Book picks similar to
Gorillaland by Greg Cummings


africa
contemporary
gorillaland
gorillas

Spider Zero Seven


Mike Borlace - 2018
    Now he collates his experiences in this compelling wartime memoir set against the backdrop of the civil war fought in Rhodesia during the 1970s. Helicopters were a vital component of the small Rhodesian Defence Force and as part of special forces, Borlace and his fellow aircrew soon became key weapons in the counterinsurgency operations. Adopting new flexible tactics and blending stealth with courage, they carried the fight by air to the heart of the enemy, establishing a fearsome reputation. In this vivid history, Borlace chronicles the story of airmen, soldiers and leading figures such as Joshua Nkomo and Robert Mugabe’s communist backed guerillas from the perspective of a professional officer at the sharp end. In Spider Zero Seven, Borlace humorously recounts the training, living conditions and hardships of his time in the forces. He also touchingly depicts the human side of the military through his portrayals of his fellow pilots, technicians, medics, nurses and flying with his dog Doris. Out of the 1096 days he served as a pilot in 7 Squadron, Borlace spent 739 days on combat operations. During his 149 contacts with the enemy he was shot down five times and wounded twice. He is one of only five recipients of the Silver Cross, the highest gallantry award given by the air force. With this authority he gives a powerful insight into the violent events of a brutal conflict, in a book that will appeal not only to those interested in military history, but also to a wider readership who enjoy a personal, true-life adventure.

Honor Bound Trilogy Box Set


Jon Kiln - 2016
     Captain Berengar is returning to his home village to enjoy a quiet retirement. He is accompanied by his trusted sword-brother and lieutenant, Nisero. Unbeknownst to Berengar, a local bandit leader has razed the village, killing his wife and son, and kidnapping his daughter. Berengar, with the help of Nisero, will go to the ends of the earth to bring her back. And nothing will stand in his way. Contains all three books in the series: Forsaken Betrayal Dominion

Bare Knuckle


Cindy Brandner - 2018
    And yet, here Brian Riordan was doing exactly that. So begins this prequel to the Exit Unicorns series, as we join the Riordan boys in the rough and tumble world of Belfast, Northern Ireland, during a summer of change and promise. Casey Riordan is on the cusp on manhood, and is learning just how high the price of that transition can be. Tagging along on this adventure is his brother, Pat, who is both shadow and conscience to Casey. Their father, Brian, is simply trying to keep his sons safe—a tall order in the gritty streets of this particular city. Bare Knuckle spans the events of one summer, giving a glimpse into the lives of the Riordans—the boys as they embark on the path to the men they are destined to be, and their father as he guides them along the way. The road is not smooth and contains hard lessons, both those of betrayal and treachery, all stemming from the events of one warm July night, when the match of hatred is set to the fuel of violence. After that night, life as they know it spirals out of control for the Riordans, until one man is forced to rejoin a world he thought he’d left behind forever, to ensure the safety of those he loves.

Assignment: Casablanca


Peter J. Azzole - 2019
    Their mission is simply to provide a temporary Top Secret special intelligence communications center to support U.S. members of a high level Allied war planning meeting.An easy mission quickly goes awry. Only two months after the Allied assault and occupation of Casablanca (Operation TORCH), the city remains a hotbed of Vichy and German sympathizers and spies. One unexpected event leads to another. Things get dicey, with life threatening situations, shots fired and dead bodies. Tony is diverted from Casablanca on a brief classified fact-finding mission to a neutral country's island. That mission gets complicated and ultimately results in spy catching and another death. Returning to Casablanca, events result in Tony meeting Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill.Between "Casablanca's" covers are communications intelligence, counter-intelligence, military politics, diplomatic tension, WWII history, family dynamics, and in the final analysis, a very exciting, twisting and fast moving story.

Battle on the Lomba 1987: The Day a South African Armoured Battalion shattered Angola’s Last Mechanized Offensive - A Crew Commander's Account


David Mannall - 2014
    

A Song At Sunset


Amelia Carr - 2010
    Amidst the chaos of the Bristol blitz, Carrie finds herself falling in love with a young doctor, Dev. Carrie's willing to defy convention and leave her stifling marriage for Dev, but one summer evening, horrific events change Carrie's life for ever. Since that night, for forty years, Carrie's beloved daughter, Gillian, has refused to see or speak to her. Now, someone is digging into the past. Will Carrie break her long silence and, if she does, will Gillian finally be able to forgive?Don't miss any of Amelia's romantic epics, Dance With Wings, A Song At Sunset, A Woman of Secrets and The Secret She Kept.

Becoming K-9


Rada Jones - 2021
    What's the hardest, you ask? Sniffing bombs? No sir. That's easy once you know what to look for. Apprehending perpetrators? Nope. That's fun. The hardest part of being a K-9 is training people.Humans don't know how to communicate. It's not their fault that they have blunt teeth, fixed ears, and no tail. As for their nose, they can't tell goose guano from duck poop and can't even read each other's thoughts.That's why they need dogs. To guide them, take care of them, and set them right.Becoming K-9 is the story of how I grew from a feisty pup into a fierce K-9. How I looked after my humans, helped them focus on the half-full bowl of kibble, and taught them unconditional love. Because, whether you're young or old, rich or poor, dog or human, there's nothing more potent than love. Not even death. Love is the only thing we get to take with us when we die.

The Zanzibar Affair: A Novel Out of Africa


Samantha Ford - 2011
     Love, betrayal, passion and death are woven into this romantic novel with exquisite skill. A book to read and to relish. Samantha Ford is destined to become a contemporary romance bestseller with her stories out of Africa. The love story... A letter, found by her daughter Molly, in an old chest on the island of Zanzibar reveals the secret of Kate Hope’s glamorous but anguished past, and the reason for her sudden and unexplained disappearance. Ten years previously Kate’s lover and business partner, Adam Hamilton, tormented by a terrifying secret he is willing to risk everything for, brutally ends his relationship with Kate. A woman is found murdered in a remote part of Kenya, bringing Tom Fletcher to East Africa to unravel the web of mystery and intrigue surrounding Kate, the woman he loves but hasn't seen for over twenty years. In Zanzibar, Tom meets Kate’s daughter Molly. With her help he pieces together the last years of her mother’s life and his extraordinary connection to it. Stories from Africa When you read this book you will understand that Samantha is a very accomplished writer who describes human feelings only the way a woman can. Love and passion sear through the pages as does a clear indication that she has lived in and experienced love on the continent she adores. Africa is, of course, that continent and she has demonstrated that she can describe East and Southern Africa in original and evocative terms. She has been on many safaris and observed first hand the lifestyles that she draws upon to write her stories from Africa. Fiction they may be, but they give you an insight into the lives of the rich and powerful, both at work and at play. This is a book to get lost in, an absorbing story of suspense and intrigue, and one which it is hard to believe is a début novel. But don't worry Samantha has completed her second novel, The House Called Mbabati, due to be released in June 2016, and has made a start on her third. So if you love this book you will not have too long to wait for another story out of Africa.

Prabhakaran: The Story of his struggle for Eelam


Chellamuthu Kuppusamy - 2013
    This book provides an account of the life of LTTE chief Prabhakaran, who led an armed struggle against the Sri Lankan state to create Eelam, a separate nation for the Sri Lankan Tamils.The book begins from Prabhakaran’s childhood days in the aftermath of India’s and Sri Lanka’s independence from Britain. The Sri Lankan Tamils were following Gandhi’s non-violent methods to fight for their rights as citizens of Sri Lanka. Prabhakaran, an ardent fan of Bhagat Singh and Subhash Chandra Bose, felt that non-violence would not work against a Sinhala dominated government and began experimenting with violent acts against the Government to send a message. His initial success became the nucleus for the formation of LTTE, which became the quintessential guerrilla organization fighting the State.The book details various incidents of Prabhakaran’s life including terror attacks, assassination of politicians, heads of States and militant leaders; India’s role in the Sri Lankan ethnic conflict; Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka; the Eelam wars, negotiations, betrayals and elections; through to his killing in May 2009.

Truth, By Omission


Daniel Beamish - 2019
    Alfred Olyontombo barely survived the violence of his desperate childhood in central Africa. Ripped from his village as a young orphan, Alfred persevered through turbulent years of lawlessness and civil war, eventually making his way to a refugee camp as Rwanda's genocide raged behind him. Alone amidst the chaotic conditions at the camp, Alfred's quick mind and gift for languages caught the attention of an idealistic young doctor who opened the door to a whole new life for Alfred. He seized that chance, moving forward with hard work, honor, and a conscious decision to leave the full truth of his past-and the boy he used to be-behind in Africa.Years pass and Alfred becomes a respected physician married to a beautiful lawyer, enjoying a privileged life in Colorado. But then his idyllic existence is shattered by the terminal illness of his young daughter. As he and his wife struggle to come to terms with their unfathomable loss, Alfred is publicly accused of a long-ago war crime in Africa. The mere accusation threatens to destroy everything he has built-including his marriage. But as he struggles to defend himself, Alfred realizes he is culpable and that omitting his sins did not absolve them.His future hanging in the balance, Alfred is forced to face all the misdeeds he'd hoped time and his carefully crafted version of the past had buried forever. But is it too late for the truth to matter?

Tower of the Sun: Stories From the Middle East and North Africa


Michael J. Totten - 2014
    Totten’s gripping first-person narratives from the war zones, police states, and revolutionary capitals of the Middle East and North Africa paint a vivid picture of peoples and nations at war with themselves, each other, and—sometimes—with the rest of the world. His journeys take him from Libya under the gruesome rule of Muammar Qaddafi to Egypt before, during and after the Arab Spring; from the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights in Syria on the eve of that country’s apocalyptic civil war to a camp on the Iran-Iraq border where armed revolutionaries threaten to topple the Islamic Republic regime in Tehran; from the contested streets of conflict-ridden Jerusalem to dusty outposts in the Sahara where a surreal conflict few have even heard of simmers long after it should have expired; and from war-torn Beirut and Baghdad to a lonely town in central Tunisia that seeded a storm of revolution and war that spread for thousands of miles in every direction. Tower of the Sun is a timeless close-up of one of the world’s most violent and turbulent regions that will resonate for decades to come. “A decade in the making, Tower of The Sun is not just an authoritative, intimate and lively reconnaissance of the tectonic upheavals shaking the earth from North Africa's Maghreb to Iraqi Kurdistan. It’s also a masterpiece of clear-eyed political analysis and literary journalism in the travel-diary style of Paul Theroux.” – Terry Glavin, author of The Sixth Extinction “Totten…practices journalism in the tradition of George Orwell: morally imaginative, partisan in the best sense of the word, and delivered in crackling, rapid-fire prose befitting the violent realities it depicts.” Sohrab Ahmari, Commentary “I can think of only a certain number of people as having risen to the intellectual and journalistic challenges of the last few years, and Michael J. Totten is one of them.” Paul Berman, author of Terror and Liberalism “Michael J. Totten, to my mind, is one of the world’s most acute observers of Middle East politics. He is also an absolutely fearless reporter, both physically—he has explored the darkest corners of Middle East extremism—and morally.” Jeffrey Goldberg, author of Prisoners

James Clavell His Three Epic Novels: Shogun, Tai Pan, And King Rat


James Clavell - 1975
    

Marching With The Devil: My Five Years In The French Foreign Legion


David Mason - 2011
    

The Keeper


Marguerite Poland - 2014
    Seriously injured, Hannes is evacuated to hospital and nursed back to health by Sister Rika, to whom he haltingly tells the story of his life: of his mother’s mysterious death, of his wild young wife, Aletta, and of the desolate island inhabited only by the lighthouse keepers and guano workers – two communities confined together, yet rigidly separated in one of the bleakest places on earth. With the arrival of a figure from Aletta’s past, her own secrets erupt into the present, just as the simmering tensions and injustices endured for so long by the guano workers erupt into a single, shocking act of violence.Written in the exquisite, haunting prose for which Marguerite Poland is renowned, The Keeper is the story of two generations of lighthouse keepers – men obsessed by their duty to the light – and the wives who accompany them into a life of frightening isolation.The Keeper is a novel about the power of secrets, the power of love, and the power of stories.

Empress Gold


Jeffrey Whittam - 2013
    Both keys slid in unopposed. Both locks operated first time – lifting the heavy lid took all of Lee’s strength.From inside the box the accumulated wealth of twenty years stared up at him. Though he had seen it a hundred times before, under that yellow glare from his cap lamp the buttery glint of raw metal took his breath away.For over two decades, the Goddards have struggled through the uncertainties of war, political upheaval and now, faced with mounting pressure from a corrupt government, they are forced to make decisions that will change their lives forever. As Managing Director of the Empress Deep gold mine, Lee Goddard rolls into play the final ball of an already dangerous game.Fostered by rampant avarice and political uncertainty, life in Zimbabwe is worthless – only the elite survive. For a fortune in gold and tribal treasures, some are willing to sell the very soul of an emergent country.