Here is a brief selection of favorite, new and hard-to-find books, prepared for your journey. You will find below direct links to Amazon where you will be able to purchase the following recommended books in your preferred format.
Travel & Field Guides
Insight Guides South Africa: Travel Guide
This South Africa guidebook, perfect for travellers planning longer trips, is written by Insight Guides’ destination experts. It blends detailed coverage of local history, culture and places to visit with the visual appeal of an illustrated magazine, packed with enticing photos that will inspire excitement for your travels. Printed on eco-friendly paper for sustainability.
The Wildlife of Southern Africa
This new edition of the best- selling and well-known illustrated field guide to the animals and plants of southern Africa is fully updated with all the latest taxonomy and common names. It features over 2,000 carefully selected plants and animals, large and small, that are likely to be encountered during a visit to any part of the region. More than 1,200 species are vividly illustrated and many more are identifiable from the text through reference to similar species.
The Safari Companion: A Guide to Watching African Mammals
An invaluable encyclopedic guide to Africa’s mammals by a noted scientist, this perennial bestseller includes black-and-white drawings, an overview of each animal group and in-depth information. Written with a
typical safari-goer in mind.
Newmans Birds of Southern Africa
A leading field guide in the region, illustrates and fully describes all the birds recorded from the Antarctic to the Zambezi River. The familiar, user-friendly format of Newman’s Birds has been subtly modernized for a fresh look, and plate annotations have been added to the large, accurate paintings of each species, in line with modern trends.
The Kingdom Pocket Guide to African Mammals: Second Edition
A conveniently compact edition of Kingdon’s celebrated guide that includes information on distribution, ecology and conservation status, with 480 outstanding color illustrations and maps. This is an essential guide for anyone with an interest in wildlife who visits Africa.
Cape Town & The Garden Route
A comprehensive guide that extensively covers all the region
has to offer, with recommendations for both popular and lesser-known
experiences. Climb the impressive Table Mountain, visit historic Robben Island and walk the colourful streets of Bo-Kaap; all with your trusted travel companion.
History & Autobiographies
Long Walk to Freedom
An unpretentious tale of an extraordinary life, Madela’s autobiography is essential reading for an understanding of South Africa. His grace and his love for his country shine throughout.
A History of South Africa
A succinct history of South Africa with emphasis on early Africans and European colonization.
My Traitor’s Heart: A South African Exile Returns to Face His Country, His Tribe, & His Conscience
The Afrikaner and journalist recounts his return to his homeland just before the collapse of Apartheid. Malan grapples with the black and white heart of South Africa, drawing on the 300-year history of his family in Africa, legends of the Zulu nation, and some brutally honest reporting of current events.
The Fate of Africa: A History of the Continent Since Independence
Ambitious in scope, immensely readable – and as big as a doorstep – Martin Meredith’s overview of the tumult, horrors, and strides made in Africa since independence is invaluable
The Old Way: A Story of the First People
Elizabeth Marshall Thomas was nineteen when her father took his family to live among the Bushmen of the Kalahari. Fifty years later, after a life of writing and study, Thomas returns to her experiences with the Bushmen, one of the last hunter-gatherer societies on earth, and discovers among them an essential link to the origins of all human society. Through her vivid, empathic account, Thomas reveals a template for the lives and societies of all humankind.
The Scramble for Africa: White Man’s Conquest of the Dark Continent From 1876 to 1912
A well-written, meticulously researched history of the Victorial land grab in Africa. The book includes excellent portraits of the egomaniacal personalities that overran the continent.
Literature
Recipes for Love And Murder
Tannie Maria is a middle-aged widow who likes to cook and eat. She shares her culinary love as a recipe columnist for the local paper until the Gazette decides its readers are hungrier for advice on matters of the heart than for lunch or dinner ideas. Tannie Maria doesn’t like this change, but soon discovers she has a knack and a passion for helping people. Assisting other people with their personal problems, Tannie Maria finds herself involved in something sinister.
The Elephant Whisperer
Lawrence Anthony devoted his life to animal conservation, protecting the world’s endangered species. Then he was asked to accept a herd of “rogue” wild elephants on his Thula Thula game reserve in Zululand. His common sense told him to refuse, but he was the herd’s last chance of survival: they would be killed if he wouldn’t take them.
A World of Strangers
Toby Hood, a young Englishman, shuns the politics and the causes his liberal parents passionately support. Living in Johannesburg as a representative of his family’s publishing company, Toby moves easily, carelessly, between the complacent wealthy white suburbs and the seething, vibrantly alive black townships. Toby’s friendship with Steven Sithole, a dashing, embittered young African, touches him in ways he never thought possible, and when Steven’s own sense of independence from the rules of society leads to tragedy, Toby’s life is changed forever.
The Promise
Haunted by an unmet promise, the Swart family loses touch after the death of their matriarch. Adrift, the lives of the three siblings move separately through the uncharted waters of South Africa; Anton, the golden boy who bitterly resents his life’s unfulfilled potential; Astrid, whose beauty is her power; and the youngest, Amor, whose life is shaped by a nebulous feeling of guilt. Reunited by four funerals over three decades, the dwindling family reflects the atmosphere of its country – one of resentment, renewal, and, ultimately, hope.
Life & Times of Micheal K.
In a South Africa turned by war, Michael K. sets out to take his ailing mother back to her rural home. On the way there she dies, leaving him alone in an anarchic world of brutal roving armies. Imprisoned, Michael is unable to bear confinement and escapes, determined to live with dignity. This life affirming novel goes to the center of human experience—the need for an interior, spiritual life; for some connections to the world in which we live; and for purity of vision.
