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Bookish Quotes
"It is with the reading of books the same as with looking at pictures; one must, without doubt, without hesitation, with assurance, admire what is beautiful."
Land of a Thousand Hills: My Life in Rwanda
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Land of a Thousand Hills: My Life in Rwanda
Buy from one of these Booksellers:
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10 journalers for this copy...
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Bookring Order:newk AUSTRALIA (SHIP INTL) phillycarol PA (SHIP US) PokPok CA (SHIP US) Please Return To: EMA375 CA |
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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!
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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. |
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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. |
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Released 7 yrs ago (10/8/2004 UTC) at Controlled Release in Controlled Release, --by post or by hand (ie ring, ray, RABCK, trade) -- Controlled Releases WILD RELEASE NOTES:
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. |
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Released 3 yrs ago (9/1/2008 UTC) at Brownlie Road in King Of Prussia, Pennsylvania USA WILD RELEASE NOTES:
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