Reading about Africa

There are lots of good books many of you have probably already read about this beloved continent, Out of Africa being one of them… (NO, the movie does not count!)

{Side Note: The first place Kent and I lived in Africa in 1999 was in Karen, about 1 mile from the historic home of Karen Blixen, incognito author of that book! Gorgeous place to fall in love with Africa, even if the encroaching capital city had changed the neighborhood a lot…}

Though you may not see them from your Starbucks table at the bookstore or on any billboards, there are two books on Africa definitely worth reading. Okay, I am a bit biased… They are written by two colleagues of mine and much of what they write gives insight into how our lives work day to day.

BOOK 1: (you know, Thing 1 and Thing 2? Maybe I read too much Dr. Seuss…)

Barbara and her husband precede us by a decade or two, so we have never met in person, but their stories give lots of humor and insight to the realities of working here. Of course our working strategies and details have changed a bit since then, but due to the history of this place there are things she was able to buy back then that we can no longer find here, like brown sugar. I have already read through it twice and still enjoy it. If you’re looking for a novel, this isn’t it, but it will give you a funny and clear picture of how things work here. She places the emphasis on “REAL” and I can vouch to you that it is just that!

BOOK 2:

Reading about Africa by Kimberly is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International