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Running in Flip-flops

running-flip-flops-120by Abigail Fay (Senegal 2007–09)
A Peace Corps Writers Book
$12.75
306 pages
September 2011

FRESH OUT OF COLLEGE, Shannon Wheaton signs up for two years in the Peace Corps and gets exactly what she expects: a mud hut, a boisterous host family, no running water or electricity, and endless days of shelling peanuts. What she didn’t expect was to clash so intensely with Wolof culture. In her rural village in Senegal, West Africa, Shannon is challenged in ways she never could have imagined. She finds herself riding an emotional roller coaster. Moments of wonder and of frustration, tiny successes and multiple failures, American friends and village neighbors, all shape Shannon’s new world - and her with it. Her story is an earnest chronicle of Peace Corps service, with the enduring question familiar to all volunteers: What does it mean to make a difference?

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Adventures in Gabon: Peace Corps Stories from the African Rainforest

adventures-gabon-120edited by Darcy Munson Meijer (Gabon 1982–1984)
A Peace Corps Writers Book
$15.95
232 pages
September 2011

“ADVENTURES IN GABON IS A MUST READ for every returned — or prospective — Peace Corps Volunteer. It manages
to cover all the important facets of life in the Peace Corps: the camaraderie and isolation, the laughter and loneliness, the rewards and frustrations, and above all the sense of being hyper-alive.”
— RJ Huddy (author of Verse of the Sword and Learn Thai with Me)

Read John Coyne’s interview with Darcy Munson Meijer
Read Larry Lihosit’s review of Adventures in Gabon

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The Orange Tree

orange-tree-120by Martin R. Ganzglass (Somalia 1966–68)
A Peace Corps Writers Book
$14.95
424 pages
May 2011


A STORY OF THE UNLIKELY FRIENDSHIP between an elderly Jewish lady and the young Somali nurse who cares for her. Helen and Amina develop a special bond as they confront their troubled pasts and the realities of life in a divided post 9-11 world. A touching meditation on displacement and cultural difference, The Orange Tree paints an insightful portrait of two friends and the shared humanity that binds them together.

Read John Coyne’s interview with Marty Ganzglass

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The Gambling Master of Shanghai and Other Tales of Suspense

gambling-master-120by Joan Richter (staff spouse Kenya 1965–67)
A Peace Corps Writers Book
$15.00
256 pages
March 2011


THE GAMBLING MASTER OF SHANGHAI and Other Tales of Suspense is a collection of seventeen stories that will take the reader on a suspenseful journey to places near and far — to Shanghai and Prague, Africa, Cambodia, and the United States.

Read Tony D’Souza’s review of The Gambling Master
Read John Coyne’s interview with Joan Richter

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The Caddie Who Won The Masters

caddie-masters-1201by John Coyne (Ethiopia 1962–64)
A Peace Corps Writers Book
$13.50
316 pages
March 2011


BOBBY JONES ALWAYS HOPED that someday an amateur would win the Masters. In this novel, bestselling author John Coyne—The Caddie Who Knew Ben Hogan and The Caddie Who Played With Hickory—tells the story of Tim Alexander, an amateur from the public links courses in Southern Illinois, who qualifies for the Masters and has a chance to fulfill Jones’ dream. In The Caddie Who Won The Masters, Coyne blends his skill at the supernatural (he’s a bestselling author of novels of the occult) with his vast knowledge of golf and its history.

Read Roland Merullo’s review of The Caddie Who Won The Masters
Read Karen Croke’s Here are 10 thing you might not know about John Coyne!
Read what a golf blogger says about The Caddie Who Won The Masters

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Answering Kennedy’s Call: Pioneering the Peace Corps in the Philippines

answering-kennedy001-1202Edited by Parker W. Borg, Maureen J. Carroll, Patricia MacDermot Kasdan, Stephen W. Wells (all Philippines (1961–63)
A Peace Corps Writers Book
$25.00
498 pages
March 2011

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FIFTY YEARS AFTER President Kennedy signed the 1961 Executive Order creating the Peace Corps, nearly 100 former volunteers who joined the new organization in the first year for service in the Philippines recall why they joined, what they experienced, and how this service in the Philippines affected their lives. In addition a half dozen members of the Peace Corps staff in the Philippines and a similar number of Filipinos have contributed their recollections from the period. The book includes photos of individuals from both the 1960s and more recently as well as maps showing communities of service.

Read John Coyne’s PCVs from Philipines Publish Book
Read John Coyne’s More about Pioneering the Peace Corps in the Philippines
Read Marian Haley Beil’s Talking with the Editors of Answering Kennedy’s Call
Read David Searles’ review of Answering Kennedy’s Call

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How to Cook a Crocodile: A Memoir with Recipes

how-cook-crocodile-1201by Bonnie Lee Black (Gabon 1996-98)
A Peace Corps Writers Book
$15.99
448 pages
October 2010


CASTING CAUTION TO THE WIND at the age of fifty, New York caterer and food writer Bonnie Lee Black decided to close her catering business and join the Peace Corps. Posted to the tiny town of Lastoursville in the thickly rainforested interior of Gabon, Central Africa, Bonnie taught health, nutrition, and cooking, in French, primarily to local African women and children. In the two years she served in Gabon, Bonnie developed her own healthy recipe for a purposeful life, made in equal measures of good food, safe shelter, meaningful work, and unexpected love.

Read Thurston Clark’s Peace Corps Worldwide REVIEW
Read
John Coyne’s interview with Bonnie — Bonnie Black’s Brilliant Book
Read Bonnie’s blog Cooking Crocodiles and Other Musings

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