From Amazon:
When Rosamond Halsey Carr first arrived in Africa, she didn't realize she would spend the rest of her life there. As a young fashion illustrator living in New York City in the 1940s, she seemed the least likely candidate for such a life of adventure. But marriage to a hunter-explorer took her to what was then the Belgian Congo, and divorce left her determined to stay on, in neighboring Rwanda, as the manager of a flower plantation. In the ensuing half century she witnessed the decline and fall of colonialism, the wars for independence, the loss of her friend Dian Fossey and the relentless clashes of the Hutus and Tutsis. And, finally, 1994's horrific genocide--of which she provides a personal, first-hand account that is unparalleled and underscores her continued devotion to the country by her decision to care for more than one hundred of its orphaned children.

Land of a Thousand Hills unfolds against the backdrop of Rwanda's history from the royal Tutsi dynasty to the present, a landscape whose magic is aptly evoked. It is the epic story of a woman alone in an exotic land, struggling to survive untold hardships only to emerge with an extraordinary love for her adopted country and its people.

Bookring Order:
LGinder CA (SHIP US)
ahythloday WA (SHIP US)
Amusedbythis IL (SHIP INTL)
goatgrrl CAN (SHIP INTL)
dododumpling UK (SHIP EUROPE)
tembo GERMANY (SHIP EUROPE)
nrrdgrrl NETHERLANDS (SHIP EUROPE)
loribee UK (SHIP INTL)
newk AUSTRALIA (SHIP INTL)
phillycarol PA (SHIP US)
BlueAmazon IL/CA (SHIP US) ASKED TO BE REMOVED
PokPok CA (SHIP US)

Please Return To:
EMA375 CA

Shipped to LGinder on 5/7!

How exciting for me - two books in my mailbox today!! As this is a bookring and the list is long I'll get right on it. Love those mailing labels you have, they're so official looking!

A truly remarkable account of this gals life in Africa. Great bookring book for those interested in this type of literature. I'll be sending it off to the next person right away!

i am really excited about this book! i had a girlhood obsession with diane fossey and, of course, rosamond carr is linked with her! did anyone ever read the definative biography of diane fossey, by the way? now i can't remember what its called (that doesn't help!) but it certainly cured me of my infatuation with her! she was not at all the person i thought..oh well. but that book led me on to rosamond carr so i can't wait to read this one!

autumn

on the front and back of the book are the customary rave reviews and one says that this book is just like "out of africa". i suppressed my giggling and read myself. it seems every book that even remotely mentions africa, and which has a woman as a main character is always compared to issak dinesin. well, i read and indeed, it was like dinesin's "out of africa"! strangely so. both women who own plantations and experience the political upheavals of their respective countries. both disappointed in love and devoted to the people of their countries. the only differences being that dinesin was a belgian countess in kenya and carr is a yankee living in rwanda. and maybe that carr made lasting contributions to her adopted country.

the book was pretty good as far as memiors go. it is a little short so that the stories of genocide and war are not as poignant as they might have been. they really just fly by in this book and one gets the idea that they are main themes but the author lacked the time to write about them!

heading out to amusedbythis

I received this book today. Thank you for sharing. I am in the midst of reading another book and will get to this one within the week. Thank you again!

This book is excellent. It is the life story of Rosamund Halsey Carr and her love affair with the land of Rwanda. It is well written and engagaing. Thank you so very much for sharing this book!

Released on Saturday, July 24, 2004 at US Postal Service in Chicago, Illinois Controlled Releases.

Sent to the next bcer! Enjoy!

Land of a Thousand Hills arrived in yesterday's mail, and I started reading it last night. I'm already hooked! I should have it read by mid-August at the latest, and will send it along to the next person on the list. Thanks very much for sharing this book!

Land of a Thousand Hills is a truly readable and engaging account of the life of an American woman from a privileged background -- Rosamond Halsey Carr -- who defies convention by marrying a much older man, divorcing him in the first decade of marriage, and making the surprising decision to remain alone in Africa (first in the Belgian Congo, then in northwestern Rwanda -- see map at left). The book also works -- to some extent -- as a chronicle of historical events in Rwanda starting with the downfall of the Tutsi monarchy in the mid-1950s, and ending just after the massacre in 1994.

The strengths of this memoir lie in the contacts Carr made with fascinating people (among them, famed zoologist Dian Fossey) and her birds-eye view of central Africa during the most tumultuous decades of the 20th century. However her take on African politics is a little colonial for my liking (particularly her jarring assessment of Patrice Lumumba - the only leader ever to be democratically elected in the Congo), and I was also made uneasy by her relationship with the wildlife she was surrounded by (the wild elephants with which she came into contact seemed mainly to annoy her -- something she admits distanced her from Fossey).

Rosamond Carr is still alive and living in Rwanda. She won the Hublot Prize in 2001, and turned 90 in 2002. There's a wonderful web project called Through the Eyes of Children, which displays photographs taken by children at the Imbabazi Orphanage she founded following the 1994 massacre in Rwanda.

Other books I've enjoyed set in Congo (formerly known as Belgian Congo, then Zaire) or Rwanda: Virunga: The Passion of Dian Fossey by Farley Mowat; A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali by Gil Courtemanche; Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad; and The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver.

I finished this book yesterday (and also added some final thoughts to my review in the last journal entry). I've emailed dododumpling to request his/her address, and will send the book along just as soon as I receive it. Thanks very much!

I'll be mailing Land of a Thousand Hills to dododumpling in Cambridge, England today (August 9, 04).

Received from goatgrrl yesterday. Thanks so much for the Canadian pressies! :) I just finished Witchcraft: A History yesterday so will make a start straight away on Land of a Thousand Hills.

What a remarkable woman and a remarkable story.

Rosamond Halsey Carr set out for the Belgian Congo with her husband in 1949. Her preparations for the journey included buying "four new cotton dresses at Lord & Taylor, a pith helmet at a New York outfitter's, and a lifetime supply of cold cream". Her marriage broke down and she faced financial ruin on several occasions but those early years in the Congo and Ruanda were ones of "privilege and entitlement ... taken for granted".

The chapters covering the genocide of 1994 are heartbreakig and I read them with tears in my eyes. Carr was forced to flee Rwanda in early 1994 but returned in August, and, at the age of 82, began to renovate an abandoned building on her plantation with the intention of turning it into an orphanage to care for children displaced by the genocide. Imbabazi z'i Mugongo opened in December 1994 and the childless Carr remarks "I can only surmise that God didn't feel I was ready to have children until I was eight-two years old. Then he sent me forty all at once."

goatgrrl, thanks for the list of books set in the Congo, I have added a couple to my wishlist. And thanks to EMA375 for the bookring. :)

I put Land of a Thousand Hills in the post to tembo in Germany today.

The book arrived in thursday's mail. However, I was not able to journal before due to a breakdown of my dsl line. I started reading it immediately and am really excited.
To dododumpling: Vielen Dank fuer das nette kleine Geschenk ;-))

A great book about the life of a remarkable woman and her life in as well as love for Rwanda.

I finished the book right in time to pass it on to my dear friend nrrdgrrl who is relocating to Ivory Coast on monday. We share a deep love for Africa and I hope to follow her to this truly beautiful part of the world as soon as possible.

oooh, a book, a ring book. unexpected. for a moment i considered to just drop everything, read the book and send it off to england, safely before i leave. then reality kicked in, meaning i don't have time to read anything at all before i'm in the plane on monday.

whilst trying to speak french and apprehending a new country i'll try to read this in three weeks, so that returning mr.nrrdgrrl can send it off from the netherlands. presumably a lot safer than from africa? i'd love to find out with a book that is not a ring book... this one will travel within the eu.

the very interesting story of a lady who experienced a planter's life in the heart of africa, from the glorious bliss of the colonial years to the horrors of the current turmoil.

it might be the downside of being in the middle of it all, that she shows the historical and political insight of leni riefenstahl. (she even manages sad statements like: refugees shouldn't plea for return to their country because it is full).
having been well on the side of president habyarimana won't have helped to see the real world either. and i don't blame her for taking sides. but i do think it's odd to be so blind to other people's points of view.

[if you're interested in more about rwanda, i heartily recommend i wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families by philip gourevitch, a very good book that leans a bit too much to the other side.]

RELEASE NOTES:

in the post office of tavira, algarve, portugal. on it's way to loribee, who gave me her address before i left for the ivory coast. sent at book tariff and i haven't a clue how long it will take; getting it in the mail was a matter of talking with hands and feet already.

so how come i'm sending it from portugal? longstoryshort: the project was nuked locally, and they're fighting the french now. i'm back; went on a wee vacation to cool off the disappointment.

Very pleased to have this book & began to read it on the train to London.

On its way to phillycarol - apologies for delay.
An inspiring story.

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

To be left in a box of books near the wooden fence at the intersection of Brownlie Road and Jamie Circle in King of Prussia. Take one, some or all! Time to clean out the closet!

I'm so sorry that this book has been languishing on my bookshelf and I almost released it into the wild before realizing that it's a bookring. I'm currently in the hospital on bedrest but as soon as I get back home, I'll be sure to mail it out to the next person.