Book Lust to Go

by Nancy Pearl

  Annie Proulx has written three collections of stories set in Wyoming (known collectively, and sensibly, as “The Wyoming Stories”). They include Close Range, Bad Dirt, and Fine Just the Way It Is. Her most famous story is, of course, “Brokeback Mountain,” which was later adapted into a superb movie. But reading these three collections together gives you an idea of her great range and stellar talent.What an amazing writer she is.

  “Clever” novels frequently put me off. You know the sort I mean: those that make use of different fonts, footnotes, and other similar affectations. I often wonder if the purpose of all these bells and whistles is simply to disguise the fact that the author really has nothing much to say to the reader. And I find that so often novels about child geniuses all follow the same story arc: kid burns out and comes to no good end. So you can imagine my relief and readerly joy when I discovered that Reif Larsen overcame both of my ingrained prejudices in The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet. It’s about twelve-year-old cartography genius Tecumseh Sparrow Spivet, who lives at the Coppertop Ranch (just north of Divide, Montana) with his über-laconic rancher father, his scientist mother (who is obsessed with finding a certain type of beetle that nobody else believes exists), his older sister, Gracie, and the memory of his younger brother, Layton, whose death has left an unhealed scar on the family’s psyche. In this satisfying first novel, we experience the world through the eyes of this brilliant, funny, and emotionally wounded kid.

  Other Wyoming books include a classic: Owen Wister’s 1902 The Virginian (really, still the classic novel of the Wyoming territory, if not the wholeWest); Mark Spragg’s memoir Where Rivers Change Directions; Gretel Ehrlich’s The Solace of Open Spaces, with its deep appreciation of nature; and Wyoming Summer by Mary O’Hara, which, despite its title, isn’t totally set in Wyoming, but the small sections that are really make us feel as though we’re there with the author and her husband experiencing the sudden weather changes, the way the sky appears different from one moment to the next, and the tenuousness of small ranch-holdings. (O’Hara published her hit novel My Friend Flicka, set in a remote area of Wyoming, in 1941. Wyoming Summer, made up of a series of journal notes she’d been keeping, wasn’t published until 1963, but she tells us that the manuscript was finished and put away long before Flicka became popular.) Here’s how she describes the Wyoming sky:Over all, and low above me, was a pale blue sky, calm and benign. On it, flat sheets of cloud, with indeterminate, melting edges, floated so slowly, so indifferently, so serenely that they made me feel slow, indifferent and serene too.

  And here:Now the day is waning and the light changing for sunset. Soft and lovely. No clouds. Just a clear emerald green—and the evening star big and golden.

  Fabulous.

  ZAMBIA

  After much turmoil in the southern part of the African continent, the country of Zambia was formed out of the former Northern Rhodesia and became the Republic of Zambia in October 1964. Its existence was complicated by the fact that three of its neighbors were still under colonial powers (Southern Rhodesia, Mozambique, and Angola). Here are some books I’ve enjoyed over the years.

  The Swedish writer Henning Mankell’s novel The Eye of the Leopard takes place in Zambia, just after it achieved independence.

  In Scribbling the Cat,Alexandra Fuller describes her friendship and travels in Zambia with one of her parents’ neighbors, a white African and veteran of the Rhodesian Wars, both of them trying to understand the past and its attendant horrors.

  Christina Lamb’s The Africa House is a biography of Stewart Gore-Browne, a fascinating Edwardian Englishman whose contradictory attitudes toward his adopted country—Northern Rhodesia—make for fascinating reading. This is a good choice for fans of White Mischief by James Fox.

  In The Eye of the Elephant: An Epic Adventure in the African Wilderness, biologists Delia and Mark Owens discuss their attempts to save Zambia’s elephants from wholesale slaughter in the Luangwa Valley. (The couple was expelled from Botswana after writing Cry of the Kalahari and chose to settle in Zambia as a result.)

  The farm in Zambia that Sheila Siddle and her husband, David, purchased became the Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage, the largest primate sanctuary in the world.Their adventures with their “guests” are winningly described in In My Family Tree: A Life with Chimpanzees.

  If you’re looking for much lighter fare, Mrs. Pollifax, a CIA agent in her spare time, sets out on an African safari in order to save the life of the president of Zambia, in Mrs. Pollifax on Safari by Dorothy Gilman. Reading this, you can’t escape the feeling that Gilman herself had just been on safari, too, though the rest of the story is surely pure fiction!

  ZIPPING THROUGH ZIMBABWE/ ROAMING RHODESIA

  Zimbabwe, formerly Southern Rhodesia, has long been the subject of some terrific novels and memoirs—perhaps the lure for writers is its uniquely African combination of beauty and inept (and corrupt) governments that consistently fail to improve the lives of their citizens.

  Journalist Peter Godwin wrote two books about growing up in Zimbabwe, and both do a remarkable job of combining the personal and the historical. Although I found Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa to be engrossing and enlightening—it’s set from 1964 to 1982 against the background of the war that gained Rhodesia independence and black rule as the country of Zimbabwe—I was totally hooked by the evocative writing of When a Crocodile Eats the Sun, which describes the long reign of Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe in all its brutal details while at the same time exploring the repercussions of a long-held Godwin family secret.

  Here are some other books—both fiction and nonfiction—that I’ve found engrossing since I wrote the “Dreaming of Africa” section in Book Lust.

  Petina Gappah’s An Elegy for Easterly: Stories

  Wendy Kann’s Casting with a Fragile Thread: A Story of Sisters and Africa makes a good companion read with Alexandra Fuller’s Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight.

  Doris Lessing’s Under My Skin: Volume One of My Autobiography, to 1949 and African Laughter: Four Visits to Zimbabwe

  Andrew Meldrum’s Where We Have Hope: A Memoir of Zimbabwe

  Tudor Parfitt’s Journey to the Vanished City: The Search for a Lost Tribe of Israel (absolutely fascinating for history buffs or those interested in the history of religion)

  Douglas Rogers’s The Last Resort: A Memoir of Zimbabwe

  Irene Sabatini’s The Boy Next Door

  Lauren St. John’s Rainbow’s End: A Memoir of Childhood, War, and an African Farm

  Wilbur Smith’s Ballantyne series are perfect airplane reads, while at the same time offering a pretty accurate account of historical events.You’ll probably want to read them in order: A Falcon Flies, Men of Men, The Angels Weep, and The Leopard Hunts in Darkness. (Smith has written over thirty books set in Africa, so if you fall in love with reading about the continent, he’s an author you’ll want to remember.)

  Yvonne Vera’s painful-to-read novel The Stone Virgins describes the lives of sisters Thenjiwe and Nonceba living during the period when Zimbabwe gained independence from Britain.

  INDEX

  Note: Bold text refers to book and series titles.

  A. D.: New Orleans After the Deluge

  Abani, Chris

  Abide with Me

  Abidi, Azhar

  Abi-Ezzi, Nathalie

  Abrahams, William

  Absolute Truths

  Absolution by Murder

  Abu-Jaber, Diana

  Abulhawa, Susan

  Abyssinia (Ethiopia)

  Accidental, The

  Accordionist’s Son, The

  Achebe, Chinua

  Aciman, André

  Ackerman, Diane

  Ackroyd, Peter

  Across the Savage Sea

  Ada Blackjack

  Adam Bede

  Adams, Lorraine

  Adams, Sharon Sites

  Adelstein, Jake

  Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi

  Adiga, Aravind

  Adrift
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  Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll, The

  Aebi,Tania

  Afghanistan

  Africa

  Africa House, The

  Africa on Six Wheels

  African Adventurer

  African Dream, The

  African in Greenland, An

  African Visas

  After the Dance

  After the Prophet

  Agents of Innocence

  Airmen and the Headhunters, The

  Airs Above the Ground

  Aitken, Rosemary

  Ajak, Banjamin

  Ajami, Fouad

  Al Khemir, Sabiha

  Alameddine, Rabih

  Alarcón, Daniel

  Alaska

  Alavi, Nasrin

  Albania

  Albion

  Alcestis

  Alexander, Caroline

  Alexander’s Path

  Algeria

  Alice I Have Been

  Alice in Sunderland

  Alice in Wonderland

  Aline (Countess of Romanones)

  Alison, Jane

  All Elevations Unknown

  All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers

  All Souls

  All the King’s Men

  All the Way Home

  All Things Must Fight to Live

  Allen, Tom

  Allen-Agostini, Lisa

  Allende, Isabel

  Alligator

  Allison, Peter

  Almond Picker, The

  Alone in the Crowd

  Along the Ganges

  Al-Shaykh, Hanan

  Alvarez, Julia

  Always a Distant Anchorage

  Amado, Jorge

  Amazing Mrs. Pollifax, The

  Amazonia

  Ambition

  “America for Me,”

  American Fuji

  American Girl, The

  Amigoland

  Among the Believers

  Among the White Moon Faces

  Amy and Isabelle

  Anania, Michael

  Anarchy and Old Dogs

  Ancestral Truths

  Ancient Athens on 5 Drachmas a Day

  Ancient Rome on 5 Denarii a Day

  Ancient Shore, The

  And a Right Good Crew

  And I Shall Sleep . . . Down Where the Moon Is Small

  And the Band Played On

  Anderson, Doug

  Andorra

  Angel at My Table, An

  Angels Weep, The

  Angry Island, The

  Angry Wind

  Angus, Colin

  Angus, Julie

  Anil’s Ghost

  Animal Dialogues, The

  Anna In-Between

  Anna Karenina

  Annie John

  Another Beauty

  Antarctic

  Antarctic Destinies

  Anthills of the Savannah

  Antigua

  Antonides, John (translator)

  Antony and Cleopatra

  Appalachia

  Apples Are from Kazakhstan

  Appy, Christian G.

  Arabia

  Arabian Sands

  Arctic

  Arctic Chill

  Ardizzone,Tony

  Are You Somebody?

  Arguedas, José María

  Arizona

  Arlen, Michael J.

  Armbruster, Ann

  Armenia

  Arnold, Daniel

  Arnold, Matthew

  Arruda, Suzanne

  Art of Travel, The

  Art Student’s War, The

  Artist of the Floating World, An

  Arundel

  As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning

  Ashman, Anastasia M.

  Aslam, Nadeem

  Assembling California

  Astrid and Veronika

  At Home in the Heart of Appalachia

  At the Edge of Ireland

  At the Mercy of the Sea

  At the Water’s Edge

  Atta, Sefi

  Atwood, Margaret

  Atxaga, Bernard

  Audience with an Elephant, An

  Auge, Christian

  Aung San Suu Kyi

  Austen, Jane

  Australia

  Avery,Tom

  Aw,Tash

  Awakening

  Away

  Axe, The

  Ayatollah Begs to Differ, The

  Babe in Paradise

  Babylon Rolling

  Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba

  Back of Beyond, The

  Backer, Sara

  Bad Dirt

  Baghdad Without a Map and Other Misadventures in Arabia

  Bahrampour,Tara

  Baier, Molly J.

  Baikal

  Baking Cakes in Kigali

  Bakker, Gerbrand

  Balakian, Peter

  Balali, Mehrdad

  Ballad of Frankie Silver, The

  Ballard, Angela

  Ballard, Duffy

  Baltic States

  Baltimore

  Baltimore Blues

  Bangkok 8

  Bangkok Tattoo

  Bangs, Richard

  Banks, Russell

  Barbery, Muriel

  Barczewski, Stephanie L.

  Bardach, Ann Louise

  Barker, Adele

  Barlow, John

  Barnard, Robert

  Barnes, Linda

  Barraclough, Frances Horning (translator)

  Barrett, Leonard E.

  Barrows, Annie

  Barrow’s Boys

  Barry, Dave

  Barry, Sebastian

  Barth, John

  Bascom,Tim

  Bastard of Istanbul, The

  Bathurst, Bella

  Baum, Dan

  Bay of Noon, The

  Bay of Spirits

  Beach, The

  Beak of the Finch,The

  Beaufort

  Beautiful Children

  Beautiful Place to Die, A (by Philip R. Craig)

  Beautiful Place to Die, A (by Malla Nunn)

  Beautiful Struggle, The

  Beautiful Swimmers

  Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw

  Bechdel, Alison

  Beckett, Samuel

  Bedford, Sybille

  Beerbohm, Max

  Before the Deluge

  Before You Sleep

  Begley, Louis

  Behan, Brendan

  Behind the Wall

  Beijing Confidential

  Beijing of Possibilities, The

  Beirut Blues

  Belfer, Lauren

  Bell, Gertrude

  Bella Poldark

  Bellaigue, Christopher de. See De Bellaigue, Christopher

  Bellini Card, The

  Ben Jelloun,Tahar

  Benchley, Robert

  Beneath the Lion’s Gaze

  Benioff, David

  Benítez, Sandra

  Benjamin, Melanie

  Bennett, Joe

  Benny and Shrimp

  Bentsen, Cheryl

  Berendt, John

  Bergeijk, Jeroen van

  Berger, Joseph

  Bergreen, Laurence

  Berlin

  Berlin (series)

  Berlin Alexanderplatz

  Berlin: City of Smoke

  Berlin: City of Stones

  Berlin Stories, The

  Berlinski, Mischa

  Bernières, Louis de

  Berserk

  Berton, Pierre

  Best and the Brightest, The

  Best Game Ever, The

  Best of Frank O’Connor, The

  Best Travel Writing (series)

  Betancourt, Ingrid

  Bethlehem Murders, The

  Betsy and the Great World

  Better Than Oceans

  Better View of Paradise, A

  Between Terror and Tourism

  Between the Assassinations

  Beutner, Kathariner />
  Beyle, Marie-Henri

  Beyond Belief

  Beyond Bogota

  Beyond the Horizon

  Bickel, Lennard

  Biddlecombe, Peter

  Big Both Ways, The

  Big Empty, The

  Big One, The

  Big Red Train Ride, The

  Biggers, Earl Derr

  Binchy, Maeve

  Binding,Tim

  Bingham, Hiram

  Biondi, Joann

  Bird, Christiane

  Bird, Isabella

  Bird Artist, The

  Bird News

  Bird of Another Heaven

  Birds, Beasts, and Relatives

  Birds Without Wings

  Birkett, Dea

  Bissell,Tom

  Bissinger, H. G.

  Bitter Fruit

  Bizot, François

  Black, Cara

  Black and Blue

  Black Book, The

  Black Dog of Fate

  Black Echo, The

  Black Ice, The

  Black Livingstone

  Black Mountain Breakdown

  Black Tents of Arabia

  Black Water Rising

  Blackburn, Julia

  Blackout

  Blanchet, M. Wylie

  Blind Man of Seville, The

  Blindsight

  Blistered Kind of Love, A

  Block, Lawrence

  Blood River

  Blood Safari

  Blood Spilt, The

  Bloodroot

  Bloom, Amy

  Blue Hammer, The

  Blue Latitudes

  Blue Lightning

  Blue Manuscript, The

  Blue Place, The

  Blunt, Giles

  Blyth, Chay

  Boardman, Jonathan

  Bobrick, Benson

  Bock, Charles

  Bolaño, Roberto

  Bold Spirit

  Boling, Dave

  Bolter, The

  Bolton, S. J.

  Bone People, The

  Bonington, Chris

  Bonobo Handshake

  Book About Blanche and Marie, The

  Book of Ebenezer Le Page, The

  Booth, Alan

  Booth, Martin

  Border Town

  Borges, Jorge Luis

  Borges and the Eternal Orangutans

  Borgia, E.

  Born to Run

  Borneo

  Boston

  Bostridge, Mark

  Boswell, James

  Botswana

  Botton, Alain de. See De Botton, Alain

  Bouldrey, Brian

  Bounty, The

  Bounty Mutiny, The

  Bowden, Charles

  Bowden, Keith

  Bowden, Mark