New books by Peace Corps writers | March — April 2024
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 or books!!!
This is an adventure tale that begins in 1567, Gardens of Plenty is a London orphan’s account of his 20-year, perilous search for paradise in the New World. Joseph Fields survives a disastrous voyage on one of England’s first slave ships, is captured and enslaved himself by warlike natives in New Spain (Mexico today). He and his future bride and fellow slave, a young Nahua woman, escape, but Joseph then becomes a fugitive as a heretic Protestant hunted by the Holy Inquisition. In picaresque fashion, he travels in various guises and occupations through a landscape swept by a deadly pandemic among indigenous tribes yet providing a bounty of silver for all those, like Joseph, in search of Eden.
The Swans at Tualoa
by Julian Auarles (Peace Corps Caribbean Training)
Dorrance Publishing
March 2024
540 pages
$32.00 (Paperback); $34.44 (Hardback)
A young man must discover through time and chance, passion and violence, much about his earth. Framed with imagery of continental birdlife, and suggesting the life of his friend Richard Trellimont, the tale is the story of a writer’s own being and coming of age.
Thriller
Blue Magic on Mushroom Island
David C. Edmonds (Chile 1963– 65)
Peace Corps Writers
April 2024
$16.99 (Paperback); $.99 (Kindle)
Add Blue Magic on Mushroom Island to the growing list of magical/realism/romance/ action/adventure thrillers in exotic places by David C. Edmonds!
Travel
Australia by Bus
by Steve Kaffen (Russia 1994-96)
Independently published
313 pages
April 2024
$4.99 (Kindle)
Australia is an ideal country to explore by bus. The country’s natural beauty and dramatic scenery, its historical and cultural sites, and its multiple cultures including those of the native Aborigines are found largely in rural areas along the coasts and in the vast interior of desert, rock, and windswept brush of the Outback — buses go to all of these places.
The Tales of Bismuth: Dispatches from Palestine, 1945-1948
By Jamie Kirkpatrick (Tunisia 1970-72)
Independently Published
March 2024
250 pages
$4.99 (Kindle); $21.00 (Paperback); $33.98 (Hardcover)
The Tales of Bismuth is the sequel to Jamie Kirkpatrick’s earlier novel, This Salted Soil. In that novel, Kirkpatrick introduced his readers to Declan Shaw, a young Irish journalist who is based in Tunisia and assigned to cover the Allied North African campaign against Nazi Germany. Upon completion of that journalistic assignment, Shaw goes to Palestine to cover events unfolding there.
Sci-fi Romance
Fallout: Near-future Science Fiction Romance
by Jon Kohl (Costa Rica 1993-95) & Kimberly K Comeau
Independently published
199 pages
April 2024
free (Kindle)
The story — American cities have been suffering increased domestic terrorism. Harry Longmeadow tries to ensure his own personal security from rising urban terrorism by fleeing Philadelphia and building a subterranean fallout shelter in the forests of north central Pennsylvania; but it’s his own insecurity, which he cannot flee, that nearly lands him in jail for homicide that he did not commit.
The Light over Lake Como
by Roland Merullo (Micronesia 1979-80)
Lake Union Publishing
June 2024
280 pages
$14.89 (Paperback), $4.99 (Kindle), 1 credit (Audiobook)
Two lovers separated in war-torn Italy struggle to reunite in a riveting and heartrending historical novel by the bestselling author of Once Night Falls and From These Broken Streets.
Historical fiction
A Thief in the African Night: The Conflicts of Change
by Joe Miano (Kenya 1972–75)
[Illustrator: Jeanette Pidi: Designer: Dania Zafar]
Peace Corps Writers
Nov 2020
223 pages
$19.95 (Paperback); $4.99 (Kindle)
My Peace Corps experienced in Meru, Kenya led me to write about its history relative to colonialism. The book centers on the historical Njage, who was an Ameru translator who was made chief by Butler Horne, the colonial who subdued Meru district, including an extensive history of Kenya from the first appearance of the white man up to just beyond WW I, and a look back at the Arab slave trade.
Historical fiction
The Scribe of Akari: Luxo Reveals the Secrets of Trinacria
Joe Miano [Cover Illustrator: Elena Cutrona; Interior Designer: Dania Zafar]
Peace Corps Writers
December 2022
358 pages.$24.99 (Paperback); $6.00 (Kindle)
A voyage from Bronze Age Sicily to the death of Archimedes, led by fictious cave inscriptions found in 2000 by Luxo, a contemporary of Archimedes, and a Muse who visits and helps the writer tell the fascinating story.
Deadlands: A Novel
by Victoria Miluch (Mexico 2019-20)
Lake Union Publishing
October 2023
254 pages
$16.99 (Paperback); $4.99 (Kindle); 1 credit (Audio Book)
From debut author Victoria Miluch comes the riveting story of a girl on the cusp of womanhood living in an arid wasteland and the encounter with two outsiders that upends her understanding of the world beyond it.
Vipers and Geckos–Defining Friend, Foe, and Truth in an Alien Land
Debra Pritchard (Philippines 2010–2012)
Independently published
February 2024
318 pages
$17.99 (paperback); $26.99 (hard cover); $1.99 (Kindle)
Vipers and Geckos is about cultural adaptation and begins with my Peace Corps interview and subsequent assignment in 2010. I was medically evacuated after 18 months but returned and spent 10 years more in the same town I had served in . . . Palawan, Philippines.
Come along with me on my raw and gritty tale – no sugar coating here – of my deep cultural appreciation (after many faux pas) living and working on a remote island in the Philippines, where Truth, Faith and Legend collide.
The Swans at Tualoa
by Julian Quarles (Peace Corps Caribbean Trainer)
Dorrance Publishing
March 2024
540 pages
$32.00 (Paperback); $34.44 (Hardback)
A young man must discover through time and chance, passion and violence, much about his earth. Framed with imagery of continental birdlife, and suggesting the life of his friend Richard Trellimont, the tale is the story of a writer’s own being and coming of age.
Peace Corps experience
The Adventures and Misadventures of an Early Peace Corps Volunteer: Colombia 1962–1965
Dan Taylor (Colombia 1962–65)
Independently published
March 2024
$16.95 (paperback) Village Books, Bellingham
A personal account of Dan’s experience working in three different Peace Corps sites in Colombia plus a year as volunteer leader, this book provides a detailed history of the early days of the Peaces Corps.
Peace Corps novel
The Narrow Window: A Novel
by Gary D. Wilson (Swaziland 1969-71)
Roundfire Books
296 pages
March 2024
$9.49 (Kindle); $16.72 (Paperback)
As the turbulent 1960s draw to a close, an inexplicable crime forces two young Americans who are teaching in Africa, and those around them, to confront issues of motivation, culture and belonging.
Travel
Asian Travels: 1967-75 — A photographic journey
Noel D Zinn (India 1967–69)
Independently published
Novemeber 2023
104 pages
$24.95 (paperback)
Noel’s eight-year photographic journey begins in South Asia as a Peace Corps volunteer in 1967 growing rice in India. After completing his service, he traveled to Nepal, Singapore, Bali, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Burma.
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