Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood in Around the World in 80 Books

Aug 31, 2008 Nadine in NY Jones rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 100-best-of-21st-c, memoir-and-autobiographical-essays

Well-written, fascinating, and emotional. At first the structure is somewhat confusing, especially the first few chapters, I kept losing track of what year it was and how old the author was at that point. But after a while I settled right in. I was sad when the book ended; it's been a long time since I enjoyed a book that much.

I especially like how the author manages to tell the story through the eyes of a child, but yet makes it clear that she doesn't necessarily agree with all of these viewpoi ...more

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Oct 02, 2009 Jen rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, rough-read, crazy-families, lives-of-people, british, zz2009-read, africa, war-related, colonialism, growing-up

This was a fascinating memoir about a British ex-pat family toughing it out in Rhodesia, soon to become Zimbabwe, as recounted by the youngest daughter. Humorous at times, still some episodes are harrowing and some quite ugly, but I admire the author taking an unflinching look at her past and not sugar-coating to make it seem more palatable. Plus I hadn't really realized British rule was still in effect in Africa into the 1980's. What I do know is, my ass wouldn't have lasted but 5 minutes on an ...more

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Oct 02, 2017 Jana rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: book-club, travelogue

We had a really rich discussion of this book at our meeting. There are so many difficult issues in this book, among them are colonialism, sexual abuse, alcoholism, mental illness, the loss of children/siblings, war, and hunger.

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