Book Review: Whatever You Do, Don't Run

Whatever You Do, Don't Run
Author: Peter Allison
Number of Pages: 264
Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir
Where I Got It: Library

Synopsis: At age 19, Australian-born Allison headed to Africa for challenge and adventure, planning to stay no more than a year; having found work as a safari guide, he's still there some 13 years later. In this fun, fearless memoir, Allison shares his experiences taking "guests" through the African wilderness, trips that often don't go quite as planned-due especially to the unpredictability of the animals around them.

This book was really great for so many reasons.  It was just a collection of stories and anecdotes compiled by Allison from his time spent as a safari guide in Africa.  Simple to read, I flew through the pages wanting to know what adventure or mishap Allison gets into next.  From suffering a lion attack to watching an elephant he had seen on the savannah for years give birth, each story is filled with just the right amount of humor, suspense, or touching emotion to leave their own imprint while you read.

Allison also manages to work in some completely fascinating facts about the animals he encounters while on safari.  I learned about animals I had never even heard of before and I loved it.

I want to go on a safari now because of this book.  Highly, highly recommended.

Rating: 5 of 5 stars

Coming up next: The Given Day by Dennis Lehane
Set in Boston at the end of the First World War, The Given Day tells the story of two families--one black, one white--swept up in a maelstrom of revolutionaries and anarchists, immigrants and ward bosses, Brahmins and ordinary citizens, all engaged in a battle for survival and power.  Here, too, are some of the most influential figures of the era--Babe Ruth; Eugene O’Neill; leftist activist Jack Reed; NAACP founder W. E. B. DuBois; Mitchell Palmer, Woodrow Wilson’s ruthless Red-chasing attorney general; cunning Massachusetts governor Calvin Coolidge; and an ambitious young Department of Justice lawyer named John Hoover.  Coursing through some of the pivotal events of the time--including the Spanish Influenza pandemic--and culminating in the Boston Police Strike of 1919, The Given Day explores the crippling violence and irrepressible exuberance of a country at war with, and in the thrall of, itself. 


Audio Reviews
Heat by Bill Buford: Tells the story of a writer who decides to become a chef in the kitchen of Mario Batali.  This was an okay audio book.  Not very memorable though and I had to rewind a lot.  Plus the author's voice was kind of weird and all the talk about the Italian food kept making me hungry.


The Reader by Bernhard Schlink: A 15-year old begins a love affair with a woman twice his age, they separate, then he is reunited with her when she is on trial for some WWII crimes.  Fantastic story and this audio book's narrator, Campbell Scott, was really great.