African Interest

Brief Summary The culmination of a unique achievement in modern American literature: the six volumes of autobiography that began more than thirty years ago with the appearance of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. A Song Flung Up to Heaven opens as Maya Angelou returns from Africa to the United States to work with Malcolm X. But first she has to journey to California to be reunited with her mother and brother. No sooner does she arrive there than she learns that Malcolm X has been assassinated. Devastated, she tries to put her life back together, working on the stage in local theaters and even conducting a door-to-door survey in Watts. Then Watts explodes in violence, a riot she describes firsthand. Subsequently, on a trip to New York, she meets Martin Luther King, Jr., who asks her to become his coordinator in the North, and she visits black churches all over America to help support King’s Poor People’s March. But once again tragedy strikes. King is assassinated, and this time Angelou completely withdraws from the world, unable to deal with this horrible event. Finally, James Baldwin forces her out of isolation and insists that she accompany him to a dinner party—where the idea for writing I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is born. In fact, A Song Flung Up to Heaven ends as Maya Angelou begins to write the first sentences of Caged Bird. ISBN:9781860499555 Author:Maya Angelou

Brief Summary In this much-anticipated third volume of the Wicked Years, we return to Oz, seen now through the eyes of the Cowardly Lion - the once tiny cub defended by Elphaba in Wicked. While civil war looms, a tetchy oracle named Yackle prepares for death. Before her final hour, an enigmatic figure known as Brrr - the Cowardly Lion - arrives searching for information about Elphaba Thropp, the Wicked Witch of the West. As payment, Yackle demands some answers of her own. Brrr surrenders his story: abandoned as a cub, his earliest memories are gluey hazes, and his life's path is no Yellow Brick Road. A Lion among Men chronicles a battle of wits hastened by the Emerald City's approaching armies. At once a portrait of a would-be survivor and a panoramic glimpse of a world gone shrill with war fever, Gregory Maguire's new novel is written with the sympathy and power that have made his books contemporary classics. ISBN:9780060548926 Author:Gregory Maguire

Brief Summary How to Euthanize a Cactus' contains fifty five accessible poems from a respected Kenyan poet, poetry editor and judge. Approximately half of the poems are those that were written `raw' during Kenya's widely-publicized and sometimes misinterpreted Post-Election Violence (PEV) of early 2008, and which were circulated within Kenya, especially via a new group of young writers which formed at the time, `Concerned Kenyan Writers'. These include the popular `Praise Poem'. Kenya's PEV rocked a country that had previously been known (perhaps naively) as one of the most stable countries on the continent: possibly thousands were killed; hundreds of thousands were displaced, and often remain so. Occasionally journalistic, sometimes angry, sometimes hopeful, but always powerfully responsible, these PEV poems reflect an insider-outsider's experience of that time. These particular PEV poems are not quoted as part of this promotional blurb, at the writer's request. Many of the other poems are more personal, but never fully privatize in that manner which often separates much Western literature from that of the postcolonial world. These poems reflect a British immigrant's process of hybridizing into a new place, Kenya. They include the impressive `Continental Drift', which speaks from an out-of-body position about overlaps between cultures and the possibility of contented hybridity rather than that traditional `alienation' and `schizophrenia' which was expressed by earlier generations of immigrants and `colonial subjects' across the globe. Here is the first, UK-based verse paragraph of `Continental Drift', a multi-perspective poem that later screes effortlessly into East Africa: The sole of your boot grips a stone, and it begins: flakes of shale cascading over shale like swarms of graphite atoms gliding over graphite as an artist shades a mountain, dark Skiddaw, that has a figure (rapid scratching showing motion),slate-grey, almost imperceptible: but squint, you’ll see he's screening down the slope toward the lake. ISBN:9781907090165 Author:Stephen Derwent Partington

Brief Summary When are leadership skills acquired? Is it when people assume leadership positions? How can young people be equipped with skills that will enable them steer institutions and movements in an ethical way? These and more questions have been answered in this book. The authors have addressed the critical issue of ethics and morality as a central component of successful leadership among young people. Leadership is not just about mobilizing people and getting things done. It is about establishing good, respectable and acceptable cultures and practices. These kinds of cultures can produce success anywhere they are applied. If young people in society can learn and practice ethical leadership, there is great hope and potential for our society to experience true prosperity. ISBN:979966035799 Author:Meshack Wafula Sitialo and Francis Akuka

Brief Summary Recognize birds by their calls with this handy package of CD and accompanying book. These will help identify the sounds made by a range of the most common and widely distributed East African bird species. Includes: CD features 100 bird calls; each species account features full-color photographs, a distribution map and information on habitat, behavior, feeding and nesting preferences, as well as a description of the call or song. Common bird names given in English and Swahili. This is the perfect starting point for those who wish to develop their knowledge of bird calls. ISBN:9781775842514 Author:Dave Richards and Brian Finch

Brief Summary This new autobiography by wildlife celebrity Jonathan Scott celebrates the extraordinary life of one of the world’s most popular wildlife presenters and photographers. From his childhood on a Berkshire farm in the UK to his rise to international fame as a presenter on the Big Cat Diary, one of the BBC Natural History Unit s most popular and long-running wildlife series, Jonathan Scott has lived a life that many people can only dream about. Following a degree in Zoology he travels 6,000 miles overland to Africa, where he becomes first a wildlife artist and then a safari guide in the Maasai Mara. His experience allows him to write his first major book, The Marsh Lions, followed by The Leopard s Tale. At the same time, his TV career is launched when he becomes a presenter on the long-running American series Wild Kingdom. Over the years Jonathan s observations of wildlife prompt him to reflect on his own life, revealing a side to his character that he has struggled to overcome since childhood. Aged nearly forty, he finally finds peace through meeting and marrying his wife, Angela, and together with her two children they go on to prove you can mix domestic life and an adventurous career when you share a love of family and wilderness, art and photography. From their base in Kenya Jonathan and Angela travel to Antarctica, a continent which grips them no less than their adopted homeland, followed in later years by travels to India and Bhutan. Throughout, the call of Africa always draws them home, but Africa and the rest of the world are under siege from the tide of humanity that threatens to snuff out the last wild places. Having travelled the globe in search of award-winning photographs and lived a life of adventure, Jonathan and Angie find their world changes forever the day she is diagnosed with a cranial aneurism requiring urgent brain surgery. Facing up to that challenge draws them even closer together and forces them to examine the meaning of life, leading them on a spiritual journey to rival anything they have undertaken before. Ultimately, The Big Cat Man is a love story: one man s infatuation with Africa and his unfailing devotion to the woman who shares his passion. Jonathan s writing makes for a fascinating safari through a life lived in the world’s most spectacular wilderness area. His book raises uncomfortable questions about the future of wildlife on a continent where the needs of the people sometimes seem overwhelming; it will bring hope to those who have struggled with their own demons and been afraid to seek help; but most of all it will be an inspiration for those who, like Jonathan and Angie, long to follow their dream, whatever it may be." ISBN:Jonathan Scott Author:Jonathan Scott

Brief Summary The fourth title in the "Great Game Parks of Africa" series, this book, comprising one-third text and two-thirds photographs, presents an overview of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in Tanzania. It provides details about the environment, animals and birds that might be encountered, and how to gain the maximum use from a visit. A clear color map shows places of interest, safari lodges, rest camps and drives. ISBN:9781868257492 Author:Chris Stuart, Tilde Stuart and Daryl Balfour

Brief Summary On the alkaline lakes of Kenya and Tanzania live three million Lesser Flamingos and 50,000 Greater Flamingos. The sight of even a half a million of these beautiful, strangely aristocratic birds clustered together like a bed of gigantic chrysanthemums is one that few have found words to describe. The volcanic Great Rift Valley where flamingos are found is one of the harshest places on earth -- its boiling, corrosive, and foul-smelling lakes are certain death to any animal fool enough to drink from them -- yet it is home to East Africa's pink birds. In their remote setting flamingos are remote creatures inhabiting a world of their own. Puzzled naturalists have long tried to unravel the mysteries surrounding these birds, who will suddenly appear in countless thousands, delight us for a while, and disappear again just as swiftly. Carlo Mari's exquisite photographs have captured the fleeting grace and fascination of flamingos and, with Nigel Collar's knowledgeable text, offer insight into their curiously enchanting world. Pink Flamingos is a superb gift for bird and nature lovers and belongs in every naturalist's library. ISBN:9780789206688 Author:Carlo Mari and N. J. Collar