Jambo, Mama

Rating:
Summary: Don't Bother
Review: I thorougly enjoyed reading this book! Melinda is a wonderful and entertaining writer whose description of her life in Kenya was written with complete honesty and candor. I am afraid vanity would not have allowed me to be quite so honest. Her detailed accounts of her trials and triumphs kept me turning the pages. Since I have visited Kenya several times, and especially the Masai Mara Game Reserve, I felt as if I were right there with her. She wrote with compassion towards the people she knew and loved there, and best of all, she wrote with a sharp wit and an incredible sense of humor. I found myself laughing out loud often. It wasn't an easy thing she did, moving to Africa by herself for an extended period of time, for Africa and New York are as different as night and day. Melinda did, however, what so many others only think of doing...she followed her dream. For the reader who wants to learn more about modern Kenya, this book is for you. For the reader who wants a fun, interesting, informative, romantic, and heartfelt book to read, then don't miss this one. I highly recommend "Jambo Mama."

Rating:
Summary: Refreshingly honest
Review: I thorougly enjoyed reading this book! Melinda is a wonderful and entertaining writer whose description of her life in Kenya was written with complete honesty and candor. I am afraid vanity would not have allowed me to be quite so honest. Her detailed accounts of her trials and triumphs kept me turning the pages. Since I have visited Kenya several times, and especially the Masai Mara Game Reserve, I felt as if I were right there with her. She wrote with compassion towards the people she knew and loved there, and best of all, she wrote with a sharp wit and an incredible sense of humor. I found myself laughing out loud often. It wasn't an easy thing she did, moving to Africa by herself for an extended period of time, for Africa and New York are as different as night and day. Melinda did, however, what so many others only think of doing...she followed her dream. For the reader who wants to learn more about modern Kenya, this book is for you. For the reader who wants a fun, interesting, informative, romantic, and heartfelt book to read, then don't miss this one. I highly recommend "Jambo Mama."

Rating:
Summary: Better than a Travel Guide!
Review: I'm planning a safari to Kenya and studying all the travel guides. They are fine for understanding the information, but don't give me a sense of what I'll experience. Atwood's book immediately immersed me into the contemporary culture of Kenya, the Kenya I'll be visiting. Other books have written about Kenya, but of a by-gone era, a Kenya I can't visit. This is THE companion book to read on the flight over!

Rating:
Summary: blah blah mama
Review: It is a shame that this book is being billed as a book about Africa. Instead, it is about a self-absorbed American woman who moves to Kenya because she is obsessed with the idea of being a British colonist a la Denison; the problem is that Kenya hasn't been a colony for over 30 years and most people (just not our author, Melinda) realize that Kenya is better off free.

DON'T BUY THIS BOOK IF YOU LOVE KENYA. I lived there for two years and reading this book was painful. The only thought that kept me reading was the unfounded hope that she might eventually outgrow her whiny nature and her absolute inability to adjust to-- or even understand-- Kenyan culture.

Melinda's Swahili is absolutely atrocious and she is so busy running off on safari every other chapter that she actually manages to spend SIX YEARS in Kenya without recognizing its most amazing asset--its people. She never even makes one Kenyan friend, a real disservice to herself, which makes this book a terrible disservice to the country she claims to love so much.

Rating:
Summary: Review of Melinda Atwood's Jambo Mama
Review: It was in search of information about Africa I first stumbled across the pages of a travel agency. Available on their pages was Jambo Mama. For free. Why not, I thought, and downloaded the piece. After I had read the three first chapters, I had to find out if the story was true or fiction, but the travel agency didn't provide much information about either author or the book itself. What was provided, though, was ms. Atwoods e-mail adress. Contacting her personally, I asked about the story's validity. She could confirm that all was taken from her own first-hand experiences of the country, people and culture of Kenya. Wow! Talk about a major adventure...

Her story is the story about a girl who, upon returning from a vacation in Kenya, finds that the easy, urban life of America is not satisfactory. A yearning for the warm African nights and all that goes with it builds to an irresistable urge to move for a longer period of time. She thinks things over, and decides to pack up her entire life and leave. She rents a house in suburban Nairobi and begins a life almost from scratch. It is the story of a girl who experienced African life up close. Some of the challenges she faces include surviving rough safari's (not designed for the average tourist), running a small-scale business (the African way) and maintaining a social life. As any good story, it also includes some good romance...

Melinda Atwood writes with an easy language that is full of life. Even though you won't find the most profound metaphors in her all over elegant sentences, you start imagining yourself in her situation after a couple of paragraphs. Her book gives a great description of the many moods of that which lies under the African sun. You can even expect to pick up a couple of phrases in Swahili. I can recommend Jambo Mama to everyone who wants to know more about Africa, and especially Kenya, but also to anyone who enjoy a good story. If you, after reading this review and others, find the book unworthy your time and money: pole sana! (don`t understand? read the book)

Reviewed by Stian Rein Andresen and Øystein Tøsse Larsen

Rating:
Summary: Review of Jambo Mama
Review: Jambo Mama is the life story of a woman's move to Kenya. Melinda Atwood's story gives an incredible description of the physical place of Kenya and left me feeling I could walk down the street and recognize every scene she described. However, it is the poignant sharing of her own emotional processing of the move that allows the reader insight into the pilgrimage not only of physical space but also of the soul. Her struggles and triumphs are reflected in her strong style of storytelling and the audience is swept along listening to Melinda's generous sharing of her spirit. I finished the book missing the land of Kenya but also the emotional connection to the author's life.

Rating:
Summary: ~Helped me dream of Africa~
Review: Just finished reading this wonderful book this week-end! It's about a middle-aged woman with a dream to throw herself into "once-in-lifetime" adventure and fulfill a long time fantasy.....to live in Africa. I found her descriptions of Kenya and the other places she visited via Safari, to be informative and insightful yet at the same frightening and exciting. She describes her day-to-day life struggling to live out her dream. There are the cultural differences, language barriers, dangers, and the ever present lonliness but when she looks out at the vast beauty that is Africa, it is all worth it. She embraces each challenge with dogged determination to prove to herself that she can overcome the sometimes seeming insurmountable obstacles. I've never been to Africa and don't know if I'll ever get there in view of the dangers surrounding travel outside this country, but I was able to live vicariously through this magical memoir and dream.

Rating:
Summary: Did you like OUT OF AFRICA? You'll love Melinda
Review: Melinda Atwood is an Isak Dineson for our own time. Her story of picking up and moving to Kenya is an adventure that most of us have dreamed of at one time or another. But guess what, folks? Melinda actually did it! Her story is no fairy tale and she tells it like it was, warts and all, even when it doesn't necessarily reflect well on herself. Every story is priceless and one comes away from reading this book feeling that one has made a new friend and she has told her amazing story over a long lunch or dinner. It's simply amazing. I LOVED THIS BOOK. Read it...NOW.

Rating:
Summary: A primer of African life
Review: Melinda Atwood's memoirs should be required reading for anyone traveling to Africa. I am preparing to go on Safari and this book has more information about the climate and the people than any other book I've read. She doesn't include many details on the plant and animal life, but her humorous stories about life in Africa, the rich detail of life in Nairobi and life on Safari make this a terrific book.

Rating:
Summary: An inspiring story of determination, hope, and courage
Review: Overwhelmed by the circumstances surrounding her mother's passing, Melinda Atwood needed to find a new inner center. Uncertain of where to search, but driven to as distant a place as possible, she chose Kenya, where she planned to spend one year hiding out and, hopefully, healing. She ended up staying there for six years, living by her wits, struggling with loneliness, isolation, financial adversity, a disastrous love affair, and single parenthood -- all the while recreating her life. In the process, she discovered within herself a core of strength and resourcefulness she hadn't known was there. Highly recommended reading for those who appreciate engaging biographies of interesting people caught up in usual circumstances and fascinating life events, Jambo, Mama: Memories Of Africa is her candid account of her journey, and an inspiring story of determination, hope, and courage told with honesty and humor.