return to home
 
 
Member Login
Library Login
BookBrowse Mobile facebook      twitter      Bookmark and Share      mail to a friend  Email
 
  This Week's Recommendations    |     Hardcovers Coming Soon    |     Paperbacks Coming Soon    |     Recent Hardcovers    |     Recent Paperbacks
   Genres   |    Settings   |    Time Periods   |    Themes   |    Favorites   |    Award Winners   |    Book Finder   |    Surprise Me!   |    Tag cloud
   Recent Interviews    |     All Interviews    |     Author Bios    |     Author Websites    |     Pronunciation Guide
   Free Newsletters   |    Wordplay   |    Book Giveaway   |    BookBrowse Polls   |    Literary Quotes   |    Personality Quiz   |    Gift Membership
   Recent Membership Magazines    |     Magazine Archives     |     Invite the Author    |     My Reading List    |     First Impressions    |     My Account
   Editor's Blog    |     Best Reader Reviews    |     Book News    |     Meet the Reviewers    |     Stay In Touch
   About Us   |    Tour   |    Member Benefits   |    Join   |    Gift Memberships   |    Library Subscriptions   |    FAQ   |    People Say   |    Contact Us
PLA 2010
Search BookBrowse
Suggested Links
This Book's Themes:
Free Twice-Monthly Newsletters
The Irresistible Henry House
A Saint on Death Row

Win This Book!




The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo: Now a Major Motion Picture

Enter To Win Now!


wordplay
Solve this clue:
"T S I Willing B T F I W"

and be entered to win....
New Author
Interviews
Ingrid Law
Ingrid Law talks about the inspiration for Savvy
S.J. Parris
S.J. Parris writes about her inspiration for Heresy, which masterfully blends true events with fiction into a page-turning murder mystery set on the sixteenth-century Oxford University campus.
John Hart
In a letter to his readers, John Hart talks about becoming a writer and the challenges he faced in writing The Last Child.
Adam Haslett
A conversation with Adam Haslett, author of Union Atlantic, a deeply affecting portrait of the modern gilded age, the first decade of the twenty-first century.
No Stars
   Summary and Book Reviews

Unbowed: Summary and book reviews of Unbowed by Wangari Maathai, plus links to an excerpt from Unbowed and a biography of Wangari Maathai.

Unbowed Unbowed
A Memoir
by Wangari Maathai
Hardcover: Oct 2006,
352 pages.
Paperback: Sep 2007,
352 pages.

Publication information
Read an Excerpt
Reading Guide
Reader Reviews

Author Biography
Author Interview
Books by this Author
Critics' Opinion:   very good
Readers' Rating:  Five Stars
About BookBrowse Rankings
Buy This Book
Themes Members Only Read-Alikes Members Only Add to Reading List  Members Only BookBrowse Review Members Only
Book Summary

Hugely charismatic, humble, and possessed of preternatural luminosity of spirit, Wangari Maathai, the winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize and a single mother of three, recounts her extraordinary life as a political activist, feminist, and environmentalist in Kenya.

Born in a rural village in 1940, Wangari Maathai was already an iconoclast as a child, determined to get an education even though most girls were uneducated. We see her studying with Catholic missionaries, earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the United States, and becoming the first woman both to earn a PhD in East and Central Africa and to head a university department in Kenya. We witness her numerous run-ins with the brutal Moi government. She makes clear the political and personal reasons that compelled her, in 1977, to establish the Green Belt Movement, which spread from Kenya across Africa and which helps restore indigenous forests while assisting rural women by paying them to plant trees in their villages. We see how Maathai’s extraordinary courage and determination helped transform Kenya’s government into the democracy in which she now serves as assistant minister for the environment and as a member of Parliament. And we are with her as she accepts the Nobel Peace Prize, awarded in recognition of her “contribution to sustainable development, human rights, and peace.”

In Unbowed, Wangari Maathai offers an inspiring message of hope and prosperity through self-sufficiency.

Book Reviews

Very Good BookBrowse
Unbowed is a powerful tale of one woman's life. Maathai's simple, straightforward style is entirely in character and appropriate with the story she has to tell.
Full Review Members Only (members only, 1176 words).


Very Good  Publishers Weekly
Despite workmanlike prose, this memoir...documents the remarkable achievements of an influential environmentalist and activist.

Very Good  Booklist - Donna Seaman
Starred Review: Nobel laureate, visionary, and hero, Maathai has restored humankind's innate if nearly lost knowledge of the intrinsic connection between thriving, wisely managed ecosystems and health, justice, and peace.

Author Blurb  Nelson Mandela
Wangari Maathai and the Green Belt Movement demonstrate the intimate connection between sustainable management of Africa's rich natural resources, democracy, good governance and peace. Such are the solutions that will bring new light to Africa. I hope the world will support her vision of hope.

Author Blurb  Bill Clinton
Wangari Maathai's memoir is direct, honest, and beautifully written–a gripping account of modern Africa's trials and triumphs, a universal story of courage, persistence, and success against great odds in a noble cause.

Author Blurb  Jonathon Porritt, Co-Founder and Programme Director of Forum for the Future
This is an extraordinary account of an extraordinary woman's life. The courage, compassion and natural wisdom that shine out from these pages are hugely inspiring for campaigners the world over. And for those who are still struggling to find what ‘sustainable development' really means in practice, you need look no further than Wangari Maathai's own life, and the astonishing success of the Green Belt Movement.

Author Blurb  Ngugi wa Thiong’o, author of Wizard of the Crow
Concrete and mesmerizing, Unbowed is the story of resistance, a refusal to be bowed down by oppression and humiliation in the pursuit of the excellent and the heroic in society.

Very Good  The Norwegian Nobel Committee, 8 October 2004
Wangari Maathai will be the first woman from Africa to be honoured with the Nobel Peace Prize. She will also be the first African from the vast area between South Africa and Egypt to be awarded the prize. She represents an example and a source of inspiration for everyone in Africa fighting for sustainable development, democracy and peace.

Write a Review
This Book's Themes:
Read-Alikes:
Other books by this author
Buy This Book:
Addall Logo

Become a Member
Advertisement
Editor's Choice
  •  Mar 18 
  •  Mar 16 
  •  Mar 14 
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand
Helen Simonson
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand Jacket You are about to travel to Edgecombe St. Mary, a small village in the English countryside filled with rolling hills, thatched cottages, and a cast of characters both hilariously original and as familiar as the members of your own family.
The Postmistress
Sarah Blake
The Postmistress Jacket The Postmistress is an unforgettable tale of the secrets we must bear, or bury. It is about what happens to love during war­time, when those we cherish leave. And how every story-of love or war-is about looking left when we should have been looking right.
Heresy
S.J. Parris
Heresy Jacket Masterfully blending true events with fiction, this blockbuster historical thriller delivers a page-turning murder mystery set on the sixteenth-century Oxford University campus.
The Swan Thieves
Elizabeth Kostova
The Swan Thieves Jacket Kostova's masterful new novel travels from American cities to the coast of Normandy, from the late 19th century to the late 20th, from young love to last love. The Swan Thieves is a story of obsession, history's losses, and the power of art to preserve human hope.
36 Arguments for the Existence of God
Rebecca Goldstein
36 Arguments for the Existence of God Jacket A hilarious, heartbreaking, and intellectually captivating novel about the rapture and torments of religious experience in all its variety.
Wedlock
Recent Reader Reviews
Wesley the Owl by Stacey O'Brien
I read this book in two days and found it so refreshing. Although you will learn a great deal about barn owls by reading it, the book is not just ... read more
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
I enjoyed reading this book, however, feel that this is not completely her own ideas. This books remembers me of a cross between 'ghost','Sixth ... read more
Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
Lisa See has written a great book! This story is satisfying on many levels, some scenes horrifying, but seemingly truthful, and her handling of the ... read more
RSS RSS feed More...  
Most Viewed This Week
1. Brooklyn Bridge
Karen Hesse
2. Three Cups of Tea
David O. Relin, Greg Mortenson
3. The Glass Castle
Jeannette Walls
4. The Notebook
Nicholas Sparks
5. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
John Boyne
More...
Book Club Recommendations
Shanghai Girls
by Lisa See
Paperback (Feb/10)
Lowboy
by John Wray
Paperback (Feb/10)
Honolulu
by Alan Brennert
Paperback (Feb/10)
When Will There Be Good News?
by Kate Atkinson
Paperback (Jan/10)
More...
First Impressions
Members read and review books often months before they're published. See what they think in First Impressions!
Secret Daughter
by Shilpi Somaya Gowda
4.5 Stars            (Mar/10)
Still Life
by Melissa Milgrom
3.5 Stars            (Mar/10)
The Girl Who Fell from the Sky
by Heidi W. Durrow
4.5 Stars            (Feb/10)
The Journal Keeper
by Phyllis Theroux
4.5 Stars            (Mar/10)
The Queen's Lover
by Vanora Bennett
4.5 Stars            (Mar/10)
Arcadia Falls
by Carol Goodman
Four Stars            (Mar/10)
More...
   Most Recent Blog Entries
Author as Advocate
The Story Behind "The Forty Rules of Love" by Elif Shafak
A Warm Welcome to Major Pettigrew
How Becoming Published Changed My Life (in ways I did not expect)
rss  RSS   rss  subscribe
  Latest BookBrowse News
Amazon 'buy button' rumors abound (Mar 18 2010)
Rumors swirled today that Amazon could revoke the buy buttons for books by Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Penguin, or Hachette if the major publishers can't... Full Story
Amazon's e-pricing threats (Mar 18 2010)
With Apple's iPad launch just weeks away, Amazon raised the stakes again when it threatened to stop directly selling the books of some publishers online... Full Story
rss RSS feed More...
BookBrowse Poll
Q: Did your parents/caregivers read to you regularly as a child? If so, how old were you when they stopped?
Younger than 5 years old
Around 5-7 years old
8-10 years old
11-13 years old
14 years or older
They never or rarely read to me
I don't remember
HOME Submissions | Advertising | Showcase | Library Subscriptions | Media Inquiries | Reviewers | Contact Us |   Email this page to a friend
addall.com - external link
Visit AddAll.com to compare and save at 41 bookstores!
Searching for used books? Search 20,000+ dealers!
 
Compare music prices  |  Compare movie prices
One Percent