Love in the Driest Season: A Family Memoir
by Neely Tucker
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 303)
Read in October, 2006
It must be Christmastime (oh, yeah, it is), but I'm getting very promiscuous with my stars! Honestly, this story and the way that it is told deserve five stars.
Neely Tucker was a single man, living for himself, trotting around the globe as a reporter, when love found him -- twice. First, he met and married an amazing woman who followed him and his career to Africa. The fact that she was black and he was white meant different things...more
Neely Tucker was a single man, living for himself, trotting around the globe as a reporter, when love found him -- twice. First, he met and married an amazing woman who followed him and his career to Africa. The fact that she was black and he was white meant different things...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in May, 2008
After the spirited, sense-engaging tone of Brimnes, international journalist Neely Tucker’s book about African adoption in the midst of the AIDS explosion in Zimbabwe was a yank back in the other direction - but it’s a good and important story and the contrast in those details made it even more so.
Tucker and his wife, Vita, move to Africa so Tucker can cover the region for the Detroit Free Press, and in the process become enveloped in Zimbabwe’s heartbreaking battle with AIDS and the s...more
Tucker and his wife, Vita, move to Africa so Tucker can cover the region for the Detroit Free Press, and in the process become enveloped in Zimbabwe’s heartbreaking battle with AIDS and the s...more
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Read in May, 2008
recommends it for:
my mom
Perhaps I'm a sap for giving this book five stars, but I completely enjoyed the story and was really moved by the struggles of Neely and Vita to adopt baby Chipo in Zimbabwe. The writing is engaging and crisp and there is a lot of humanity in the story.
It's a story about family (both traditional and non-traditional) and lengths a person can go to in order to help someone that is helpless. It's about race and class and foreignness. I also enjoyed the way that Tucker was unable to really expr...more
It's a story about family (both traditional and non-traditional) and lengths a person can go to in order to help someone that is helpless. It's about race and class and foreignness. I also enjoyed the way that Tucker was unable to really expr...more
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Read in June, 2008
This was such a great book. The author, an American journalist, shares the story of his daughter and her adoption from Zimbabwe. But, the adoption is just one aspect of the story. The author lives in Zimbabwe for years during the late 1990s and early 2000s as Mugabe continues to exert control over the country. The book beautifully blends personal memoir, history, and reflections on race and politics. Much of the story is graphically violent and difficult to read, but incredibly relevent, particu...more
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This is the true story of an American journalist and his wife who go to great lengths to adopt an abandoned baby in Zimbabwe. African politics get in the way, plus they're a mixed race couple so there were suspicions about why a white parent would want a black child, though now I can't remember if it was the mother or father who was black. The country is unstable. He's a journalist and has to be careful about how he reports the "news." It's exciting and frustrating and I breathed a...more
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Read in February, 2008
recommended to Deborah by:
my sister, Faithrecommends it for: anyone
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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This is an amazing true story. An American couple, a foreign correspondent and his wife, are posted in Zimbabewe. They volunteer at an orphanage and see much death and devastation. Along the way they decide to adopt a child. For an American couple to adopt a child from Zimbabwe takes an extreme amount of determination. It's a nightmarish road they had to take and, it's worth the read.
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Read in January, 2007
I read this before I read THERE IS NO ME WITHOUT YOU, which I like better if you are only going to read one book about African orphans. However, this book I also loved. It is a much more personal story of adoption, which interested me. Some of the war correspondence scenes are graphic, but no more than you would hear on CNN. Really, this book is like being in another world entirely.
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Read in January, 2008
recommends it for:
Parents, travelers
Wow. This was a tough read for a lot of reasons--the pain of Zimbabwe's political past (and present and future), the AIDS crisis in Africa and the difficulty of foreign adoptions. I loved this book though. Neely is a gifted writer who loves not only his family but Africa as well. He is an impressive man who slogged through a ton of African red tape to bring home his child.
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Read in January, 2008
This is at times a heart wrenching story...beautifully written. It's the story of a couple who move to Zimbabwe for work (he's a journalist). They begin to volunteer at an orphanage filled with abandoned children (many likely have AIDS or HIV). They decide to adopt one girl, Chipo. This is their story and it is at times frustrating yet somehow hopeful.
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in January, 2006
recommends it for:
Poeple wanting to know about Zimbabwe
Neely Tucker is a skilled writer, having been a journalist for many years. This book is a factual account of his (and his wife’s) attempt to adopt a child in Zimbabwe – if you really want to know why so much wrath and venom is being spat in Robert Mugabe’s way: read this book. You’ll close it with the knowledge of humanity’s suffering.
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Read in January, 2007
I started reading this book because I saw this really cool-looking woman reading it on a train. I had no idea what it was about, I just wondered if I should read what she was reading. Turns out it's pretty heavy subject matter and is probably best reserved for those passionate about the topic. I didn't get thru it.
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Read in September, 2007
Just finished this book and I am touched by so many aspects. It is the story of an adoption by an American, mixed race couple in an African nation, encased in a larger story of poverty, AIDS, national tragedy, and throw-away children. It is well written,informative, and heartfelt. It will be with me for a while.
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Read in September, 2005
A journalist and foreign correspondant stationed in Zimbabwe falls in love with an AIDS-orphaned little girl. The story is all about his attempts to adopt the child. An interesting glimpse into the devestation of AIDS in Southern Africa and the process of international adoption.
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Read in June, 2007
This book was a good one but was a hard read for me. Emotionally it was a hard read. I remember the darkness and a brutality that I sensed from its pages. I thought the overall message of the book was a good one--it just isn't a book I'm anxious to return to.
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Read in December, 2005
I got this book a few years from a book club and finally got around to reading it. It's not normally something I would have bought, but I am glad I read it. It's an amazing true story - and will probably make you at least tear up a bit.
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Read in March, 2007
A touching story of a journalist and his wife trying to adopt a baby from Zimbabwe. The book gives lots of information about the political instability in Africa. There ia also a discussion about the severity of the AIDS situation there.
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This is a really fantastic, and heartbreaking, story about a couple trying to adopt a child from Zimbabwe. All they wanted to do was to provide the child with a better life and there were so many obstacles that stood in their way.
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This was a good book. I learned a lot I didn't want to know about the world but I needed to know. The author did a good job of telling about all of his reporting in Africa and also what was happening in his own life.
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Foreign correspondent Neely Tucker and his wife, Vita see the effects of AIDS and economic disaster in Zimbabwe in 1997. Mixed race American couple poignant effort to adopt a little girl Chipo. It is a wonderful story.
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