This book is a stunning narrative about a journey in a camel caravan from Timbuktu to the salt mines of Taoudenni. Being used to living and traveling in deserts, Michael Benanav joins a caravan through the Sahara to salt mines to bring back a resource as priceless as gold. Along the way he learns the life of the azalai, camel drivers, and how to exist in one of the harshest and uncompromising parts of the world. ( )

I first learned about this book from one of those 'Favourite books from 2013' lists (this one was at World Weaver Press' blog --> http://bit.ly/1dYhi3U). Since one of my goals this year is to read more non-fiction it sounded like a good fit. And it really, really was. This is a travel memoir, but it's also a really GOOD story, and I felt like it truly introduced me to a place I'll never likely see in my lifetime (the Sahara). Fantastic reading, the pages flew by. ( )

This was fun! I enjoyed Benanav's adventure in the desert very much as I sat in a soft chair with water nearby. What a forbidding place the Sahara is, and how glad I am that I don't have to go there. ( )

In 2003 Michael Benanav was in his 30s and lived in New Mexico. Following a lifelong interest in exploring deserts, he traveled to Mali and paid a tourist agency for a 3-week trip by camel to the middle of the Sahara Desert, traveling with a caravan that carries salt from an ancient mine north of Timbuktu. It's a grueling journey physically, not something undertaken or accomplished easily. His writing is honest, simple and believable, Benanav comes across as likable person.

Nothing particularly dangerous happens other than the perils of daily life in the Sahara. It's a pleasant story though not as introspective as great travel writing can be, perhaps a limitation of Benanav's age or writing experience; it won a recommendation for younger readers from the ALA. There are other better known Sarah travel books, the benefit of this account over older classics is it is recent, it shows how modernity and ancient ways can coexist in harmony. It's a submersion into an ancient way of life, nearly anthropological in detail, curious and fascinating for anyone from the developed world to experience.

--Review by Stephen Balbach, via CoolReading (c) 2010 cc-by-nd ( )

Michael Benanav is a Jewish, American journalist. Perhaps he does not have a death wish, but he does walk on the wild side. Reading that the camel caravans to the salt mines near Timbuktu are in danger of becoming extinct due to the truck transport of salt, Benanav decides to experience a camel journey before they become extinct. As much a mental journey as a grueling physical one, Benanav realizes that this harsh lifestyle has a richer, more complex history than the largely ignorant press has portrayed. Before he was allowed to participate in a long journey through one of the harshest deserts in the world, Benanav had to sign a waiver that if he were responsible for slowing down the caravan (and, thus, risking the lives of the camels and people), the caravan had the right to leave him to rot and die alone in the desert! Benanav does not leave us with easy answers concerning the fate of the caravans or the very real people he comes to respect. In many ways, Men of Salt leaves readers with more questions than answers. The questions, however, are so good that readers will seek more information and forever hold in hearts a much fuller, more human picture of both the people and the camels in this part of our world. Filled with pictures, this book is highly recommended for both middle school and high school libraries despite the fact that is an adult book. One of my favorites this or any year! ( )