You've seen this book, whether you remember it or not, in every interior design magazine published in the past five years. Osa Johnson was born in raised in Kansas and as a young woman met the American photographer Martin Johnson. The two married, traveled to Africa, and created the photographic record of an entire continent that would dictate representations of Africa in Western Culture (Simba, anyone?) for the rest of the 20th century. She is nothing short of incredible.
Read more#ReadWomen2014 Non-Fiction: 'Out of Africa' by Isak Dinesen
I have made so many fruitless attempts to read this book, and I think it's finally sticking because I've made it well past the mid-way point. The reason I think I always stumbled over it in the past is that Dinesen's style is only loosely narrative. I guess my younger self had no patience for her very anecdotal retelling of her life on a coffee plantation in Kenya. Each chapter seems randomly divided and each story only vaguely segues into the next. But taken as a whole, she creates a beautiful mood and if you're able to push through the structural frustrations, it manages to paint a really clear picture of her experiences.
Next week I have another non-fiction recommendation for #ReadWomen2014 that is Out of Africa's spiritual twin.