Media from Africa 2015
Jan. 6th, 2016 03:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebI read things from only two countries in Africa.
Congo, Democratic Republic of (previously Belgian; also previous Zaire)
This is the huge subSaharan country surrounding most of the Congo River.
Nonfiction
* van Reybrouck, David. Congo: The Epic History of a People (2010) (tr. from Dutch by Sam Garrett) - This was the first book I read about this country and it inspired me to pick up more. It's a good book and accessible, but definitely an epic history. It's pretty interesting for what it is, but gets less fun and more just about politics for the last part of the book. Even though the average lifespan is low, the author was still able to find some very old people to tell him stories. The leaders all seem to mean well at first but then get sucked into doing whatever it takes to keep power. I highly recommend it if you want to see more about both sides of colonialism than you already probably know from the history of the US, India, and South Africa. You may have already read my longer review.
* Woods, Vanessa. Bonobo Handshake: A Memoir of Love and Adventure in the Congo (2010) - This is about the Congo, bonobo chimpanzees, and social psychology; what's not to like? Well, there's even more violence than in the epic history book (involving chimpanzees as well as the Congolese and Ruwandans). And I don't like the author; she's self-centered and throws fits all the time.
Fiction
* Kingsolver, Barbara. The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel (1998) - Read-aloud writing. Big story about a family brought to a small town by the missionary father. I love everyone in the family at first, though later I start hating one of them. I have a longer review of this book as well.
(I decided I wanted to read more by this author. And so I read her Flight Behavior: A Novel (2012) about a gal who almost has an affair but is stopped when monarch butterflies winter at her ranch. Another book with interesting characters; this time the theme is climate change. I enjoyed it, though not as much, and would happily read more.)
Congo, Republic of (previously French)
The mouth of the Congo is extremely wide, so it's no surprise that two countries could straddle it here. This country is much smaller, and I don't think I even knew it existed before.
Fiction
* Boyd, William. Brazzaville Beach (1990) - Two stories--one about a lady and her first husband who slowly goes crazy and another about her later life in an ape research area where her boss is self aggrandizing and destroys data he doesn't understand. Throw in a mild kidnapping. It seems to be more about the men around her than about her. It's about math and life and so should be cool, but I didn't really like the main character much.
Congo, Democratic Republic of (previously Belgian; also previous Zaire)
This is the huge subSaharan country surrounding most of the Congo River.
Nonfiction
* van Reybrouck, David. Congo: The Epic History of a People (2010) (tr. from Dutch by Sam Garrett) - This was the first book I read about this country and it inspired me to pick up more. It's a good book and accessible, but definitely an epic history. It's pretty interesting for what it is, but gets less fun and more just about politics for the last part of the book. Even though the average lifespan is low, the author was still able to find some very old people to tell him stories. The leaders all seem to mean well at first but then get sucked into doing whatever it takes to keep power. I highly recommend it if you want to see more about both sides of colonialism than you already probably know from the history of the US, India, and South Africa. You may have already read my longer review.
* Woods, Vanessa. Bonobo Handshake: A Memoir of Love and Adventure in the Congo (2010) - This is about the Congo, bonobo chimpanzees, and social psychology; what's not to like? Well, there's even more violence than in the epic history book (involving chimpanzees as well as the Congolese and Ruwandans). And I don't like the author; she's self-centered and throws fits all the time.
Fiction
* Kingsolver, Barbara. The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel (1998) - Read-aloud writing. Big story about a family brought to a small town by the missionary father. I love everyone in the family at first, though later I start hating one of them. I have a longer review of this book as well.
(I decided I wanted to read more by this author. And so I read her Flight Behavior: A Novel (2012) about a gal who almost has an affair but is stopped when monarch butterflies winter at her ranch. Another book with interesting characters; this time the theme is climate change. I enjoyed it, though not as much, and would happily read more.)
Congo, Republic of (previously French)
The mouth of the Congo is extremely wide, so it's no surprise that two countries could straddle it here. This country is much smaller, and I don't think I even knew it existed before.
Fiction
* Boyd, William. Brazzaville Beach (1990) - Two stories--one about a lady and her first husband who slowly goes crazy and another about her later life in an ape research area where her boss is self aggrandizing and destroys data he doesn't understand. Throw in a mild kidnapping. It seems to be more about the men around her than about her. It's about math and life and so should be cool, but I didn't really like the main character much.