Travel and general accounts
Bartle Bull   Safari: A Chronicle of Adventure (Penguin, UK/US). A great, macho slab of a book, jammed with photos. It's grotesque but utterly compelling - even if the cruelty and foolish waste of the hunting era, so recently past, is...
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Essays
Wahome Mutahi   How to be a Kenyan (Kenway Pubications, Kenya) A satirical view of Kenyan life by one of the country's most popular newspaper columnists. Painfully funny, and rather close to the bone, the book takes a humorous look at Kenya's very worst side - it won't put you off the country, but it will certainly give you a chuckle at Kenya's expense. Mutahi followed it up with a sideswipe at Kenyan women entitled How to be a Kenyan Lady .

Renato Kizito Sesana   Father Kizito's Notebook (Koinonia Media Centre, Kenya) Kenyan life from the Catholic perspective of Fr Kizitos weekly columns in the Sunday Nation. Full of insights into the struggle to survive that most people here call life, infused with humour and compassion.

Wildlife
Having a field guide makes a huge difference to travelling on safari. Many of the following are not published in the US, but are easily found in Kenya itself. Mohamed Amin, Duncan Willets and Brian Tetley   The Beautiful Animals of...
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Colonial writers
Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen)   Out of Africa (Penguin, UK/Vintage, US). This has become something of a cult book, particularly in the wake of the movie. First published in 1937, it describes Blixen's life (Dinesen was a nom de plume) on her...
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Kenyan fiction in English
Chinua Achebe and C.L. Innes (editors) African Short Stories (Heinemann, UK/US). A collection which treats its material geographically, including Kenyan stories from Jomo Kenyatta, Grace Ogot, Ngugi and a spooky offering ( The...
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Kenyan poetry
The oldest form of written poetry in Kenya is from the coast. Swahili poetry reads beautifully even if you don't understand the words. Written for at least 300 years, and sung for a good deal longer, it's one of Kenya's most enduring art...
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Kenya in modern western fiction
Justin Cartwright   Masai Dreaming (Picador, UK/Random House, US). A compelling novel juxtaposing a film-maker's vision of Maasai-land with the barbarities of the Holocaust, linked by the tapes of a Jewish anthropologist. ...
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Arts
Jane Barbour and Simiyu Wandibba   Kenyan Pots and Potters (o/p). This comprehensive description of pot-making communities includes techniques, training, marketing and sociological perspectives.

Roy Braverman   Islam and Tribal Art (o/p). A useful paperback text for the dedicated.

Susan Denyer   African Traditional Architecture (Holmes & Meier, UK). Useful and interesting, with hundreds of photos (most of them old) and detailed line drawings.

Frank Willett   African Art (Thames & Hudson, UK/US). An accessible volume; good value, with a generous illustrations-text ratio.

Geoffrey Williams   African Designs from Traditional Sources (Dover, UK/US). A designer's and enthusiast's sourcebook, from the copyright-free publishers

Mountain, hiking and diving guides
Paul Clarke   Mountains of Kenya (Mountain Club of Kenya). A detailed and practical guide, comprehensively updated since its earlier incarnation and well worth buying if you plan to do any Kenyan hiking.

David Else   Trekking in East Africa (Lonely Planet, UK/US). Well-produced guide to hiking in the region, with good coverage of Mount Kenya and less extensive coverage of other areas.

Guide Book to Mount Kenya and Kilimanjaro (Mountain Club of Kenya). For fully equipped alpinism, this is indispensable.

Anton Koornhof   The Dive Sites of East Africa (New Holland, UK). Highly recommended if you're at all taken by snorkelling or diving, with detailed text on each and every major site in Kenya, Tanzania and Zanzibar, beautifully illustrated and with thoughtful sections on environmental matters. One to make you dream.

Coffee-table books
Mohamed Amin   Cradle of Mankind and Portrait of Kenya (Camerapix, UK). Stunning photographs of the Lake Turkana region, by the award-winning maverick photo-journalist Amin, killed in the Comoros plane hijack in 1997.

Anne Arthus-Bertrand and Anne Spoerry, photos by Yann Arthus-Bertrand   Kenya from the Air (Thames and Hudson, UK/Vendome, US). Superb images of the country from the eagle's viewpoint.

Mitsuaki Iwago   Serengeti (Chronicle, US). Stunning scenes and portraits from Serengeti (the Tanzanian continuation of the Maasai Mara) from a master photographer. Simply the best volume of wildlife photography ever assembled, this makes most glossies look feeble. If you're trying to persuade someone to visit East Africa - or if any aesthetic argument were needed to preserve the parks and animals - this is the book to use.

David Keith Jones   Shepherds of the Desert (Hamish Hamilton, UK). Brilliant photos (many in black and white), with a text more lucid and less superficial than most glossies; this book concerns itself only with northern Kenya.

Brian Jackman and Jonathan Scott   The Marsh Lions (o/p). Beautifully produced and painstakingly researched study of the lions and other animals around the Musiara Marsh in Maasai Mara.

Tepilit Ole Saitoti and Carol Beckwith   Maasai (Harvill, UK/Abradale Press, US). The Maasai coffee-table book; some photos are too much to take at reading distance. Exquisite, but largely staged, portraits of Maasai culture (and even Beckwith's camera can't disguise the tourist souvenirs in the background). Variably interesting, chauvinistic text, which plays the cult value of the Maasai for all it's worth.