Archive - 2012

Never Gonna Cease My Wanderin’: Letters Between Friends by Ruth Kesselring Royal (Philippines 1962-64) and Beryl A. Brinkman (Afghanistan 1967-69) Peace Corps Writers $15.00 September 2012 Reviewed by  Douglas Foley (Philippines 1962-64) Never Gonna Cease my Wanderin’ is a lovely, heartfelt coming-of-age story of friendship between two female Peace Corps Volunteers. The principal author, Ruth Kesselring Royal (Philippines 1962-64) reconstructs her friendship with Beryl Brinkman (Afghanistan 1967-69) through their extensive correspondence. She supplements the letters with recollections from her journal. To her credit, the edited letters retain much of their original language and tone. I must forewarn the readers that a long string of raw letters may present some reading challenges. The letters meander over many topics and contain a great deal of mundane information. But if readers plunge into the detail, they will find the fascinating narrative threads I am about to suggest. First, Ms. Royal is telling a . . .

David Mather discusses his book, One for the Road, a fictionalized account of a young Peace Corps Volunteer living in Cufeo, Chile, and supervising a reforestation project to help save the community in Gainesville, Florida, at 1:30 p.m., on January 22, 2013 in the Headquarters Branch Library at 401 University Avenue. Mather, who served in southern Chile with the Peace Corps from 1968 to 1970, has lived off-grid for more than 40 years. He and his wife divide their time between Lyme, New Hampshire, and Florida’s Gulf Coast. David Mather grew up in Sarasota, Florida, before attending school in New England where he graduated from Deerfield Academy (’64) and Bowdoin College (’68). He then served in southern Chile with the Peace Corps from 1968 – 70. He was the most isolated volunteer in his program, and the two years in the Peace Corps strongly influenced him. Upon his return, he . . .

  The Beach at Galle Road: Stories from Sri Lanka by Joanna Luloff (Sri Lanka 1996-98) Algonquin Books $22.95 278 pages September 2012 Reviewed by Mark Brazaitis (Guatemala 1991-93) • Every morn and every night Some are born to sweet delight. Some are born to sweet delight, Some are born to endless night. -William Blake, “Auguries of Innocence” Blake’s observation is as true of countries as it is of people. Some indeed seem born to endless night. Guatemala. Mozambique. Rwanda. Three otherwise beautiful counties plagued by civil war. There are others, of course. Sri Lanka, an island nation located off the southern coast of India, for example. From 1983 to 2009, Sri Lanka was the site of a civil war pitting the government against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, whose aim was to create an independent state in the north and east of the island. Over the 26-year-long war, . . .

The winner of the “Multicultural Non-Fiction” Award from USA Book News is Dodging Machetes: How I Survived Forbidden Love, Bad Behavior, and the Peace Corps in Fiji by Will Lutwick (Fiji 1968-70). A Peace  Corps Writers Book, it was published in 2012. Other finalists were: Journey to the Heart: Secrets of Aboriginal Healing by Dr. Gary Holz with Robbie Holz (iUniverse) and Returning: A Tale of Vasalisa and Baba Yoga by Suzanne Banay Santo (Red Butterfly Publication) This the 10th Annual USA Best Book Awards. USA Book News covers books from all sections of the publishing industry-mainstream, independent, & self-published.  USA Book News will continue to feature quality books and aggressively promote those books to the publishing & entertainment industries, national media and the book buying public. Awards by USA Book News are giving in 137 categories from  African-American Studies  to Youth Issues.

Gregory D. Johnsen (Jordan 2001-02) is a former Fulbright Fellow in Yemen and a Ph.D. candidate in Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. He has written for Newsweek, Foreign Policy, appeared on NPR and the Charlie Rose Show among other places, and this week W.W. Norton will  publish his book: The Last Refuge: Yemen, al-Qaeda, and America’s War in Arabia. It is, the cover copy reads: A gripping account of how al-Qaeda in Yemen rebounded from an initial defeat to once again threaten the United States. On November 13, 2012, of this week, Johnsen spoke at the Brookings Institution saying among other things that the struggle against al Qaeda in Yemen may become a lasting model for U.S. fights against non-state actors, but it hasn’t worked. He goes onto point out that the approach to counterterror in Yemen, where the United States carriers out air strikes but avoids putting boots . . .

Departures Magazine, the premium publication of American Express that goes to holders of platinum cards, has a travel piece in its November/December 2012 thick Christmas issue written Vanity Fair Special Correspondent by Maureen Orth (Colombia 1964-66) entitled, “Colombia: A Brave New World.” In her piece Maureen is able to make a pitch for her Marina Orth Foundation that works with three schools and 1,200 children in Colombia, teaching English and technology, and give a plug to the new NPCA Next Step Travel program which organizes two-week trips combining travel, service and education to places like Dominican Republic and Guatemala.  She also tells rich card holders what to see and where to go in this “now-thriving South American country” that has “emerged as a full-fledged tourist destination ready for its moment.” Maureen sums up her connection to Colombia this way, “My journey to the country began more than four decades ago . . .

Dr. Dark by Robert E. Hamilton (Ethiopia 1965–67) Amazon Digital, $.99 356 pages October, 2012 Reviewed by R J Huddy (Morocco 1981-83) The set-up for Robert Hamilton’s novel Dr. Dark is an event that many of us might have encountered at one time or another. One day you’re tooling along, minding your own business, when, without warning, some startling event occurs, and suddenly someone needs your immediate assistance. Sometimes it even means life or death. Maybe someone needs a Heimlich maneuver, or CPR. Or maybe, as in Dr. Dark, it’s a car accident. You may find-as did Hamilton’s Dr. Barbara Kelly-that someone else, a total stranger, has appeared at your side, and for a few moments you are irrevocably linked with this stranger in the immense effort to save the life of another stranger. Perhaps, like Dr. Kelly, you are more calm and rational in that tense effort than you’d . . .

[When I first met Ron Arias (Peru 1963-65)  he worked for People Magazine. I asked him what he wrote about and he smiled and said that he covered the Third World for People! Indeed he did. Ron’s first book was The Road to Tamazunchale, published by Bilingual Press in 1992. He then wrote Five Against the Sea, which grew out of an article that he wrote for People. He co-authored, Healing from the Heartwith the famous Dr. Mehmet Oz, published by Dutton in 1998. With Paul D. White Ron wrote White’s Rules: Saving Our Youth One Kid at a Time, a story of a Canoga Park teacher’s response to killing of a student , published in 2007 by Random House. His memoir of his father, published by Bilingual Review Press, was entitled, Moving Target. It came out in 2002. By then, he had left People and returned to his home in Southern California. Rob’s brother, Bob, also . . .