Great African Reads discussion

Hello fellow readers,

just thinking that it might be a good idea to start collecting ideas for good reads for Burundi. I've got a few suggestions, taken from A Basket of Leaves 99 Books that Capture the Spirit of Africa and books I've been wanting to read. So... go ahead and post your ideas!!

Fiction
* Sarah Stone The True Sources of the Nile
* John Stockwell Red Sunset

Non-fiction
* Harlan Lane & Richard Pillard The Wild Boy of Burundi A study of an outcast child
* Rene Lemarchand Burundi Ethnic Conflict and Genocide
* Christian Jennings Across the Red River Rwanda, Burundi and the Heart of Darkness
* Robert Krueger From Bloodshed to Hope in Burundi Our Embassy Years during Genocide

* Unlocking Horns Forgiveness and Reconciliation in Burundi by David Nivonzima
Per Amazon.com: "David Niyonzima is superintendent of Burundi Yearly Meeting of Friends." He is FROM Burundi and lives there now. A short bio can be found here:
http://www.barclaypress.com/bpauthors...

Gilbert Tuhabonye is from Burundi and I think might be better than reading the Robert Krueger book about the US Embassy. Tuhabonye no longer lives in Burundi.

Thanks for your suggestions, Shoshana and Dana! I've set up a poll for our April book.

If there are other books people want to include in the selection, let me know - happy to edit the poll and include more books.

Happy deciding! ;)

It looks like we've got a tie for the Burundi book, 3 votes each for

* Gilbert Tuhabonye & Gary Brozek This Voice in My Heart A Runner's Memoir of Genocide, Faith, and Forgiveness

* Christian Jennings Across the Red River Rwanda, Burundi and the Heart of Darkness

Shall we vote again on these two books or read both or ...? Thoughts?

Shall we attempt both books then?

If people don't really have a preference, I might just read "Across the Red River" by Christian Jennings then and whoever wants to join me is welcome to! :)

I voted, but didn't have a strong preference either, so that is fine with me.

That sounds good to me - I will probably read This Voice in My Heart - it was the easier one to obtain :)

haha, I was in the same boat, Melanie, that's why I went for "Across the red river"! I will at least to read a little bit of "This Voice in my Heart" so we can share a bit. :)

Thanks for you input, you two!! :)

i started reading "this voice in my heart"...but i got both from the library...i'm hoping to have time to read both. how are we doing on the discussion leader idea? my internet access is going to be wacky for a few days/a couple weeks, i don't even know...i'm moving on saturday and the internet/telly/phone situation is not set up yet. anyway, after the move i'll have much more time for reading and being active here again. i can't wait!

No discussion leader (yet) but I've also got "This voice..." from the library at the moment and am going to read over Easter (or at least start reading it). I'll post some thoughts next week.

Can't wait either until you're moved in and have internet etc. all sorted!! looking forward to lots of insightful comments from you (no pressure! ;)).

Wonder if anyone else is having this problem this month. I had read "We Wish to Inform You" about Rwanda about a year ago. I brought "Across the Red River" home from the library yesterday, set it on the table, and had awful dreams last night. I don't think I'm going to be able to read it, at least not this month.

Hi Andrea, i *think* i got "across the red river" but did not start it yet...i started "this voice" and was enjoying it (but nothing terrible had started yet...things were just becoming ominous)...and now i can't locate it (but it *must* be somewhere!) because of our move. in the meantime i'm reading things that are quick and gripping so that i don't get bogged down and prevented from returning to our selections.
thank you for the warning about red river!! i wonder how others have fared...

yes, I've been meaning to start "this voice..." for the past three weeks and every time I look at it, I put it aside again. the topic being so gruesome is so off-putting and I feel like I'm not quite up to reading anything that is this serious at the moment (judging by my recent reads, everything has been very "light and fluffy fantasy"... but i'm determined to at least read a bit of it!