Marian Haley Beil – Page 21 – Peace Corps Worldwide

New books by Peace Corps writers — April 2018

Apr 25 2018

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 are now including a one-sentence description — provided by the author — for the books listed here in hopes of encouraging readers 1) to order the book and 2) to volunteer to review it. See a book you’d like to review for Peace Corps Worldwide? Send a note to Marian at peacecorpsworldwide@gmail.com, and we’ll send you a copy along with a few instructions. • Magic Hours: Essays on Creators and Creation by Tom Bissell (Uzbekistan 1996) Vintage — Reissue edition 352 pages March 2018 $16.95 (paperback), $11.99 (Kindle) • Borderland: An Exploration of States of Consciousness in New and Selected Sonnets Julie . . .

Review — SHADE OF THE PARAISO by Mark Salvatore (Paraguay)

Apr 13 2018

Shade of the Paraiso: Two Years in Paraguay, South America – A Memoir by Mark Salvatore (Paraguay 1989–91) Melbourne: Vine Leaves Press April 2018 292 pages $14.99 (paperback) Reviewed by Ben East (Malawi 1996–98) • MARK SALVATORE writes simple, declarative sentences. His Peace Corps memoir, Shade of the Paraiso, is stripped to fact and detail, observation and truth. Even its replication of time — passing slowly at first, building inexorably over months, then racing quickly to its conclusion — makes the narrative foremost a work of literary control. It’s an art, how much the writer reveals of his existence in rural Paraguay — all the while revealing little of his own true emotions. The closest we get to knowing Salvatore is to appreciate his obvious fortitude in the face of familiar Peace Corps challenges: the petty counterpart; the bullying ‘big-man’; the general estrangement from community; the recurring uncertainty. Even . . .

New books by Peace Corps writers — March 2018

Apr 11 2018

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 are now including a one-sentence description — provided by the author — for the books listed here in hopes of encouraging readers 1) to order the book and 2) to volunteer to review it. See a book you’d like to review for Peace Corps Worldwide? Send a note to Marian at peacecorpsworldwide@gmail.com, and we’ll send you a copy along with a few instructions. • Human Rights. They Matter. by Justin Bibee (Morocco 2014–16) Blurb February 2018 106 pages $57.79 (hardcover) Human Rights. They Matter. is a collection of human rights quotes that impel change and help bring about a new consciousness on the part of . . .

Review — A SILHOUETTE OF LIBERIA by Michael Lee (Liberia)

Apr 07 2018

A Silhouette of Liberia — Photographs: 1974-1977 by Michael H. Lee (Liberia 1974–76) Michael H. Lee August 2017 136 pages $59.99 (hardcover) Reviewed by: Danielle Yoder (Panama 2012-2014) • A Silhouette of Liberia Photographs: 1974–1977 exhibits beautiful photography of Liberia’s landscape, architecture and people from a time when very little has been preserved. Mr. Lee walks us through his experience living, serving and working in Liberia. Through his lens he is able to capture what one might see in an ordinary day in Liberia, as well as intimate settings such as illusive secret societies and their traditions. Mr. Lee begins by providing some history of the country that informs both the conditions of the photographs shown from the mid-70s and also alludes to the impending civil war period. These shots show mostly friendly faces as well as typical living conditions and hardships born by denizens. I was surprised how . . .

David Mather (Chile) publishes RAW DOGIN’

Mar 25 2018

MY PEACE CORPS EXPERIENCE in southern Chile was life-changing — it greatly influenced many of the decisions I made in later life. I also thought those two years, from 1968 to 1970, were unique and I knew that some day I would try to write about them. Meanwhile, returning to the States, I became a back-to-the-lander and built a cabin in the backwoods of New Hampshire where I basically cloned my life in Chile, living off-grid and over a mile from the nearest town-maintained road for over fifty years. When I mostly retired from the specialty wood company I started and built up over the years, I finally had the time to write. One For The Road took me five years and many rough manuscripts before it was finally published through Peace Corps Writers. Ostensibly a combination coming-of-age and love story, the book has been more aptly described by . . .

Review — DUSTY LAND by John Ashford (Botswana)

Mar 24 2018

Dusty Land: Stories of Two Teachers in the Kalahari John Ashford (Botswana 1990–92) Peace Corps Writers December, 2017 260 pages $13.00 (paperback) Reviewed by D.W. Jefferson (El Salvador 1974–76; Costa Rica 1976–77) • MANY RETURNED PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEERS (RPCVs) feel a need to share our stories of life in another country, and our often transformative experiences. Because most of our family, friends and coworkers just are not very interested, we find our audience in local RPCV groups and at RPCV conferences. John Ashford took the next step and filled his need by publishing two collections of stories. Dusty Land is the second of those story collections. The author and his wife Gen were midcareer and middle-aged professionals when they joined the Peace Corps and headed to the African nation of Botswana. This book of stories and his previous one, titled Meeting the Mantis – Searching for a Man . . .

New books by Peace Corps writers — February 2018

Mar 11 2018

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 are now including a one-sentence description — provided by the author — for the books listed here in hopes of encouraging readers 1) to order the book and 2) to volunteer to review it. See a book you’d like to review for Peace Corps Worldwide? Send a note to Marian at peacecorpsworldwide@gmail.com, and we’ll send you a copy along with a few instructions. • The Delight of Being Ordinary: A Road Trip with the Pope and the Dalai Lama by Roland Merullo (Micronesia 1979–80) Vintage March 2018 384 pages $17.00 (paperback), $26.95 (hard cover), $9.99 (Kindle) (Novel) A playful, eloquent, and life-affirming novel . . .

Review — TRAVELS IN SOUTH AMERICA by Lawrence Lihosit (Honduras)

Mar 11 2018

Rob Thurston (Venezuela 1968–70; staff: Belize, Honduras 1972–77 ) wrote . . . I recently read Lawrence Lihosit’s book Travels in South America and submitted a review on Amazon.com. I liked the book a lot, having been to many of the places he, his wife and sister-in-law traveled to in 1988. My late wife (Juanita Thurston (Venezuela 1968-70) and I took a similar trip right after our Peace Corps assignment in Venezuela (January 1970), then returned to work and live in Bolivia with USAID from 1980-85, just before Lawrence made his trip. Consequently, the account resonated with me. • Travels in South America by Lawrence F. Lihosit (Honduras 1975–77) CreateSpace Dec 2017 – second edition 418 pages $22.95 (paperback) This is not your normal travelogue, and once opened its hard to put down. In 1988 Lawrence Lihosit, his Mexican wife, Margarita, and sister-in-law, Licha, take the reader far beyond notable sites and historical . . .

Review — SPECTATORS by Rob Davidson (Grenada)

Feb 26 2018

Spectators (Flash Fiction) by Rob Davidson (Eastern Caribbean—Grenada, West Indies 1990-92) Five Oaks Press May 2016 56 pages $15.79 (paperback) Reviewed by D.W. Jefferson • This is a slender volume of only 56 pages, but, unlike a novel of similar length, it should not be a quick read. These essays deserve re-reading and study. Ultimately this book is about the compulsion to write or engage in other artistic endeavor, the need to give meaning to life by expressing oneself. For that which one cannot help but do becomes that which one must do. (from “Clean Pilgrim,” p. 7) Author Rob Davidson teaches creative writing. Spectators teaches writing and creative arts by example. Aspiring writers should read and re-read this collection of essays as they write their own essays, poems and chapters. Davidson’s essays are free verse poems, focusing on meaning rather than meter and rhyme, or portraits executed . . .

PC Sunset Positions

Feb 17 2018

Peace Corps – Sunset Positions

New books by Peace Corps writers — January 2018

Feb 08 2018

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 are now including a one-sentence description — provided by the author — for the books listed here in hopes of encouraging readers 1) to order the book and 2) to volunteer to review it. See a book you’d like to review for Peace Corps Worldwide? Send a note to peacecorpsworldwide@gmail.com, and we’ll send you a copy along with a few instructions. • Chasing Heisenberg: The Race for the Atom Bomb Michael Joseloff (Tunisia 1967–69) Amazon Publishing January 2018 148 pages $2.99 (Kindle) • Shade of the Paraiso: Two Years in Paraguay, South America – A Memoir Mark Salvatore (Paraguay 1989–91) Melbourne: Vine Leaves Press . . .

Reading and promoting Peace Corps writers

Jan 31 2018

From John Coyne: In this age of technology where we have fewer and fewer books and everyone walks around town with their eyes glued to iPhones, it does us all good to promote the books written by RPCVs about their experiences as Volunteers and as travelers in the world. To promote the story of the Peace Corps through nonfiction, fiction and poetry is the central reason why Marian Haley Beil and I started Peace Corps Writers & Readers back in the Seventies and continue that mission today on this website. I also take any opportunity I can to write about RPCV books. As a parttime travel writer for a Westchester, New York newspaper, I just published a short piece about five travel books by former Volunteers hoping to encourage sales and spread their knowledge of foreign counties. I’d suggest if you have a favorite RPCV book, try and get it . . .

New books by Peace Corps writers — December, 2017

Jan 17 2018

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 are now including a one-sentence description — provided by the author — for the books listed here in hopes of encouraging readers 1) to order the book and 2) to volunteer to review it. See a book you’d like to review for Peace Corps Worldwide? Send a note to peacecorpsworldwide@gmail.com, and we’ll send you a copy along with a few instructions. • Dusty Land: Stories of Two Teachers in the Kalahari John Ashford (Botswana 1990–92) Peace Corps Writers December, 2017 260 pages $13.00 (paperback) Although theses stories took place in the ’90s, they have a timelessness that sheds light onto our current times . . .

Review — FROM FREEBORN TO FREETOWN & BACK by Patrick R. O’Leary (Sierra Leone)

Jan 08 2018

From Freeborn to Freetown & Back by Patrick R. O’Leary (Sierra Leone 1966–68) Peace Corps Writers September 2016 146 pages $14.95 (paperback), $10.00 (Kindle) Reviewed by Mark D. Walker • THIS IS A WELL WRITTEN that brings back many memories, as I worked in Sierra Leone for three years. When twenty-two year old Patrick O’Leary stepped off the plane in Sierra Leone, West Africa in January 1967, he was dressed for the snow storm he had left in Freeborn County, Minnesota a few days earlier, so it didn’t take long for him to realize his rural Catholic upbringing, training for Tanzania — his original Peace Corps assignment — and an earlier road trip to Key West, Florida — in a Cadillac hearse — would be less than effective in preparing him for a two-year stint in Binkolo, a small village outside of Makeni in western Sierra Leone. One unique aspect of . . .

Review — ONE OF US by Sandi Giver (Uganda)

Jan 08 2018

One of Us: Sex, Violence, Injustice. Resilience, Love, Hope. by Sandi Giver (Uganda 2009–11) Peace Corps Writers June 2017 260 pages $14.95 (paperback) Reviewed by D.W. Jefferson (El Salvador 1974–76; Costa Rica 1976–77) • SANDI GIVER WAS A Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) in Uganda when she was raped by a member of the United States armed forces. This book is a memoir that started out as a written statement to the Naval Criminal Investigation Service (NCIS) about her rape. It took incredible courage for the author to tell her story, and she does so with a candor and attention to detail that is remarkable. In addition to the core story of the author’s rape and participation in two military trials, she includes information about her childhood, her work history prior to Peace Corps, being physically assaulted by her landlord in Uganda, and much more. It is a very far-reaching . . .

Author - Marian Haley Beil