downplaying or even spiking the issue. Ammann, as interviewed in the book, is even blunter, noting how several wildlife conservation magazines said they didn't want his pictures specifically because they were too controversial and, in not so many words, too guilt-provoking while showing that the modern western-nation wildlife preservation industry wasn't wearing any clothes on this issue.

Read Eating Apes. Then rethink your donations to wildlife groups, at least without some strong letters to the editor.

With its appealing cover-picture of two baby chimps and its appalling title, "Eating Apes" is a must read for everybody interested in conservation in general and the survival of the great apes in particular. Although I've been already aware of the bushmeat crisis through voluntary work at a zoo, this book hit me hard. The scope of denial by many - individuals and conservation groups alike - paired with risky relationships between NGOs and logging companies is driving our closest living relatives - the great apes - to extinction. Dale Peterson's book encompasses every aspect of this difficult and very complex issue and Karl Ammann's pictures and comments provide further evidence of what really is happening. Everbody who makes or is going to make decisions regarding the bushmeat trade, logging, development and conservation in central Africa has to read this book before making those important and far-reaching decisions. My next task will be to check with the various conservation groups I support, to find out what they are planning to do about this subject. Depending on their answers, I may well choose to cancel some memberships. Something I haven't actually thought about before reading this book - so I hope that many others will follow suit and choose action over complacency!

I read this book 32 years ago and became a Christ lover. Real love was evident to me in this story and I wanted real love. The pastor in the book explained so beautifully what love was and how it was to be waited for, made choices towards and fully expressed in the sacredness of marriage, I got completely and radically saved.
I have purchased this book for so many girls over the years and my son's friends have picked this book up from the coffee table and in just reading a little bit of it, comment, "That's a good book -".
You cannot help but be moved and challenged by the couple's story, the TRUTH they are hearing and their candid responses.
I highly, highly recommend it for anyone wanting to understand the love of God and see how His love manifests in the paradigm of marriage.

This is an excellent story about real people who have real struggles and yet, through it all, are seeking God and His will. Francois is a modern day Jacob who wrestles with God and refuses to give in until God blesses him. All the people in this story disappoint at one time or another. However, that serves to illustrate God's love and faithfulness all the more. It is a true example of Romans 8:28 - All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

Because the book is a compilation of private letters, there is a real sense of the pain and struggle that Francois is going through, and of the sympathy and compassion of Pastor Trobisch. One can easily relate to the characters.

As one aspiring to become a pastor this book was incredibly helpful, the compassion that Pastor Trobisch shows toward Francois while at the same time being firm and clearly and convincingly discussing Biblical principles regarding sex, love, and marriage, is truly moving. It was an excellent example of how to counsel someone who is truly struggling and seeking God.

And as a young man myself, it was helpful to see I have a brother who struggles with love, hope, and disappointment. The words Pastor Trobisch writes to Francois were very helpful and encouraging to me as well.

Some secondary issues: Because Francois is a young African man, the problems he faces, and the interaction between him and Pastor Trobisch - a European missionary - has an added color which both makes the story interesting and demonstrates the difficultly of trying to balance Biblical principles, and respecting cultural traditions. Furthermore, Francois, despite being spiritually immature in many issues demonstrates a remarkable understanding for the importance of the Lord's Supper which is lacking in most Western evangelical churches. Also, church discipline comes up a number of times and demonstrates the human tendency to be a pendulum. The African churches misuse church disciple, using it to punish instead of draw people to repentance (I Cor. 5). At the same time, it is obvious that the Western church has neglected the use of church discipline out of fear of misusing it. It should be noted that although the African church was too strict and unforgiving, Francois would not have been driven to write to Pastor Trobisch if he had not be disciplined. By neglecting church discipline churches damage their members instead of showing them grace and mercy.

This is an excellent book, and, although not without its faults, certainly worth the money and time. I strongly recommend it.

Every teenager should read this book. It is straight to the point. The moment you open the book, it has you enchanted! It isn't even long! I finished it in a day. Nobody will be intimitated by it. It is a great book!

This book is one I think everyone should read. It is inspirational, and expresses in totality what true love really is.
"I Loved A Girl" is a book of private letters written between two young Africans, Francois and Cecile and their Pastor. In these letters they express their unconditional love for each other combined with the love of Christ.
This is definitly a story that should be shared with couples, or those who ever been in love.

Earlier this year, a man I respected gave me a copy of Trobisch's book Love is a Feeling to be Learned. It was very challenging. When the former pastor of my church gave me a copy of I Loved a Girl a few weeks ago, I was excited to read it. I was not disappointed.

This is a chronological collection of letters between two young lovers from Cameroon and their pastor, Trobisch. Initially the concern is the nature and place of sex--"knowing" a woman--it quickly turns to much deeper matters: those of true love and what it really means to fight for a woman's heart. I started reading it last night and stayed up until I finished it, which is rare for me. If you want one book to succintly drive home straight talk about sex, relationships, love, and pursuing your beloved, then this is it!

I really appreciate all parties' transparency and candor in the letters that were written; these are real letters from real people struggling with real issues. Beware: you will be moved and challenged!

Also, I've found that this might be a great book to give to someone considering Christianity but wary of its "outdated" morality. Trobisch really highlights the beauty and purpose of taking male-female relationships God's way instead of man's way.

I have Diane's original, self published version of this book, but having this version, with all the colored pictures, is worth the price of buying the new edition.

For those who like such, there are also specific patterns using the stitches-- something I dont remember the original ook having.

AWESOME. This book is detailed, very easy to follow, and causes visions of projects in your mind that you JUST might be able to do now. This toom of teaching bead weaving goes above and beyond other books written about the same subject.

Highly recommended for content, price, and excitement. Buy it now!!

Lovely book. Wonderful photos and clear instructions of various stitches used. The historical pages are very interesting. Looking forward to the next book!

I love this book-have made one bracelet, and am onto a second one. The instructions are so easy to follow and there are lot's of different patterns to try.

I cannot begin to describe the appreciation I have for this book. Being an Amercian of African decent, I always appreciate learning about the culture and history of people from different parts of the motherland. I have been trying to find a how-to-book on making African beaded jewelry. From what I observed from books about African Art and culture, the jewelry is always so colorful and beautifully designed. I want to make and wear jewelry that imulates the beauty of African styles of beading. Through a perspective of a person of African decent, I would have liked to see photographic examples of jewelry made by the Africans, which the book shows, but with more of them and the instructions demonstrating how to make them. However, the author has made the jewelry shown in this book to truly represent styles and beauty of African beaded jewelry. The photographs, the jewelry and instructions in this book are fantastic as others have mentioned and plus some.

There is an Angoni tribal proverb that says, "The dust of Africa never leaves the soles of your feet." If this heartfelt paean to Ms. Jahme's mother country is any indication, that proverb must surely be true. In poems that range from inspiring beauty to deeply troubling, Susan Jahme shows her readers Africa as she knows it.

In an excerpt from "Gentle Giants", we clearly see the spirit and reality of Alrican elephants:
Infinite, unconditional love,
Enwrapped in wrinkled folds
Of harmless, wise old eyes,
Heavily fringed in silken lashes,
Shining benevolently at their kin.

African nights come alive in "Night Noises of the Veld":
A hollow quiet without a stir,
For an empty stop of time,
When man, beast and spirit
Jointly hold their collective breath,
Whilst the sun slides in solitude
Beyond Earth's horizon line.

A deep, reverent love of place and time is expressed in "Wistful Ache for Africa":
Wistful ache of the love
For the tawny plains
Surrounding highlands
That thrust up,
Touching the skies
Under hot sun clad days.

"Withered Africa" is a heartbreaking lament for the continent that has lost much of its glory:
She lies on her back,
A tired old sequinned ...,
Her once full ...
Lie flaccid and dry...
All youth expelled,
No longer
Proud races to suckle...

Ms. Jahme's prize winning poetry has raw power and quiet introspection. She extols the rivers, wonders, and people of Africa as they are now, and laments the proud tribes, treasures, and animals that used to be. Highly recommended.

I have known Susan Jahme, the author of "African Sunshine and Shadows" since she was a teen-age girl in Blantyre, Malawi. Consequently it was with a great deal of interest and anticipation that I awaited publication of this anthology. To us who have lived, loved and labored in Africa, and who have traveled the highways, by-ways and dusty foot paths of this great continent, camped in its great Game preserves and
listened to the roar of the lions at night, it conveys a profound
message.

In her own unique, interesting and powerful way, Susan
portrays the wonders, the beauty, the grandeur, the majesty of its unequalled scenery and wildlife and bird life. And then with fervent passion, she paints word pictures of the tragedies wrought by centuries of hatred and warfare between tribal factions that has plagued Africa since time immemorial. I was profoundly touched by "We Once Had A Farm In Africa" and "Withered Africa." both of which describe so well the
situation in much of southern Africa today.

I heartily recommend the book to anyone who enjoys unique, passionate and deeply profound poetry of a type rarely seen today. Those who have dreamed of seeing this great continent with its wildlife and majestic scenery, and those who want to know what Africa is really like, with all its beauty and its tragedy, should read it.

Jahme definitely has a gift for poetry. I personally liked the poems that told a story best. She has keen insight into the details and struggles of life in Africa. One special touch in the book that I haven't often seen elsewhere are short definitions and explanations following certain poems. Some of the place names, events and people were unfamiliar to me and these short definitions really brought me closer to what she was talking about. As for the poems with the explanations, I felt as though I understood where her inspiration came from, which in turn inspired me. For example, one poem that is good in itself becomes great when you realize that it was inspired by looking at a child in Cape Town who was homeless due to his parents dying from AIDS.

African Sunshine And Shadows showcases the work of South African poet Susan Jahme and thoroughly documents her as an outstanding new poet. This debut collection offers up beautiful and rhythmic verse painting a word portrait of Africa in the twenty-first century. Oh Africa!/Fruitful woman,/Now laid to wast/With misguided misuse.../Once supplying Nations/The milk and honey of your core,/That starve now.//No virtue had you then,/Nor do you now.../But oh, sweet symphony,/Your body was lush,/Ripe and Firm!//Every man wanted/To make his home on your/Welcoming, rolling plains,/Sowing seed to be cultivated,/Then harvested/By his daughters,/And sons.//Open your eyes,/Looking over the endless stretch/Of this fickle woman, Africa,/See what is happening before you,/As back to ancient tribalism/She turns her people,/One by one.//Eating one another/With tribal hatred/That no foreigner can understand,/Now.../Nor could they when they first came,/Settling this sensual woman's/Eruptive, secret places.//Beneath the endless blue/Of her skies,/Ethnic tribes clash,/As in long ago times,/Before the missionary and adventurer/Arrived to lay claim to this woman,/And the men of her lands.

African Sunshine and Shadows is beautiful inside and out Among other rare abilities, Susan Jahme shows rather than tells. Before we know it we are in Africa. . .and we want to stay. If not forever, long enough to get to know her. Her people! Be prepared to grieve as well as celebrate. Because of Susan Jahme, Margaret Collingswood's The Poisonwood Bible and my latest find, Alexandra Fuller's, Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, I find myself hunting avidly for African histories. Which could not be more fitting for a poet. One of many debts we owe to the vast and fascinating and beleaguered continent is her strong and lasting influence on music and poetry. Susan Jahme lives in Africa, and she knows. Reading her carefully-crafted poems is both joy and eye-opener. Brava!!
Phyllis Jean Green {aka Phyllis J. D. Green}, Author/Editor/Educator...

I am not a reviewer but I am a soldier. This book has everything in it you could want in an action novel. I really liked how the author got all his facts right on the ordinance and gear used by the various military units and the descriptions of their effect is dead on. The plot was so imaginative I couldnt believe it! It not only kept me reading but scared me a little with how real it was. The way the book started out I thought it would be about how bad slavery is in the Arab world but in the middle of the book it took a surprise turn. I have been briefed by experts on al-Qaida and thought I knew a lot about how they operate but this story detailed new information that I later found was accurate. Every day citizens back in the world should also pay attention to the lessons you can learn from this great book, we are at war with terrorists and it will not end soon.

I read Elephant Gun by Phillip E. Carpenter and liked it so much I knew I had to read Arabian Assignment.If you read Elephant Gun first you will enjoy Arabian Assignment more as you will understand the characters and the direction of the book.Arabian Assignment is another masterpiece from Phillip E. Carpenter.This author has the type of writing skill that as you read the book you feel as if you are in the storyline yourself.You will be so involve with the characters that you just can't stop reading.This book is fiction but you will start to believe that it is really non fiction and you start to realize how little we know and understand terrorist.This book should be a must read for all armed service personnel as it will help them understand terrorist and just how evil they think.You will enjoy this book so much that when you are finish you will be e/mailing your friends and telling them they must read this book.I can't wait until the next book by Phillip E. Carpenter comes out.

Finally, a novel in the tradition of Hemingway and other great adventure novelists of the past. Not only does Carpenter create a plot with all the necessary elements, altruism, danger, evildoers, captures, escapes, rescuers, battles, personality clashes, politics, religion, international crises and final solutions, but he does it by using today's news events and real situations. Applause to the courage of an author who thought of making Osama bin-Laden one of the key manipulators of a novel's plot before Sept.11th, 2001, and using the abominable slavery trade in Africa as a stepping stone to uncover al-Qaeda's horrific terrorist plots. ... I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of reading this lengthy and satisfying novel, perhaps the best adventure story I've run across in years.

Arabian Assignment by Phillip Carpenter is by far one of the most interesting books I have read. This man is so well versed in the ways, not only of the world, but of this part of the world. It is hard to believe that this writer knows so much about this world which is so foreign to us. Further, Carpenter has an extraordinary command of the English language - used long (sometimes VERY long)sentences/descriptions without duplicating words. He has taken his enviable talents and his life experiences and used them to write a fascinating story with people who seem so real. They have real-life flaws and faults. They are very human, react in very human ways - terrified but courageous women - so much more. Also interesting, and frightening is his knowledge of Bin Laden, etc.,long before Bin Laden became,tragically, a household name. I heartily recommend this book. I am about to read Elephant Gun, written first and which I probably should have read first, to learn more about the characters in Arabian Assignment. Am looking forward to more from this author. Barbara Williams

I can't say that I liked every single thing about this book. For example, on occasion characters went on for uninterrupted paragraphs telling one another things that would have been well known by the listening characters and were obviously for the benefit of the reader alone (at times they are things even the reader does not need to hear).

That aside, I still give Arabian Assignment five plus stars. What a remarkable book to have written at any time, but especially prior to September 11, 2001! Carpenter is obviously not merely smart, he also possesses an astounding background including an insiders understanding of Arab culture. I've visited some of the regions of Africa he writes about, and have long been interested in African/Arab politics. In Arabian Assignment I had the opportunity to see some of the macro behavioral things I've learned about functioning on a micro (albeit fictional) scale. Fictional or not, there can be no doubt that these sorts of characters exist.

Arabian Assignment may be the most graphic book I've ever read. It's not for those who'd rather remain oblivious to the sub-sewer levels mankind can and does stoop to. The many scenes of this nature are not gratuitous, though. They are there because they are relevant. I suspect that many readers will complete this book with impressions vastly changed from those they brought to it. Given the current state of the world, understanding the mindset of both our allies and enemies will be immensely valuable to knowing what actions we should and should not take. Arabian Assignment becomes more encompassing as it progresses, until by the end it has some important things to say about how freedom might be protected. How many novels can you say that about?

AUTHOR: Flora A. Trebi-Ollennu

Numerous African authors have endeavored to describe the African culture especially to anyone alien to it. In this book, Flora A. Trebi-Ollennu tries to describe how Christmas is celebrated in a particular part of Africa. Targeting elementary students, she addresses the extended family structure ( living in the same compound) to graphically illustrate the African adage that states: "it takes a village to raise a child." Thus, she focuses on relationships between father/mother, father/child, mother/child, parents/grandparents, grandparents/grandchildren, and relationships between uncles, aunties, cousins, nephews, etc., in the conglomerate family during Christmas season. Christmas, in Africa is very special. It is one of the most anticipating days of the year. As much as Africa tries to mimic the western commercially based end-of-the-year event, much emphasis is not on boxed presents but on new clothes.

Christmas day is a big day for children to surprise their friends and relatives their new clothes; women showing off their expensive jewelry and laces; and grandparents showing off what their sons and/or daughters have bought for them to mark this special day. It is a joyous day for the young and old alike as they parade their newly acquired attires. Sharing food to neighbors, relatives and friends marks the opening event on Christmas day. This is followed with a church service in the community church. After church, the big party begins in a carnival-like fashion. You will find various cultural dancers singing and dancing for joy. The party may continue to New Year's day.

Those interested in poetry and theater arts or drama, or even those interested in comparative studies of cultures would find this book valuable to read.

Francis Achus
(Teacher)

I think that Christmas is a very interesting thing in Africa.I guess Sweetie Awo was a very young girl she didn't even know when a week had passed.I really liked this book because it makes me think back about Africa.I think it was a pretty good idea when Awo's aunt was very busy baking cake and making chips because Christmas is a very busy time for bakers in Africa.I also think the Ghanaian names you had were pretty good like Dede and Akos.Ghanaian food like fufu and Ghanaian games like ampe.Africa is a very neat and cool place so it makes the story very realistic.I really enjoyed it.Super Duper!

I think this book was awesome. This book made me want Christmas right now! This book has really made me wonder when the next book will come out. The author has really told all about another country and how they celebrate the holiday. This book is very, very awesome!!!

I liked the illustrations. I enjoyed how the illustrations were done on the computer and that they weren't colored. They really described the topic the picture was about. I'd recommend this book for Grade 4-5 girls. It was fairly easy to read except sometimes I had trouble pronouncing the African words(eg.Fuh deh, Jollof Rice). I liked the idea in the story that all Awo's relatives said "nobody quite like Awo" and her nickname was "Sweetie Awo". I also liked the idea of Christmas Huts and how most families live really close together. I enjoyed how Mrs.Trebi-Ollennu described the dresses and clothing of people on "Our Day". I also liked Awo's Grandma's attitude toward everything. This book really made me think about what Christmas in Africa is like. Over all it was great.

Why not celebrate Christmas without snow? Try Christmas in a warm, African setting. A pleasant read that highlights the uniqueness of a child living in Ghanian culture anticipating the holidays as she makes preparations to celebrate Christmas with her family and friends. It reaches the heart of all young readers as they relate to Sweetie Awo's experiences in school, home and church. The illustrations are an informative addition to the story and helped the reader to better understand different concepts such as the "compound house" and a "hairdress". I liked the attention to details such as the foods and their preparations. The glossary was helpful and I can see how teachers could use this book to springboard into further studies of the African culture, traditions and costumes. A treat for adults and children alike.

The writers share the belief that people of different cultures can come together in mutual appreciation and respect for their differences, though the experiences they describe are at times wrenching. A superb collection, the book captures the Peace Corps spirit insightfully

"Pretty exotic" will be many a reader's conclusion, but so will "thoroughly human," i.e., funny, raffish, tragic, cruel, . . this is a powerful, engrossing collection

While this book did allow me a glimse into a far away world (Mainly Africa)only some of the stories were truely worth reading. Most of them seemed to drag on and have no particular point. Even so, the environment and the dialogue were exceptional, and i truely learned about other cultures. There were only two stories in there i thought actually deserved four stars. One was "My First Lion Hunt." This story had plot, characters, humor, and a great ending. I would recommend just reading this story! I was a bit dissapointed in the lack of depth and plot in a few of the stories, and the terrible endings (they didn't seem very well thought out). However, for the most part this was an enjoyable and educational book. FOR FURTHER READING go the PEACE CORPS web site and read some of the stories there! Enjoy!

Geraldine Kennedy's choices cannot be faulted. I don't know of any other volume that has captured the Peace Corps spirit as insightfully as "From the Center of the Earth."

The collection contains a surprising amount of humor for a book grounded in cultrual turmoil, global poverty, linguistic confusion, and a decent amount of tragedy. . .a crash course in cultural relativism while capturing the pecular sights, struggles, and smells of distant places

This book is slow, not in terms of boring, but in that one can't rush through it. The story of Joshua's transition from a missionary sent by his mission to becoming a missionary made by God with a clear and true vision is one that has to be absorbed as it is read. Imagine being a Black from the States chosen by your white mission to go to South Africa to preach to other blacks just because you're also black. You're told what to preach and what your opinions should be and not to stir up the "natives". Interesting and inspiring book to me about self growth as a Christian. Eula O.

This book took me to South Africa. I love every word, sentence and chapter of this book. When I finished this book, I found myself going back to visit the chracters, because I had missed them. Highly recommended. This is a story of faith, and love. I can't wait until this author writes another book. Please hurry!!!!!!

The attention to historical and cultural detail in this book brings alive a time and a place far away from most of us. It also raises up the multifaceted nature of social and racial discrimination in a way that is breathtakingly balanced. A beautiful read.

This book was a wonderful read and it was written masterfully. It is a love story, about a young dynamic minister who travels to Africa to fall in love with the people, the country and a local woman named Nongolesi. I felt swept away by the detail and beauty of this novel, and I could not put the novel down. I hope there will be a sequel!!

Christian Fiction cannot better be characterized than by the addition of Joshua's Bible to its ranks. I must admit that it took me a long time to get to this book, I subconsciously put it on the back burner for a number of months but when I finally sat down and devoted the time to reading it, I was blown away by the level of maturity of the author, the content and story line of the novel and the level of involvement that I as the reader had in the story. Well written to say the least, a truly enjoyable novel.

Set in the 1930's and 40's, Joshua Clay is coming into his own, as a man and as a man of God. Graduating from Seminary in Philadelphia he is recommended by his Bishop to enter into the mission field even though he has an offer from his home church to be their minister. Deciding to stay at school, and after another year of intense training for such an honor, he is sent to Africa to begin preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ to those who haven't experienced Him, as those in the states would like them to. Pride fills his family as he endeavors to do something so privileged but Joshua has misgivings on leaving and traveling so far that are echoed throughout his family and most especially with his girlfriend who again has to sit back and watch his career blossom without her. Upon arriving in Africa and experiencing the highly politicized and cultural division between Africans, Americans and Afrikaans Joshua experiences some measure of doubt between his calling and the necessity of his mission. This coupled with the friendships that he develops among a prominent family in the village that he calls home during his mission changes and matures Joshua in ways he hadn't imagined. He experiences love, and compassion. He experiences untold strength and courage and becomes a better man in the mission field. Joshua's Bible is a love story; a testimony to the way that God moves through our inner being and that is reflected to the outside world. I was amazed at the youthful maturity that Joshua displayed and his ability to orchestrate change.

Church book clubs immediately come to mind as a captive audience for Joshua's Bible. There are characters in the book and scenes that are tailor made for discussions in such a setting. The writing is wonderful, it seems that Miss Leanne has done a wonderful job of researching the characters and plot and combining these elements so eloquently. I haughtily recommend reading Joshua's Bible to any avid reader, a truly inspiring tale.

Henry Stedman looks like a guy who knows.
I'm planning a trip to Kilimanjaro witha group of friends. The guide looks pretty practical. Henry, we'll check it

My husband is planning to trek Kilimanjaro, and apparently this has been a helpful, great starting source!

Detailed maps and route information make this guide to Mount Kilimanjaro a must-have for those wanting to climb it.

I bought this book as a gift for my brother John last Christmas because he had a trip to Kilimanjaro scheduled for July.
He told me before the trip that he was suprised how detailed the info in the book actually was....very helpful in planning and knowing what to expect.
When he returned after the trek he said the book was very accurate indeed. He showed me a few photo copied pages he had taken along with him.

Now normally he is not a big talker so for him this was like gushing about this book. I think this is THE book to buy if you are planning to visit Kili.

I purchased the Second Edition (September 2006) of "Kilimanjaro: The Trekking Guide to Africa's Highest Mountain" in July 2007. Within a week (as I was sitting on airplanes far too often and had time to read), I had read the 300+ page book cover to cover.

The book is excellent, informative, and often humorous. The trail descriptions are detailed and precise, and the other guidance (medical, financial, logistical) is essential. With a little effort, I matched the trail descriptions to a superb map that I purchased at the same time and quickly gained an understanding of the various routes, options, outfitters, and issues. (The map is "Kilimanjaro Map," scale 1:62,500, 3rd edition, ITMB Publishing.)

One comment: there are many trails (or potential trail combinations) offered by the various outfitters and trekking agencies on Kilimanjaro, so you will likely find yourself flipping back and forth through the book to follow YOUR route. Give yourself time to absorb the book thoroughly. And be prepared with your highlighter and notepad close at hand so that you can identify the portions of the book most relevant to your specific route and itinerary.

If you're considering a climb of Mt. Kilimanjaro, or have a friend or family member considering doing so, you will find this book to be very useful.

this is a great phenomenal saga. an adventure that rarely successfully delivered with a pen. 'the last hero' is a modern classic that should be on your bookshelf with 'lonesome dove', 'brules', 'shantaram', 'the kite runner', stephen hunter's 'point of impact' swagger series, robert ludlum's genuine creations from 'the gemini contender' to 'the matarese circle', all of a. j. quinnelle's novels, all of louis la'mor's westerns....they are all good memories, touched your soul and made your life more vividly colorful.

This book is quite simply amazing. From the first page you are hooked and become an invisible member of the crew hacking your own way through the Ituri Forest. Stanley is brought to life along with many other real-life people, including Tipoo Tib, the slave dealer. Read this book and you will never forget it, the whole atmosphere of unexplored Africa and its hidden tribes will be with you always. The unknown beauty of the Congo River and its people take you into a new world with different standards, different morales and a very different slant on life. The actions of Emin Pasha will move you to tears and the whole experience of this book is one that every person should enjoy.

Compulsively readable, thrilling story, vivid evocation of darkest Africa and a potrait of Henry Morgan Stanley that leaps right of the page and grabs you by the throat, this story of the insane expedtion to rescue Emin Pasha's people from the conquering dervishes is everything you want a serious book of historical fiction to be. Especially recommended for those interested in the literature of exploration and discovery into land's unkown in the Western world in the 19th century. How many 700+ page books are you sorry to see come to an end? This is such a one. Enjoy.

This awesome novel of exploration into Central Africa during a time of civil unrest is by far one of the best books I have ever read. The characters are well developed and the tale gripping, based on actual historical events, the novel is a must read. Once you pick it up, you will not want to put it down. Since reading this novel, I have acquired all, of the late, Peter Forbath's novels. His vivid detail of the surroundings, the authority figure that demostrates both compassion and understanding as well as harsh punishments, and the intertwining of the characters' lives make this an amazing tale of Central Africa events in the late 1800's.

The story told in "The Last Hero" is that of Sir Henry Morton Stanley (of "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" fame, but that's another story) who, in 1885 organized and led a mission to rescue Emin Pasha, governor of Equatoria, the southernmost province of the Egyptian Sudan, which was surrounded by the Mahdist uprising. Amazingly, Stanley decided to approach Equatoria from the Atlantic side of Africa by going up the Congo river and overland through central African forest. The expedition crossed hundreds of miles of then-unknown Africa, encountering every obstacle and difficulty along the way. The eventual end of the mission is one of history's great ironies, but I don't want to give anything away.

"The Last Hero" is a very well-written adventure story, all the more interesting because it is true. My only complaint (a very minor one) concerns the absence of notes and bibliography which could have given some historical documentation and sources.

Another good book is "The River Congo: The Discovery, Exploration and Exploitation of the World's Most Dramatic River" (nonfiction) which is also by Peter Forbath (a journalist who reported on Africa). Henry Morton Stanley was also a bestselling author, he wrote: "How I Found Livingstone" (1872); "Through the Dark Continent" (1878); and "In Darkest Africa" (1890).