I Didn't Do It For You: How the World Betrayed a Small African Nation by Michela Wrong

Okay, look: the story here is, years ago, I had an awesome chat with a cab driver, and when he mentioned he was from Eritrea, I was pretty embarrassed that (1) I didn’t know how to pronounce it, and (2) I couldn’t point the place out on a map, and (3) okay, yeah, I’d never heard about the place before. So when I saw this book on some list of recommendations from an African history professor, I was like, hell yeah, let’s fix my ignorance a bit.

And wow, I can see why this book made the professor’s shortlist. It’s a fascinating account of a really admirable/plucky/independently-minded nation that has been through some shit. If you want interesting examinations of colonialism, postcolonialism, wild Cold War shenanigans, the art of supplying & arming long-term resistance movements, or really getting into the details of how and why e.g. a seemingly-trivial border conflict over some tiny town can spiral out of control—this book covers it all, with a richly-detailed cast of characters and a strong narrative sense that makes it all feel like a page-turner even when it’s relating dense geopolitics.

So yeah! I really enjoyed this read.

Some highlights from my reading of the book:

( Read more... )

book post: last two for a bit

lumping these together since i don't have a ton to say about them:

( Magic's Pawn and The Complete Persepolis )

And yeah, with that I'm all caught up on bookposting for a bit. Sorry for the reading list spam! Now back to some actual reading; A Memory Called Empire is really good so far...!