I first read Sun,Sand and Snakes when I was ten,I'm now thirty six.It is written with charm,innocence and passion.A passion for snakes which I share with Mr Spawls.Anyone with a love of herpetology,Africa and adventure will appreciate this book.I finally got to Kenya when I was twenty two and because of this book I stayed in East Africa for three years studying snakes and now work in the U.K.for a reptile rescue charity.Now any book that can influence and direct a person that much is worth taking a look at.Kenyas warmth and its peoples characters glow from the pages I can't wait to get my hands on my own copy as the local library no longer have it in stock.

This book chronicles the early years of the author as he was growing up in Kenya. Starting out relatively ignorant of the fauna around him, not to mention somewhat scared of snakes he tells the story of himself and the people who changed the direction of his life. From amusing annecdotes such as the time he was chased by a Giraffe to recolections of the many things that bit him and the ones that got away. I still don't know how he survived, but I'm glad he did so that he could write this! A word of warning- If you have young children don't let them read this, I first read this book about 13 years ago and I don't think my parents ever forgave the author for the menagerie of scaly things they had to endure living with over the following 10 years. Fun, real, amazing and charming. Still my favourite book!

These two authors write stunning books of delightful, easy-to-follow recipes, with lush, evocative photographs, and great attention to detail on the culinary fundamentals of each recipe. The only problem is that they keep recycling and republishing the same recipes/photos over and over again. I got burned three times. I bought the book "A Taste Of The Mediterranean", which I liked so much that, impetuously, I went online and bought three more titles by the same two authors, Jacqueline Clark and Joanna Farrow. I got "The Mediterranean Cookbook" (the one with the close-up photo of some ripe tomatoes on the cover). It turns out that this is the exact book as "A Taste Of The Mediterranean", but with illustrations in place of the photographs. The third book I received was "Mediterranean Country Kitchen", which while it is a lovely book, is nothing more than a condensed version of the same recipes/photos from "A Taste Of The Mediterranean". Lastly I bought the newer hardback book "Mediterranean : A Taste Of The Sun". This is an outstanding, lengthy book (500+ pages), but about half of it is "A Taste Of The Mediterranean" recycled in its entirety. I would certainly recommend the new one "Mediterranean : A Taste Of The Sun" as the finest and most complete of Clark and Farrow's sumptuous books on subject. But I'm feeling angry and a bit duped at buying the same book over and over again. Buy the new one, skip the earlier, cleverly-disguised retreads.

Often cookbooks with pretty pictures are low on substance. This book is not one of them. Yes, there are pretty pictures, more than that. Some of them are gorgeous, but it's the recipes that make one pause and then want to rush to the kitchen after a trip to the super market and stop eating junk when they could eat food like this. A stunning collection.

I wasn't certain what to expect when I got this book. I was a bit concerned that since it was written about experiences in the 1960's that it would feel a bit dated. Although the 1960's view of the future of East Africa's peoples and wildlife is not entirely accurate, I am finding the book to be an excellent way to prepare for a trip to Tanzania--for someone wanting a combination of background on the peoples, landscape and wildlife. Matthiessen's usual subdued, to me, dry style seems leavened a bit by his awe. And the account of the elephant researcher who's 'close encounter' approach puts Matthiessen off his feed, was really enjoyable to me--a departure from his usual, very dry approach. I recommend this one to anyone interested in the peoples and wildlife of Eastern Africa.

Is there anyplace wild enough to lift the weight that Occidental culture has placed on our shoulders? Africa, where the first man walked erect, may be the last place where man can feel awed enough by Nature to try and remember that he, also, is just another among the millions of other species that populate the planet. Paul Bowles, Bruce Chatwin, Doris Lessing, Isaak Dinesen and Peter Mattieshen found that answer, and shared the experience. In Mattieshen's poetic account, the tragic and fabulous beauty of a continent that has been devastated by greed and war is revealed, as the impossibility of traveling Africa and not falling in love with it and being changed by it forever.

Wonderful Ethiopians of the Ancient Cushite Empire represents the crowning achievement of Ms. Drusilla Dunjee Houston. The work was originally published in Oklahoma City in 1926. It is the first known attempt by a Black woman, and perhaps anyone, to produce a multi-volume work on African history told from an African perspective.

Ms. Houston herself was an educator, journalist and historian. She spent most of her life in Oklahoma and Arizona and succumbed to tuberculosis in Phoenix, Arizona in 1941.

Her work is broad and comprehensive and was quite advanced for its time. Its audience was not confined to scholars but the layperson, particularly Black folk, who were in need of a accurate tonic to boost Black self-esteem. It retains a powerful value even today, more than seventy years since its initial publication.

Western civilization has grudgingly recognized that homo sapiens evolved in Africa, within the last 40 years through the work of Richard and Louis Leakey and the discovery of the "Lucy" skelital evidence in Ethiopia.

However, Drusilla Huston's book copiously documents legends of of African culture before the dessication of the Sahara and the Egyto-Nubian desserts. She continued with ancient references to the ancient Kushite and Ethiopian civilizations and Kings refered to by Homer, Heroditus, Diodorus, Massey Champoleon and others to flesh out the stories of the Nubian, Nahesey, Napatan, Meroic, Alumic, Egyptian, Summarian and Ethiopean nations over 75 years ago.

It is therefore, a prophetic and profound example of pioneering African-American scholarship operating in a bleak and hostile environment over many decades. It's veracity is only enhanced and fortified with the passage of time and recent production of books such as "Black Athena" by Martin Bernal, "Civilization or Barbarism" by Cheik Anta Diop and the 1996 "African Exodus" by Chris Skinner and "Egypt Revisited" edited by Ivan Van Sertima and numerous others.

This work of original research is not your "run of the mill" dinosaur book. It makes extensive use of European archival sources to seamlessly weave both history and palaeontology together to tell the story of Tendaguru. It is detailed, thorough and challenging! The photos, many seen for the first time, are awesome.

Dear Reader:

Joseph E. Harris' best selling book "African-American Reaction to War in Ethiopia 1936-1941" prevail vividly the historical facts and the African-Americans and other Africans reactions. Mr. Harris dedicated his research to bring the strong relationship between Ethiopians and African Americans. You will read more in detail about the aggressive movement of the African-American to defend Ethiopia from Italians' fascism in the following manner: the African-Americans wrote a letter to the city mayor all the way to President Roosevelt. They boycotted the Italian own business and demonstrated on the America streets against Italian. They enlisted to go to Ethiopia to fight the war beside their Ethiopians brother and sisters.

I'm going to take the direct quote from the book to show the deepness of the relationship and its highest pick during mid 1930's as one of the African-American statement.

...a tendency to avoid the label of Negro in favor of Ethiopian. One black American said, "I do not want to be called Negro, colored, or [n-word]. Either term is an insult to me or you. Our rightful name is Ethiopian." (P. 7)

African Americans was significantly enlisted in different cities in America to go to Ethiopia to fight the Fascist Italians. The American State Department issued a statement based on the legislation:

..."American citizen shall be deemed to have expatriated himself when he had been naturalized in any foreign state in conformity with its laws."

The African Americans viewpoint to the American State Department as Orhardo Andrews, of New York City, stated.

"First the Africans who are residing here and all the West did not come here voluntarily, but by an act of kidnapping which today is punishable in the United States by death...As for loosing our citizenship of this country, we don't give a nick about that. This citizenship is of no value to us.... If you country can not protect us when we are citizens and living here, why should we worry about it?" (P. 41)

In the same book you would learn about Ethiopians who were resided in American. Dr. Melaku Bayen was one of prominent among the many Ethiopians who worked with African American in New York City. He was also the editor and the father of "ETHIOPIAN REVIEW" magazine as far back as in the early 1930. You can request the copy of the magazine form American Congress Library. The magazine encompassed all the black people in the globe. It was rich with Pan-Africanism ideology.

I found it diligently researched book to learn the oldest relationship between Ethiopian and African-Americans. I recommend for anyone who would like to learn the magnitude support Ethiopia received during 1935 to 1941 mainly from our African American brothers and sisters.

I'm certain the book will also shed some light to understand the recent Ethio-Eritrea border conflict.

Richard Bulliet's, Camel and the Wheel, is a seminal example of social history from the perspective of an animal. In the vein of the French Annales school of Marc Bloch and Ladurie, Bulliet traces the origin of the camel in North America (!), tracks how it got to the Middle East, how it came to be the favourite beast of the Arabs and how it helped to facilitate the lightening Muslim conquests in the 7th century that brought all of North Africa, Spain, the Levant, Iran, and Sind under Muslim control by 711 C.E. Bulliet lays out some surprising discoveries in the realm of camel saddles and explains why they carry the key to the Arab conquests. Significantly, Bulliet posits a brilliant counter-intuitive theory for the disappearance of the wheel from the Middle East for the better part of a millenium--a theory that is no longer even questioned. Readers will find intriguing and superbly documented responses to some of these crucial issues. A veritable historical "who-dunnit", Camel and the Wheel is an entertaining and enlightening read!

I will submit it after recieving the book

dates can be identified by their characteristic appearance and texture and fall into 3 types:SOFT,SEMI-DRY,DRY .This division is based on the texture or consistency of fruit under normal condition of ripening.

I am planning a trip to Africa and have scoured many bookstores and shelves for THE BOOK. Footprints provides a wonderful book for those who really want to know EVERYTHING in preparation for their trip--from tipping guides to safari ratings to hotel guides to crime and embassy information--ad infinitim. This book is wealth of practical information and provides maps, history, culture and language information and even has a built in glossy color wildlife section on the flora and fauna one will encounter whilst in East Africa. Having a comprehensive guide in a small package (~6x4 in) is essential since travellers are limited to backage weight restrictions. (Books taken are thusly limited). This book will provides excellent reading material (as well as a travel resource) for all things East African before, during and after travel. Restaurants and hotels are rated by $ and quality, as are safari companies. Each page is double columned in small print, absolutely LOADED with essential information. The version offered for 1999 has a hardbinding, which is a plus. Unfortuantely, all post-1999 Footprint editions are now softcover. If you can take only one book, this is it. This one will be one of two books in my bag. The other one will be Hemingway's 'Green Hills of Africa.'