The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu and Their Race to Save the World’s Most Precious Manuscripts

I am not a big fan of "war" chronicles. But... thankfully, I had waited long enough to read it that I had time to read all the negative reviews about the book's marketing. All spot on. That helped me address my experience with it from a different mindset. This book was amazing to me. The race to gather, protect, and move the transcripts is the crux of the story, yet it doesn't take up much of the storyline. What it does do, in combination with the arc of the bloody coups, the kidnappings, the ransoms, the action or lack of action of various other countries, and the multitude of bad players, is to give the manuscript arc a dramatic, heart-thumping backdrop. It made the entire piece of work more compelling for me. Please don't think I'm discounting the horrendous actions of the terrorists. That is not my intention. What this work of history has done for me is to push front and center the comprehension of the fact that the populace of these countries want a life in which art, education, family, and religion are all central to their very existence. I hear it all the time. This is the first piece of nonfiction that shows it to me. And for that, I am grateful to the author. The publisher, for making this book sound like something it is most definitely not? Not at all. They did neither their readers nor the author any favors.