Couldn't find the auld thread "books members are reading" or anything similar and the Book club forum is locked (actually there is a feckin lot locked up around here at the mo- any particular reason?)
So if the powers that be see a more apt place for this - fire ahead and move it
1) - "Dinner with Mugabe" - Heidi Holland.
a very interesting book about Bob Mugabe , thru the eyes of old comrades,enemies,friends and finally an interview with the man himself - its a very balanced book and tells you quite a lot about how Comrade Bob went to Mad Bad Bob in 20 years or so - for those of you interested in the Zimbabwean scene - this is a must read.
2) - "On the Road to Kandahar-Travels through conflict in the Islamic World" - Jason Burke
A very thought-provoking and interesting read - turned out to be much better than it looked when I picked it up on a whim in the Local Library - from the Observers Chief Reporter that he now is - it starts out with his sejourn with the Kurdish Guerrillas during a summer break from University in 1991 when Kurdistan was going hell for leather with Saddam (Joining a guerrilla war definitely puts my antics and travels during my summer breaks from Uni into perspective - that takes balls!) - He spent a lot of time covering Afganistan and Pakistan di Algeria also and also went into Iraq for Gulf War II in 2003 - nothing as lengthy or judgemental as Bob Fisks Tombs on the subject - but very interesting just the same and I would say he has kept his objectivity far more than Fisk - who, even tho he is a very good family friend of ours - has gone native and polemic on the subject of Israel, - Yet both have been coming to same conclusion regarding the radicalisation with the Islamic world - a lot has to do with the West - but not in ways that we conventionally think and also - reinforcing one of my pet topics - the rising influence of Saudi Wahhabisim thru their huge financial power in funding mosques and Madrassas throughout the Muslim World and here in the west - which are radicalising areas peoples amd cultures in the Islamic world that previously were tolerant - there is something there in that alright.
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