This is my list of favorite stories ( so far) set in Africa, or have a medical theme, or military stories

or just stories about people who survive or compete in unbelievably hard circumstances or interesting history. Color code is:

Blue– is war related

Green is African

Red is medical

Black is survivors, heroes or interesting non fiction

Non Fiction

3 cups of Tea by Mortenson (helping tribes build schools in Pakistan)

9 parts of Desire by Brooks ( Muslim Women)

Autobiography of a Face by Grealy (writer dx’d with jaw cancer & her life)

Blind Descent by Tabor ( cave competition-wow)

Born in the Big Rains by Korn (FGM in Somalia & the movement to stop it)

Born on a Blue Day by Tammet ( life story recounted by an autistic man)

Children’s Blizzard by Laskin  (Blizzard in Mid West that killed with out warning)

Close to Shore by Capuzzo (Shark on East Coast)

Dark Safari by Theroux * (travels in East Africa to S. Africa)

Diving Bell & the Butterfly by Bauby (Man wrote this story by blinking eye in morse code post stroke)

Don’t Let’s Go to The Dogs Tonight by Fuller ( set in Rhodesia, growing up in dangerous times)

Escape from Slavery by Bok *( enslaved in the Sudan for 10 years, his escape & mission to stop slavery today)

Escape from the Deep by Kershaw (WWII & Submarine)- only

known escape from a sunken sub, amazing)

Endurance by Shackleton-( leadership in disaster in Artic )

Glass Castle by Walls (Crazy family memoir)

Ghost Soldiers by Sides ( March of Battan, rescue story)

 Heart of the Sea by Philbrick-( Whaling)

Infidel by Ali Fantastic autobio by Somalian woman

In the Garden of Beasts by Larson ( Story of diplomatic family’s experience of early Nazi Germany- 1930”s)

In Harm’s Way, Story of the Indianapolis by Stanton & Gain Into the Wild by Krakauer (a young man found dead outside a school bus in Alaska & his life choices)

Lone Survivor by Lutrell ( Navy Seals in Pakistan/ Afgan.)

Lost in Shangri- La by Zuckoff ( WWII plane crashes in New Guinea /Papua survivor story)

Moduc by Helfer (story about an elephant & boy)

Mountain After Mountain by Kidder (Haiti & Dr. Farmer) Omnivore’s Dilemna by Pollan (Dissecting food)

Out Witting History by Lansky (Yiddish history by books)

Primates Memoir by Saplonsky (fascinating account of studying baboons in Kenya)

River of Doubt by Millard ( Roosevelt & Amazon)

Shadow Divers by Kurson ( U-boat & Diving off N.J.)

Shadow of the Sun by Kapuscinski (Selaisse & Ethiopia)

 Sick Girl by Silverstein (Heart Transplant, her story)

Sickened by Gregory ( Munchhausens)

Skeletons on the Zahara by King ( Shipwreck in Africa) Stitches by Small ( most unusual memoir, family drama with pictures)

Strength in What Remains by Kidder (Burundi/ Rwanda genocide- survivor story)

Terrible Hours by Maas (Submarine history)

The Blue Sweater by Novogratz ( mircro financing & Africa)

The Colony by Tayman (leprosy hx)

 The Family that Could not Sleep by Max (Prions & Genetics) The Hospital by the River by Hamlin (hospital in Ethiopia)

The Long Walk by Rawicz (escape from Siberia)

The Lost by Mendelsohn

The Spirit Catches You & You Fall Down by Fadiman

The Tender bar by Moehringer

 The Third Terrorist by Davis

 The Worst Hard Time by Egan ( Dust Bowl)

 There is no Me without You by Greene

They Poured Fire on Us by Ajak, Deng (Sudan & lost boys) Truth & Beauty by Patchet (author’s friendship with writer Grealy, autobio of a face book)

Unbroken by Hillenbrand ( a soldier in WW11-Fantastic)

Under the Banner of Heaven by Krakauer

War by Junger

A Wild Surge of Guilty Passion by Hanson ( NY-1920’s murder)

White Gold by Milton ( Enslavement of 1 million by Muslims)

Zafara by Allin (1st Giraffe brought to Europe)

Fiction

Articles of War by Arvin ( story about a deserter in WW11)

Matterhorn by Marlantes (Vietnam & war 60’s)

Regeneration by Barker