Gillian Kendall

A couple of things to mention, I obtained this book free through a Bookbub promotion and I rarely read autobiographies/biographies.

This man and his life are truly inspiring. I grew up and lived most of my life until his death with this man in the news at regular intervals, so in some ways I felt I already knew his story.

This is a rather short but precise book about his life. It covers everything he did and achieved in an easy to read way but for me it seems to lack indepth detail. Then what can I expect from 190 or so pages? Surely his life and achievements deserves so much more!

For someone with a passing interest or little knowledge of his life this is a decent book to start with but for me it felt little more than an overview of someone I already knew quite a bit about.… (mais)

25 of 75 for 2015. Let me start off by saying that I have not read Mandela's autobiography Long Walk to Freedom nor have I seen the recent movie about his life. I consider myself a reasonably intelligent man, somewhat up to date on world events, so the man was not unknown to me, nor was the general gist of his story. Kendall and North's biography filled in a lot of the blanks, however, giving me a more complete picture of what Mandela's life was like, both in prison and as a free man, well, relatively free man. One could say that even after the fall of apartheid and Mandela's election as leader of the ANC and the RSA, he was never completely free. If I have quibbles about this book it is that the book feels more like a feel-good read than a deeply researched biography. I'm a fast reader, admittedly, but the fact that I could read a biography of one of recent history's most influential men in two days leaves me feeling that I wasn't reading a truly academic study. Learning that the publisher specializes in inspirational biographies, largely of Roman Catholic saints and leaders (they already have a book out on Pope Francis), explains to me at least why the book reads more like a Sunday School lesson than a text for a university history class. That said, the book did deepen my knowledge of Mandela's life and mission, and was thoroughly enjoyable. I give it three stars only because I was expecting so much more.… (mais)