http://www.goodreads.com/user/updates_rss/5 en-US Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:13:51 -0700 60 http://www.goodreads.com/ 200 41 http://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_logo.gif 32438578 Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:13:51 -0700 Review28119450 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/28119450 to: The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories (Scribner Classics) by Ernest Hemingway
bookshelves: africabooks, fiction
]]> 32438466 Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:11:58 -0700 Review28119376 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/28119376 The Woman in White (Penguin Classics) by William Wilkie Collins
bookshelves: to-read
]]> 32438406 Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:11:36 -0700 Review28119330 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/28119330 Kafka on the Shore (Paperback) by Haruki Murakami
bookshelves: to-read
]]> 32438294 Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:10:24 -0700 Review28119255 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/28119255 The Golden Notebook (Paperback) by Doris May Lessing
bookshelves: to-read
]]> 32438245 Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:09:54 -0700 Review28119211 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/28119211 What Is the What (Hardcover) by Dave Eggers
bookshelves: to-read
]]> 32437021 Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:56:43 -0700 Review11717804 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/11717804 to: Vera Volkova: A Biography (Hardcover) by Alexander Meinertz
bookshelves: balletbooks, nonfiction
Recommended by the dance critic at the LA Times...(who was forced to take the buyout after working there for 30 years).

Separated from her family when she emigrated from Post-Tsarist Russia, there is something about Vera's life that seems acutely lonely. She never saw her mother and sister again and married for convenience.

Yes she trained Margot Fonteyn, Erik Bruhn and even Rudolf Nureyev, but she also seemed to be plagued crazy artistic directors and rarely received any credit for her coaching. I guess this was a good book, but it made me kind of down. ]]> 32353630 Wed, 23 Jul 2008 09:09:48 -0700 Review28052894 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/28052894 to: The Worlds of a Maasai Warrior: An Autobiography (Paperback) by Tepilit Ole Saitoti
bookshelves: africabooks, autobiographical
This is probably my top recommendation if you are looking to read a book while on safari. For one, it's not depressing, and you really get a marvelous glimpse into a world that you see whizzing by from your jeep window. The Maasai (one of our fellows on our trip likened the group to the Amish of Africa, which I thought was a pretty good metaphor) are all over Western Tanzania and Kenya. They "try" to live the same life that they lived hundreds of years ago. Homes are made out of cattle dung, cattle is the only currency and they believe that all the cows in the world belong to the Maasai. They also eat chiefly cow meat and milk (mostly milk). It's a hard life.

Our guide was a Maasai who had left the traditional way of life and went on to attend school, run in the 1964 Olympics and head up all the national parks in Tanzania during the chaoic 70s. The main character in the memoir has a similar path from rural life to life in the big city and abroad.

After reading this book, I thought that we were able to ask our guide better questions about our his culture and also appreciate a visit to a traditional Maasai village. It's not a lifestyle that I would personally thrive in, but after reading the book, I have a lot more respect and interest in their way of life. All in all, a very rewarding read. ]]> 32353482 Wed, 23 Jul 2008 08:54:04 -0700 Comment1295268 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/27997211 alana's review of The Emperor's Children
by Claire Messud

Hey, I agree. It is a bit Ayn Randy-y! :) E ]]> 32198965 Tue, 22 Jul 2008 05:00:17 -0700 Review27934048 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/27934048 Heart of Darkness (Paperback) by Joseph Conrad
bookshelves: currently-reading
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