Our group thoroughly enjoyed reading this non-fiction book. We all agreed that we would like to read more about Theodore Roosevelt and also about his wife who put up with TR's wanderlust. Several in the group wanted to psycho-analyze a personality that was so over-the-top action-oriented. TR's own line that "black care rarely sits behind a rider whose pace is fast enough," is very telling.

We looked at Roosevelt's own written version of this adventure, Through the Brazilian Wilderness, published in 1914 which is available to read on the internet. Roosevelt was an impressive intellectual, scientist and naturalist as well as a hunter and adventurer.

Our group found much to discuss in A Bend in the River, the story of Salim, a man of Indian ancestry, born on the coast of Africa. Salim ventures into the interior to run a small shop just before the revolution and the introduction of an African dictator called, "Big Man."

The book reminded us of Alexandra Fuller's autobiography, Don't Lets Go To the Dogs Tonight and her story of growing up in Africa. Her story is the story of the colonists, though, and what they did to cling to a life in Africa after the British left.