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abbywebb's review against another edition
5.0
This is a must-read for everyone. [b:28: Stories of Aids in Africa|3120414|28 Stories of AIDS in Africa|Stephanie Nolen|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31oNX499F5L._SL75_.jpg|1262016] is a moving book compiled with stories from 28 Africans affected by AIDS (one story for every million individuals with HIV/AIDS in Africa), beautifully written by Canadian [a:Stephanie Nolen|385616|Stephanie Nolen|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg].
Each story was well-crafted while not being wordy. Nolen really put HIV/AIDS into perspective, providing not only moving stories of real people but also providing astounding statistics about the incidence of HIV/AIDS, death rates, and so on. Further, not only did she capture the story of the highly infectious disease, she also wove in the political tales of each African country discussed as it related to the individual's story.
She selected 28 remarkable people to tell their unique stories. She included researchers, religious leaders, former South African president Nelson Mandela, wives, grandmothers, orphans, refugees, soldiers, nurses, and so on. Just when you finish one story and think it was the most touching story you will ever read in your entire life, you begin reading the next one and realize that there are so many moving stories out there and they are all so unique.
I gave this book a whopping 5 stars both for Nolen's writing craftsmanship as well as bringing HIV/AIDS to life in the developing world. We need to acknowledge what is happening to the millions of people in Africa affected and infected by the disease and find a solution to help them. I have to admit that I learned a lot from this book, both about the disease, its treatments (yes, there are some), the research that is being done, as well as the political histories of several of the African nations mentioned.
This is a powerful book about Africa and AIDS that everyone can benefit from reading.
Each story was well-crafted while not being wordy. Nolen really put HIV/AIDS into perspective, providing not only moving stories of real people but also providing astounding statistics about the incidence of HIV/AIDS, death rates, and so on. Further, not only did she capture the story of the highly infectious disease, she also wove in the political tales of each African country discussed as it related to the individual's story.
She selected 28 remarkable people to tell their unique stories. She included researchers, religious leaders, former South African president Nelson Mandela, wives, grandmothers, orphans, refugees, soldiers, nurses, and so on. Just when you finish one story and think it was the most touching story you will ever read in your entire life, you begin reading the next one and realize that there are so many moving stories out there and they are all so unique.
I gave this book a whopping 5 stars both for Nolen's writing craftsmanship as well as bringing HIV/AIDS to life in the developing world. We need to acknowledge what is happening to the millions of people in Africa affected and infected by the disease and find a solution to help them. I have to admit that I learned a lot from this book, both about the disease, its treatments (yes, there are some), the research that is being done, as well as the political histories of several of the African nations mentioned.
This is a powerful book about Africa and AIDS that everyone can benefit from reading.
alex_renee_is_reading_away's review against another edition
5.0
This was a very powerful book. Each chapter is from a different persons perspective and how HIV/AIDS has effected their life. It is really expands knowledge of HIV/AIDS in Africa and how it varies throughout the continent. This isn't an "academic book", feels more like a short story fiction book in how it reads.
samanthalenore's review against another edition
5.0
This book was not what I expected--in a good way. I've read works of non-fiction before that are structured as a collection of profiles of people, and I haven't enjoyed reading them very much because I felt like they didn't provide a lot of context so I didn't learn very much. What was so incredible about 28: Stories of AIDS in Africa was that, underneath the symbolism of telling 28 different stories there was a tremendous amount of contextual information. Structured more like a typical non-fiction book, each story built upon those that came before it to explore new topics. After reading the book, I felt like I had a good understanding of the issues around the transmission and treatment of AIDS in different regions of Africa, the social impact of the disease on individuals and on communities, and the challenges facing international aid efforts and government health programs. If the epidemic of AIDS in Africa is a cause that you care a lot about, I really recommend this book as an introduction to understanding the issue more in-depth. Stephanie Nolen is passionate about explaining the deep repercussions of the epidemic on economic and political stability, and her book can help those of us in the international community be more savvy about the donations we make and the international policies that we support.
simlish's review against another edition
4.0
Well researched and written, this book takes care to make the AIDS epidemic understandable no matter your starting understanding of either AIDS or the difficulties faced in treating it in developing nations. Nolen balances explanation with story very well, so that the emotional thrust of each individual story is not weighed down by the political and economic world that contributes to it.
Not sure if it's just the ebook version but there were a lot of consistent typoes, like i for 1 and oddly interjected symbols, generally an open parenthesis. I found that kind of distracting. Would love an updated afterword, given that we've passed the projected vaccine date and still aren't quite there.
Not sure if it's just the ebook version but there were a lot of consistent typoes, like i for 1 and oddly interjected symbols, generally an open parenthesis. I found that kind of distracting. Would love an updated afterword, given that we've passed the projected vaccine date and still aren't quite there.
elizabethaugmentin's review against another edition
3.0
Eye opening and thought provoking. Money won’t fix the problem but it seems that’s what we’ve got to work with.
mdabernig's review against another edition
5.0
Anyway, the book (other than the omission of the pages) was truly amazing. I was recommended it by a friend and I have an interest in that sort of thing so I bought it and I honestly didn't think I was as ignorant about the subject as I turned out to be. I always pride myself on being kinda savvy and stuff about world issues but that was completely thrown out the water. It's a great book - and there's stories from everyone from all walks of life in it. A prostitute old enough to be a grandmother who is immune to the disease, a little boy who got held back in school because he was too sick to pass his final exams, the girl who had lost her parents and was looking after her little brother who was dependant on the people of the village to look after them, lorry drivers, educators, soldiers, wives, husbands, aid workers, doctors, scientist - everyone. I don't know, I think because it delivered it in such a way that in the small snapshot you got you learned a little more. The misconception that the soldier had that as long as the prostitute was fat then he didn't have to worry about catching anything, the excuse of some official that there was no point giving African's drugs because they 'told the time using the sun' and wouldn't be able to adhere to the timing methods necessary to follow the guidelines because of it, the artist who always wore a condom but got infected because he went to help a neighbour after a break-in and he got injured and his blood crossed with an infected supply...
It's just a great book and I highly recommend it to anyone. It's an eye-opener and although the stories are about something tragic and the numbers and some of the things that happen are tragic, it isn't a book that is solely about that, which sounds weird but it's true.
It's just a great book and I highly recommend it to anyone. It's an eye-opener and although the stories are about something tragic and the numbers and some of the things that happen are tragic, it isn't a book that is solely about that, which sounds weird but it's true.
val_halla's review against another edition
4.0
This book was well-researched and provided a very interesting perspective of the AIDS pandemic as it manifests in Africa. My only criticism would be that the author primarily interviewed upper-class, highly educated people who could speak English. I understand the limitation of being monolingual and attempting to interview a wide variety of people, but this means the book provided a narrow view of the issue. I read the ebook version, which had a lot of typos and formatting errors.
lindsayw's review against another edition
5.0
Heart-wrenching in places, uplifting in others, "28" kept me enthralled from the very first page. Stephanie Nolen's journalistic style brings you right into the homes of the people she's speaking with. Too often, the AIDS crisis is thought of academically, and not as something with a human face. Stephanie Nolen not only provides personal accounts from individuals, their faces literally adorn the pages of this book as all 28 stories come with 28 accompanying photos of their subjects.
This beautiful book has a special place on my shelf, destined to be re-read many times.
This beautiful book has a special place on my shelf, destined to be re-read many times.