Book Suggestions: Missions, Africa & Development

Reading books and current magazines or blogs is a great way to learn more about missions or the history and culture of a particular African country.  We often have people ask us for book recommendations.  While neither of us are devout bookworms, we have read a number of books on these topics.  Below is a list we've accumulated over the years.  All titles with an asterisk (*), are books we've personally read, and would recommend.  All other titles are books we've heard about from others or ones which are on our "to read" list.  We don’t necessarily agree with everything written in these books; in fact, some of them we might strongly disagree with.  However, we believe they are good books to learn about different cultures and countries.  Hopefully they will challenge and inspire you to look at the world from a different perspective.  
This list is by no means inclusive of every good book out there.  PLEASE COMMENT with your additional recommendations!

Go forth and read.

MISSIONS & CROSS-CULTURAL

*When Helping Hurts - Steve Corbett & Brian Fikkert

*Africa Friends and Money Matters  - David E. Maranz

*The Hole in Our Gospel - Richard Stearns

* Let the Nations Be Glad! - John Piper

* Foreign to Familiar: A Guide to Understanding Hot - And Cold - Climate Cultures - Sarah A. Lanier

AFRICA

General

*Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Capetown – Paul Theroux

*The Only Road North - Erik Mirandette

* West With the Night - Beryl Markham

*Africa United: Soccer, Passion, Politics, and the First World Cup in Africa – Steve Bloomfield

Kenya

*It Happened on the Way to War: A Marine’s Path to Peace – Rye Barcott

*One Day I Will Write About This Place – Binyavanga Wainaina

*I Dreamed Of Africa - Kuki Gallman

*Playing by Their Rules – Sarah Ford

*Infidel - Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Uganda

*Girl Solider - Faith J. H. McDonnell

*First Kill Your Family – Peter Eichstaedt

*Aboke Girls - Els De Temmerman

*The Teeth May Smile but the Heart Does Not Forget: Murder and Memory in Uganda – Andrew Rice

The Wizard of the Nile: The Hunt for Africa’s Most Wanted  – Matthew Green

Sudan

*They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky - Benjamin Ajak

*God Grew Tired of Us - John Bul Dau

*Emma’s War – Deborah Scroggins

*What is the What (fiction) – Dave Eggers

Rwanda

*Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust

*Land of a Thousand Hills - Stephen Kinzer

*We Wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families – Philip Gourevitch

As We Forgive: Stories of Reconciliation from Rwanda by Catherine Claire Larson

Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC, Congo, Zaire)

*The Ponds of Kalambayi - Mike Tidwell, RPCV

*The Poisonwood Bible (fiction) - Barbara Kingsolver
* In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz: Living on the Brink of Disaster in Mobutu's Congo - Michela Wrong

A Thousand Sisters: My Journey into the Worst Place on Earth to Be a Woman – Lisa Shannon

Journey to the Heart of Darkness – Tresor Yenyi

Zambia

*Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight - Alexandra Fuller

South Africa

*The Power of One - Bryce Courtenay

Kaffir Boy: A Black Youth's Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa - Mark Mathabane

WEST AFRICA

Ivory Coast:

*Nine Hills to Nambonkaha: Two Years in the Heart of an African Village – Sarah Erdman, RPCV

Sierra Leone:

*A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier - Ishmael Beah

Cameroon:

Mango Elephants in the Sun: How Life in an African Village Let Me Be in My Skin - Susana Herrera, RPCV

CHILDREN & TEEN BOOKS

*I Know An Old Mzee Who Swallowed A Fly - Cathy Kreutter
*A Long Walk To Water - Linda Sue Park

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT and FOREIGN AID

*The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor - Jacqueline Novogratz

*Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa - Dambisa Moyo

*The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good - William Easterly

The Road to Hell: The Ravaging Effects of Foreign Aid and International Charity - Michael Maren

The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time - Jeffrey Sachs

The Trouble with Africa: Why Foreign Aid Isn't Working - Robert Calderisi
Global Outlaws: Crime, Money & Power in the Contemporary World – Carolyn Nordstrom

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