THE BEST OF FRIENDS, Sara James and Ginger Mauney, (Harper)

I MUST confess to having mixed feelings throughout my rather drawn out reading of The Best of Friends.

The double memoir is written by two American women – TV journalist Sara James and wildlife filmographer Ginger Mauney. They both write in the first person, and tell their respective stories in alternating chapters.

Obviously, their lives are intertwined and entangled, from the beginning of their friendship at the age of 12, through to them both becoming successful, happily married mothers and career women. One lives in Africa, the other in New York; jungles both.

All the ingredients are there for an unforgettable, unusual novel, and the premise is one that I ordinarily enjoy.

So why the misgivings?

While both write exceptionally well, I personally felt that the stories lacked real, raw truth and emotion. Yes, they both suffered hardship and both overcame heartbreak and career obstacles, but the stark honesty that draws me to memoirs was somehow a little too glossed over, a little too melodramatic for me.

And yet every time I put the book down disinterestedly, a few days later I would be drawn to pick it up again and carry on reading about their trials and tribulations.

In other words, this is certainly not the best memoir I’ve ever come across, but it’s not the worst either. I suggest approaching it as a light fiction book, rather than the earnest memoir it purports to be. Then, it’s rather enjoyable. — Taralyn Bro

SUGAR GIRLS & SEAMEN, A Journey into the World of Dockside Prostitution in South Africa

Henry Trotter, (Jacana)

LIKE the title suggests, this book is sweet and sultry.

It’s filled with the antics and tricks that prostitutes in the Cape Town and Durban ports use to attract sailors so they can ultimately get their money – to pay for rent, clothes, baby food, school fees or drugs.

In turn it looks at the sailors who have been out at sea for months craving female company, so when they dock, some are eager to find a Sugar Girl.

But it gets more complicated than that. Some of the girls are prettier than others, some shake their booty on the dance floor to show what they can do in the bedroom, a few sit alone at the bar looking all sophisticated, and some even learn a foreign language like Chinese so they can converse with sailors in their mother tongue.

They do all this to attract the sailors’ attention and increase their chances of making money. Henry Trotter is a doctoral student of African history at Yale University. His research on South African port culture led him to write this book – a more interesting read than his thesis notes, he says.

This book is an eye-opener; it’s an entertaining read that will have you laughing in places and gasping in others. — Nicolette Scrooby

DASSIES IN THE HILLS, Bill Crook, (Reach Publishers)

SELF-published books regularly arrive on books editors’ desks, some from “vanity publishers”, others from the authors themselves, hoping for a breakthrough.

Most are ignored because they are not really good enough to publicise; why waste newspaper column space when there are so many good books around?

The author’s widow sent this one and it does deserve a mention.

Some parts of the story of an old man living in a cave on a hill while the flood-waters that became the Great Kariba Dam rise in his valley are very good.

But it’s a struggle getting through the acres of flashback italicised text; the Yoda-speak becomes tiresome; and, in places, it cries out for a good editor.

Having said that, it does have merit in the atmosphere and taste of Africa it gives the reader.

Under different circumstances it could have become a must-read for school kids, but not in its present form. — Peter Godson