Book picks similar to
Shadows of Africa by Peter Matthiessen
section-d
5-star-books
africa
nature
The Eagle Tree
Ned Hayes - 2016
They are his passion and his obsession, even after his recent falls—and despite the state’s threat to take him away from his mother if she can’t keep him from getting hurt. But the young autistic boy cannot resist the captivating pull of the Pacific Northwest’s lush forests just outside his back door.One day, March is devastated to learn that the Eagle Tree—a monolithic Ponderosa Pine near his home in Olympia—is slated to be cut down by developers. Now, he will do anything in his power to save this beloved tree, including enlisting unlikely support from relatives, classmates, and even his bitter neighbor. In taking a stand, March will come face-to-face with some frightening possibilities: Even if he manages to save the Eagle Tree, is he risking himself and his mother to do it?Intertwining themes of humanity and ecology, The Eagle Tree eloquently explores what it means to be part of a family, a society, and the natural world that surrounds and connects us.
Rogue: The Inside Story of SARS's Elite Crime-busting Unit
Johann van Loggerenberg - 2016
The unit, the reports claimed, had carried out a series of illegal spook operations: they had spied on President Jacob Zuma, run a brothel, illegally bought spyware and entered into unlawful tax settlements.In a plot of Machiavellian proportions, head of the elite crime-busting unit Johann van Loggerenberg and many of SARS’s top management were forced to resign. Van Loggerenberg’s select team of investigators, with their impeccable track record of busting high-level financial fraudsters and nailing tax criminals, lost not only their careers but also their reputations.Now, in this extraordinary account, they finally get to put the record straight and the rumours to rest: there was no ‘rogue unit’. The public had been deceived, seemingly by powers conspiring to capture SARS for their own ends.Shooting down the allegations he has faced one by one, Van Loggerenberg tells the story of what really happened inside SARS, revealing details of some of the unit’s actual investigations.
Fighting for the French Foreign Legion
Alex Lochrie - 2009
The author describes how, with no French language ability, he approached recruiters for the French Foreign Legion in Paris and the demanding selection process that followed. When he was accepted, he and other prospective legionnaires were sent to Southern France to begin the harsh recruit training course. The mix of different nationalities and backgrounds among his fellows was enormous. New members are traditionally allowed to change their identities - the author chose to alter his age becoming 28 not 38! Elite paratrooper training followed in Corsica before the author earned his 'wings'.The FFL is never far from the front line and we read of challenging active service in former French colonies in Africa as well as during the First Gulf War, evicting Saddam Hussein from Kuwait and operations in Bosnia and Sarajevo.This is a completely authentic book that lifts the veil of mystery and myth and reveals much about the realities of service in the Foreign Legion. The author is not given to exaggeration - there is no need for it. A gripping read.
My Life in the Bush
Mark Penney - 2017
Usually sooner. The short answer is “Yes, it could”, whether it is a charging lion or a rampaging elephant. It is inevitable that when working so close to these animals, something will happen. Mark Penney spent more than 20 years working as a field guide and a tourist guide in various South African game parks and reserves, including the Kruger National Park and Pilanesberg. Over the years he has had some interesting experiences and shares some of the stories of encounters with the unpredictable wildlife of Southern Africa.
The Bad Beekeeper's Club
Bill Turnbull - 2010
* The hilarious, heartwarming and surprisingly inspiring account of one BBC Breakfast TV presenter's secret passion for bees...!
Fauna
David Benton - 2018
In a few days time the attacks become a massacre and all life on Earth moves toward a single purpose: the culling of the human race. "When Mother Nature's angry, she's a bitch! Fauna will have you gripping the edge of your seat from the first page to the last. This is a non-stop eco-thriller and cautionary tale that will leave you looking at your pets with a different eye. This is also the best book I've read all year! Read it now! But maybe lock the doors and windows first." --John Everson, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Covenant and Redemption "We should have known that decades of messing with Nature would come back to bite us -- with a vengeance... In David Benton's exciting, realistic thriller FAUNA our world has finally decided we're the problem, and it's had enough of us. How would we cope if our apocalypse had fangs and four legs and didn't shamble at all? Reminiscent of Hitchcock's adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's "The Birds" in approach, FAUNA will raise your neck hairs and chill you to the bone." --W.D. Gagliani, author of Savage Nights and the Nick Lupo Series "The animal kingdom runs amok in David Benton's wildly entertaining Fauna. Exciting, action-packed and disturbing in all the right ways, this man-versus-beast saga gallops at a fierce pace with bloodthirsty menace. Benton's scenes unfold with a cinematic crispness and intensity that keeps the pages turning. This book will leave bite marks!" --Brian Pinkerton, author of Anatomy of Evil "In Fauna, David Benton takes you on a globe-circling thrill ride through a gone-crazy world where the animals have taken charge and want revenge. It's equal parts fantastic escapism and white-knuckle horror--a riveting read from the first page that touches on many of the ways humankind uses things and takes them for granted." --Christian Larsen, author of The Blackening of Flesh and Losing Touch
Fetch a Pail of Murder
Constance Barker - 2017
While the hunt has twists and turns, the girls never lose sight of their goal...to outwit the local Police Department and form their own sleuthing group...The We're Not Dead Yet Club. Join the fun as this mismatched group of friends and their men cohorts search for clues and almost end up in the hoosegow and the local cemetery.
Fall Out: A Memoir of Friends Made and Friends Unmade
Janet Street-Porter - 2006
Everyone needs them. Especially when relations between you and your family are less than perfect. And for the talented and ambitious Janet Street-Porter, her friends became her family. is the story of these vibrant characters – some famous, some infamous, all extraordinary – and their often volatile relationships with her. Above all, it is a portrait of an exciting and creative era, by someone who lived it to the full.
Planet Earth II
Stephen Moss - 2016
From the most desolate desert to the depths of the jungle, from blistering heat and freezing cold to perpetual darkness and deadly UV, discover how a whole host of creatures have adapted to life in the most extreme conditions. And how they compete with one another to become the largest, the fastest, the most poisonous, or most devious - all in a bid to survive.Planet Earth II includes the first in-depth look at the urban environment, and the surprising range of behaviours occurring right under our noses, as well as some previously untouched island worlds. Filmed with remarkable 5k and infra-red technology, these are the challenges, the confrontations, and the triumphs of some of the most extraordinary creatures in the natural world, told from their perspective.This is our planet, as you have never seen it before.
My Heart is Not My Own
Michael Wuitchik - 2013
John Rourke is haunted by his days as a relief doctor in West Africa. In the 1990s, in the midst of a civil war, he provided medical attention and supplies to the people of Sierra Leone. He befriended a local nurse named Mariama Lahai and a doctor named Momodu, but lost contact when the conflict escalated to conflagration. His last memory of Sierra Leone is of Mariama delivering a beautiful baby girl to a tortured, mutilated mother just before armed rebels take the hospital.Now living in Vancouver and happily married to Nadia, who is expecting their first child, John is thrust back into the horrors of the past by the arrival of a package from Sierra Leone. He realizes that before he can commit to his future, he’ll have to confront his conscience and the pain of his past. He embarks upon a journey that takes him back into Mariama’s world of child soldiers, bush-wives, and African secret societies.My Heart Is Not My Own is a story of love, courage, and resilience that is brought to life through the powerful voice of Mariama.
I Am Earth: An Earth Day Book for Kids
Rebecca McDonald - 2016
Keeping Earth a happy healthy place to live is important for everyone big and small. In this Earth science book for beginners, kids learn what makes our planet so uniquely special and how people can work together to keep it a healthy home. I Am Earth is a great way to start children at an early age to care for the environment by understanding why the environment is so important and what they can do to help keep nature in balance, like recycle, reuse and conserve. For all living creatures that call planet Earth home, every day is Earth Day! Bright, vivid illustrations will capture kids’ attention and keep learning fun. “Keep Earth a happy, healthy place to live!”
BRAIN DAMAGE: A Juror's Tale: The Hammer Killing Trial
Paul Sanders - 2014
It seemed like a simple case of murder, but questions remained. Was Dale Harrell a hapless, innocent victim of a brutal killing, or was this the final act of a desperate woman who had suffered through years of domestic violence? The fact that the incident took place in a middle class suburb of Phoenix, Arizona, with the couple’s three children within the property at the time, meant nothing. The questions for the jury were simple. Was the killing premeditated or was it an act of self defense? Was it done for financial gain? Should the defendant pay for her crime with her life, should she be incarcerated for twenty-five years to life, or should she receive a life sentence with no chance of parole? Author Paul Sanders was Juror #13 in a trial packed with twists and turns. He sat every day in court, in a trial which got deep inside the day-to-day lives of a family and eventually delivered justice to a victim. Read this remarkable true story now and make up your own mind as to the truth behind the Hammer Killing Trial. Amazon reviews: “Mr. Sanders is a brilliant writer. You feel like you are right in the courtroom with him…” “This is a must-read for any avid trial watcher!” “Brain Damage is a very interesting journey through a death penalty trial. It made me want to be a juror!” Also by Paul Sanders: "Why Not Kill Her: A Juror's Perspective - The Jodi Arias Death Penalty Retrial" "Banquet of Consequences: A Juror's Plight - The Carnation Murders Trial of Michele Anderson" (March 2017)
Moths of the Limberlost
Gene Stratton-Porter - 1912
She wrote some of the best selling novels and well-received columns in magazines of the day. She became a wildlife photographer, specializing in the birds and moths in one of the last of the vanishing wetlands of the lower Great Lakes Basin. The Limberlost and Wildflower Woods of northeastern Indiana were the laboratory and inspiration for her stories, novels, essays, photography, and movies. Her first attributed novel, The Song of the Cardinal (1903) met with great commercial success. Her novels Freckles (1904) and A Girl of the Limberlost (1909) are set in the wooded wetlands and swamps of the disappearing central Indiana ecosystems she loved and documented. Although Stratton-Porter wanted to focus on nature books, it was her romantic novels that made her famous and generated the finances that allowed her to pursue her nature studies. Her other works include: The Harvester (1911), A Daughter of the Land (1918) and Her Father's Daughter (1921).
Lessons from the Light: Extraordinary Messages of Comfort and Hope from the Other Side
George Anderson - 1999
Now, for the first time, Anderson offers a vivid and intimate account of his spiritual communications. He explains what it's like to be a psychic, what he experiences, and what it means.He directly answers the many questions most commonly asked of him. He also shares moving, inspirational, and reassuring readings that illuminate the meaning of life, the reality of the afterlife, the importance of spirituality, and our bond to the souls in the hereafter. They are messages that not only enlighten us about what awaits, but also teach us how to fulfill our significant roles here on earth and in life. They are messages of hope and love as extraordinarily beautiful as they are eternal.