BOOKPATHS

Gulf Coast; West Coast; United States

Author Brenda Peterson comments on the “Gulf coast oil spill – 5,000 barrels a day poisoning waters that are vital to people and wildlife….”

As the oil spill makes landfall off Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, or Texas, we must keep our focus not just on the current anguish and outrage over this leak, but clearly eye our future: Connect the dots, the spills. – “When Oil Spills, All Things Are Connected,” by Brenda Peterson, The Huffington Post

United States

Terry Gross talks with poet Robert Hass about Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself.

‘In the first edition, it had no name and in the second, he called it 'Walt Whitman' and then I think he called it 'Poem of Walt Whitman, an American' for a while,’ Hass tells Terry Gross. ‘And it really wasn't until the end of his life that he called it by the name that all schoolchildren know it by, Song of Myself.’ – from NPR Website

Edinburgh, Scotland

Take a photographic tour of literary Edinburgh.

On the 50th birthday of one of its modern-day stalwarts, Ian Rankin, we take a tour around the city and its writers. – The Guardian

Libya Book List

al-Koni, Ibrahim. The bleeding of the stone (2002)

al-Koni, Ibrahim. The seven veils of Seth: a modern Arabic novel from Libya (2008)

al-Gaddafi, Muammar. The green book (1975)

Chorin, Ethan. Translating Libya: the modern Libyan short story (2008)

DeMille, Nelson. The Lion’s Game (2000)

Di Vita, Antonio, et al. Libya: the lost cities of the Roman Empire (1999)

Fagih, Ahmed, editor. Libyan stories: twelve short stories from Libya (2000)

First, Ruth. Libya: the elusive revolution (1974)

Herodotus. The histories (c. 430 BCE) (in part)

Holmboe, Knud.  Desert encounter (1937)

Kohl, Ines. Beautiful modern nomads: bordercrossing Tuareg between Niger, Algeria and Libya (2009)

Martinez, Luis. The Libyan paradox (2007)

Matar, Hisham. In the country of men (2007)

Mattawa, Khaled. Ismailia eclipse: poems (1995)

Ronen, Yehudit. Qaddafi’s Libya in world politics (2008)

St. John, Ronald Bruce. Historical dictionary of Libya (1998)

St. John, Ronald Bruce. Libya: from colony to independence (2008)

St. John, Ronald Bruce. Libya and the United States: two centuries of strife (2002)

Vandewalle, Dirk. A history of modern Libya (2006)

Ward, Phillip.  Touring Libya: the Eastern provinces (1969)

Ward, Phillip.  Touring Libya: the Western provinces (1967)

Ward, Phillip.  Tripoli: portrait of a city (1965)

Vietnam; United States

Jeffrey Brown talks with Tim O’Brien, whose “collection of stories about an American platoon, The Things They Carried, is being reissued as it celebrates its… 20th anniversary.”

Yes. I mean, the things we carry, the objects we carry say things about the sorts of people we are.

The book -- so, the book does start with the physical stuff we carry through -- through a war, not just the military stuff, but the rabbit's feet and the pictures of your girlfriend back home, and all you don't have.

And then the book tries to move into the emotional and the spiritual burdens that you're going to carry, not just through the war, but to your grave. – Tim O’Brien, New Hour Website

Liberia Book List

Aardema, Verna, et al. Koi and the kola nuts: a tale from Liberia (2003)

Banks, Russell. The darling (2004)

Blyden, Edward Wilmot. Selected letters of Edward Wilmot Blyden (1978)

Clegg, Claude A. The price of liberty: African Americans and the making of Liberia (2004)

Cooper, Helene. The house at Sugar Beach: in search of a lost African childhood (2008)

Dendel, Esther Warner. The crossing fee: story of life in Liberia (1968)

Dendel, Esther Warner. New song in a strange land (1948)

Dendel, Esther Warner. Seven days to Lomaland (1954)

Dendel, Esther Warner.  Trial by sasswood (1956)

Dendel, Esther Warner. You cannot unsneeze a sneeze, and other tales from Liberia (1995)

Dunn, D. Elwood. Historical dictionary of Liberia (2001)

George, Rose. A life removed: hunting for refuge in the modern world (2004) (in part)

Greene, Graham. Journey without maps (1936)

Greene, Barbara. Too late to turn back: Barbara and Graham Greene in Liberia (1991)

Henries, A. Doris Banks. Liberian folklore: a compilation of ninety-nine folktales with some proverbs (1966)

Huffman, Alan. Mississippi in Africa (2004) (in part)

McPherson, J. H. T. History of Liberia (2010)

Moore, Bai T. The money doubler (1976)

Moore, Bai T. Murder in the cassava patch (1968)

Moses, Wilson Jeremiah. Liberian dreams: back-to-Africa narratives from the 1850s (1998)

Paye, Won-Ldy, et al. Head, body, legs: a story from Liberia (2005)

Powers, William. Blue Clay People: seasons on Africa’s fragile edge (2005)

Sankawulo, Wilton. The marriage of wisdom, and other tales (1974)

Sankawulo, Wilton. Sundown at dawn: a Liberian odyssey (2005)

Shaw, Elma. Redemption Road: the quest for peace and justice in Liberia (2008)

Sirleaf, Ellen Johnson. This child will be great: memoir of a remarkable life by Africa’s first woman president (2009)

Wesley, Patricia Jabbeh.  Before the palm could bloom: poems of Africa (1998)

Lesotho Book List

Eldredge, Elizabeth A. Power in colonial Africa: conflict and discourse in Lesotho, 1870-1960 (2007)

Ferguson, James. The anti-politics machine: ‘development’, depoliticization, and bureaucratic power (1990)

Jingoes, Stimela Jason. A chief is a chief by the people: the autobiography of Stimela Jason Jingoes (1975)

Kendall, K. Limakatso.  Basali!: stories by and about women in Lesotho (1995)

Lyons, Jacqueline. The way they say yes here (2004)

Mda, Zakes. She plays with the darkness: a novel (2004)

Mofolo, Thomas. Chaka (1939)

Morojele, Morabo. How we buried Puso (2006)

Nthunya, Mpho ‘M’atsepo. Singing away the hunger: the autobiography of an African woman (1997)

Van Wyk, Gary N.  African painted houses: Basotho dwellings of Southern Africa (1998)

United States; Australia

Charles McGrath talks with Peter Carey, whose new book, Parrot and Olivier in America, was released last week.

Mr. Carey’s new book is his first to be set in America. 'Parrot and Olivier' takes place in 1830 and is an “improvisation,” as Mr. Carey calls it, on the history of Alexis de Tocqueville, who appears here as the asthmatic, myopic, nosebleed-prone Olivier-Jean-Baptiste de Clarel de Barfleur de Garmont. – from “Peter Carey: at Home in Australia, New York and Writing,” by Charles McGrath, The New York Times

United States...

Author Simon Van Booy explains why we “must read” George, Being George: George Plimpton’s Life as Told, Admired, Deplored and Envied by 200 Friends, Relatives, Lovers, Acquaintances, Rivals – and a Few Unappreciative Observers.

This book is full of Plimpton's most famous antics: his love of fireworks, his experiences with the New York Philharmonic and the Detroit Lions, and his exploits as a trapeze artist for the Barnum & Bailey circus. It also contains more tender, private sentiments of the man who wrestled the gun from Robert Kennedy's assassin and who was a husband, a father and a mentor. – from “Tasting the Flavors of Life as Only ‘George’ Could,” by Simon Van Booy, NPR Website

Kenya Book List

Adamson, Joy.  Born free: a lioness of two worlds  (1960)

Adamson, Joy. The peoples of Kenya (1966)

Adamson, Joy. Living Free: the story of Elsa and her cubs  (1961)

Anderson, David. Histories of the hanged: the dirty war in Kenya and the end of empire (2005)

Bull, Bartle.  The White Rhino Hotel (1992)

Constant, Paule. Ouregano: a novel (2005)

Creider, Jame Tapsubei. The shrunken dream (1992)

Dhalla, Ghalib Shiraz. Ode to Lata: a novel (2002)

Dinesen, Isak.  Out of Africa (1938)

Dinesen, Isak. Shadows in the Grass (1960)

Fletcher, Colin. The winds of Mara (1973)

Gallmann, Kuki. I dreamed of Africa (1991)

Gellhorn, Martha. The weather in Africa (1978)

Gikandi, Simon. Ngugi wa Thiong’o (2000)

Gurnah, Abdulrazak. Desertion (2005)

Halkin, John. Kenya (1986)

Halperin, Helena. I laugh so I won’t cry: Kenya’s women tell the story of their lives (2005)

Hamilton, Masha. The camel bookmobile (2007)

Hanley, Gerald. Warriors and strangers (1972)

Head, Bessie and Ngugi wa Thiong’o. To stir the heart (2007)

Hemingway, Ernest.  Green hills of Africa (1935)

Hemingway, Ernest. True at first light (1999)

Hemingway, Ernest. Under Kilimanjaro (2005)

Hillaby, John. Journey to the Jade Sea (1965)

Hopkins, Billy. Going places (2003)

Huxley, Elspeth. The flame trees of Thika: memories of an African childhood (1959)

Huxley, Elspeth. The mottled lizard (1962)

Huxley, Elspeth. On the edge of the rift: memories of Kenya (1962)

Huxley, Elspeth.  Out in the midday sun: my Kenya (1985)

Jackman, Brian. The marsh lions: the story of an African pride (1982)

Jones, J. D. F. Freeland (1994)

Kaye, M. M. Death in Kenya (1983)

Kear, Cynthia. Searching for Grace

Keating, Barbara. Blood sisters (2005)

Kenyatta, Jomo. The challenge of Uhuru: the progress of Kenya, 1968 to 1970 (1971)

Kenyatta, Jomo. Facing Mount Kenya: the tribal life of Gikuyu (1938)

Kenyatta, Jomo. Kenya: the land of conflict (1971)

Kenyatta, Jomo. My people of Kikuyu, and, the life of Chief Wangombe (1966)

Kenyatta, Jomo. Suffering without bitterness: the founding of the Kenya Nation (1968)

Kinyatti, Maina wa, editor. Thunder from the mountains: Mau Mau patriotic songs (1980)

Kessel, Joseph. The lion: a novel (1959)

Kurtz, J. Roger. Urban obsessions, urban fears : the postcolonial Kenyan novel (1998)

Lambkin, David. The hanging tree (1996)

Lekuton, Joseph Lemasolai. Facing the lion: growing up Maasai on the African savanna (2005)

Macgoye, Marjorie Oludhe. Chira (1997)

Macgoye, Marjorie Oludhe. Coming to birth (1986)

Macgoye, Marjorie Oludhe. A farm called Kishinev (2005)

Macgoye, Marjorie Oludhe. Homing in (1994)

Macgoye, Marjorie Oludhe. Make it sing and other poems (1998)

Macgoye, Marjorie Oludhe. Murder in Majengo (1972)

Macgoye, Marjorie Oludhe.  The present moment (1987)

Macgoye, Marjorie Oludhe. Street life (1987)

Macgoye, Marjorie Oludhe. Song of Nyarloka and other poems (1977)

Mangua, Charles. Son of woman (1971)

Mangua, Charles. Son of woman in Mombasa (1986)

Mangua, Charles. A tail in the mouth: a novel (1972)

Marciano, Francesca. Rules of the wild (1998)

Markham, Beryl.  West with the night (1942)

Maathai, Wangari. Unbowed: a memoir (2006)

McQuillan, Karin. Elephants’ graveyard (1993) (mystery series)

Moss, Cynthia. Elephant memories: thirteen years in the life of an elephant family (1988)

Mwangi, Meja. Carcase for hounds (1974)

Mwangi, Meja.  Going down River Road (1976)

Mwangi, Meja.  Kill me quick (1973)

Mwangi, Meja. The last plague (2000)

Mwangi, Meja. The return of Shaka (1989)

Mwangi, Meja. Weapon for hunger (1989)

Naipaul, Shiva. North of south: an African journey (1978) (in part)

Ngugi  wa Thiong’O. Barrel of a pen: resistance to repression in neo-colonial Kenya (1983)

Ngugi  wa Thiong’O. Detained: a writers prison diary (1981)

Ngugi  wa Thiong’O. Dreams in a time of war: a childhood memoir (2010)

Ngugi  wa Thiong’O. A grain of wheat (1967)

Ngugi wa Thiong’O and Ngugi wa Mirii. I will marry when I want (1982)

Ngugi wa Thiong’O. Matigari (1989)

Ngugi wa Thiong’O. Petals of blood (1977)

Ngugi wa Thiong’O. The river between (1965)

Ngugi wa Thiong’O. Secret lives, and other stories (1975)

Ngugi wa Thiong’O. The trial of Dedan Kimath (1976)

Ngugi wa Thiong’O. The Wizard of the Crow (2006)

Ngugi wa Thiong’O. Writers in politics: a re-engagement with issues of literature and society (1997) (in part)

Nicholls, C. S. Elspeth Huxley: a biography (2002)

Nivola, Claire. Planting the trees of Kenya: the story of Wangari Maathai (2008)

Ogola, Margaret. I swear by Apollo (2002)

Ogola, Margaret. Place of destiny (2005)

Ogola, Margaret. The river and the source (1994)

Ogot, Grace. Land without thunder: short stories (1968)

Ogot, Grace. The other woman: selected short stories (1976)

Ogot, Grace. The promised land: a novel (1966)

Ogude, James. Ngugi’s novels and African history: narrating the nation (1999)

Owuor, Yvonne Adhiambo. Weight of whispers (2006)

Pavitt, Nigel. Kenya: a country in the making, 1880-1940 (2008)

Rathbone, Julian. As bad as it gets (2003)

Ridgeway, Rick. The shadow of Kilimanjaro: on foot across East Africa (2006)

Robson, Clifford B. Ngugi wa Thiong’o (1979)

Ruark, Robert. Something of value (1955)

Saitoti, Tepilit Ole. Maasai (1980)

Sander, Reinhard and Bernth Lindfors, editor. Ngugi wa Thiong’o speaks: interviews with the Kenyan writer (2006)

Shreve, Anita. A change in altitude: a novel (2009)

Vassani, M. G. The in-between world of Vikram Lall (2003)

Wamwere, Koigi wa. Conscience on trial: why I was detained, notes of a political prisoner in Kenya (1988)

Wamere, Koigi wa. I refuse to die: my journey for freedom (2002)

Western, David. In the dust of Kilimanjaro (1997)

Wiley, Richard. Ahmed’s revenge: a novel (1998)

Williams, Patrick. Ngugi wa Thiong’o (1999)

Wood, Barbara. Green city in the sun (1988)

Wrong, Michela. It’s our turn to eat: the story of a Kenyan whistle-blower (2009)