"Place of Cool Waters" is this really interesting novel that talks about roots and secrets. It's really fastpaced and the narrator involves us so well that in a blink of an eye you're at the end and begging for more.

Place of Cool Waters by Ndirangu Githaiga was a great read. The story and plot points were intriguing story and shined a lot on cultural differences and the resilence of family.

Place of Cool Waters by Ndirangu Githaiga follows Jude Wilson, who travels to From Clarksville US to Nairobi, Kenya, to visit the graves of his childhood Boy Scout heroes. During his trip, he meets Qadir Mohamed, the manager of the youth hostel where he is staying, and they develop a valuable friendship. Things take an unexpected turn when he leaves Nairobi in search of the Powel's resting place and he uncovers some things about the world and his roots that will change his life forever.

The novel explores the cultural differences between Jude's hometown of Clarksville and Nairobi, and explores themes such as colonialism, history, terrorism, and family, with a balanced and nuanced perspective.

The book is written in a clear and engaging style, with vivid descriptions of the settings and characters. The author does a great job of portraying the contrast and similarities between Kenya and America, as well as the different perspectives and experiences of the people living in both places. The book also offers a rich and diverse historical background and shows how event affect not only the political landscape, but also the personal lives of the characters.

The book's main strength is its characterization. Jude is a relatable and sympathetic protagonist, who is somewhat naïve but very endearing. His parents are also well-developed characters with their own peculiarities and motivations, which contribute to the plot and the themes of the book.

The narrator of the audio version does a decent job of conveying the emotions and tones of the story. However, he struggles with pronouncing some of the Kenyan names and words correctly. It would have been better if the book was narrated by someone who was more familiar with the Kenyan language and culture.

I found Place of Cool Waters to be a poignant, engaging, and entertaining novel that offers a unique and insightful look into the lives people living in Bible Belt America and rural Kenya. It is a book that will stay with you long after you finish it.

Audiobook Review: Place of Cool Waters by Ndirangu Githaiga
Narration by Lee Goettl
Published by Bon Esprit Books, October 12, 2023

★★★★☆ (3.5 Stars rounded up)

// 'Enkare nairobi', from the Maasai language. Meaning, 'the place of cool water'. //

Audiobook narration:
Narrator Lee Goettl delivers with an excellent midwestern cadence but his performance would have been much better off paired with any number of talented East African voice actors to lend life and authenticity to the author's words, particularly in those chapters depicted in the highlands of Kenya.

// Place of Cool Waters by Ndirangu Githaiga //

Nairobi.
Adoptive orphan, Qadir, lives with his Uncle Hussein's Somali family in Eastleigh, Nairobi, and faces daily hardships and challenges. The plight of the immigrants is exacerbated when the Somalian extremist Islamic group al-Shabaab attacks an upscale shopping mall in Nairobi killing seventy-one. The attack is characterized as retribution for the Kenyan military's deployment in the group's home country of Somalia and puts the country in a high state of alert...

The Pacific Northwest.
Scout master Tom and his wife, Doris, live in a small town in Washington State. Their adoptive black son, Jude, was a orphaned as a baby left on a bridge in Minneapolis. Jude grows up in Tom's scouting world, with father and son frequently out camping, hiking and tracking, and aspires one day to visit the burial ground of Gen. Robert Baden-Powell, British Army officer, writer, founder and first Chief Scout of the world-wide Scout Movement in Nyeri, a town in the Central Highlands of Kenya.

Jude sets off one day to East Africa to fulfill his dream...

From Minneapolis to the Pacific Northwest to East Africa, from Nairobi to Nyeri to Nanyuki, Kenya, Author Ndirangu Githaiga weaves a tale of the African diaspora coming in full circle.

Review based on an advance reading copy courtesy of Bon Esprit Books and NetGalley.

2.5 stars

A basic new adult kind of story that is interesting enough, but doesn’t go far beyond the surface in both prose style and content. Audiobook narration feels young.

Thank you to Ndirangu Githaiga, Lee Goettl, Bon Esprit Books, and NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Place of Cool Water
By: Ndirangu Githaiga

Place of Cool Water takes place between Washington state and Nairobi, Kenya and follows a young man be the name of Jude Wilson. Jude works a low to mid level position in publishing, where he unconsciously battles to overcome workplace biases. After a personal tragedy, Jude sets out on a journey to visit the graves of two prominent Boy Scout figures who are buried in Kenya and hold a strong childhood connection to Jude. While on this journey, a case of mistaken identity leads Jude to a version of himself that he could have never imagined.

The characters that we meet along the way had so much potential and I believe that if the book was longer, there would have been more opportunity to flesh them out. As it is, they felt a bit undone. Jude should an inkling of growth by the end of the book, but with all that he had gone through, it felt like such a small step. Qadir, who is a significant part of the story and can almost be considered another protagonist; simple ends up feeling like a supporting character for Jude,due to a lack of balance in the storytelling.

I really appreciated the themes of family, loss and the idea of home that the author explores. I also recognized the attempt to touch on racism and xenophobia. With more space and pages, I think we would have gotten more “meat.”

Overall the book had some really beautiful moments and the writing flowed well and was easy to follow. Still, the story felt a bit disjointed. I don,t want to say that it was all over the place, but it was close. By the end, I believe I understood why the author chose to make the characters’ stories appear so random and unconnected, but I didn’t love the way that it was done.

I did not enjoy the narrator for the audiobook. It very much felt as though I was listening to a commercial or documentary. There were moments in the story that likely should have hit an emotional tone, but I wasn’t able to fully connect with those moments, because the narrator did not inject any emotion. I did not mind the narrator’s voice in general, but he was not a good fit for this story. I think I would have had a better experience if I had read a physical copy of the book.

Great Book. I wasn’t sure where it was going for most of it but I think it came together in the end. I wish the two stories were more blended together instead of being essentially divided into 2 separate sections. I think the book had a lot to say about history, culture and colonization. As someone who has never been to Africa the story did an excellent job of immersing you in the location. The audio is a bit too jovial to establish stakes at times, so it’s difficult to get the full grasp of the emotions I think the author is trying to portray.
This book was provided to me via NetGalley I’m exchange for an honest review.

An intriguing story about two brothers, separated by oceans and culture. While I guessed where the story was possibly going to go early on, it was nice to be proved right and interesting how the author got there including having others see similarities which the main characters couldn't.

It was a bit disappointing that the story ended after the big reveal. It would have been nice to see if they stayed in touch or looked to inhabit the same part of the world. There was also no returning to Jude's parents reaction to the news or even that of the main characters.

Covering issues including childlessness, adoption, racism, terrorism, inequalities, kidnap/abduction, death and scouting this is a heart-warming story which allows insight into two very different worlds by coincidence.

Firstly, I struggled with the narrator's voice of this audiobook. He has a calm voice, but it was also quite flat, making it hard to get into the story and characters as there wasn't much emotion in his narration. I think this created an audiobook that felt quite monotone. The story itself does a similar thing - it is attempting to tackle large issues, but everything is presented in quite an uninteresting and flat way, meaning that there is an overall feeling of nothing really happening - even as large, life-changing events happen to Jude, our protagonist. A solid 3 stars for me.

** spoiler alert **
*thank you netgalley for the audiobook arc!!*
a fun, quick read but it felt like most of the book was the first act, and moved pretty slowly. the rest felt a little rushed. i would have liked to get to know the characters more, to know what happened to the characters' families, to see them bond, to see the main character stay in Kenya and get to know his birth family better and really enjoy the country, like he seemed to be at the end.

Being honest, I think I would have rather read the book. The voice of the narrator was very calm and relaxing but monotone and it didn't work for this story. It was an enjoyable story but I needed more, at times I lost interest but I truly believe that wouldn't have been the case had I read it.

2.5 rounded to 3 stars

Place of Cool Waters by Ndirangu Githaiga is a literary fiction book about two men whose lives intersect. Jude is a black man living in the U.S and Qadir lives in Kenya. In alternating chapters we learn about their lives, struggles and aspirations. I personally loved the descriptions of the setting and the ways in which the author was able to weave the two narrators into a singular story. The book is also short, and digestible.

One issue I had with the story is that Ndirangu Githaiga attempts to cover a wide range of topics from race, discrimination, family , grief, two protagonists while contrasting two very different parts of the world all in under 264 pages. I wish the story would have been longer to give the author space to flesh out these topics. Where they stand they felt very surface level.

The novel also suffers from some pacing issues and clunky dialogue.

The narrator had a measured and calm voice. They narrated the book in a very matter of fact way that personally made me feel detached from the narration. It felt like someone telling me a story as opposed to feeling immersed in it.

I only got about 20% through this audiobook as I really struggled with the reader, but I will be requesting the written version so I can give a more accurate review

Place of Cool Waters delves into the struggles of an adoptee connection with his culture. A beautiful story of family, race, and finding one's self, this is a must-read for those interested in multicultural fiction. I will definitely be on the look out for more novels by Ndirangu Githaiga.

Quick and easy read, but I wish it were longer and more balanced between Jude and Qadir (who in my opinion had the more interesting story). The entire story just felt rushed and the ending was quite abrupt. It’s a good read, but it could use more in depth development.

I'm sorry to say I struggled so much with the narration on this book and for that reason I DNF. I was intrigued by the premise of this book and look forward to reading it.

I am always in awe of anyone that can function in multiple languages. It is not a skill I possess. Because of this, when I read a book that feels like English is not the author’s first language I do my best to ignore the issues as long as the story is strong or the characters are well defined. Unfortunately, this book doesn’t have the strength of plot or characters to overcome the questionable word choice, and horrible dialog. The twist was very odd and the ending is unsatisfying. I struggled to stay engaged with any part of the story or care for the characters, it wasn’t bad enough to DNF, but it also wasn’t a satisfying reading experience.

This was a struggle to listen to. I have no idea why a book that centers on a Black American and an African was narrated by Generic White Dude #4. The narrator sounds like he usually reads non-fiction. There was a singsong quality that lulled the reader, the action or dialog had no modulation, just the same rhythm or cadence. The lack of performance and the odd choice in voice made the awkward dialog and the occasionally odd word choice painfully obvious.

If you read this book, I would skip the audio version.

This book is well written. However, the narrator does this book a major disservice. The book is about to black men, one American and the other African. You lose so much of the story by not having an authentic narrator. The story could have been so much more if he had given the characters more depth.

This is a delightful and, as the internet might say, "wholesome" book, that's easy to read, and that comes with a lovely ending. It opens with a flashback scene where a baby is found on a bridge, and then we meet Jude, who was adopted by a couple in Clarkesville, Washington, in the US. We also meet Qadir, a Somali living in Nairobi, Kenya. We follow their lives as they move into adulthood, college, and work, and then Jude goes to Kenya on an adventure, and he meets Qadir.

The writing is really wonderful, reminiscent of writing in the books I read as a child, with a certain, slightly formal, cadence and style. All of the characters are great, even the villains, and this may be the flaw in the book: it is so light and wholesome that difficult subjects–for example, racism in the US, and the situation of Somali people in Kenya–lack an emotional punch. Still, the book does not pretend to be anything that it isn't, and a little light reading is sometimes needed.

Swahili and Somali dialogue are translated sentence by sentence, which disturbs the flow of the story to some degree, but is nice if you want to pick up a bit of language. I listened to the audiobook and followed along in the DRC, which is a nice new way I've found to speed-read (and I recommend it!); the audiobook is very ably narrated by Lee Goettl.

Thank you to Bon Esprit Books and to NetGalley for access.

Overall, this book was a good read and an awesome palette cleanser. At times, I did feel that the writing was a bit choppy but overall it did give me a feel- good feeling. it was wholesome and pure. Such a unique way in which two brothers, continents part came to be separated and reunited. In the end, all you could feel was happiness for them. All that being said, I did not care for the narrator. I think I was expecting a more authentic voice for this story and at times it was hard to focus on the story as his way of speaking did not feel true to the characters in the story.