Feeding the Ghosts by Fred D'Aguiar

This book is a historicization of the Zong disaster. While its perspective shifts among several of the participations, the most memorable character is Mintah, the woman who climbs back aboard the ship after being thrown over. The book explores what happens when we commodify the human body--the abuses and indignities that humans are willing to perpetrate on one another in the name of getting a good return on an investment. It also explores the role of literacy and the power it confers.

Zahrah the Windseeker by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu

This book is set in a world influenced by African folklore, where technology is organic and Earth is only a myth. Zahrah, born with dadalocks in her hair, discovers that she has a rare, almost mythical, gift. But when her explorations of her power land her beat friend in the hospital, she has to go on a dangerous journey to save him. I found the world fascinating, and the story entertaining, but relatively simple. I love the way that Ms. Okorafor has made her world fresh--it feels new and exciting.

Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth

This book combines a number of stories. While a mutiny on a slave ship is perhaps the key event in the story; the vast majority of the narrative focuses on the experiences of two English characters: Erasmus Kemp, the son of the man who outfitted the ship, and his cousin Paris, a disgraced doctor who sails with the voyage. The book explores kinds of possibility: How cruel can humans be to each other? What are the costs of disappointment? What possible satisfactions can we obtain from revenge? Is it possible for a group of people, one set of whom tried to sell the other set into slavery, and who speak many different languages, to live together in harmony? altogether it makes a fascinating story. Winner of the 1992 Booker Prize with The English Patient.

Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor

This book is an excellent coming of age story with a good dose of fantasy. Although Sunny was born in the United States, her parents have moved the family back to their native Nigeria. Sunny doesn't fit in because she's albino...and because she's a Leopard Person (she can work magic, or juju). But with a serial killer on the loose, Sunny has to find out who she is and what she can do quickly. This book is full of Nigerian folklore, and a great story about finding your place and your identity. I hope Ms. Okorafor writes more of Sunny's adventures.

Bonobo Handshake: A Memoir of Love and Adventure in the Congo by Vanessa Woods

This book is part memoir of Vanessa Woods's time at Lola Ya Bonobo, a bonobo sanctuary in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, part account of bonobos (a species of ape closely related to humans and chimpanzees), and part recent history of the region. Woods passionately makes the case for why we should protect and study bonobos: their inherent, peaceful response to stressful situations and their tolerance for one another can help us understand human altruism and cooperation, and may help us deal with our inherent impulses towards violence (impulses that chimpanzees share). In her story Woods conveys the dangers and the triumphs of life at the sanctuary and makes a strong case for the right kind of academic research.

Blake, or the Huts of America by Martin Delany

This book tells the story of Henry Blake, who was illegally enslaved, but eventually ran away to freedom and to begin agitating slave revolt both in the United States and Cuba. The book was published serially in 1861 and 1862 in two magazines, and the last several issues have been lost, so the ending is in flux. The story moves very quickly from place to place, and highlights as much of Blake's work in fomenting revolt as it does the sentimental story of his wife being sold away from him (and his eventual, successful efforts to win her back). There's a lot of poetry that emphasizes the emotions the enslaved people feel throughout the text.

Kennedy's Brain by Henning Mankell

This mystery is unlike most of Mankell's crime stories: it doesn't feature Kurt Wallander, an archaeologist (the mother of the victim) does all of the investigating, and it doesn't wrap up particularly neatly. Like many of Mankell's stories, the text has a strong (and outraged) point of view: it doesn't want questions of justice to be swept under the rug--in this case, the crux of the matter is a mission in Mozambique where foreigners not only treat Africans afflicted with HIV and AIDS, but also give the virus to healthy people, without their consent, to test the effectiveness of experimental vaccines and drugs. The mystery part was handled pretty well--although the reader has to put a fair amount together in the end, and the story doesn't offer a ton of closure.

Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman

This book focuses on Harri, a recent immigrant to England from Ghana, and his attempts to both figure out how to navigate life and school in the UK and to solve the mystery of the murder of one of his peers. Harri seems hopelessly out of his league on both counts (his attempts to fit in lead to dangerous behavior like throwing stones at buses and trying to set off fire alarms, and he investigates the murder by collecting fingerprints on cellophane tape), but his optimism and his faith in God and his family place the reader firmly in his camp. I also enjoyed the pigeon element--yes, Harri speaks pidgin English, but he also becomes mildly obsessed with a pigeon, who speaks to him and narrates parts of the book. A moving account of the best and worst of a tough childhood.

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

As I read this book, I spent a lot of time thinking about the role of Okonkwo. While he has a number of flaws (his temper, for example), he definitely fills the role of a tragic hero for me. This book, like Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God definitely has an anthropological bent--but here that bent turns metafictional as the narrator reflects on masculine and feminine stories. Finally the book's critique of colonialism is both scathing and heart-rending.

Heart of Darkness and Other Tales by Joseph Conrad

This edition contains good complements to Heart of Darkness in the three short novellas that precede it. I was particularly interested in following the structure of Marlow's journey this time--the timeline gets trippy and there's a lot of delayed recognition. I also enjoyed paying specific attention to Conrad's use of particular words.

Bill Bryson's African Diary by Bill Bryson

Taking this book for what it is, that is, a slim volume designed to promote CARE, a charity that works throughout Africa, you will find that Bryson has written an entertaining, if too brief portrait of his trip to Africa. There's some of his humor, and a keen eye for observation, and a refreshing frankness about the project. Don't expect one of this full-length travel volumes, and you won't be disappointed.

Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral by Phillis Wheatley

This collection of poetry covers a wide range of topics. Most of the poems are religious and meant to console the reader for losses suffered during this earthly life (many poems feature dead loved ones waiting for the live in Heaven). The poems are mostly written in heroic couplets. Wheatley uses some really beautiful imagery to express herself.

Empire of Ivory by Naomi Novik

The latest book in the Temeraire series continues to impress. Laurence and Temeraire return from their long trip to China (with the detour to Istanbul) only to discover that a consumption-like illness has put almost all of Britain's dragons out of service. They hasten to Africa to search for the cure (apparently Temeraire had contracted it on the trip to China but was cured in Africa), and in so doing, discover a civilization that's breeding dragons and elephants--which attacks the British settlement at Cape Town because of the slave trade. When Temeraire and Laurence discover that back home, the British government has been acting unethically in its pursuit of the war, they're left with an ethical decision of their own to make. The book was excellent, and I'm really enjoying the way this series plays out questions of duty, morality, and friendship. As a fair warning to all readers, this book ends on a cliffhanger. If you read it, you'll probably need to keep reading the series. Still, if the series keeps getting better, that's not a problem.

King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard

This book introduces Allan Quatermain, an elephant hunter who agrees to accompany two Englishmen on a dangerous journey into Africa's interior, to find one of the men's estranged younger brother, who himself was on a hunt to find the legendary mines of King Solomon, reputed to be filled with diamonds of inestimable worth. The narrative, at least in Quatermain's acquisitive hands, quickly gets diverted into two other quests--first to reunite their guide Umbopa with his people (who conveniently live near the mines) and restore him to his kingship, and second to see the mines for themselves (an interest which Quatermain vigorously denies). So, when the brother is found alive at the end, it feels more like a footnote than the fulfillment of the quest. Although Quatermain is clearly racist and sexist (his dedication alone, "to all the big and little boys" who will read his account, will be enough to put women off the story), the introductory essay makes the point that Haggard is clearly aware of his narrator's failings. I enjoyed this story, but on the other hand, I'm probably not going to be storming the gates to find all the sequels in short order.

In a Strange Room by Damon Galgut

This book comprises three novella-like segments in which the same protagonist, sometimes "he," sometimes "I," and even "Damon" in the first section, goes on three different journeys (to Lesotho, to Malawi, and to India). These travels rarely seem directed and never end as the narrator/protagonist thinks they might. The story seems disconnected, so a sense of place doesn't always come through. Instead, the plot is driven by encounters with other travelers--some planned, some happen-stance. The narrator shows some development in his increasing connection to other people and in his ability to take responsibility. Between the lyric prose and the unstable narrator, there's something heady and unreal about reading this book.

Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor

This novel tells the story of Onyesonwu, the outcast girl who grows up to be the Sorceress with the potential to rewrite history and reality. The book is beautiful and I think it does the post-apocalyptic and the group-journey narratives very well. It doesn't sugar-coat its heroine--she has moments of violence and anger and failure as much as anyone. Although I found myself wanting more about what the apocalyptic moment was, the hints that were given were more than enough to put together the outlines. I am still wondering about the role of technology in the novel--people have computers, for example, but it wasn't clear to me quite how they use them.