Unbowed: A Memoir (Vintage)
by Wangari Maathai
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Read in November, 2007
An interesting book with lots of potential. Does not appear to have been chosen as a Common Reading elsewhere.
1.
Yes/maybe. Paperback, 326 p, $14.95, engaging, no audio? Author visit expense might be high - research alternative speakers.
2.
Engaging: The first half of the memoir was the most engaging, especially where the author reflects on how her childhood experiences formed her character and her connection to the environment.
Culture: There are many cultural aspects to the bo...more
1.
Yes/maybe. Paperback, 326 p, $14.95, engaging, no audio? Author visit expense might be high - research alternative speakers.
2.
Engaging: The first half of the memoir was the most engaging, especially where the author reflects on how her childhood experiences formed her character and her connection to the environment.
Culture: There are many cultural aspects to the bo...more
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Read in March, 2008
The first half, about her childhood and even her experience as a university student in the U.S., lacked depth. The book became more captivating as I read on, but only because the subject matter became more interesting (her experiences in Kenya after she returned from university, Kenya's recent political history). Unfortunately, her writing style throughout is pretty dry; she probably should have worked on the book with someone. She also appears self-congratulating at times, which is annoying but...more
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Read in August, 2008
This is the memoir of Wangari Maathai, a strong African woman who started planting trees as an act of defiance to poverty, care for the earth, nonviolent action, democracy, and peace. This action created a movement of Kenyans who have planted 30 million trees in their country and the results of these acts are too numerous to name.
They did crazy, beautiful things like “trespassing” in a national forest in order to plant trees as an act against the government’s secret deal to give the la...more
They did crazy, beautiful things like “trespassing” in a national forest in order to plant trees as an act against the government’s secret deal to give the la...more
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Read in February, 2008
recommended to Valerie by:
the fun book club!recommends it for: feminists & environmentalists
I read this book to learn more about Maathai and the successes and failures of the Green Belt Movement; its a particularly timely read given this year's unhappy events in Kenya, and a bit helpful in understanding some of the country's ethnic enmities.
It's a fast read, not beautifully written, but a nice overview of Maathai's valuable work developing the Green Belt Movement. Also provides a brief sketch of Kenya's recent history, intertwined with her contentious relationship to authority. To...more
It's a fast read, not beautifully written, but a nice overview of Maathai's valuable work developing the Green Belt Movement. Also provides a brief sketch of Kenya's recent history, intertwined with her contentious relationship to authority. To...more
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Read in August, 2008
Wangari Maathai is an exceptional person. Her dedication and persistance to righting issues in equity and the environment are inspiring. The tone of the book reflects what I believe her personality must be like; calm, insistent and honorable. At times, her tendency to understate her own accomplishments made me almost miss the enormity of her impact and work. Reading about her life reminded me that each person's actions truly can have a profound impact on the world in which we live. This was a bo...more
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Read in December, 2007
recommends it for:
those interested in environmental activism and feminism
I'll admit I was quite skeptical of this book when I first picked it up. Not one being one for biographies (auto or otherwise) or big on "woo! feminism!" I was pleasantly surprised. Maathai has a simple, clear voice that is strangely compelling and frank. Her gift lies in her ability to speak directly to the reader as an individual rather than as a group of people reading a book. It almost felt like reading a conversation, if that makes any sense.
Her story seems larger than lif...more
Her story seems larger than lif...more
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I love Wangari Maathai. Hands down, she's an inspiration, and whenever I hear her being interviewed on the radio, my ears perk up. Her autobiography has a promising start. The descriptions of where she comes from, the Kenyan highlands, are stirring. Yet once she gets into the education and work sections of her life, the narrative reads more like a catalogue, which makes me think the fault might be in me. I might not like autobiographies, for the genre often demands a good deal of listing, a...more
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Read in February, 2008
Wangari Maathai is just one woman, and this biography details the small and simple actions that led to her many many many significant achievements, both in Kenya and worldwide. It was particularly interesting to read this just after the Kenya elections in January 2008 because she relays so much of Kenya's political state up through the previous elections, and helps to put into perspective the reasons for the current post-election violence. It is an important book to read and she interweaves h...more
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Read in January, 2006
recommends it for:
All Women
Wow. After being floored by seeing Wangari Maathai speak two years ago, I was suprised at the book's capacity to further rock my world. Guess the Nobel Peace Prize committee really knows their stuff. Her language is just as beautiful and simple as she is, her ideas are brilliant, and she has overcome as many mountains as she has saved.
Her project--mobilizing the disempowered women of Kenya to plant trees, beginning a green revolution in her country and preventing errosion--is humbly out...more
Her project--mobilizing the disempowered women of Kenya to plant trees, beginning a green revolution in her country and preventing errosion--is humbly out...more
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Read in February, 2008
i wonder why i didn't like her writing as much as i wanted to. i can understand boundaries, but sometimes she would mention her children and then at the next mentioning, they were living with their father for an extended period of time. i guess i just wanted them in or out, but not in this weird limbo land because that made me want to know a lot more about maathai as a mother in addition to her as an activist. oh well. her stories are amazing and this book was a good compliment to the docu...more
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Read in July, 2007
Wangari Maathai won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for a lifetime's work founding and running the Green Belt Movement in Kenya, through which local women have planted over thirty million trees across the country. Her memoir starts out with a nostalgic look back at her rural childhood. But it really picks up steam when she shifts to intense descriptions of her activities in Kenya's pro-democracy struggles, including frequent run-ins with thuggish characters (both in and out of police uniforms), ...more
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Read in August, 2007
Not being up on Nobel Prize winners or, apparently, world events, I had never heard of Wangari Maathai or the Green Belt Movement (www.greenbeltmovement.org/) before reading this autobiography. It's interesting not only for the story of Maathai's life but also for the history of Kenya during the 1940's-present that she interweaves with her personal history. I'm awed a...more
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Read in January, 2007
recommends it for:
people who want to understand how to lead
The author talks about her efforts to educate herself and protect the integrity of her native country, Kenya (especially the environment). She founds the Green Belt movement which mobilizes citizens to plant trees. This of course helps the environment, but I think trees also have a greater importance, because to plant slow-growing trees, one must have a concern for future generations and have a strong understanding of what it means to plan for the future. A movement to plant trees is therefor...more
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Read in July, 2008
**Deep sigh of satisfaction** So, DUH, this is a book that Pam would really enjoy. But it is also so much more -- so engaging on many levels for a larger audience than merely the tree-obsessed ; ) I am not familiar with other works by Nobel laureates, but she alone makes me proud of this prize.
Wangari (I address her by her first name, feels like we'd be friends) is completely charming, intelligent, caring, and humble. Is nice to have already heard her in person (yes I am THAT cool, ha!) ...more
Wangari (I address her by her first name, feels like we'd be friends) is completely charming, intelligent, caring, and humble. Is nice to have already heard her in person (yes I am THAT cool, ha!) ...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in January, 2008
recommends it for:
'independent' women
this book is a lesson in 'commitment to a course'. it is a beautifully told story of Wangari's life. if all is factual, then it shows a side of Wangari that you dont see through the press...
and it has a lesson for the 'independent woman'....be ready to face the wrath of a male dominated society ... balance your defiance with some compliance for better results ... dont give up coz you have a unique contribution to make in the world.
the story also is an expose of Kikuyu culture and folk histor...more
and it has a lesson for the 'independent woman'....be ready to face the wrath of a male dominated society ... balance your defiance with some compliance for better results ... dont give up coz you have a unique contribution to make in the world.
the story also is an expose of Kikuyu culture and folk histor...more
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Read in March, 2008
I'm still in the process of savoring this book.
Admittedly, the subject resonates profoundly with me given my experience as a volunteer in Kenya. However, beyond the fact that this is a "book about Kenya," this is an exceptionally written memoir by an exceptional Kenyan woman. Her voice is distinctively Kikuyu...and it's not easy to describe exactly what I mean, but I've connected with Wangari in a way that, at times, brings me directly back to some of my more memorable Kenyan exp...more
Admittedly, the subject resonates profoundly with me given my experience as a volunteer in Kenya. However, beyond the fact that this is a "book about Kenya," this is an exceptionally written memoir by an exceptional Kenyan woman. Her voice is distinctively Kikuyu...and it's not easy to describe exactly what I mean, but I've connected with Wangari in a way that, at times, brings me directly back to some of my more memorable Kenyan exp...more
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"When I was a child, my surroundings were alive, dynamic, and inspiring. Even though I was entering a world where there were books to read and facts to learn - the cultivation of the mind - I was still able to enjoy a world where children were told living stories about the world around them, and where you cultivated the soil and the imagination in equal measures." Wangari Maathai.
This book taught me that by taking one small step after another and being courageous we can restore muc...more
This book taught me that by taking one small step after another and being courageous we can restore muc...more
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Read in January, 2008
I so loved reading this book. I have been to Kenya and could absolutely visualize the wonderful descriptions of her homeland as described in the beginning of the book. I could also appreciate the strife between the different tribes. (As I was reading Unbowed the elections were taking place in Kenya which resulted in civil unrest.) I have an eight year old daughter from Tanzania (Maasai). We talk about Wangari Maathai because she is a strong AFRICAN WOMAN who has made a difference not only i...more
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Read in May, 2007
Unbowed is Wangari Maathai's memoir, beginning with her childhood in Kenya and culminating in her acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize. Maathai is the founder of the Green Belt Movement, a grassroots organization whose main focus is planting trees. Through the Green Belt Movement environmentally degraded areas of Africa (and across the world) are being restored mainly by women. I found the early part of the memoir about her childhood in Kenya and her early education to be the most interesting ...more
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Read in February, 2008
This is a very inspiring book -- a true antidote for the malaise that so many of us develop after writing letters to the editor, calling our congresspeople, etc. and feeling like it doesn't make any difference. On the one hand, after reading about Maathai's life, I feel like I haven't done ANYTHING -- and will never match her. But on the other, she makes me realize that I can be the "hummingbird" she writes about at the end of her book -- making my own impact on the world, no matter ho
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