BOOKPATHS

Shakespeare and Company, Paris, France

Jeanette Winterson considers the legacy of Sylvia Beach.

The best news is that a bookstore that helped to shape the 20th-century world of ideas and exchange has moved vigorously into the 21st century, communicating to a new generation the vitality of the book — as Sylvia said of it, her ‘missionary endeavour’. – from “Sylvia Beach: Her Pioneering Spirit Lives On,” by Jeanette Winterson, The Times

Bookpathing

"The best holiday reading is three or four books which are the best pieces of writing to be steeped in the place you are visiting. So when in Sicily, read The Leopard [by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa], when in Iceland read Halldór Laxness – incidentally, a really good novelist." – Novelist David Mitchell, from “My Life in Travel,” The Independent

Melbourne, Australia

Tony Wheeler offers a look at literary Melbourne, “the second city to be named ‘City of Literature’ by UNESCO."

Melbourne has booksellers as well as publishers, authors and libraries. John Pascoe Fawkner, one of the pioneering settlers, opened the city's first hotel, published its first newspaper and was probably its first bookseller, since he sold books from his hotel room. His statue crouches – he appears to be mapping out Melbourne with a stick – on Collins Street near Queen Street. – from “The Melbourne Identity: the Former Hub of Australia’s Gold Rush is Now a City of Literature,” by Tony Wheeler, The Independent

Niger Book List

Decalo, Samuel. Historical dictionary of Niger (1997)

Fuglestad, Finn. A history of Niger, 1850-1960 (1983)

Jenkins, Mark. To Timbuktu: a journey down the Niger (1998)  (in part)

Morgan, Ted.  Strong brown god: the story of the Niger River (1975) (in part)

Stoller, Paul. In sorcery’s shadow: a memoir of apprenticeship among the Niger (1987)

Stoller, Paul. The power of the between: an anthropological odyssey (2009)

Van Offelen, Marion and Carol Beckwith. Nomads of Niger (1983) (in part)

San Francisco, California, U.S.

Armistead Maupin’s website offers readers an interactive Tales Map -- “a map listing the locations mentioned in…Tales of the City…and some of the locations seen in the miniseries.”  Take a look.

Namibia Book List

Andreas, Neshani. The purple violet of Oshaantu (2001)

Biesele, Megan.  Women like meat: the folklore and foraging ideology of the Kalahari Ju/’hoan (1993)

Brandenburg, Jim.  Sand and fog: adventures in Southern Africa (1996)

Brink, Andre. The other side of silence (2003)

Clarke, Margaret Courtney. Places in the sand (1997)

Crandall, David P. The place of stunted ironwood trees : a year in the lives of the cattle-herding Himba of Namibia (2000)

Diescho, Joseph. Born of the sun: a Namibian novel (1988)

Diescho, Joseph. Troubled waters: a novel (1993)

Grotpeter, John J. Historical dictionary of Namibia (1994)

Hall-Martin, Anthony. Kaokoveld: the last wilderness (1990)

Hartmann, Wolfram, Patricia Hayes and Jeremy Silvester. Colonising camera: photographs in making of Namibian history (1999)

Herbstein, Denis. The devils are among us: the war for Namibia (1989)

Johnson, Peter. Okavango: sea of land, land of water (1984)

Cubitt, Gerald and Peter Joyce.  This is Namibia (2000)

Leys, Colin and Susan Brown, editors. Histories of Namibia: living through the liberation struggle (2005)

Moleah, Alfred T.  Namibia : the struggle for liberation (1983)

Nujomo, Sam. Where others wavered: the autobiography of Sam Nujoma – my life in SWAPO and my participation in the liberation struggle of Namibia (2001)

O’Connell, Caitlin. The elephant’s secret sense: the hidden life of the wild herds of Africa (2007)

Orford, Margie and Nepeti Nicanor.  Coming on strong: writing by Namibian women (1996)

Orner, Peter. The second coming of Mavala Shikongo (2006)

Schoeman, Amy. Skeleton coast (1984)

Thomas, Elizabeth Marshall. The old way: a story of the first people (2007)

Tinley, Lynne. Drawn from the plains: life in the wilds of Namibia and Moçambique (2007)

Ya-Otto, John.  Battlefront Namibia: an autobiography (1981)

Mari Sandoz High Plains Heritage Center, Chadron State College, Chadron, Nebraska, U.S.

“The Mari Sandoz High Plains Heritage Center celebrates the life and literature of Mari Sandoz and the culture of the High Plains through the acquisition, preservation, display, and interpretation of archival materials, records, documents, books, specimens, and artifacts.”  The Center is open Monday-Friday, 8:00 to Noon and 1:00 to 4:00; and Saturday, 9:00 – Noon and 1:00 to 4:00.  For additional information, visit The Mari Sandoz High Plains Heritage Center website.

Mozambique Book List

Azevedo, Mario Joaquim. Historical dictionary of Mozambique (1991)

Couto, Mia. Every man is a race (1994)

Couto, Mia. The last flight of the flamingo (2004)

Couto, Mia. A river called time (2009)

Couto, Mia. Sleepwalking land (2006)

Couto, Mia. Under the frangipani (2001)

Couto, Mia. Voices made night (1990)

Craveirinha, José. Xigubo: texto integral (1980)

De Azevedo, Licinio. The train of salt and sugar (2008)

Finnigan, William.  A complicated war: the harrowing of Mozambique (1992)

Hardy, Ronald. Rivers of darkness (1979)

Honwana, Luis Bernardo. We killed mangy-dog and other stories (1969)

Karodia, Farida. A shattering of silence (1993)

Magaia, Lina. Dumba nengue, run for your life: peasant tales of tragedy in Mozambique (1988)

Middleton, Nick. Kalashnikovs and zombie cucumbers:  travels in Mozambique (1995)

Michler, Ian. This is Mozambique (2000)

Minter, William. Apartheid’s contras: an inquiry into the roots of war in Angola and Mozambique (1994)

Momplé, Lilia. Neighbours: the story of a murder (2001)

Mondlane, Eduardo. The struggle for Mozambique (1969)

Newitt, Malyn. A history of Mozambique (1995)

Nordstrom, Carolyn. A different kind of war story (1997)

Owen, Hilary. Mother Africa, Father Marx: women’s writing of Mozambique, 1948-2002 (2007)

Owens, Delia and Mark Owens. The eye of the elephant: an epic adventure in the African wilderness (1992) (in part)

Owens, Delia and Mark Owens. Secrets of the savanna: twenty-three years in the African wilderness unraveling the mysteries of elephants and people (2006) (in part)

Paul, John. Mozambique: memoirs of a revolution (1975)

Sachs, Albie. Running to Maputo (1990)

Sachs, Albie. The soft vengeance of a freedom fighter (2000)

St. Aubin de Teran, Lisa. Mozambique mysteries (2007)

Sitoe, Bento. Zabela: my wasted life (1996)

Urdang, Stehanie. And still they dance: women, destabilization, and the struggle for change in Mozambique (1989)

Williams, Frederick G. Poets of Mozambique: a bilingual anthology (2006)

Philippines

Joyce Hor-Chung Lau talks with Miguel Syjuco, whose newest novel, Ilustrado, is “a satire of the chaos and violence of Philippine politics.”

‘My family, my friends, my colleagues — we are the elites,’ he said. ‘We are a wealthy, beautiful country, and we’ve screwed it up so badly. The majority of wealth is controlled by a minority. And we don’t know when enough is enough. The elite don’t want one mansion; they want three.’ – from “An Expatriate Filipino Writes of a Parallel Life,” by Joyce Hor-Chung Lau, The New York Times

China

Biographer Hilary Spurling chooses her “top 10 unputdownable Chinese books.”