New books by Peace Corps writers | July–August 2023

To purchase any of these books from Amazon.com — CLICK on the book cover, the bold book title, or the publishing format you would like — and Peace Corps Worldwide, an Amazon Associate, will receive a small remittance from your purchase that will help support the site and the annual Peace Corps Writers awards.

We include a brief description for each of the books listed here in hopes of encouraging readers  to order a book and/or  to VOLUNTEER TO REVIEW IT.

 See a book you’d like to review for Peace Corps Worldwide? Send a note to Marian at marian@haleybeil.com, and she will send you a free copy along with a few instructions.

P.S. In addition to the books listed below, I have on my shelf a number of other books whose authors would love for you to review. Go to Books Available for Review to see what is on that shelf.

Please, please join in our Third Goal effort and volunteer to review a book(s)!!!

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Who Stole My Bible: Reclaiming Scripture as a Handbook for Resisting Tyranny
by Rev. Jennifer Butler (Belize 1989-91)
Faith in Public Life Publisher
October 2020
180 pages
$9.99 (Kindle); $15.99 (Paperback); (Audio book)

Jennifer Butler is committed to amplifying the connection between faith and social justice, has the heart of a community organizer, and is an ordained minister.

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Child of the 1960s: A Day in the Life
by Craig J. Carrozzi (Colombia 1978-80)
Independently Published
July 2023
Young Adult
268 pages
$22.00 (Paperback)

Child of the 1960s is a memoir of a coming-of-age adolescent growing up in San Francisco’s Mission District in the tumultuous 1960s.

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You Are Not Here: Travels Through Countries that Don’t Exist
by Eric Czuleger (Albania 2011-13)
Independently Published
360 pages
June 2023
$0.99 (Kindle); $18.27 (Paperback)

American journalist Eric Czuleger dives into the twilight zone of statecraft by living in unrecognized nations in order to discover what a country really is.

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Westbury Imagined: Based on True Stories
by Arthur Dobrin (Kenya 1965-67)
Nsemia Publishers
August 2023
$9.99 (Kindle); $32.00 (Paperback)

 

The first encounters between Indigenous people and Europeans, the enslavement of Africans and their fight for freedom, fox hunting millionaires and Italian immigrants, and the development of suburbia until the present day — all this is presented in Westbury Imagined, a book of history, fiction, memoir and poetry that celebrates this diverse Long Island community.

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Even the Geckos Are Starving
Martin R. Ganzglass (Somali 1966–68)
Peace Corps Writers
320 pages
August 2023
$10.00 (paperback)

In this collection of short stories, Somali refugees in a camp in northern Kenya confront the aftermath of a terrorist attack in Nairobi; a jet fuel spill at Pearl Harbor threatens Honolulu’s water supply; a trusted doorman turns to burglary and discovers a surprising partner; a seaman is seriously injured and is confined in an unknown place where no one speaks his language; and a high brow magazine runs a personal ad for sexual services with unforeseen consequences.

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HUSTLE: The Making of a Freelance Writer
by Lawrence Grobel (Ghana 1968-71)
Independently Published
358 pages
August 2023
$19.95 Paperback,

All the pieces in this book were turning points, whether they furthered my writing career, boosted my confidence, made me determined to prove myself, or brought my family closer. Each of the 33 pieces have a preface, explaining why I chose them, and a postscript, summing up the result. This represents one freelance writer’s journey, but it’s intended to inspire present and future freelancers to consider the road less traveled.

 

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Taking the Plunge into Ethiopia: Tales of a Peace Corps Volunteer
William Hershey (Ethiopia 1968-1970; Peace Corps Trainer Ethiopia 1973)
University of Akron Press
August 2023
134 pages
$24.95 paperback and ebook

From 1968 until 1970, William Hershey served as the only Peace Corps volunteer in a small Ethiopian town. Hershey taught seventh and eighth grade students the English that they would need to continue their educations and brighten their futures. He became part of the community, eating the local food and doing his best to communicate in Amharic. He also navigated cultural gaffes-having his house stoned by disgruntled students, angered at being assigned to cleaning the outhouses, and nearly sparking international trouble by clashing with a player from a rival school during a heated basketball game. 

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White Cloud Free

by Peter Michael Johnson (Paraguay 2002-04)
V Press LC Publisher
160 pages
July 2023
$11.99 (Kindle); $16.97 (Paperback) Not  known when/if this item will be back in stock.

White Cloud Free is a story of love and friendship, betrayal and loss, miracles, and memory. Set mostly in Latin America, it is a semi-autobiographical tale of an idealistic, naive Peace Corps volunteer who suffers a series of traumas abroad, leading to unlikely friendships with a semi-homeless 12-year-old boy, an ambitious transexual sex worker, and an eccentric Catholic priest.

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Hey Buddy! Portraits of Friends
by Lawrence F. Lihosit (Honduras 1975-77)
Independently Published
150 pages
July 2023
$18.00 (Paperback)

Intimate descriptions of some of the author’s friends, often under unusual circumstances and in far-off places. The author shares how these friends helped him in northeast Bolivia, Alaska, Honduras, Mexico City, the San Francisco Bay Area and Scottsdale, Arizona.

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Deep Dish Conversations: Voices of Social Change in Nashville
by Jerome Moore (Paraguay 2015-17)
Vanderbilt University Press
May 2023
152 pages
$19.99 (Kindle); $24.95 (Paperback)

What does it mean to be a Nashvillian? A Black Nashvillian? A white Nashvillian? What does it mean to be an organizer, an ally, an elected official, an agent for change?

 

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Etude Suites Quartets: Travesties for Strings
Jeff  Morin (Nepal 1984–86)
Independently published
36 pages
January 2023
$7.10 (paperback)

After re-discovering little pieces of piano music made long ago but only recently transcribed, the author further played around with a music score writer and arranged some of them into string quartets.

These are them.

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The Showgirl and the Writer: A Friendship Forged in the Aftermath of the Japanese American Incarceration
by Marnie Mueller (Ecuador 1963-65)
Peace Corps Writers
488 pages
July 2023
$16.95 (Paperback)

The Showgirl and the Writer: A Friendship Forged in the Aftermath of the Japanese American Incarceration, by Marnie Mueller, is a hybrid memoir/biography. It encompasses Mueller’s own story, beginning at her birth to Caucasian parents in the Tule Lake Japanese American High Security Camp in Northern California, and tells the tale of her long friendship with Mary Mon Toy, a Nisei performer who was incarcerated in the Minidoka Japanese American Camp in Idaho during WWII.

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Halcyon Daze
Palmer Owyoung (Namibia 1993–95)
Village Market Press
February 2023
236 pages
$49.95 (Paperback)

Halcyon Daze is an offbeat, and original comedy detailing the journey of a group of late twenty-somethings, living in San Francisco, trying to find themselves, and make sense of the world that surrounds them.

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Solving the Climate Crisis: A Community Guide to Solving the Biggest Problem On the Planet
Palmer Owyoung (Namibia 1993–95)
Independently published
August 2023
$9.99 (Kindle)

Solving the Climate Crisis is an easy-to- read, solutions-based book that offers actionable advice that readers can take to create lasting changes in their communities. The book is filled with hope that by working together, we can build a sustainable future by using science, and evidence-based solutions to reimagine our economic, political, and social systems, to stabilize the climate and restore biodiversity.

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“Look Here, Sir, What a Curious Bird”: Searching for Ali, Alfred Russel Wallace’s Faithful Companion
by Paul Sochaczewski (Malaysia 1969-71)
Explorer’s Eye Press
289 pages
July 2023
$8.95 (Kindle); $17.95 (Paperback)

For some 50 years, Paul Sochaczewski has been on the trail of famous naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace and his little-known assistant Ali.

The result of this quest is an imaginative “enhanced biography” of an illiterate 19th-century teenager from Borneo who helped Wallace become one of history’s most successful explorers of the natural world.

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A Bridge Not A Wall: Poems, Pictures & Reflections
Martha  Talburt (Macedonia 1998-99)
Book Baby
2022
$48.00 (hardcover in color)

In her 20s Martha raised six semi-stable children. In her forties she traveled around the world by herself. In her sixties she joined Peace Corps, and in her eighties she wrote two books.

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Land Between Two Waters: The Peace  Corps Fourteen Years in Iran 1962–1976
Genna Stead Wangsness (Iran 1965–67, Iran staff 1967)
Peace Corps Writers
622 pages
May 2023
$32.99 (paperback)

The history of the American Peace Corps in Iran begins with the arrival of 43 hopeful and idealistic volunteers in early September 1962. Far removed from events happening in America, they found a world of gracious, welcoming, and peace loving people.

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Too Much with Us, Late and Soon
Bryant  Wieneke (Niger 1974–76)
Independently published
259 pages
April 2023
$12.99 (paperback), $3.99 (Kindle)

Kendall Jackson Smith returns to America to find a nation in turmoil. As he faces unprecedent personal challenges, the nation seeks to emerge from its greatest schism since the Civil War. Is it strong enough? Is there a path forward? Kendall falls sicker as the nation does, but he finds hope for both in a revival of the American spirit.