Author - John Coyne

RPCV writers keep writing and keep finding our site. We just heard from John Mundahl a former PCV and now a Crisis Corps Volunteer in Romania. Here’s a short bio on John and his books, most of which are published by the small and wonderful Monkfish Publishing. John Mundahl is a retired ESL teacher.  He taught for 32 years kindergarten-university at various places in the United States and throughout the world.  He has been a yoga teacher and practitioner for 30 years and was a resident at the original Kripalu Yoga Ashram in Sumneytown, Pennsylvania during Swami Kripalu’s four-year stay from 1977-1981.  He is also an Ayurvedic Health Care Educator and the author of nine books.  He served in Venezuela (1967-69) and joined the Peace Corps again in 2012 as a Peace Corps Response volunteer assigned to the Ministry of Education in Bucharest, Romania.  He can be reached at:  johnmundahl@yahoo.com.” . . .

The Incurables by Mark Brazaitis (Guatemala 1991–93) University of Notre Dame Press $20.00 233 pages 2012 Reviewed by Susi Wyss (Central African Republic 1990-92) As a Peace Corps volunteer in the Central African Republic in the early 1990s, I once accidentally ingested a triple dose of Fasigyn to treat a case of giardia. That night, my mind slipped into an alternate world in which I hallucinated that rats were coming through my window and trying to crawl under my mosquito net. That experience instilled in me an enduring empathy for people struggling with mental illness, and taught me just how thin the membrane is that separates sanity from madness. In Mark Brazaitis’ fifth book, a deep and introspective collection of stories called The Incurables, this membrane seems especially thin and permeable, and his varied cast of characters manifests symptoms of varying degrees of madness. A school coach turns into a . . .

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 . . .