Malawi Books

Malawi, 4th: The Bradt Travel Guide

Philip Briggs, Mary-Anne Bartlett

Amazon Price: $16.29 List Price: $23.95 By: Bradt Travel Guides Amazon Marketplace: 41 new & used starting at $7.82

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

One of a kind! 5 out of 5 stars.
12 of 13 people found this review helpful.

This guide is one of very few devoted entirely to Malawi and the 4th edition was just published in 2006! With information about all types of travel (budget to 4 star hotel; safaris, overland trips, and rental car excursions) and a detailed chapter on the history and culture of Malawian people, this book will prepare anyone, first-timer to veteran, for an engaging, well-informed trip to the "warm heart of Africa."

Editorial Review:

This is an invaluable guide for visitors to this most explorable, affordable, and tranquil of African countries, whether discovering little-visited mountains, forests and game reserves, or relaxing by the main attraction of Lake Malawi. Philip Briggs and his updater, Mary-Anne Bartlett, provide readers with advice on planning their itinerary, wildlife and bird species identification, conservation areas, national parks, and a detailed history of the country.

Features include:

*The best wildlife-viewing opportunities

*Local travel networks, maps, and town plans

*Focus on independent travelers' needs, including health and safety and local language

*Exploring on and around Lake Malawi

Malawi Map

ITMB

By: ITMB Amazon Marketplace: 16 new & used starting at $6.74

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Malawi Map Review 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

My husband used this map when traveling to Malawi to visit his daughter who was in the Peace Corps in Malawi. It is a great map to learn the overview of the country, regions, etc... If traveling to "non tourist" type places please coordinate with whom you are visiting to ensure you get to the correct spot!

Editorial Review:

Travel map of the country in color. Distinguishes roads from primary paved roads to minor roads and tracks, with distances in kilometers. Color changes show elevation levels. Shows trails, railways, airports, ports, bus stations, gasoline stations, post offices, medical facilities, telephones, accommodations, museums, points of interest, archaeological sites, mines, beaches, hiking, more. Icons distinguish international airports, domestic airports and landing strips. Index of places; overview of the country, people, and national parks and reserves. Color photos. Latitude/longitude grid. With city maps of Lilongwe and Blantyre. City maps show markets; parking; libraries; banks; schools; museums; points of interest; accommodations; medical facilities; post offices; gasoline; bus stations; embassies; places of worship. Main map scale 1:900,000. Distances in kilometers and miles. Printed on one side.

Spectrum Guide to Malawi (Spectrum Guides)

Amazon Price: $16.29 List Price: $23.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Interlink Publishing Group Amazon Marketplace: 9 new & used starting at $5.30

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

a keeper 3 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

I carried this text all through Malawi. It is very heavy, so I regretted the decision once I was there. However, I held onto it because I sensed that I would value it for nostalgic reasons when I returned home. This isn't a good everyday reference book for getting around the country, but valuable for its photos and loving summaries of Malawi's different regions once back from your journey.

Editorial Review:

Malawi has been called "the warm heart from Africa," and with good reason. But despite its beautiful mountains, stunning lake and a unique range of wildlife, it is relatively undiscovered and not yet one of Africa's major tourist destinations.

Spectrum Guide to Malawi has been written by travel experts who have been closely involved with this special country for more than 20 years. It provides full details of where to go, what to see, and how to get there, and contains an up-to-date briefing on the country's culture, languages, geography, history, politics and economy.

With more than 200 full-color photographs, this is an indispensable guide for visitors to one of Africa's friendliest destinations.

Adventuring in Southern Africa: The Great Safaris and Wildlife Parks of Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia, South Africa, Malawi, Lesotho, and Swaziland

Allen Bechky

List Price: $18.00 By: Sierra Club Books Amazon Marketplace: 9 new & used starting at $5.72

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Most comprehensive book on southern Africa 5 out of 5 stars.
41 of 42 people found this review helpful.

This book is full of interesting and pertinent travel information; it is a MUST for anyone interested in game-viewing and travelling in southern Africa. The author gives best times to travel depending on what you want to see, and for each country, lists brief history/present politics, places to stay--easily accessible to remote--and how to get there and what you may see. He also gives a comprehensive packing list, medical info, and tips on game viewing. Out of the 4 books I bought on southern Africa, this is the one I referred to most often. This book, coupled with The Kingdon Field Guide to African Mammals, is an invaluable southern Africa traveller's necessity.

Editorial Review:

A comprehensive guide to the geography, culture, natural history, and adventure opportunities in the eight countries that make up the southern portion of the African continent. Includes appendices of safari tour operators and conservation groups. An essential tool for everyone planning a trip to this spectacular and still unspoiled part of the world. Bibliography. Photos.

Lonely Planet Malawi, Mozambique & Zambia (Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia)

David Else

List Price: $15.95 By: Lonely Planet Publications Amazon Marketplace: 10 new & used starting at $3.87

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Lonely Planet is ready to ease your way through Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia with this thorough first-edition guide. "The tourist brochures bill Malawi as 'the warm heart of Africa' and, for once, the hype is true; Malawi's scenery is stunning and wonderfully varied, and (although we hate to generalize) Malawians really do seem to be among the friendliest people you could meet anywhere" is how author David Else, who has traveled extensively all over Africa, introduces the book. This country offers the magnificent beauty and interesting wildlife found in Lake Malawi, wildlife parks, national parks, and forest reserves. Its compact size makes Malawi an excellent jumping-off point to venture into the less tourist-ready marvels of Mozambique and Zambia.

In addition to helping you find your way around and the best places to stay, this book will help you tell your red bishops from your sunbirds, your rollers from your hoopoes ... and that's only the bird section. Cultural and historical information ranges from the Stone Age to African kings, from Dr. Livingstone to President Banda. Shaded sidebars provide additional information on topics such as tea growing, on-line services, driving, Islam, economic swings, ecology, food taxes, and the effects of colonialism. A useful index gives an overview of the maps provided (36 of them) along with page numbers for easy reference.

African Wildlife Safaris: Kenya Uganda Tanzania Ethiopia Somalia Malawi Zambia Rwanda Burundi (Spectrum Guides)

Camerapix

List Price: $19.95 By: Facts on File Amazon Marketplace: 13 new & used starting at $0.99

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Lonely Planet Malawi

David Else

List Price: $17.99 By: Lonely Planet Publications Amazon Marketplace: 5 new & used starting at $17.27

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Lonely Planet Malawi 4 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

Having previously been to Malawi and with the intention of going back to see more of the country, I found this book very helpful. It gives a nice range of accomidations and travel methods and is very realistic about what to expect from each. More so helpful is the political and cultural history the book gives so that one knows what is and is not acceptable from a foreigner traveling within the country. This book indicates that Malawi is a great place to start an African adventure and additionally gives info about getting to the countries surrounding Malawi (i.e. Tanzania, Zambia and Mozambique) and what to expect from them.

Editorial Review:

Some travellers linger by the famous lake. Others trek the spectacularly beautiful highlands. All of them enjoy Africa's friendliest and most laid-back destination. Share their discoveries by travelling with this indispensable guide.

• features illustrated section on Malawi's rich birdlife
• includes eating and accommodation listings for travellers on all budgets
• gives useful information on trekking through some of Africa's most stunning scenery
• offers advice about travelling on, in and around Lake Malawi
• 24 detailed maps, including full-colour country map

My Malawi Journal

Bea Buckley

Amazon Price: $12.92 List Price: $15.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Athena Press Publishing Company Amazon Marketplace: 21 new & used starting at $8.93

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 1.0 of 5

Peace Corps Failure 1 out of 5 stars.
18 of 19 people found this review helpful.

Bea Buckley's approaches her Peace Corps experience with trepidation and a kind of self-imposed ageism. Though no doubt well-intentioned, she worries and whines during her few months in Malawi concerned with toothpaste and clean underwear. Only once--this when she is waiting for a ride to the airport to go home after qutting--does she allow herself to see the beauty and possibilities of the country. Whether the Peace Corps failed her by not screening its candidates properly or whether Buckley failed herself hardly matters. Overwhelmed by depression and worries about physical illness, she cannot continue. Her family, for whom she claims this book is written, should never have allowed her to pubish it. The writing is atrocious, needs editing, and the product is not what it claims to be--about the poverty and hunger in a Third World country. It is about a woman who is so self-involved that she cannot see beyond her own minor discomfort (on a bus, with the food, outhouse, darkness, even Athlete's foot!) to allow herself the compassion necessary to identify with those more needy than she. As a reader older than Buckley, I resented her ageism. As a person who has frequently traveled to impoverished countries, I found her desperation (She brushed her teeth with perfumed soap, for heaven's sake!) pathetic.

Editorial Review:

My Malawi Journal is a travelogue in which the writer narrates her rich experiences of Malawi, a small landlocked country in east central Africa. As a Peace Corps volunteer, the author lives with her adopted village family and gains first-hand knowledge of the hard rural life. A simple and chronological account, of the day-to-day activities of the narrator, gives the reader an insight into the widespread poverty and hunger that exists amongst a large population of the world.

2008 Country Profile and Guide to Malawi- National Travel Guidebook and Handbook - USAID, Doing Business, African Crisis Response Initiative, Peace Corps, Energy in Africa (Two CD-ROM Set)

U.S. Government

Amazon Price: $25.00 List Price: $25.00 Usually ships in 2 to 3 weeks By: Progressive Management

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Editorial Review:

Completely updated and revised for this new edition, our unique electronic book on two CD-ROMs has an amazing collection of the finest federal documents and resources about Malawi, providing encyclopedic coverage of all aspects of the country. This disc set provides a truly fantastic reference source, with over one hundred thousand pages reproduced in Adobe Acrobat format! There is complete coverage of newsworthy material about Malawi, including USAID reports (over 28,000 pages), U.S. relations, doing business, AIDS, African Crisis Response Initiative, Peace Corps, agriculture, energy in Africa, and more. This incredible and comprehensive series on the countries of the world contains material from the State Department, Department of Defense, White House, and cabinet agencies including Agriculture, Energy, and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. There is complete information about geography, people, government, the economy, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues. In addition to the nation-specific material, as a bonus we have included reports about every country on the globe, with 271 nations, dependent areas, and other entities identified by the Central Intelligence Agency. The CIA World Factbook is considered an invaluable "world encyclopedia" reference book.

Venture to the Interior (The Collected works of Laurens van der Post)

Laurens Van der Post

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Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Thoughful, Philosophical, Introspective Story of Expedition 4 out of 5 stars.
10 of 10 people found this review helpful.

Just after World War II, Van der Post was sent by the British government to explore and report on two little known and little inhabited regions of British Nyasaland (later Malawi). These two areas are highlands and mountainous, rather atypical of Africa. With the help of colonial officers and numerous African guides and porters he completed the assignment, filed his report and later wrote this short book.

"Venture to the Interior" is a thoughful, philosophical, and introspective account of the expedition. Van der Post very much writes in the style of travel writers like Bruce Chatwin and Paul Theroux; the reader sees as much of a mental landscape (Van der Post's) as a geographical one. He describes the journey, both the physical and the mental, in prose that is honest and clear. His thoughts on Africa are usually interesting and often profound.

The people he encounters and writes about are mostly Europeans: the district officer, the businessman, the settler-farmer. It would have been nice had he written more about the African population. Still, overall, this is a book well worth reading for those interested in Africa, exploration, travel writing.

Most of Van der Post's other books are also well written and well worth reading.