General Books - Page 4

Lonely Planet Africa

Gemma Pitcher

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Not as detailed as the previous edition 3 out of 5 stars.
11 of 11 people found this review helpful.

I was traveling with the LP Africa on a Shoestring 6 months ago. I purchased this new edition to see how LP has updated it and I'm not impressed. I don't think they did much for the Southern Africa section except remove a few things like places to stay and cities that they didn't feel tourists would get to (ex: Barra in Mozambique, Nata and Ghanzi in Botswana). Don't even think about just taking this book when you're traveling (and I have seen travelers with only this book!). If you're planning just to do Southern Africa and/or East Africa, get the books LP has out for these two regions because they will be more detailed and meet friends along the way for more recent advice/info. I was surprised to find that some of the places I visited and enjoyed in Southern Africa were no longer in the new edition. The general country info and other advice in this book are still as good as the last edition (with more current events added) and I recommend it to anyone thinking about doing a multi-country trip to Africa. It is great for planning your travel destinations.

Editorial Review:

Watch the sun set over the Niger at Mopti, where Malians trade fish for salt with the desert Tuareg, p403.

Wake up to the tug of a trunk as elephants wander through your campsite in the Serengeti National Park, p770.

Dig your oar quietly into the Okavago Delta as you drift towards a pride of lions lounging on the water's edge, p848.

24 authors, 49 countries, 1 delicious giant rat
Covering more countries then any other Africa travel guide
Feature chapter on Africa's development by veteran Africa journalist and best-selling author Michael Wrong
Visit lonelyplanet.com for up-to-the-minute reviews, updates and traveler suggestions.

Time Out Cape Town: Winelands and the Garden Route (Time Out Guides)

Time Out

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

EXCELLENT guide to Cape Town 5 out of 5 stars.
35 of 35 people found this review helpful.

I spent a month in Cape Town and this guide was always by my side. Excellent guide with wonderful endearing side bars on locals-it gives you a great sense of Cape Town and its local flavour. All the sections are dead on. I found the dining and shopping extremely helpful with its guide to what is uniquely Capetonian. This is by far the best guide to Cape Town out now. The writers and contributors for this guide should be commended.

Time Out Cape Town: Winelands and the Garden Route 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 4 people found this review helpful.

As many other Time Out Guides, the Cape Town one didn't let me down. It is a very reliable and updated source on best hotels in town, best shops, best restaurants, bars, and so on, for all budgets. I believe it enhanced greatly my experience of knowing new places. I took my Time Out Guides with me to NYC, New Orleans, Buenos Aires and Cape Town and I must say their recommendations rarely disapointed me. They also have a comprehensive session on tours, museums or sight seeing, but they are not the most complete in the market, though.

Editorial Review:

This increasingly popular destination features a heady mix of beautiful beaches, rural wine lands, and sizzling city life — all covered in detail by Time Out’s knowledgeable team of local journalists. This second edition contains a wealth of tips on enjoying Cape Town’s best food and drinks, and also includes information on local cheese farms, strawberry picking, cigar bars, and spots to watch the sun set. Color photos and maps throughout make the guide even more user-friendly.

East Africa (Multi Country Guide)

Mary Fitzpatrick, Tom Parkinson, Nick Ray

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Plan the African adventure of a lifetime with Lonely Planet's best-selling guide to East Africa; expanded coverage, from the foothills of Kilimanjaro to the volcanoes of eastern Congo; the best and most unusual places to stay from Zanzibar beach resorts to luxury tented safaris; insightful coverage of the peoples of the region; colour wildlife guide and up-to-the-minute information on gorilla trekking and safaris for all budgets; 120 easy-to-use maps.

Covers: Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania

GET A GLIMPSE of wonderous wildlife with our 16-page color animal-spotting guide and dedicated Safaris and Mountain Gorillas chapters.

GO YOUR OWN WAY with our coverage of Rwanda, Burundi and eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

GET ACTIVE - detailed information on activities airborne, on-ground or underwater.

GET THE BACKGROUND - in-depth discussion of East Africa's poignant history, cultures and environment.

HIT THE ROAD - detailed transport information and 120 user-friendly maps shows you where to go.

Lonely Planet East Africa

Mary Fitzpatrick

Amazon Price: $21.11 List Price: $31.99 Not yet published By: Lonely Planet Publications

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Very disappointed and Not recommended 1 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

I got this book right after it was published in 2006 before my 2 month volunteer mission to do HIV work in East Africa. My previous experiences was that the Lonely Planet was always the way to go and this was a COMPLETE disappointment. It didn't seem like they had done any updating at all despite that it was a new edition. I spent most of my time in Rwanda but also a bit in Tanzania. Everything on the maps was wrong, embassies had long moved locations, restaurants & shops had closed and inaccurate, and became more of a burden than a help.

STRONGLY recommend AGAINST this guide. The Rwanda, 3rd: The Bradt Travel Guide by Philip Briggs seemed much better....and at the time I had the older version.

Editorial Review:

Now in its third edition, this guide to East Africa - covering Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania and Zaire - provides extensive political and cultural background on the region, as well as practical travel advice. Sections on flora and fauna, animal conservation and "environmentally-sensitive" wildlife-spotting are included, and the expanded safari section now includes exotic options, such as balloon and camel safaris.

Rainbow's End: A Memoir of Childhood, War and an African Farm

Lauren St John

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

This is a story about a paradise lost. . . . About an African dream that began with a murder . . .

In 1978, in the final, bloodiest phase of the Rhodesian civil war, eleven-year-old Lauren St John moves with her family to Rainbow's End, a wild, beautiful farm and game reserve set on the banks of a slowflowing river. The house has been the scene of a horrific attack by guerrillas, and when Lauren's family settles there, a chain of events is set in motion that will change her life irrevocably.

Rainbow's End captures the overwhelming beauty and extraordinary danger of life in the African bush. Lauren's childhood reads like a girl's own adventure story. At the height of the war, Lauren rides through the wilderness on her horse, Morning Star, encountering lions, crocodiles, snakes, vicious ostriches, and mad cows. Many of the animals are pets, including Miss Piggy and Bacon and an elegant giraffe named Jenny. The constant threat of ruthless guerrillas prowling the land underscores everything, making each day more dangerous, vivid, and prized than the last.

After Independence, Lauren comes to the bitter realization that she'd been on the wrong side of the civil war. While she and her family believed that they were fighting for democracy over Communism, others saw the war as black against white. And when Robert Mugabe comes into power, he oversees the torture and persecution of thousands of members of an opposing tribe and goes on to become one of Africa's legendary dictators. The ending of this beautiful memoir is a fist to the stomach as Lauren realizes that she can be British or American, but she cannot be African. She can love it -- be willing to die for it -- but she cannot claim Africa because she is white.

African Friends and Money Matters: Observations from Africa (Publications in Ethnography, Vol. 37)

David E. Maranz

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

African Friends and Money Matters grew out of frustrations that Westerners experience when they travel and work in Africa. Africans have just as many frustrations relating to the Westerners in their midst. Each uses and manages money and other resources in very different ways, and these differences create many misunderstandings and frictions.

The author deals with everyday life in Africa. He first introduces the very different goals of African and Western economic systems and then presents ninety observations of African behaviors related to money matters. Explanatory comments are given that show how each one works out in real life. He illustrates his and others' experiences with anecdotes from across the continent. Drawings by two African artists add further clarity to the text as they capture Africans and Westerners in authentic situations. The result is that the reader is able to make sense of customs that at first seem incomprehensible.

This book will be of interest to Westerners living, working, or traveling in sub-Saharan Africa: business, government, diplomatic, and NGO personnel, religious workers, journalists, development sociologists, and tourists. The audience also includes professors and students in African studies. Africans will also be interested for what it reveals about Western culture and many of the significant ways Westerners react to Africa.

Table of Contents

Use of Resources
Friendship
The Role of Solidarity
Society and People of Means
Loans and Debts
Business Matters
Toward a Conclusion
References

Ethiopia & Eritrea (Country Guide)

Matt Phillips

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Lonely Planet Ethiopia and Eritrea 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

I travelled hree weeks in Ethiopia from 27.12.2006-12.1.2007 time. I visited Addis Ababa, Wollea, Debre Zeit, Dire Dawa, Lake Langano, Awasa and Harar. I used this book as a base for my travel plan and it never failed me. I read the book allways forehand at night before we entered a next place. It saved my son for a trouble becaus of framed Addis Abeba hustler information. He went to one of those ethnic conert the book was warning about and everything hapened exactly as told in the guide book. I got him out of that concert immediately and he saved 1000 bir.

Hotel information was very accurate, except the prices had come up 10 %.

Now I am back in Finland and I am very thankful for the writers. The arranged me a safe trip to one of the worlds poorest and most dangerous countries.

rgards

heikki turunen

Editorial Review:

Awe-inspiring, beautiful and sometimes heartbreaking, Ethiopia and Eritrea are not like anywhere you've been before. A realm of rock-hewn churches, buzzing bazaars and untouched wilderness, the Horn of Africa is truly unique. See the mist rising off the mountains, hear the gurgle of children's laughter in the narrow streets of Harar, or catch a glimpse of a wolf prowling under the thorn trees.

THE BEST COVERAGE- the only guidebook to comprehensively cover Ethiopia and Eritrea and explain how to cross between them via Djibouti

READ UP- all the details you need to travel the Historical Circuit, including ancient cities in northern Ethiopia

BRING OUT THE ADVENTURER- climb a rope, use toeholds or walk a ledge to reach churches and hill-top monasteries

EAT AND DRINK- know your injera from your kitfo, and why the third cup of coffee is the most important

TRAVEL SAFELY- we keep you worded up on the scams, health issues and no-go areas

The Masked Rider: Cycling in West Africa

Neil Peart

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 119 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Breathtaking. 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Breathtaking. Artful. Thoughtful. Funny. Sad. Shocking.

Neil's craft with theme and prose is as precise and thrilling as his drumming. I enjoyed The Masked Rider more than all of this other books, and I enjoyed them a lot. Neil muses how masks in Africa, and in all societies and people (himself included) reveal as much as they conceal.

As usual, his insights into his own character and those of his companions are humorous and without self-indulgent narcissism. The ending is cathartic, and his concluding thoughts after the trip aren't what one would expect. Written before the crippling losses of his wife and daughter, I relished the innocence of the `old Neil', with his boundless hope and shaking-his-fist-at-the-sky verve. You will remember a sweet little girl that changes a bad day he had with two words, and the way he greets his wife when the journey is over.

Ashea, Neil, Ashea.

Editorial Review:

Dysentery, drunken soldiers, and corrupt officials provide the background for Neil Peart's physical and spiritual cycling journey through West Africa. The prolific drummer for the rock band Rush travels through African villages, both large and small, and relates his story through photographs, journal entries, and tales of adventure, while simultaneously addressing issues such as differences in culture, psychology, and labels. Literary and artistic sidekicks such as Aristotle, Dante, and Van Gogh join Peart and his cycling companions, reminding the reader that this is not just another travel book—it is a story of both external and introspective discovery and adventure.

Into Africa: The Epic Adventures of Stanley and Livingston

Martin Dugard

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 31 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In 1866, Britain's foremost explorer, David Livingstone, went in search of the source of the Nile. He was not seen again for nearly six years. This was not the first long term expedition Livingstone had undertaken, but it was rare for him not to send regular reports back to London. To all intents and purposes he had disappeared into the African jungle. The British government made no efforts to try and trace Livingstone, believing it an impossible task. Five years after his disappearance, however, the quest was taken up by an American newspaper, the "New York Herald". The "Herald"'s ambitious, eccentric (and circulation hungry) publisher, James Gordon Bennett, sent his top reporter, one Henry Stanley, to track Livingstone down. So began Stanley's African odyssey which was to culminate ten months later with the famous phrase "Dr Livingstone, I presume". History has portrayed Stanley as a great adventurer, the intrepid explorer who braved the African wilderness to find the ailing Livingstone. This account tells a slightly different story. Dugard argues that Stanley was at a loss in Africa, had little experience of travel and was out of his depth in this strange and foreign land, having to rely entirely on his guides. He was petrified by this wild land and often struck down by tropical illness. The man who led him to Livingstone, the man who deserves the credit which Stanley has since been lauded with, was his guide, Sidi Mubarak Bombay. But Stanley's journey was an emotional as well as a physical one. Arriving in Africa he was frightened by the scale and strangeness of this new land, ignorant of the local culture, and belligerent in his belief in colonial supremacy. But slowly as his journey progressed he awoke to the beauty of Africa, the grandeur of her landscape and the vivid diversity of her wildlife. Here is a true adventure story, set against the most dramatic of backdrops and featuring two of history's most enduring heroes.

South Africa (EYEWITNESS TRAVEL GUIDE)

DK Publishing

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

BEST TRAVEL GUIDE FOR SOUTH AFRICA 5 out of 5 stars.
10 of 12 people found this review helpful.

ANOTHER HIT FOR THE DK SERIES, THEY HAVE BECOME MY GO TO BOOK FOR TRAVEL THROUGHOUT THE WORLD. GREAT PHOTOS AND EASY TO UNDERSTAND. SUGGESTIONS FOR ALL PRICE RANGES.
THANKS

AFRICA DE SUR 4 out of 5 stars.
6 of 7 people found this review helpful.

I think these DK guides are fantastic, they not only make nice travel guides, but are good to have whether you plan to travel to that particular destination or not. Frankly, the reviewer who stated he returned this book and gave it one star is an idiot of the first order. South Africa is an amazing country with very distinct parts, this book does a fine job of breaking the country up and giving the history and the highlights of each region. If you have any interest in South Africa or just like travel guides, then pick this up you wont be disappointed. As for South Africa itself, lord let's hope they dont elect another neianderthal to run the country, but from what ive heard the ANC has nominated another corrupt pol to be the next president..for what is considered the most forward country in Africa..ill grant you that is not saying much, just look at Zimbabwe..South Africa seems to be going backward..how sad.

Editorial Review:

This guide to South Africa highlights information on game reserves, sports, wildlife and beaches. There is also a survival guide which shows you how to use local currency, public transport and telephones. Organized district by district with a systematic, thematic approach this book provides information on sights in each area and features in each major sight, to help you know what to look out for and how to make the most of your time.