Wednesday, April 16, 2008

African Reading Challenge


This idea (started here) was posted on the CHSFS adoption forum a few weeks ago, and I was immediately intrigued. The idea is to read six books in 2008 that either were written by African authors or are about Africa. You're suppose to pick books from a variety of African countries, though my selections are a little Ethiopia heavy. Anyway, here are my six, though a few may change:

1)Notes from the Hyena's Belly: An Ethiopian Boyhood by Nega Mezlekia (Ethiopia)
2)The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu (Ethiopia)
3)28: Stories of AIDS in Africa by Stephanie Nolen
4)Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (Nigeria) In 10th grade social studies we were assigned to read 1/2 of this book, if I recall. Half a book??!! The same was true for The Good Earth, I think, though I just finished that anyway. So I think this classic deserves another chance.
5)A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah (Sierra Leone)
6)Held at a Distance: A Rediscovery of Ethiopia by Rebecca Haile (Ethiopia).

(Kisae and I at the Muger River Gorge in Ethiopia, July, 2006)

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