"Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens"

These are a few of my favorite things...
I thought I’d share my summer reading list in case any of you are interested in learning more about any of the issues I’ve mentioned over the past three months. I won't bore you with the list of fiction that I've read to keep me relatively sane. Besides, I haven't really read much non-fiction at all because, as you know, once I’m in something, I tend to just keep digging deeper and deeper... Anyway, over the past few months, I’ve mostly been reading Africa/development/conflict related non-fiction, in this order:

1- Dark Star Safari by Paul Theroux—famous novelist travels overland from Cairo to Cape Town; great descriptions of the continent and interesting insight (though I don't 100% agree with his conclusions)

2- Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda by Gen. Roméo Dallaire—memoirs of the UN force commander in Rwanda during the genocide; sometimes a little too "I talked to him, then to him, then I went here, then I went there..." but terribly informative and a great insider's perspective

3- We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families by Philip Gourevitch—journalist’s investigation in Rwanda one year after the genocide, heart-breaking stories and terrific insight

4- The Zanzibar Chest: Life, Love and Death in Foreign Lands by Aidan Hartley—young journalist working in African war zones intertwines his narrative with a family history; prose is a little heavy at times, but a great read

5- Emergency Sex (And Other Desperate Measures): True Stories from a War Zone by Heidi Postlewait, Kenneth Cain, and Andrew Thomson-- 3 UN workers share stories from Cambodia, Somalia, Haiti, and Rwanda; interesting and fun read

6- Guns, Germs, and Steel: A Short History of Everybody for the Past 13,000 years by Jared Diamond—the Ultimate history book, the researcher explains scientifically why human societies ended up so differently on the various continents; loooong and a little dense at times, but fascinating thesis and v. well demonstrated

------------------------------------
Additionally, I've seen several films (mostly documentaries) that are relevant to the above issues... All are highly recommended:

1- Invisible Children, 3 young Americans travel to Uganda, and almost by accident make a documentary about the war-affected internally displaced children in Northern Uganda

2- Soldier Child, about the abduction and indoctrination of child soldiers in the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda

3- Sometimes in April, fictional film about the Rwandan genocide--better than Hotel Rwanda

4- Ghosts of Rwanda, PBS documentary about the genocide and Western inaction

5- Life and Debt, case study of Jamaica and the noxious effects of the World Bank policies on its development; great interviews, music, camera angles etc... beautiful example of documentary film-making at its best