LeAnne wrote: "I just started a discussion of The Ring of the Slave Prince. Now I see I'm not supposed to be reading that yet. When you get to it..."

LeAnne, don't worry about having started the discussion already! I'm just happy for people to discuss our Africa books. :) I suspect though that more people will chime in closer to July (like myself), so you might just have to be bit patient waiting for responses. :)

I just started a discussion of The Ring of the Slave Prince. Now I see I'm not supposed to be reading that yet. When you get to it...

FYI- I just started a discussion of "Reading the Ceiling" if anyone wants to post comments.

My copy of the Almeida book arrived

Muphyn,
You can count me in on Ring of the Slave Prince - I am able to get a copy of it at my library.

Alright, I suggest then that due to lack of choice/access, we'll have Germano Almeida's The Last Will and Testament of Senhor da Silva Araujo as our Cape Verdian book for July. Those interested in YA lit might want to read Bjarne Reuter's Ring of the Slave Prince.

I'll make sure I read the YA book so we can have some discussion on that one, and hopefully people will get a chance to read and discuss Almeida's book (as well).

Perhaps we should include YA selections regularly. It would be neat to see how Africa is presented to kids. I'd also like to share them with my nieces and nephews.

I am primarily interested in books for children and young adults, so I am all for a YA and my library has it!

yeah, i was just logging in to chime in and say "great idea!" but muphyn beat me to it. how come we hadn't considered that...? so let's keep that in mind for future selections...
:D

Katrina wrote: "Would we consider reading a YA book? There is a book set in Cape Verde and Jamacia (according to bibliotravel.com). Its called The Ring of the Slave Prince. It is written by a Sweedish writer calle..."

Katrina, great idea! I'm always up for YA books (one of my fav genres)!! :) The Ring of the Slave Prince is widely available on Abebooks.com and perhaps also from local libraries in the US?? I can get hold of it at my local one so I think I'll be reading this one (even if we don't read it together) and will happily post some thoughts in any case.

That sounds interesting. I can get the Almeida book, but I will look around for The Ring of the Slave Prince too.

Would we consider reading a YA book? There is a book set in Cape Verde and Jamacia (according to bibliotravel.com). Its called The Ring of the Slave Prince. It is written by a Sweedish writer called Bjarne Reuter who is apparently Sweeden's best loved author.
I may try and get this and the Almeida book to read

perhaps we should just settle on the almeida book, then, since it appears to be the most widely available. i'm going to try to get my hands on the anthology...so if anyone else does also, perhaps we can have a discussion thread on that one too.

i'm jealous of your trip to wales, aldawen!

i don't want to skip a country...maybe we can do a little poll...i'll read whatever we choose to make sure we have a discussion for cape verde even if it's just me reporting my thoughts on it. maybe down the road someone will want to chime in. also...i just really really don't want to skip a country.

Thanks heaps, Marieke, for having look at Cape Verdean lit!! :)

so, what's the consensus - skip Cape Verde and travel on or perhaps read Almeida's book and/or the anthology? In the later case, I probably won't be able to participate (ie. attempt to read the book(s) ;) ) but I don't mind. :)

i looked at "between race" and "criolu" and a book about verdeans in portugal. they are all slim, but they are rather academic.
i think we should lobby a publisher to come out with some english translations of verdean novels so that when the tour d'afrique swings back around to those amazing islands, we'll have a greater choice!!
there are plenty of novels/stories...they just haven't been translated into english.

I'll be able to have a look at most of these books later today to gauge dryness. i checked WorldCat for the anthology and the only libraries that have it are in the united states (plus one in canada).

i found this but i can't tell if it's too dry. i'll see if i can preview it at work tomorrow.

Between Race and Ethnicity Cape Verdean American Immigrants, 1860-1965

also i'll check WorldCat for the anthology to see if it's widely available for borrowing.

i also found this on amazon: Yankee Mericana - My Cape Verdean Odyssey

and there seems to be plenty of almeida's book...is there still a problem with almeida's book if none of these are appealing?

i'm still planning to try to find some expatriate literature...

Andrea wrote: "I certainly don't want to skip a country, but I think we should try to avoid a choice that will be too expensive or inaccessible for the majority of members."

Agreed! and that was my concern with Cape Verde literature. :)

I certainly don't want to skip a country, but I think we should try to avoid a choice that will be too expensive or inaccessible for the majority of members.

I found it now, wouldn't find it this morning, very strange.

There is an anthology of Cape Verdean Literature (Across the Atlantic: an Anthology of Cape Verdean Literature, ed. Maria M. Ellen) but there are only four copies on Amazon and it's not exactly cheap...but if it's available in libraries, perhaps we could choose some short stories to read?

Manuel Lopes is apparently a famous modern Cape Verdean writer (1950s)...amazon has one copy of his novel "Wild Rain" (check your libraries?)

a non-fiction book reviewed in H-Net is
Cape Verde Crioulo Colony to Independent Nation

and I'm still looking for expatriate literature that is not difficult to find.

And it isn't avaliable in English on Amazon :(

I've looked and thats the only book i can come up with too

enhanced audiobook...you're starting a trend!

oh yeah, that's almost like an audiobook then! ;)

lol. and if worse comes to worse, we'll just listen to an album or two and read the liner notes instead of reading a book.

Cool!! I like the music idea, that's brilliant!! :)

Cape Verde might be a good candidate for expatriot literature...i'll do some digging around. also, we should all listen to some music from cape verde because it's pretty awesome!

I'm trying to be a bit more organised about future readings (and also reading the books) so here are some thoughts for the July reading(s). There is little I can find for Cape Verde - the only book I've got is by Basil Davidson The Fortunate Isles A Study in African Transformation, a rather heavy going history book and not really suited for book club reading (I think).

So unless someone's got some great idea(s), let's move on to the next country - Central African Republic. And yes, I realise we don't really want to skip countries but I'm hardpressed to come up with anything suitable for Cape Verde. But, of course, if anybody's got some great idea, let's hear it!! :)