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Who flies where and when? From my early experience with bush pilots in the far Yukon to service in the Royal Canadian Airforce and my more recent work with Transport Canada and our airport network, flying has always been in my blood. Little wonder I can hardly wait for our next long haul to Africa. With our biggest aviation edition well underway, serendipity played its familiar role in my life when I received THE WORLD'S MAJOR AIRLINES by David Wragg. It arrived by mail last week courtesy of the MBI Publishing, St. Paul, MN and was presented by John Wurm, Publicist for Military and Aviation. I plan to write this book review in installments, since my first reading was to get an overall position on how valuable this timely and well researched book will be in my evaluation of Africa's airlines and others serving the continent. Here are some comments from MBI that help set the stage. "Today there are so many airlines operating throughout the world that even the most knowledgeable enthusiast can soon become confused about which airline flies from where to where. This new, fully illustrated edition has been revised and updated to include the major advances in the aviation industry since 1998. The author has added introductions for each nation, summarizing its history of civil aviation and placing the subsequent entries in context. In the World's Major Airlines David Wragg provides more than 500 entries. Listed in alphabetical order by country is every airline in the world which has more than five aircraft with more than 19 seats,or equivalent cargo capacity. Comprehensive information is given on the name, history, bases, aircraft operated, routes flown, number of passengers and tonnage of cargo flown annually, and much other useful and interesting data. The World's Major Airlines is an invaluable source of reference for aviation enthusiasts, travelers and those working within the industry.” More to come.
A
study in African ingenuity
Color photography, text, design and layout by Angela Fairbank. This 80-page book of colorful photos from Ethiopia, originating from trips taken in September and November 2005, highlights Addis Ababa, Axum, Lalibela, the Rift Valley and the Omo Valley as well as the Kambala, Alaba, Wolayta, Sidamo, Dorze, Derashe, Ari, Tsemay, Konso, Mursi, Karo, Hamer, Dassanech, Erbore and Borana tribes. Available in the following sizes: 11.25" x 8.75", 15" x 11.5" or 7.75" x 5.75". Prices start at CDN/US$40.|tel: (1) 604 738 4588 . e-mail: acfairbank@shaw.ca , web: http://www.acfairbankconsulting.ca
"It is the power of the paintings that
will bring you back to this book time and again."
&emdash;David T. Gies, Commonwealth Professor of Spanish,
University of Virginia, in Virginia Quarterly Review "When Trumpets Call" by Patricia O'Toole (Simon & Schuster, 2005). "When Trumpets Call" is a superb, almost tactile
examination of the journey that began on the day Theodore
Roosevelt left the presidency in 1909, at age 50, and ended
with his death in 1919. Patricia O'Toole beautifully
chronicles the physical and intellectual restlessness that
fueled the last decade of TR's life. His first project as a
private citizen was to embark on an African safari.
It was meant to be a low-key getaway from his clamorous
public life, but it quickly turned into an expedition "of
biblical proportions," O'Toole writes. TR's break from
presidential politics was also short-lived: He campaigned as
a third-party candidate in 1912, burnishing his legend by
insisting on giving a speech in Milwaukee even though he was
bleeding from a gunshot wound in the chest after a failed
assassination attempt. TR's life was "one of the
longest-running, most colorful serials in American history,"
O'Toole says, a story "by turns exhilarating, exasperating,
amusing, and inspiring."
Portrait
of Affluent Travelers
Here's a definite must for your
bookshelf. Making Choices! As a former full time Travel Agent and Tour conductor, who is now in the publishing business, I spend gobs of time in and around book stores. I seek out places that are user-friendly, like our friend Kevin McKeown's shop down the street, which offers rare titles and loads of advice about concerts and events for which he handles media relations. To me both downtown branches of Chapters is a "Bookstore Heaven." Being there becomes a destination in itself. As for public libraries, every week we drive at least 20 extra miles through downtown traffic and road blocks, to Richmond (beyond the international airport) and back, just to frequent our favorite library. It is clean, courteous, well stocked and they do all the little things right. The same goes for choosing Web Sites, some are user-friendly, yet far too many seem like they want to take your money and run. They are also hard to navigate and leave the viewer in total frustration. So as time goes by we will introduce you to our choice of books and guides. Bon Voyage, and Happy Reading. OUR EDITOR'S FAVORITE NEW REFERENCE BOOK: He recommends this one, just released by McGraw-HIll. The Complete Reference Internet Millennium Edition. According to him it has everything - and very little fluff. BOOKS ON ECOTOURISM AND ECOTRAVEL - http://www.ecotraveler.com/ Big Little Books of Adventures: Camera Safaris and Ecotourism around the world. Air Highways and Africa Travel Magazine's "Electronic Media Kit" will soon be available on Adobe Acrobat Reader software, down- loadable from: http://www.adobe.com
Speaking of Morocco, read the story on Berber Wedding by Muguette Goufrani. African
Books you can order from the
Internet
Lonely
Planet Africa : On a Shoestring:
by Hugh Finlay, Geoff Crowther, Paperback - 1000
pages The
Rough Guide to West Africa (1995):
by Jim Hudgens, Richard Trillo, Paperback (December
1995) Africa
: A Biography of the Continent:
by John Reader, Hardcover - 752 pages Arabian
Nights and Days:
by Naguib Mahfouz, Denys , Hardcover - 227 pages Icons of Aviation: Book Reviews include a biography of the most dedicated tourism pioneer in America's North Country, Mr. Alaska, Charlie West. Also, Edmonton's Grant MacConachie, founder of Canadian Pacific Airlines, who dreamed of an air bridge to the Orient and across the pole. How did Doctor Doolittle talk to the animals? Send us your suggestions for our wildlife conservation series. Fax 604.681.6595 or send E-Mail [Home] [Top of page] |
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Click
Magazine Covers to Preview 20 Africa Travel and
Nature Library Editions.
Review by Jerry W.
Bird, Editor and Publisher
How
does Books for Africa help Darfur Children? .
Fred
Krakowiak's outstanding book "An Artist's Safari" drawing
global raves
Books
with a focus on Sunny Africa
"Hideous
Kinky" looks at Morocco in the 70s:
Myth,
Literature, and the African World:
by Wole Soyinka, Paperback - 168 pages. The ways in
which the African world perceives itself as a cultural whole
that interconnects myth, ritual and literature and the
differences between its essential unity and the sense of
division pervading Western literature are emphasized in this
classic analysis.
.. . . ..