Green Oranges on Lion Mountain: The Accidental Optimist
£4.78
A proper can t put down book - I had never heard of this book and bought it purely based on peoples reviews and on the basis that people had bought it with other books that I had bought. I am sooooo glad I bought this book. Emily Joy has a magnificent gift for writing of her experiences and hardships, characters and resilience of the people in Sierra Leone with a truly talented mix of humour. It is not often I get to the end of a book and feel a better person for reading the book, but this book makes you want to jump on a plane and go volunteering! I was actually quite upset when I got to the end of this book, because the enjoyable journey that Emily took me on through the book had come to an end. I cannot recommend this book enough!!!
so easy to read even though I knew little of Sierra Leone - Great! I really enjoyed this. I cheated really buying it as a present for my mum for Christmas knowing I really wanted to read it. We both finished it really quickly and surprisingly my mum enjoyed it as much as me.I chose it because I wanted to understand a little more about Sierra Leone, even before its prominence with Leonardo diCaprio s Blood Diamonds movie and because it is written by a former volunteer with VSO and I too am a former volunteer but in another part of the world.It was so readable, gave a great idea of the humour and resilience of the people and the humility, adventourness and humanity of the author who had been a doctor in Sierra Leone in the years immediately prior to the bloody war. Why not 5 stars? Clearly I am a hard marker!!
refreshingly honest,with gentle humour - brilliant read! Powerful,yet gentle, joyful yet heartbreaking. i bought this book for my 3 close friends and all were delighted with it and have since recommended it to their book clubs.This is a book about travel with the delicaces of human nature, and atrocities of life, wriiten first hand.I commend people like our Emily Joy, and urge you to read it.I am a better person for it,the inspiration of this wonderful persons ability to care and keep caring, will remain always.
a refreshingly good travel book - This is a well above average piece of travel writing from an author that should try her hand at more. Green Oranges has just the right blend of wit and black humour to keep it rolling along and Joy s ability to win you over very quickly makes it all the more effective when she tackles the darker side of her experiences. If you can ignore the terrible cover then you are in for a nice surprise.
Brigit Jones with a scalpel and rebels - This is such a fun read that you don t notice when things start to get serious, by which time you re hooked. Dr Em is so full of human weakness that you just have to cheer when she manages to limp through each inevitable disaster. You wonder how she survives, never mind her patients. But somehow she pulls it off, leaving you laughing and crying and thinking perhaps you might just jump on a plane too. She uses lots of dialogue so you feel you re in Africa with her friends. And you care what happens to them when Sierra Leone is plunged into tragedy. The human spirit will never be crushed.