Nothing will make your trip more satisfying than to know something about the places you’re visiting, whether it’s the wildlife, people, history, geography or plant life. We at Africa Adventure Consultants have done a lot of reading on Africa and here are our suggestions and favorites (our top picks are in bold).

Guide books, manuals and maps - National Audubon Society Field Guide to African Wildlife by Alden, Estes, Schlitter and McBride - The Safari Companion by Richard D. Estes - East Africa (Lonely Planet) by Geoff Crowther and Hugh Finlay - Spectrum Guide to Tanzania - Adventuring in East Africa by Allen Bechky Collins - Field Guide to the National Parks of East Africa by J.G. Williams - The Behavior Guide to African Mammals by Richard D. Estes - Collins Field Guide to the Mammals of Africa by Theodor Haltenorth and Helmut Diller - Collins Photo Guide to the Wild Flowers of East Africa by Michael Blundell - Birds of Kenya and Northern Tanzania by Dale E. Zimmerman, Turner and Peterson - Collins Field Guide to the Birds of East Africa by J.G. Williams and N. Arlott - A Photographic Guide to Birds of East Africa by Dave Richards - A Field Guide to the Tracks and Signs of Southern and East African Wildlife by Chris and Tilde Stuart Wildlife/Ecology - Ancestral Passions: The Leakey Family and the Quest for Humankind’s Beginnings by Virginia Morrell - The Serengeti Lion by George B. Schaller - Elephant Memories: Thirteen Years in the Life of an Elephant Family by Cynthia Moss - Echo of the Elephants by Cynthia Moss and Martyn Colbeck - The Tree Where Man Was Born by Peter Matthiessen - Island Africa by Jonathan Kingdon - At the Hand of Man by Raymond Bonner

Memoirs/Biographies/History - Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela by Nelson Mandela - The Flame Trees of Thika by Elspeth Huxley - The Mottled Lizard by Elspeth Huxley - Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen - Dark Safari: The Life Behind the Legend of Henry Morton Stanley by John Bierman - I Dreamed of Africa by Kuki Gallmann - West with the Night by Beryl Markham - Straight on Till Morning: A Biography of Beryl Markham by Mary S. Lovell - Green Hills of Africa by Ernest Hemingway - The Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway - Woman in the Mists: The Story of Dian Fossey and the Mountain Gorillas of Africa by Farley Mowat - Africans and Their History by Joseph E. Harris - The Exploration of Africa From Cairo to the Cape by Anne Hugon - The Penguin Atlas of African History by Colin McEvedy - Out of Africa: A Black Man Confronts Africa by Keith R. Richburg Fiction - Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe - Petals of Blood by Ngugi wa Thiong’o - The River in Between by Ngugi wa Thiong’o - A Good Man in Africa by William Boyd - The Ice Cream Wars by William Boyd - Red Strangers by Elspeth Huxley - Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton - The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver - The Promised Land by Grace Ogot - The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith