Imbolo Mbue

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

Connecticut

A Novel

A fearless young woman from a small African village starts a revolution against an American oil company in this sweeping, inspiring novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Behold the Dreamers. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY ESQUIRE • “Mbue reaches for the moon and, by the novel’s end, has it firmly held in her hand.”—NPR We should have known the end was near. So begins Imbolo Mbue’s powerful second novel, How Beautiful We Were. Set in the fictional African village of Kosawa, it tells of a people living in fear amid environmental degradation wrought by an American oil company. Pipeline spills have rendered farmlands infertile. Children are dying from drinking toxic water. Promises of cleanup and financial reparations to the villagers are made—and ignored. The country’s government, led by a brazen dictator, exists to serve its own interests. Left with few choices, the people of Kosawa decide to fight back. Their struggle will last for decades and come at a steep price. Told from the perspective of a generation of children and the family of a girl named Thula who grows up to become a revolutionary, How Beautiful We Were is a masterful exploration of what happens when the reckless drive for profit, coupled with the ghost of colonialism, comes up against one community’s determination to hold on to its ancestral land and a young woman’s willingness to sacrifice everything for the sake of her people’s freedom.

How Beautiful We Were

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Adam Hochschild

Book has been sold and resold a number of times judging by the “Used” stickers on it, but it’s still in great shape.  No highlighting or marking in it and the binding is tight. 

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Alaska

A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa

Documents the plundering of the territory

King Leopold's Ghost

af04209d-a8a9-490c-983f-b3a298813d6f-1

Abraham Verghese

Michigan

Twin brothers born from a secret love affair between an Indian nun and a British surgeon in Addis Ababa, Marion and Shiva Stone come of age in Ethiopia, where their love for the same woman drives them apart.

Cutting for Stone

5cdfc602-2779-476c-916d-fe28bdf1a45d-1

John Brant

Don’t make the mistake of thinking this is an ordinary biography about a potential Olympic runner. It’s the tale of an amazing man: born in Uganda, drafted as a boy soldier at age 12, excelling as a runner, and finding his calling as an internationally recognized humanitarian. Ex-library copy with limited markings. FIRST EDITION hardcover, copyright 2016. Age-toned pages with no writing, no folded pages. Ships in a box, protected with bubble wrap. Retail price $27. (SW2) (10F)

Heavy Hardcover (2 to 4 lbs)

New Jersey

The Odyssey of Julius Achon

In the tradition of Uzodinma Iweala’s Beasts of No Nation by way of Christopher McDougall’s Born to Run, this is the inspirational true story of the Ugandan boy soldier who became a world-renowned runner, then found his calling as director of a world-renowned African children’s charity. “Julius can’t remember who first saw the men. He heard no warning sounds—no dog barking or twig snapping. Until this point, events had moved too swiftly for Julius to be afraid, but now panic seized him. In another instant, he realized that his old life was finished.” Thus begins the extraordinary odyssey of Julius Achon, a journey that takes a barefoot twelve-year-old boy from a village in northern Uganda to the rebel camp of the notorious Lord’s Resistance Army, where he was made a boy soldier, and then, miraculously, to a career as one of the world’s foremost middle-distance runners. But when a devastating tragedy prevents Julius from pursuing the gold at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, he is once again set adrift and forced to forge a new path for himself, finally finding his true calling as an internationally recognized humanitarian. Today, Julius is the director of the Achon Uganda Children’s Fund, a charity whose mission is to improve the quality of life in rural Uganda through access to healthcare, education, and athletics. While pursuing his destiny, Julius encounters a range of unforgettable characters who variously befriend and betray him: the demonic Joseph Kony, a “world-class warlord”; John Cook, a brilliant and eccentric U.S. track coach; Jim Fee, an American businessman who helps Julius build a state-of-the-art medical center deep in the Ugandan bush; and finally Kristina, Julius’s mother, whose own tragic journey forms the pivot for this spellbinding narrative of love, loss, suffering, and redemption. Written by award-winning sportswriter John Brant, The Boy Who Runs is an empowering tale of obstacles overcome, challenges met, and light wrested from darkness. It’s a story about forging your true path and finding your higher purpose—even when the road ahead bends in unexpected directions. Advance praise for The Boy Who Runs “Brant proves again why he is one of our best sportswriters, masterfully weaving a compelling narrative of an African country at war, along with the transformation of a young man from athlete to humanitarian. . . . [Achon’s] life story is a shining example of the Olympic spirit.”—Booklist (starred review) “Fantastic . . . Brant does a beautiful job of chronicling the tension. . . . Indeed, his work is first-rate throughout the book, and it makes for a read-in-one-sitting story.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Inspiring . . . Achon’s difficult journey as an athlete and humanitarian reveals how sport can provide a valuable avenue of hope for those seeking to rise above tragic circumstances.”—Library Journal “This is an astonishing story about an amazing athlete who outruns not only the grinding poverty and deprivation of the Ugandan bush but brutal war and imminent death, then dedicates himself to saving his family and friends. This man has the heart of a lion. I couldn’t put this book down.”—John L. Parker, Jr., author of Once a Runner “An instant classic . . . John Brant has given us an epic, moving, and ultimately hopeful story about the power of sport and friendship to transcend boundaries and make the world a better place.”—Daniel Coyle, author of The Talent Code

The Boy Who Runs  **

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Is in like new condition with no bends or tears

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

Mississippi

1962 HC 1st edition; no dust jacket; has light cover/edge wear, else book is clean and spine is tight; has fold out map and original owner’s sticker on the inside cover. #hardcover #history #nonfiction #egypt #africa

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

Washington

The Blue Nile

Barbara Kingsolver

Heavy Paperback (2 to 4 lbs)

Arizona

Nathan Price, a evangelical Baptist who in 1959 has taken his wife and four daughters on a mission to the Belgian Congo, finds that their traditions are no longer secure in this very different world. Reprint. 250,000 first printing.

The Poisonwood Bible

b6f687e1-ec7a-4cef-a81f-67c792eee6b8-1

Chinelo Okparanta

From the award-winning author of Under the Udala Trees and Happiness, Like Water comes a brilliant, provocative, up-to-the-minute satirical novel about a young white man's education and miseducation in contemporary America.



Harry Sylvester Bird grows up in Edward, Pennsylvania, with his parents, Wayne and Chevy, whom he greatly dislikes. They're racist, xenophobic, financially incompetent, and they have quite a few secrets of their own. To Harry, they represent everything wrong with this country. And his small town isn't any better. He witnesses racial profiling, graffitied swastikas, and White Power signs on his walk home from school. He can't wait until he's old enough to leave. When he finally is, he moves straight to New York City, where he feels he can finally live out his true inner self.



In the city, he meets and falls in love with Maryam, a young Nigerian woman. But when Maryam begins to pull away, Harry is forced to confront his identity as he never has before--if he can.



Brilliant, funny, original, and unflinching, Harry Sylvester Bird is a satire that speaks to all the most pressing tensions and anxieties of our time--and of the history that has shaped us and might continue to do so.

Harry Sylvester Bird

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Ready to read level 2. Slight dents and scratches to both sides of cover, but does not compromise the book. 

Colorado

Living in Egypt

Ayobami Adebayo

Stay with Me

a5d5ea99-6454-4cfb-9caf-8074220352b7

Benjamin Ajak

Benson Deng

Alephonsion Deng

California

The True Story of Three Lost Boys from Sudan

Benjamin, Alepho, and Benson were raised among the Dinka tribe of Sudan. Their world was an insulated, close-knit community of grass-roofed cottages, cattle herders, and tribal councils. The lions and pythons that prowled beyond the village fences were the greatest threat they knew. All that changed the night the government-armed Murahiliin began attacking their villages. Amid the chaos, screams, conflagration, and gunfire, five-year-old Benson and seven-year-old Benjamin fled into the dark night. Two years later, Alepho, age seven, was forced to do the same. Across the Southern Sudan, over the next five years, thousands of other boys did likewise, joining this stream of child refugees that became known as the Lost Boys. Their journey would take them over one thousand miles across a war-ravaged country, through landmine-sown paths, crocodile-infested waters, and grotesque extremes of hunger, thirst, and disease. The refugee camps they eventually filtered through offered little respite from the brutality they were fleeing. In They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky, Alepho, Benson, and Benjamin, by turn, recount their experiences along this unthinkable journey. They vividly recall the family, friends, and tribal world they left far behind them and their desperate efforts to keep track of one another. This is a captivating memoir of Sudan and a powerful portrait of war as seen through the eyes of children. And it is, in the end, an inspiring and unforgettable tribute to the tenacity of even the youngest human spirits.

They Poured Fire on Us from the Sky

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Tananarive Due

New Hampshire

"An eerie epic. I loved this novel." -- Stephen King

The award-winning master of horror, acclaimed author, screenwriter, and scholar Tananarive Due's classic African Immortals series starts with an electrifying piece of dark fantasy, My Soul to Keep.





 When Jessica marries David, he is everything she wants in a family man: brilliant, attentive, ever youthful. Yet she still feels something about him is just out of reach. Soon, as people close to Jessica begin to meet violent, mysterious deaths, David makes an unimaginable confession: More than 400 years ago, he and other members of an Ethiopian sect traded their humanity so they would never die, a secret he must protect at any cost. Now, his immortal brethren have decided David must return and leave his family in Miami. Instead, David vows to invoke a forbidden ritual to keep Jessica and his daughter with him forever.



Harrowing, engrossing and skillfully rendered, My Soul to Keep traps Jessica between the desperation of immortals who want to rob her of her life and a husband who wants to rob her of her soul. With deft plotting and an unforgettable climax, this tour de force that Stephen King called 'An eerie epic' is sure to win Due a legion of new fans. 

My Soul to Keep

a5733fa0-7619-4718-95e8-419f5481b291-1

Missouri

Sixteen-year-old Tina and two friends leave Kenya and slip into the Congo, from where she and her mother fled years before, seeking revenge for her mother's murder but uncovering startling secrets.

City of Saints and Thieves

5910cf8c-abd7-4f55-9cc2-01e7229330d4-1

Nikole Hannah-Jones

A dramatic expansion of a groundbreaking work of journalism.

A New Origin Story

A dramatic expansion of a groundbreaking work of journalism, The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story offers a profoundly revealing vision of the American past and present. In late August 1619, a ship arrived in the British colony of Virginia bearing a cargo of twenty to thirty enslaved people from Africa. Their arrival led to the barbaric and unprecedented system of American chattel slavery that would last for the next 250 years. This is sometimes referred to as the country’s original sin, but it is more than that: It is the source of so much that still defines the United States. The New York Times Magazine’s award-winning “1619 Project” issue reframed our understanding of American history by placing slavery and its continuing legacy at the center of our national narrative. This new book substantially expands on that work, weaving together eighteen essays that explore the legacy of slavery in present-day America with thirty-six poems and works of fiction that illuminate key moments of oppression, struggle, and resistance. The essays show how the inheritance of 1619 reaches into every part of contemporary American society, from politics, music, diet, traffic, and citizenship to capitalism, religion, and our democracy itself. This is a book that speaks directly to our current moment, contextualizing the systems of race and caste within which we operate today. It reveals long-glossed-over truths around our nation’s founding and construction—and the way that the legacy of slavery did not end with emancipation, but continues to shape contemporary American life. Featuring contributions from: Leslie Alexander • Michelle Alexander • Carol Anderson • Joshua Bennett • Reginald Dwayne Betts • Jamelle Bouie • Anthea Butler • Matthew Desmond • Rita Dove • Camille T. Dungy • Cornelius Eady • Eve L. Ewing • Nikky Finney • Vievee Francis • Yaa Gyasi • Forrest Hamer • Terrance Hayes • Kimberly Annece Henderson • Jeneen Interlandi • Honorée Fanonne Jeffers • Barry Jenkins • Tyehimba Jess • Martha S. Jones • Robert Jones, Jr. • A. Van Jordan • Ibram X. Kendi • Eddie Kendricks • Yusef Komunyakaa • Kevin M. Kruse • Kiese Laymon • Trymaine Lee • Jasmine Mans • Terry McMillan • Tiya Miles • Wesley Morris • Khalil Gibran Muhammad • Lynn Nottage • ZZ Packer • Gregory Pardlo • Darryl Pinckney • Claudia Rankine • Jason Reynolds • Dorothy Roberts • Sonia Sanchez • Tim Seibles • Evie Shockley • Clint Smith • Danez Smith • Patricia Smith • Tracy K. Smith • Bryan Stevenson • Nafissa Thompson-Spires • Natasha Trethewey • Linda Villarosa • Jesmyn Ward

The 1619 Project

19dde2d6-b361-4af2-b4e5-bae95f077652-1

Bianca Marais

Illinois

The Secret Life of Bees set in Johannesburg, now in paperback. A perceptive and searing debut about Apartheid South Africa, as told through the story of one unique family brought together by tragedy. Life under Apartheid has created a secure future for Robin Conrad, a nine-year-old white girl living with her parents in 1970s Johannesburg. In the same nation, but worlds apart, Beauty Mbali, a Xhosa woman in a rural village in the Bantu homeland of the Transkei, struggles to raise her children alone after her husband's death. Their meeting should never have occurred...until The Soweto Uprising, in which a protest by black students ignites racial conflict, alters the fault lines on which their society is built, leaving Robin's parents dead and Beauty's daughter missing. In the aftermath, Beauty is hired to care for Robin, and the two forge an inextricable bond through their deep personal losses. But Robin knows that if Beauty reunites with her daughter, Robin could lose her new caretaker forever, so she makes a desperate decision with devastating consequences. Told through Beauty and Robin's alternating perspectives, the two narratives interweave to create a rich and complex tapestry of the emotions and tensions at the heart of Apartheid South Africa. Hum If You Don't Know the Words is a beautifully rendered look at loss, racism, and the creation of family.

Hum If You Don't Know the Words

3b1230e3-33b9-47a8-ac86-7be01d78e7c2-1

William Kamkwamba

Bryan Mealer

Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope

William Kamkwamba was born in Malawi, a country where magic ruled and modern science was mystery. It was also a land withered by drought and hunger. But William had read about windmills, and he dreamed of building one that would bring to his small village a set of luxuries that only 2 percent of Malawians could enjoy: electricity and running water. His neighbors called him misala—crazy—but William refused to let go of his dreams. With a small pile of once-forgotten science textbooks; some scrap metal, tractor parts, and bicycle halves; and an armory of curiosity and determination, he embarked on a daring plan to forge an unlikely contraption and small miracle that would change the lives around him. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind is a remarkable true story about human inventiveness and its power to overcome crippling adversity. It will inspire anyone who doubts the power of one individual's ability to change his community and better the lives of those around him.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

943734bc-d92d-48d7-86d9-0e60b9192c6c-1

Peter Hathaway Capstick

Dust Jacket has wear. Book itself in good condition 

Nebraska

Provides an account of the careers and exploits of some of the world's great big-game hunters, including Colonel Henry Patterson, Colonel E. J. Corbett, Karamojo Bell, and Sasha Siemel

Death in the Silent Places

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Some shelf/usage wear on cover and lightly discolored pages. #Africa #slavery #America #faith #adventure #Abingdon #KayMarshallStrom

Grace in Africa Series #2

2010 Booklist Fiction AwardShe is safe, and she is free . . . but she is still alone. Slavers burst into Grace Winslow's life with guns blazing and tear her family apart forever. She watches in anguish as her husband is led in chains aboard a tightly packed slave ship bound for America. An old enemy has a more sinister plan for Grace and prepares her for a different kind of servitude in London. But Grace will not be enslaved. And she will not give up on the man she loves. In her determination to be reunited with her husband, she finds God reaching out to her.

The Voyage of Promise

408982d8-123a-4ad6-af8c-f763d6fcf9cc-1

Verna Aardema

Beatriz Vidal

#paperback #africa #animals #childrens #fiction #homeschool #juvenilefiction #kapitiplain 

New York

Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain

a12fafac-1065-488c-99ac-1392115eb8c3-1

Peter Godwin

Florida

A Memoir of Africa

After his father's heart attack in 1984, Peter Godwin began a series of pilgrimages back to Zimbabwe, the land of his birth, from Manhattan, where he now lives. On these frequent visits to check on his elderly parents, he bore witness to Zimbabwe's dramatic spiral downwards into the jaws of violent chaos, presided over by an increasingly enraged dictator. And yet long after their comfortable lifestyle had been shattered and millions were fleeing, his parents refuse to leave, steadfast in their allegiance to the failed state that has been their adopted home for 50 years.

Then Godwin discovered a shocking family secret that helped explain their loyalty. Africa was his father's sanctuary from another identity, another world.

When a Crocodile Eats the Sun is a stirring memoir of the disintegration of a family set against the collapse of a country. But it is also a vivid portrait of the profound strength of the human spirit and the enduring power of love.

When a Crocodile Eats the Sun

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#paperback #fiction #africa #historicalfiction 

This book is in excellent conditions except for a few pages that have highlights.  Please see images. #paperback #fiction #oprahsbookclub #school #africa #readforschool #historicalfiction #classics #africanliterature #crythebelovedcountry

“The greatest novel to emerge out of the tragedy of South Africa, and one of the best novels of our time.” —The New Republic “A beautiful novel…its writing is so fresh, its projection of character so immediate and full, its events so compelling, and its understanding so compassionate that to read the book is to share intimately, even to the point of catharsis, in the grave human experience.” —The New York Times An Oprah Book Club selection, Cry, the Beloved Country, was an immediate worldwide bestseller when it was published in 1948. Alan Paton’s impassioned novel about a black man’s country under white man’s law is a work of searing beauty. Cry, the Beloved Country, is the deeply moving story of the Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son, Absalom, set against the background of a land and a people riven by racial injustice. Remarkable for its lyricism, unforgettable for character and incident, Cry, the Beloved Country is a classic work of love and hope, courage and endurance, born of the dignity of man.

Cry, the Beloved Country

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Charlie English

The Quest for Timbuktu and the Fantastic Mission to Save Its Past

Timbuktu has long been seen as a paradise to Westerners who had, for centuries, led perilous and mostly failed 'discovery' expeditions to the city. It's also legendarily known as the home of thousands of ancient manuscripts so when Al Qaeda surged across Mali in 2012, the eyes of the outside world were once again upon the fabled, now threatened city. A team of librarians and archivists began an unprecedented smuggling operation to save the history of an entire civilisation. English expertly interweaves these two suspenseful strands - the race to Timbuktu and the riveting undercover mission.

The Storied City

61231642-62e9-4b81-9673-20b039ec6a69-1

Kentucky

A Story of Relentless Love and Redemption

What would cause an eighteen-year-old old senior class president and homecoming queen from Nashville, Tennessee, to disappoint her parents by forgoing college, break her little brother’s heart, lose all but a handful of her friends (because the rest of them think she has gone off the deep end), and break up with the love of her life, all so she could move to Uganda, where she knew only one person but didn’t know any of the language? A passion to make a difference. Katie Davis left over Christmas break her senior year for a short mission trip to Uganda and her life was turned completely inside out. She found herself so moved by the people and children of Uganda that she knew her calling was to return and care for them. She has given up a relatively comfortable life—at a young age—to care for the less fortunate of this world. She was so moved by the need she witnessed, she’s centered her life around meeting that need. Katie, a charismatic and articulate young woman, is in the process of adopting thirteen children in Uganda, and she completely trusts God for daily provision for her and her family. Despite the rough conditions in which Katie lives, she has found a life of service to God to be one of great joy. Katie’s children bring constant delight and help her help others by welcoming whoever comes to their door. As the challenges grow, so does Katie’s faith and her certainty that what she’s doing in Uganda, one person at a time, will have far-reaching rewards. It isn’t the life she planned, but it is the life she loves. To further her reach into the needs of Ugandans, Katie established Amazima Ministries. The ministry matches orphaned children with sponors worldwide. Each sponsor’s $300/year provides schooling, school supplies, three hot meals a day, minor medical care, and spiritual encouragement. Katie expected to have forty children in the program; she had signed up 150 by January 2008; today it sponsors over 400. Another aspect of the ministry is a feeding program created for the displaced Karamojong people—Uganda’s poorest citizens. The program feeds lunch to over 1,200 children Monday-Friday and sends them home with a plate of food; it also offers basic medical care, Bible study, and general health training. Katie Davis is more than fascinating, she’s inspiring, as she has wholeheartedly answered the call to serve.

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Imbolo Mbue

How Beautiful We Were

Adam Hochschild

King Leopold's Ghost

Abraham Verghese

Cutting for Stone

John Brant

The Boy Who Runs **

Abraham Verghese

Cutting for Stone

Alan Moorehead

The Blue Nile

Barbara Kingsolver

The Poisonwood Bible

Chinelo Okparanta

Harry Sylvester Bird

Chloe Perkins

Living in Egypt

Ayobami Adebayo

Stay with Me

Benjamin Ajak; Benson Deng; Alephonsion Deng

They Poured Fire on Us from the Sky

Tananarive Due

My Soul to Keep

Natalie C. Anderson

City of Saints and Thieves

Nikole Hannah-Jones

The 1619 Project

Bianca Marais

Hum If You Don't Know the Words

William Kamkwamba; Bryan Mealer

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

Peter Hathaway Capstick

Death in the Silent Places

Kay Marshall Strom

The Voyage of Promise

Verna Aardema; Beatriz Vidal

Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain

Peter Godwin

When a Crocodile Eats the Sun

Barbara Kingsolver

The Poisonwood Bible

Alan Paton

Cry, the Beloved Country

Charlie English

The Storied City

Katie J. Davis (Editor); Beth Clark (As told to)

Kisses from Katie