The Songs Of Soweto enters the South African political dialogue with enough edge to swing the faces of old foes apart and to demand to know - - when to meet in truth?

James Burger
- Writer

The Songs of Soweto enters the South African political dialogue with enough edge to swing the faces of old foes apart and demand to know- - when do we meet in truth?

James Burger
- Columbia University

What does one get when they cross a Philosophy Professor with a group of inmates sentenced to life? The answer is, not surprisingly, an incredible, tour-de-force read. I came upon this title, "The Soul Knows No Bars: Inmates Reflect on Life, Death, and Hope" quite by accident, and what a treasure of a read it is.

Philosophy professor Drew Leder - with quite a life story of hid own - has compiled a rich and varied dialogue between himself and a handful of inmates from the Maryland Penetentiary. How he came to teach a philosophy class inside the prison walls is a story in itself, but it is the discussion and debate that broke forth in the midst of those classes that make this book a jewel.

As Sister Helen Prejean put it, "Put a philosophy professor into a locked room with incarcerated thieves, drug dealers, and murderers, throw in Socrates, Nietzsche, Cornel West and Heidegger - and what do you get? Conversations that knock your socks off. A book you simply can't put down." I'm in agreement with the good Sister.

The book explores the dynamics of power, violence, race, and sexuality, as well as the flights of spirit possible even from a prison cell. The inmates (and Leder) took the texts of some of the greatest philosophical minds known, used those texts as springboards, and reflected on their life experiences.

The average law-abiding citizen will be surprised to hear what these men have drawn out and declared. This book is a rich exploration of our present-day's criminal mind. What got them to where they are, how they came to be of the mind they were when in criminal activity, and where they've come since incarcertaion is a fascinating journey through the soul. The book serves as a clarion call for society at large to re-examine our very fabric of social interaction, governing, and penalizing of our fringe members.

The discussions are enlightening, powerful, and (at times) disturbing.

What struck me most as I read through the words of this book is the incredible waste of intellect and potential - that which has been lost to poverty and drugs is nothing short of heartbreaking.

Though author Leder didn't set out to do this, he has shone the spotlight on the need for prison reform - to salvage and restore broken lives is nothing short of a necessity. Some of the greatest minds of our time could well be locked up behind bars.

This is a tremendous read and I recommend it to anyone who loves to explore life from a philosophical bent (Leder uses phenonmenology most often) and who wants to better understand the criminal mind. And it is for those who continue to hold out hope that reformation is possible even for the most hardened criminal.

Excellent read, from start to finish.

What does one get when they cross a Philosophy Professor with a group
of inmates sentenced to life? The answer is, not surprisingly, an
incredible tour-de-force read. I came upon this title, "The Soul
Knows No Bars: Inmates Reflect on Life, Death, and Hope" quite by
accident, and what a treasure of a read it is.

Philosophy professor
Drew Leder - himself with quite a life story - has compiled a rich and
varied dialogue between himself and a handful of inmates from the
Maryland Penetentiary. How he came to teach a philosophy class inside
the prison walls is a story in itself, but it is the discussion and
debate that broke forth in the midst of those classes that make this
book a jewel.

As Sister Helen Prejean put it, "Put a
philosophy professor into a locked room with incarcerated thieves,
drug dealers, and murderers, throw in Socrates, Nietzsche, Cornel West
and Heidegger - and what do you get? Conversations that knock your
socks off. A book you simply can't put down." I'm in agreement
with the good Sister.

The book explores the dynamics of power,
violence, race, and sexuality, as well as the flights of spirit
possible even from a prison cell. The inmates (and Leder) took the
texts of some of the greatest philosophical minds known, used those
texts as springboards, and reflected on their life experiences.

The
average law-abiding citizen will be surprised to hear what these men
have drawn out and declared. This book is a rich exploration of our
present-day's criminal mind. What got them to where they are, how they
came to be of the mind they were when in criminal activity, and where
they've come since incarcertaion is a fascinating journey through the
soul. The book serves as a clarion call for society at large to
re-examine our very fabric of social interaction, governing, and
penalizing of our fringe members.

The discussions are enlightening,
powerful, and (at times) disturbing.

What struck me most as I read
through the words of this book is the incredible waste of intellect
and potential - that which has been lost to poverty and drugs is
nothing short of heartbreaking.

Though author Leder didn't set out
to do this, he has shone the spotlight on the need for prison reform -
to salvage and restore broken lives is nothing short of a
necessity. Some of the greatest minds of our time could well be locked
up behind bars.

This is a tremendous read and I recommend it to
anyone who loves to explore life from a philosophical bent (Leder uses
phenonmenology most often) and who wants to better understand the
criminal mind. And it is for those who continue to hold out hope that
reformation is possible even for the most hardened
criminal.

Excellent read, from start to finish.

I think it goes without saying by this point, but this is by far the best book you could buy about travel in Ethiopia, I've read it about 3 times over now and I still really enjoy it. Theres not much out there about travel to Ethiopia, but even if there was, this book would stand head and shoulders above the rest

Guide books to Ethiopia are few and far between. However, the Spectrum Guide is all you will need to get an accurate glimpse into this far-away and often misunderstood land just now beginning to be touristed by the outside world.

There are section that cover almost every aspect of Ethiopian life: places, history, geography, food, art, religion, visitors' needs, wildlife, are just a few. The book is profusely illustrated with 200 gorgeous full-color photos abounding from practically every page.

If you are planning a trip to Ethiopia or just interested in learning about the culturally-3000 year old part of our world, once known as Abyssinia, then do pick up the Spectrum Guide to Ethiopia and get carried away to the exotic!

This is the perfect book for an armchair traveller to Tanzania. It does a wonderful job of showing what the country has to offer, from culture to wildlife to history. The photos are stunning, the writing well-crafted.

This is *not*, however, a book I would choose to take with me when visiting the country. While it does provide some information on transportation and accomodations (mostly high-end), it is not geared towards the traveller 'on the ground.' Do buy this book and read it before you visit Tanzania, but take the Lonely Planet or a Rough Guide along for the trip.

I found it most informative of all books on Tanzania.

My name is MJ Weiskopf

It is a wonderous and well put together book to educate a person on the history of the transatlantic slave trade. Being a Canadian, I was unaware of the length of time that the trade took place. I read the book and passed it on, it is not a book to have gathering dust but to be read by many

Burnside provides an excellent overview of slavery, in a highly readable and well illustrated book. Although a scholar, Burnside has written this book for a popular audience. A great read and interesting take on a very difficult subject.

I learned a lot from reading this book. It provides both a very thorough and detailed account of Africa's mixed development fortunes and an original theory of development and underdevelopment. It is very well written.

This book provides a sophisticated and nuanced theory of African underdevelopment, which also explains African success stories! It represents one of the most important theoretical advances in African studies in a long time, and it is not dogmatic at all. This book incorporates historical, sociological, political and economic insights to derive a general theory of the determinants of poverty and weak state capacity in Africa. It is very well written and will be accessible to undergraduates as well as advanced readers. Rich in statistical evidence, the text always remains clear, even to the quantitative novice, and is full of real life examples. A compelling argument and a real "tour de force."

I have travelled and lived all over the world and I always have this book with me. Not only does it cover how to protect yourself, but if you do get sick it helps you to get better. I love that it includes different drugs for you to take for different bugs, and it tells you the exact dosage. This comes in handy when you are living in the bush in Africa, no doctor for hundreds of miles, but a well stocked pharmacy near by. I HIGLY recomend this book or anyone planning to travel or live overseas.

I found this book to be very informative. It showed the vaccines that you should get but not only that. It told about the bugs and "creepy crawlies" that you should stay away from in your particular country you are going to. It told of the plants that are poisonous and to stay away from there water unless you have a purifier. I recommend this book to anyone and everyone who is goind to a third world country!

When The Story of an African Farm was published in 1883, the title gave no indication to readers what the complex scope of the novel was really about.

Written by South African governess, Olive Schreiner, the book's crux ran along the controversal: the oppression of women, feminism, the existance of God, anti-imperialism, the bizarre transformation of one the novel's characters (not Lyndall) into a transvestite. It goes on and on. The novel was written when the belief of agnosticism was in the early stages of being in 'vogue.' Also interesting, Darwin's Origin of the Species had been published for some time, and the theory had rooted itself in many areas of society.

This was not the traditional Victorian novel that was written in the old English 'bonne bouche' manner on par with Jane Eyre or Emma. The prose of the novel has a broken up fluidity to it; it is not grandiloquent; it is in fact, quite brutal, edgy. As Elaine Showalter writes in the excellent introduction to the Bantam Classic edition, "Readers expecting the structured plot of a typical three-volume Victorian novel were startled by the oddity of African Farm, with its poetic, allegorical, and distinct passages, and its defiance of narrative and sexual conventions." With that clearly explained, it is not a surprise that it shocked old, priggish Englanders with their stiff upper lips and staunch, conservative manners, nor is it shocking that the Church of England called the novel "blasphemous."

African Farm details the lives of three key characters: Waldo, Em and Lyndall. The latter character is the one who seems to bring up the key issues that made the novel controversal. Lyndall is always described as 'little,' 'delicate,' 'like a doll,' 'a flower.' However, she is the one who refuses to marry (with one minor exception to the rule) until a social equilibrium is established between men and women. She desires equality between the sexes, and is willing to suffer for it. And she does, more than what is expected. Odd as it may seem, but considering the period in which the novel was written, the character of Lyndall really had to be physically 'feminized' in order to make up for her strongly held convictions of being a 'total' woman and not 'half' a woman.

If any person reads the novel, the character of Lyndall needs (from my view) special attention, for she questions the values of men, women who accepted the standard, religion and the social hierarchy in which she was born. Her questions seem like cartels, challenges. Why can't she have a job? Why can't she be educated or independent without the stigma 'weirdo' unflinchingly attached to her? Why must she be dubbed 'strange?' The reader must always ask why when reading this book. The three characters, Lyndall especially, endure a lot of hardship, a hardship that mirrored the very author's life, i.e. her cold and distant upbringing, the religious retraints placed on her life as well as the life-clenching grasp that old norms had on women of that period. African Farm was Olive Schreiner's liberty, her freedom from the societal choke hold.

In conclusion, the novel is not one of grace and patrician dogma. It is not a book of nice ladies and gentlemen sitting under the African sun near exotic, wild flowers sipping tea and participating in intellectual banter. No, it is an underscored work of literature where ideas of human aspiration and ecumenical desires are explored under a blazing sun and burnt, sandy plain.

...it would be awfully short-sighted to say it was. I came across Olive Schriner by accident which goes to show that quality is not always given the profile it deserves. But now I'm going to rectify that. Olive Schriner is a genius. This book should be right up there with Woolf's 'Mrs.Dalloway' and Hesse's 'Glass Bead Game'. Read it - that's all. You can't get to the end of your life without doing so, and since that can come at any moment read it NOW.

Ted Lewin's "Storytellers" is just another in a long line of Lewin miracles. I am always so taken with his storytelling skills, not to mention the astonishing illustrations he does.

This is the tale of Abdul and his grandfather, Moroccans who spend their time sitting just outside the town of Fez, entertaining crowds with stories. As they walk from home to their destination near the town gate, Abdul observes other citizens hard at work and he consistently notes that he and his grandfather have much better jobs than the poor folks who are either tanning leather or beating metal into bowls or weaving rugs. They arrive, finally, are seated, and Abdul tosses a bird into the air--his grandfather's cue to launch into a magical story with the Arab version of "Once upon a time" (it translates to "There was, or there was not"--what a charming way to launch into a story!).

Lewin captures all the heat, the saturated color, the movement, and the light of Morocco in these amazingly detailed watercolors. The book is a fortuitous dovetailing of excellent, absorbing story and a feast for the eyes. Highly recommended to adults and children alike!

This is designed to be read to very young children, who will enjoy investigating all the illustrations of life in Fez. Every age will get to see the vision of life in al maghreb, Morocco, in ways they have never seen before, beginning with the call of the mu'ezzin which you can almost hear. I loved how Abdul was not tagging along with his grandfather, on "Bring the Grandkid to work today"- he was involved as part of the work of his Grandfather, on a level that a child could complete, and integral to that work. At the end Lewin includes the sad information of how few of the true storytellers are left. That is a shame. A good story is always better than the best TV show. It creates imagination.

I first read Sun,Sand and Snakes when I was ten,I'm now thirty six.It is written with charm,innocence and passion.A passion for snakes which I share with Mr Spawls.Anyone with a love of herpetology,Africa and adventure will appreciate this book.I finally got to Kenya when I was twenty two and because of this book I stayed in East Africa for three years studying snakes and now work in the U.K.for a reptile rescue charity.Now any book that can influence and direct a person that much is worth taking a look at.Kenyas warmth and its peoples characters glow from the pages I can't wait to get my hands on my own copy as the local library no longer have it in stock.

This book chronicles the early years of the author as he was growing up in Kenya. Starting out relatively ignorant of the fauna around him, not to mention somewhat scared of snakes he tells the story of himself and the people who changed the direction of his life. From amusing annecdotes such as the time he was chased by a Giraffe to recolections of the many things that bit him and the ones that got away. I still don't know how he survived, but I'm glad he did so that he could write this! A word of warning- If you have young children don't let them read this, I first read this book about 13 years ago and I don't think my parents ever forgave the author for the menagerie of scaly things they had to endure living with over the following 10 years. Fun, real, amazing and charming. Still my favourite book!