Search Results For -2009 books

Tony Zurlo understands a little about being a “farang” from his own experience as a “yang gui zi” (foreign devil) teaching in China (1990–91). He has published several books on nonwestern cultures and history, including books about China, Hong Kong, and Vietnam. His newest books of poetry are now available: Go Home Bones published by Pudding House Publications, about the effects of war on families and society; and Dali’s Clock, Schrodinger’s Cat, and a Pair of Dice published by Big Table Publishing Co., about the chaos of life in this new age of quantum and string theory. • Farang by Peter Blair (Thailand 1975–78) Pittsburg: Autumn House Press, 2009. $14.95 65 pages Reviewed by Tony Zurlo (Nigeria 1964–66) LIKE MOST PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEERS, Peter Blair had a passion for absorbing the culture of his host country. In Farang, a collection of thirty six poems, he offers a perceptive narrative in lyrical . . .

Reviewer Mark Brazaitis is the author of The Other Language: Poems (2009), winner of the ABZ Poetry Prize. He is also the author of three books of fiction, The River of Lost Voices: Stories from Guatemala, winner of the 1998 Iowa Short Fiction Award; Steal My Heart, a novel that won the Maria Thomas Fiction Award given by Peace Corps Writers; and An American Affair: Stories, winner of the 2004 George Garrett Fiction Prize. An audio version of one of his recent stories, “I Return,” is featured on the Cimarron Review’s Audio Library (http://cimarronreview.okstate.edu/169_sample3.html). • The Alchemist’s Kitchen by Susan Rich (Niger 1984–86) White Pine Press $16.00 96 pages May 1, 2010 Reviewed by Mark Brazaitis (Guatemala 1991–93) DON’T READ Susan Rich’s latest book on an empty stomach. Although The Alchemist’s Kitchen contains a wide, intelligent, and thought-provoking variety of poems, it does food better than most of the restaurants . . .

Christopher Conlon is a writer of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, and an editor. His first book of verse, Gilbert and Garbo in Love, won the 2004 Peace Corps Writers Prize for Best Poetry Book, while his Midnight on Mourn Street was a finalist for the Horror Writers Association’s 2008 Bram Stoker Award in the category of 1st Novel. As an editor, Conlon won the 2009 Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in an Anthology for his Richard Matheson tribute volume, He Is Legend, which is being reprinted by Tor in trade hardcover this September. Visit him online at ChristopherConlon.com. • The Gardener (Young Adult) by S.A. Bodeen (Tanzania 1989-90) [Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen] Feiwel and Friends May 2010 233 pages $16.99 Reviewed by Christopher Conlon (Botswana 1988-90) WHAT IS “Young Adult” literature, anyway? Many think of Young Adult books simply as novels for kids, like the old “Juvenile” category some of us oldsters . . .

Published author John Sherman (Nigeria/Biafra 1966–67; Malawi 1967–68; staff: PC/Washington 1970–71, 1975–77; PC/Ghana 1971–73) has a multi-faceted publishing company in Indiana that offers editorial services, and assists others publish and market their books. He also does pro bono work for charitable organizations, and keeps close attention on Africa, particularly Nigeria where he once was a PCV. Recently he returned to his first Peace Corps country and was kind enough to send me this “going home” account for our site. • IT’S ALWAYS A CHALLENGE to write about Nigeria. So much to say. Lamenting. Complaining. Defending. Speaking with sadness, rage, and excitement, often in the same conversation, hell, in the same sentence, about that wild, crazy, wonderful country. Nigeria and I have been in this dysfunctional, on-again/off-again relationship ever since I was a college senior. At times, I’ve tried to push it away, but failed, leaving it an integral part of . . .

Mohezin Tejani (Thailand 1979-80) is the author of  A Chameleon’s Tale: True Stories of a Global Refugee, and one of those hardy band of RPCVs writers who lives and works [mostly as travel writers] around the world, publishing on-line and in many travel magazines. He is also an award winning writer. For example.    The Solas Awards and BestTravelWriting.com were created by Travelers’ Tales,  a division of Solas House, Inc., a publisher of travel literature in Palo Alto, California. In 2004 they published their first collection of Best Travel Writing and in 2005 added The Best Women’s Travel Writing. In 2006 they launched the Solas Awards and BestTravelWriting.com to honor fine writing from the great travel storytellers.   Extraordinary stories about travel has been the cornerstones of their books since 1993. With the Solas Awards they honor writers whose work inspires others to explore. They look for the best stories about travel and the . . .

Aside from Peace Corps service in Honduras and years studying and working in Mexico, reviewer Lawrence F. Lihosit lived in a remote Alaskan fishing village for eighteen months. He has self-published seven books and as many pamphlets. Most recently, he partnered with iUniverse to publish Whispering Campaign; Stories from Mesoamerica and an expanded South  of the Frontera; A Peace Corps Memoir. The Long Trip Home By Brian D. Wyllie (Brazil, 1969-71) iUniverse, $12.95 99 pages January, 2009 Reviewed by Lawrence F. Lihosit (Honduras, 1975-77) Brian D. Wyllie offers a travelogue which portrays his youthful quest to see some of the world.  In so doing, he opens a peephole to an age when Americans were welcomed abroad and travel was possible for working men and women. We are also treated to a description of a world two generations ago: a classic example of witness literature. He also begins with introductory comments about . . .

Reviewer David A. Taylor is the author of three books, including Ginseng, the Divine Root, winner of the 2007 Peace Corps Writers Award for Travel Writing, and Success: Stories, a fiction collection finalist in the Library of Virginia’s 2009 Literary Awards. His recent book is Soul of a People: The WPA Writers’ Project Uncovers Depression America, selected as a Best Book of 2009 by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He wrote and co-produced a documentary film of Soul of a People, nominated for a 2010 Writers’ Guild award. Here David reviews Toby Lester’s The Fourth Part of the World • The Fourth Part of the World: The Race to the Ends of the Earth, and the Epic Story of the Map that Gave America Its Name by Toby Lester (Yemen 1988–90) Free Press $30.00 2009 Reviewed by David A. Taylor (Mauritania 1983–85) In The Fourth Part of the World, Toby Lester (Yemen . . .

Out this month is Matt Davis’s (Mongolia 2000–02) memoir of Mongolia, When Things Get Dark: A Mongolian Winter’s Tale. In a cover blurb Peter Hessler (China 1996–98) writes, “Matthew Davis’s portrait of Mongolia is riveting, insightful, and deeply honest.” Matt received his MFA from the University of Iowa’s Writing Program (other fine RPCV writers who graduated from this program are Richard Wiley (Korea 1967–69), Phil Damon (Ethiopia 1963–65), Bob Shacochis (Eastern Caribbean 1975–76), and John Givens (Korea 1967–69). At Iowa Matt was an Arts Fellow, a writer-in-residence at the Museum of Art, and a postgraduate Writing Fellow. Today Matt is a fellow and student at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C. On June 9, 2009 Peace Corps Worldwide published an interview I did with Matt about his book.  In the interview I asked Matt what other Peace Corps memoirs he had read and he replied, “Well, I’ve read Peter Hessler; George Packer; Tom Bissell; Sarah . . .

Reviewer Bryant Wieneke is the author of a series of suspense novels exploring the idea that a practical, effective and far less militaristic American foreign policy may be achieved through Peace Corps-like principles.  These novels are available at www.PeaceRosePublishing.com. • Thirteen Months of Sunshine Peace Corps Adventures in Ethiopia 1962–1964 by Patricia Summers-Parish (Ethiopia 1962–64) 199 pages $19.95 Publish America October 2009 Reviewed by Bryant Wieneke (Niger 1974–76) Thirteen Months of Sunshine made me wish I’d been a better Peace Corps Volunteer. Patricia Summers-Parish was living in Milwaukee in the summer of 1962 when she was inspired by President Kennedy to apply for the first Peace Corps program in Ethiopia.  Sent to an 8,000-foot-high, overgrown mountain village called Dessie, she taught English to eighth graders in a classroom with no books and innumerable flies.  It is the story of many Volunteers over the Peace Corps’ 50-year history, but the author’s . . .

Jeffrey Tayler (Morocco 1988-90; PC Staff/Poland 1992, Uzbekistan 1992-93) book Murderers in Mausoleums was picked as one of the best books of 2009 by Travel Channel’s Worldhum.com.

Bryant Wieneke is an assistant dean at a California university and has self published several novels. The latest, The Mission Priority, is the third in that series. A fourth will soon be published and a fifth is now being written. “It became a vehicle,” says Wieneke. “The two main characters have opposite foreign policy objectives.”  This latest book is reviewed by the intellectual tag-team of Lawrence Lihosit (Honduras 1975–77) and his son, Ezequiel. The first in this series by Wieneke, Priority One, was reviewed in 2005 on Peace Corps  Writers by David Gurr (Ethiopia 1962–64). • The Mission Priority by Bryant Wieneke Peace Rose Publishing 2009 335 pages $10.00 Reviewed by Lawrence  (Honduras 1975–77) and Ezequiel Lihosit Do you miss the Bush era colored coded paranoia? I sure do. That was even better than building fallout shelters during the 1960’s. I only wish they had introduced some kind of anti-terrorist uniform with cool patches, maybe a . . .

Martha Cooper (Thailand 1963-65) taught English in Thailand before journeying by motorcycle from Bangkok to London, where she earned a degree in ethnology from Oxford. Then she settled down in New York and went to work as a staff photographer for the New York Post. It was during this time, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, that she began to shoot some of the most famous photographs in the world. She spent several years photographing elevated subway lines from empty lots the rooftops of buildings in a crime ridden South Bronx, capturing New York City’s state of urban decay.  She was also able to gain the confidence of some of the most respected artists of this inner city community, such as DONDI, DURO, and LADY PINK. Assuming great risk, Cooper accompanied artists to train yards and lay-ups capturing many significant moments in aerosol art history. Taking these photos, Martha and Henry Chalfant assembled, Subway Art, a book . . .

Reviewer Don Messerschmidt (Nepal 1963-65) is an anthropologist, writer and former magazine editor. Besides numerous articles, he has published five books including two biographies, Against the Current: The Life of Lain Singh Bangdel-Writer, Painter and Art Historian of Nepal (Orchid Press 2004), and Moran of Kathmandu: Priest, Educator and Ham Radio ‘Voice of the Himalayas’ (Orchid Press, 1997; rev. ed. in press, 2010). His next book, Discovering the Big Dogs of Tibet and the Himalayas (in press, 2010), combines memoir and essay; and an anthology of his creative nonfiction is forthcoming. Don writes from his home near Portland, Oregon, when he’s not off leading treks in the Himalayas. Mosquito Conversations More Stories from the Upper Peninsula by Lauri Anderson (Nigeria 1965-67) North Star Press $14.95 139 pages July 2009 Reviewed by Don Messerschmidt (Nepal 1963-65) If ever there was a culture within a culture, it’s on Michigan’s “U.P.”, the Upper . . .