Book: Dangerous Beauty

Author: Mark C. Ross

Pages: 90/320

I have kept reading Dangerous Beauty by Mark C. Ross. This is an autobiography by an African Safari guide who has had many adventures. What he has talked about so far is his different encounters with wildlife in the jungle. Most of the stories are about his observations of the life and death of animals, the death occurs most frequently by predators. Some of the stories include animals such as leopards, lions, elephants, etc. One of the most recent stories is about an elephant charge. What happened was a tourist took a picture, and an elephant thought it was a gun (it had been shot before). The herd of elephants was about to trample the person who took the picture when Ross distracted the elephants, causing them to run toward him. To escape the herd, Ross jumped off a small cliff and didn’t expect the elephants to come too. Shortly after they go down the cliff they calm down and everything is okay. The story was very exciting, and I plan to continue reading.

I think this book is very good because it is not really an autobiography, but just a book that talks about life and death in Africa. I really like how the author does that, he writes the book in a way where the story is not about him, but about the animals he is in constant contact with. I’ve actually learned from the book, too. There are a bunch of small facts incorporated into the story; an example is that Baboons have to be witnesses of the death of an animal before they eat it. There is one thing I do not like about the book though. One of the stories left off with a cliffhanger, where one of the authors’ clients gets shot, and he hasn’t continued the story any further. Otherwise I think this book is really good and would recommend it to anybody who is interested in wildlife.