*** The Girls in the Wild Fig Tree by Nice Leng`ete

The Girls in the Wild Fig Tree: How I Fought to Save Myself, My Sister, and Thousands of Girls Worldwide is the memoir by a Kenyan woman who has spent her life working against female genital mutilation. That in itself is an interesting story but the author starts with her childhood in a Maasai family and shares many details about the customs and ways of the Massai people, both heart-warming and cruel. Her main point is that being an insider is the best way to understand how to change a culture, and she’s certainly a great example of that.

* Hangman by Maya Binyam

The hero of Hangman travels from his unnamed adopted home, which seems to be the US, to his unnamed birthplace, also unnamed, somewhere in Africa, and is caught in a evil spiral where he loses all his possessions, and his mind, it seems, at the hands of various nefarious actors. I had trouble finishing this slim story, which reads like a bad dream.

*** A Song of Comfortable Chairs by Alexander McCall Smith

In the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency Series, A Song of Comfortable Chairs tackles disloyal competition via an innocent third-party and a funny approach to taming an unruly teenager. Sweet and not too preachy this time!

*** Afterlives by Abdulrazak Gurnah

Afterlives transports us to East Africa under German colonial rule, starting before WWI, to follow three family members who struggle with poverty, exploitation, and war–but still manage to build loving and meaningful lives. I did not know a lot about the political background of that time and place and the story makes it quite easy to learn about it, which is an additional bonus.

*** How to Raise an Elephant by Alexander McCall Smith

Bostwana is well known for its elephants but since The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency is located in the capital there’s no reason why elephants would be present in its stories–until now, when our friend Charlie finds himself burdened with one in How to Raise an Elephant. Finding a solution for the care of said elephant occupies much of the book, alongside what we would call here a workers’ comp investigation. One of my favorite parts of the story was the very beginning, when Mma Ramotswe finds herself alone at home on evening and does not quite know what to do with herself as her children and husband are away, making no demands on her. (She does find someone she can help, of course!)

*** To the Land of Long Lost Friends by Alexander McCall Smith

In To the Land of Long Lost Friends, Charlie seems so grown up and responsible as he woos the daughter of a rich family in his one “good” outfit, while Mma Ramotswe, having abandoned her short political career, exposes a crooked preacher. It’s always comforting when upstanding characters succeed.

*** The Colors of All the Cattle by Alexander McCall Smith

The Colors of All the Cattle continues the long series of the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency and this time runs for office. I was a little worried that she would move permanently into politics, but that won’t happen. There’s the usual collection of reflections on egos and what it takes to live in a peaceful society. A very soothing read.

*** We Came, We Saw, We left by Charles Wheelan

Do not immediately dismiss We Came, We Saw, We Left: A Family Gap Year as the story of an indulgent junket. Of course, only lucky middle-class families can leave their lives behind for a year to travel the world (knowing that both parents’ jobs will be there waiting for them! Ha!). But the Wheelans have a fairly tight budget and spend most nights in modest rented rooms or uncomfortable long-distance buses rather than jet from luxury resort to Instagram-ready cities.  And with three teenagers, decisions on where to go or how to all get off at the same metro stop can be fraught.

They encounter strikes, drug-sniffing dogs, a nasty parasite infestation, a tattoo parlor, and many sights in developing countries that do not grace travel articles. The book is a great way to travel without having to get a Covid test, and, if you’d been to some of the places they visit, to experience them anew (I’m looking at you, Ulva Island).

** Aftershocks by Nadia Owusu

Aftershocks is a memoir of the daughter of a Ghanaian father and an Armenian-American mother, whose unusual background could suffice to tell a rich story, but there is much more. Her mother up and left when she was two. Her dad’s work kept the family moving from country to country throughout her childhood. Her dad died young  and in circumstances that pose questions. The life story is fascinating. The story of her depression, which constitutes most of the third part of the book, told in a lyrical manner, held less interest for me.

* The Sediments of Time by Meave Leakey

Maeve Leakey is talking about the distant past in The Sediments of Time: My Lifelong Search for the Past, as in the millions of years it took for Homo Sapiens to differentiate itself from various other hominids. Her story mixes her family (many of whom are also distinguished paleontologists in their own right); how field work is organized in inhospitable, remote areas, and relies on gifted locals that are rarely acknowledged in scientific papers; and detailed discourses on what distinguishes various skeletons of each other, the vagaries of climate change over millennia, and how teeth growth can help pinpoint the age of ancient humans. I found the first two topics fascinating and mostly inspiring. The learned discourses not so much.