Africa  •  Michael Lewis  •  John Reader CULTURAL PORTRAIT •  2001 •  HARD COVER  • 320 PAGES An informative survey of the geography, culture and wildlife of Africa featuring 175 color photographs and accompanying text by John Reader (Africa: A Biography of the Continent). Organized geographically, it's the companion volume to an eight-hour television series by PBS and National Geographic. (AFR111, $50.00)
Angry Wind: Through Muslim Black Africa by Truck, Bus, Boat and Camel  •  Jeffrey Tayler TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2005 •  HARD COVER  • 256 PAGES The eye-opening account of an American journalist's trek across the Sahel, the southern region of the Sahara Desert. On his travels through mostly Islamic Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Mali, Cameroon and Senegal, Tayler witnessed poverty, the influence of harsh regimes, and both hostility and a willingness to discuss the relationship of the United States to the Islamic world. An Arabic speaker, Tayler (Glory in a Camel's Eye) writes candidly about what he discovers in this complex part of the world. (WAF83, $25.00)
Empires of Sand  •  David Ball LITERATURE •  2001 •  PAPER  • 770 PAGES A rousing tale inspired by the French attempt to build a railroad across the Sahara in 1880. It's a page-turner in the grand style, mixing up French colonial ambitions, the nomadic Tuareg and romance. The book neatly divides into two sections: growing up in Paris and confrontation in the Sahara. (NAF33, $7.99)
The Gates of Africa, Death, Discovery and the Search for Timbuktu  •  Sattin Anthony HISTORY •  2005 •  HARD COVER  • 382 PAGES An engaging chronological history of the adventures and explorations of the African Association which, starting in 1788, set out into the Sahara, onto the Nile and Niger Rivers, and searched for the legendary city of Timbuktu. Anthony Sattin quotes extensively from the accounts of its diverse members, including Mungo Park, John Ledyard and Jean Louis Burckhardt. (AFR145, $27.95)
Lonely Planet West Africa  •  Lonely Planet GUIDEBOOK •  2006 •  PAPER  • 896 PAGES A comprehensive guide to all West Africa, this is the book to carry for travels from Mauritania to Niger, with both a good overview of culture and history and the usual Lonely Planet attention to practical travel information. The bulk of the book is devoted to individual countries. (WAF10, $31.99)
Sahara & Environs Map  •  ITMB MAP A map of the Sahara desert and environs, extending from Sudan north to the Mediterranean. At a scale of 1:2,200,000 it's the most detailed map of this swath of Africa. (AFR158, $10.95)