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A Rock and a Hard Place: An American Geologist's Adventures in Africa
by
Deadly Snakes. Heatstroke. Scorpions.
These are just a few of the obstacles that George Zelt encounters as a graduate student in apartheid-era South Africa. In A Rock and a Hard Place, readers will follow George as he explores this contradictory, beautiful country during a time of growth and oppression. With tales of finding refuge in a desert sandstorm, being stalked by a ...more
These are just a few of the obstacles that George Zelt encounters as a graduate student in apartheid-era South Africa. In A Rock and a Hard Place, readers will follow George as he explores this contradictory, beautiful country during a time of growth and oppression. With tales of finding refuge in a desert sandstorm, being stalked by a ...more
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Hardcover, 250 pages
Published
September 17th 2019
by Greenleaf Book Group Press
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Start your review of A Rock and a Hard Place: An American Geologist's Adventures in Africa
Oh no no. The first chapter started with Mr. Zelt and his friend illegally mining rocks in modern-day Namibia. This is 100% me, and please call me overly sensitive. But as corrupt as the African government may be, it rubs me the wrong way to see a group of white men just doing whatever they want regardless of the law.
Cannot finish.
A thank you to NetGalley for providing me a copy in exchange for a review.
Cannot finish.
A thank you to NetGalley for providing me a copy in exchange for a review.
I won this book in a goodreads drawing.
An American travels to South Africa to study geology and finds himself with very little supervision and a lot of free time, so he has various adventures.
Some interesting information about both Africa, and geology.
An American travels to South Africa to study geology and finds himself with very little supervision and a lot of free time, so he has various adventures.
Some interesting information about both Africa, and geology.
Free in exchange for an honest review, via Goodreads Giveaways. Thank you to Greenleaf Book Group for listing.
For a geology memoir, this was actually really interesting. I have to say, though, I thought the conflict would take place and involve something that has a lot more to do with apartheid and the political and social climate in South Africa in the 70's. As it was, the conflict surprised me, especially as George Zelt moves forward in his actions against rival geologist Joost.
One thing that ...more
For a geology memoir, this was actually really interesting. I have to say, though, I thought the conflict would take place and involve something that has a lot more to do with apartheid and the political and social climate in South Africa in the 70's. As it was, the conflict surprised me, especially as George Zelt moves forward in his actions against rival geologist Joost.
One thing that ...more
For the record, I received this book as part of a Goodreads giveaway.
For a simple title, there is quite a bit of meaning. This book chronicles George Zelt’s adventures in South Africa as a PhD Geology student who had to make months-long field expeditions into a sparsely populated region of Namaqualand, a place with many dangers such as its fauna and harsh climate, a place where he had to rely on himself to survive while studying its geology and collecting samples of Precambrian strata. A previou ...more
For a simple title, there is quite a bit of meaning. This book chronicles George Zelt’s adventures in South Africa as a PhD Geology student who had to make months-long field expeditions into a sparsely populated region of Namaqualand, a place with many dangers such as its fauna and harsh climate, a place where he had to rely on himself to survive while studying its geology and collecting samples of Precambrian strata. A previou ...more
I received this Kindle ebook from the Goodreads Giveaway program. The book is a memoir of a young mans African educational adventure in South Africa during the 1970's. "A Rock and a Hard Place" is an average biography with a over abundance of adjectives and metaphors over dramatized accounts with so little scientific information it leaves you totally lost when Mr Zelt refers to his field of study. I found the story interesting and for the most part Mr Zelts' story is inspiring and somewhat enter
...more
Not quite what I was expecting, but I enjoyed the chance to read Mr. Zelt's story. It's quite a wild ride.
I enjoyed the hunt for gems, the travelogue and adventure side of the story, along with the chance to learn a bit more about Africa.
Having grown up in the 1970's I was aware of the oppression of apartheid and how awful it was for the South African people. (In my humble opinion, the author made it clear how disturbing it was to him, along with other often overlooked forms of ethnic oppressio ...more
I enjoyed the hunt for gems, the travelogue and adventure side of the story, along with the chance to learn a bit more about Africa.
Having grown up in the 1970's I was aware of the oppression of apartheid and how awful it was for the South African people. (In my humble opinion, the author made it clear how disturbing it was to him, along with other often overlooked forms of ethnic oppressio ...more
This is an adventurous nonfiction book that kept me truly interested. I suffered through heat and sandstorms, critters and characters, and more in my climate controlled home. But the descriptive writing made it a real experience.
George Zelt spent most of his life before he turned thirty searching for specific rocks in the Kalahari Desert/Namibia and Botswana. He was trying to prove that the rocks in this area were not what prior books on the area were from. It's way too technical for me to try and explain it, but the man whose he is trying to prove wrong is a professor at the University where he studying to get his PhD.
The early part of the book is really a travelogue by a 1980s vagabond who visits Rhodesia, South-West ...more
The early part of the book is really a travelogue by a 1980s vagabond who visits Rhodesia, South-West ...more
My friend Barbara and I have had somewhat similar experiences, but leaving out the snakes and rebels, thank you very much. Oh, and no nearsighted rhinos or hungry leopards. We've been opal mining in the Mojave Desert, getting stuck in sand in Last Chance Canyon, also in the Mojave. We hunted for tourmaline in the tailing of the Empress Mine near Fallbrook, CA, visited the Borax Mine in Boron, CA where we were able to pick up fragile calcite and interesting, fibrous ulexite specimens. While there
...more
This one bothers me. It's written like a novel but is supposed to be a memoir. The author writes himself like a hero. He sounds like a typical privileged entitled arrogant white man, not actively racist but he's clearly comfortable among the colonialists and the system they created, and the fact that they, he, still benefit from it, in fact sounding downright like a jilted supremacist when describing how the Africans managed to kick out them out in some of the neighboring countries. His criticis
...more
Thank you to Netgalley and Green Leaf Book Group for a free digital copy.
It took me months to slowly make my way through this book. A couple of times I almost DNFed it, but I am sometimes a completionist and once I got about halfway into it I was interested in seeing where the story went. To be honest it was a little anticlimactic. We got so much (boring) detail about his research in the first part of the book and then it all got concluded rather quickly at the end after deviating to his Africa ...more
It took me months to slowly make my way through this book. A couple of times I almost DNFed it, but I am sometimes a completionist and once I got about halfway into it I was interested in seeing where the story went. To be honest it was a little anticlimactic. We got so much (boring) detail about his research in the first part of the book and then it all got concluded rather quickly at the end after deviating to his Africa ...more
Feb 29, 2020
Amanda
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
arc,
nonfiction-memoir
Imagine your old kind of kooky uncle promises to sit down and tell you about when he lived in Africa and had a hotly contested dissertation project about rocks. That's this memoir. I enjoyed it quite a bit. I do think potential readers need to have an appreciation for both the tone it's told in (kooky older uncle whose youth was in the 1970s), as well as for at least one of the following: rocks, the inanity that is academic politics, southern African countries in the 1970s.
*I received a free cop ...more
*I received a free cop ...more
I won a Kindle version of this book in a Goodreads giveaway. On the whole, I enjoyed it. It was interesting to read the author’s description of his stay in South Africa during his university studies in the 70’s, about his encounters with the locals as he travelled this part of the world, his adventures in the wilderness. There are many historical, cultural, botanical and zoological references which the author explains. Those were fun to read. But some of the stories that he depicts felt disjoint
...more
The author wrote a great account of the personal journey they embarked on. The honest and detailed writing made it easy for the reader to feel invested in their journey.
My copy was a gift through Goodreads First Reads.
Dec 14, 2020
Melinda M
rated it
liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
done,
first-reads-done
A Rock and a Hard Place: An American Geologist's Adventures in Africa by George Zelt writes an interesting story that includes adventure and the culture of the time in South Africa.
...more
...more
I won the Kindle version of this book on a Goodreads Giveaway. Being a virtual and in-the-flesh wanderer, I’m always up for a travel-related memoir.
In true scientist fashion, the author tells the interesting story of his time in Africa during the 1970s very neutrally and objectively. Emotions make only occasional and brief appearances, which kept me floating on the surface from beginning to end.
While I enjoyed this well written book, it’s not likely to be one I’ll remember long enough to recom ...more
In true scientist fashion, the author tells the interesting story of his time in Africa during the 1970s very neutrally and objectively. Emotions make only occasional and brief appearances, which kept me floating on the surface from beginning to end.
While I enjoyed this well written book, it’s not likely to be one I’ll remember long enough to recom ...more
Good story telling with some amount of geology, enough to interest amateurs and explain basic concepts. Much of the focus was on his experience working on his PhD dissertation and related travel. It's an enjoyable read for armchair travelers with scary encounters with dangerous creatures as well as interesting local species.
...more
Normally this is a book I would love to read. But I just couldn't get into it. I finally gave up after 40 pages. I thought it was simplistic and that he was creating history for some of the places he wrote about.
...more
I received a free Kindle copy of this book via the Goodreads Giveaways program and would like to thank anyone who was involved in making that happen.
I really enjoyed the opportunity to learn about South Africa in the 1970's that this book provided. The details about it's people, culture, lands and wildlife were fascinating and I was particularly enthralled by the encounters with wildlife that were depicted. I loved the pictures at the end that really brought everything to life as well. I feel li ...more
I really enjoyed the opportunity to learn about South Africa in the 1970's that this book provided. The details about it's people, culture, lands and wildlife were fascinating and I was particularly enthralled by the encounters with wildlife that were depicted. I loved the pictures at the end that really brought everything to life as well. I feel li ...more
As a biology person, I wasn't sure how I would like a book focused on geology. Rocks have never interested me much. After reading the book, I still don't find rocks interesting, but I do find George interesting. I am so glad that the book is more of an autobiography than a reference book on geology. I honestly wouldn't have finished reading the thing if it was all about rocks. But reading about how George completed his PhD in the face of natural and social adversity was definitely worth hearing
...more
Note: I received this book as part of GoodReads' First Reads program
A Rock and a Hard Place details the life of a young American graduate student in Africa as he pursues his doctorate. His studies indicate that the head of the department at the university he's attending was wrong in his PhD dissertion, and he eventually has to attend another university in another part of Africa to finish his degree. Along the way he details many of the adventures he had in the field, hunting for diamonds and gol ...more
A Rock and a Hard Place details the life of a young American graduate student in Africa as he pursues his doctorate. His studies indicate that the head of the department at the university he's attending was wrong in his PhD dissertion, and he eventually has to attend another university in another part of Africa to finish his degree. Along the way he details many of the adventures he had in the field, hunting for diamonds and gol ...more
Sep 19, 2019
Reading Reindeer 2021 On Proxima Centauri
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Delightfully adventurous, reading George Zelt's nonfiction narrative of his decades in geology and petrology is akin to enjoying the wild adventures of his heroes, such as Mark Twain, Jules Verne, and Jack London. Mr. Zelt is well blessed with both the "stories to tell" and the talent and wit to express them well for the edification of readers, many of whom are "armchair travellers" enjoying vicariously.
...more
I was really excited when I won this one on Goodreads.
Unfortunately the author ticked me off when in the first two pages he recalls when he and a friend sheltered in a cave during a sandstorm containing some tribal paintings and brags about leaving trash and human waste for future visitors to discover. A paragraph later they are digging up the body of a Bushman and looting his meager belongings in search of diamonds. Appalling behavior, especially from a scientist.
Unfortunately the author ticked me off when in the first two pages he recalls when he and a friend sheltered in a cave during a sandstorm containing some tribal paintings and brags about leaving trash and human waste for future visitors to discover. A paragraph later they are digging up the body of a Bushman and looting his meager belongings in search of diamonds. Appalling behavior, especially from a scientist.
I received a copy of this book for free through a Goodreads First Reads Giveaway.
Enjoyed reading about Zelt's travels and studies throughout southern Africa. It's mainly a travelogue type book, with some memoir tidbits mixed in. There isn't much depth here, but it really isn't meant to have depth, as it's more storytelling. The leopard story was worth the read by itself.
Overall, if you like adventure, geology, travel or storytelling type books, give it a try. ...more
Enjoyed reading about Zelt's travels and studies throughout southern Africa. It's mainly a travelogue type book, with some memoir tidbits mixed in. There isn't much depth here, but it really isn't meant to have depth, as it's more storytelling. The leopard story was worth the read by itself.
Overall, if you like adventure, geology, travel or storytelling type books, give it a try. ...more
This book started out exciting and then fell off. There was a lot of information to learn and stories to hear, but there was some drivel to get through to get to the good parts. The author went out of his way to put in stories that had no reason for being in this book. Apparently he is really proud of his sexual conquests and felt that he needs to tell everyone. Those stories did not assist the book or help to move the story along.
I won this through Goodreads.
I will admit that when I entered the giveaway that I didn't have high expectations. I thought it would be on the dry side but thought I would give it a try. I'm really glad I did. I found that it was almost a page-turner and wanted to know what happened next! It was fascinating to read. ...more
I will admit that when I entered the giveaway that I didn't have high expectations. I thought it would be on the dry side but thought I would give it a try. I'm really glad I did. I found that it was almost a page-turner and wanted to know what happened next! It was fascinating to read. ...more
This book shows how the author traveled around Africa while he was studying geology in college. He gives you a glimpse of how brutal that environment is. He also manages to make the study of rocks somewhat interesting. The author also met some very interesting people in his journeys.
I received this book as a Goodreads giveaway. Yay!
I received this book as a Goodreads giveaway. Yay!
Not the best writing style but a lot of interesting and entertaining anecdotes from the author's time in Africa in the 1970s. The information on different types of rocks and other geological terms kind of made my eyes glaze over and I mostly skipped over those sections.
...more
Absolutely LOVED this book. I felt like I was right along with the author in his experiences. So atmospheric and so many wonderful anecdotes and pieces of history that will remain with me for a long time. An absolute GEM!
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