Africa Reading Challenge

Over the last two years oldest son, Ethan, and I have shared several books on Africa. The continent is a life-long intrigue for both of us and while I'm an armchair traveler, he was fortunate to live and work in Namibia for a couple of months in 2006. Before he left, we both read "Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight" and "Scribbling the Cat", two excellent memoirs by Alexandra Fuller.

Because I enjoyed her writing so much, one of my "blog alerts" is set for "Alexandra Fuller"and this morning a blog alert e-mail led me to a website inviting people to participate in an African Reading Challenge.

Ethan and I decided to participate in the challenge together and had a lively e-mail conversation deciding which books we would read. We decided on the following:

• I Didn't Do It for You: How the World Betrayed a Small African Nation by Michela Wong
  
• Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
• The Shadow of Kilimanjaro by Rick Ridgeway
• What is What by Dave Eggers
• Africa: The Next Decade by Arthur Gerstenfeld
• A continent for the Taking: The Tragedy and Hope of Africa by Howard French

As each of us finishes one of the books, we are to blog about it and link the entry onto the African Reading Challenge page. I'm looking forward to the reading and to sharing the experience with Ethan.