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Imagonna: Peace Corps Memories by Julian Weldon Martin (Nigeria 1961–63) Createspace $10.00 (paperback) 240 pages 2012 Reviewed by John F. Fanselow (Nigeria 1961–63; Somalia staff 1966–68) When I read a book for a review I put post-its on pages that I want to return to after I finish reading the book. After reading the first twenty pages of Julian’s memories, I noticed,  that I had pasted post-its on every other page! As I read on, I kept pasting post-its, not only on every other page, but in some cases also on every page. I was unable to highlight important points and unimportant points because I found that each page contained worthwhile insights or questions, or both. While Julian repeats some themes — loneliness, the racism of some colleagues and his headmaster, his curiosity about the culture of his students and those in his community, limitations of his Peace Corps training, . . .

 My postman hates me. He has good reason. Every day he brings me bulky packages, books written by RPCVs. He doesn’t know that, of course. He thinks I’m a crazy e-bay buyer, that I’m getting lawn equipment for spring, or buying fire logs wholesale. But the other day I got a very small package, smaller than a ‘bread box’ as they use to say on “What’s My Line” for those old enough to recall. It looked kind-of cute, like a box of expensive chocolates (being close to Easter, you never know….I do have friends) but alas it was “yet another Peace Corps memoir” as my wife might say. Let me tell you now it was better than a box of chocolate! It is perhaps the best Peace Corps memoir that has come my way since Marian Beil and I started promoting Peace Corps writers in the late ’80s. Lyrical and poignant, . . .

Review of Thomas and Peter Weck’s The Lima Bear Stories: The Labyrinth The Lima Bear Stories: The Labyrinth Thomas and Peter Weck (Thomas Weck (Ethiopia 1965-67) Illustrated by Len DiSalvo Lima Bear Press, $15.95 30 pages 2012 Reviewed by Tony D’Souza (Ivory Coast 2000-02, Madagascar 2002-03) The Lima Bears are back in the fourth installment of the engaging series by father and son team Thomas and Peter Weck, along with illustrator Len DiSalvo. In The Labyrinth, the Weck’s lively, happy kingdom of Limalot, inhabited by the ever-friendly and teeny-tiny Lima Bears, is under-going regime change, a very timely story to tell in our election year! Good King Limalot Bear has grown too old for the throne, and having no son, he naturally decides to pass his scepter to his fair daughter, the lovely and kind Princess Belinda Bean. But not so fast, says the scheming Mean ol’Bean, a militaristic tiny . . .

The Lima Bear Stories Thomas Weck (Ethiopia 1965–67) and Peter Weck Illustrated by Len DiSalvo $15.95 (hardcover) • The Megasaurus 40 pages May 2011 • How Back-Back Got His Name 32 pages July 2011 • The Cave Monster 32 pages September 2011 Reviewed by Tony D’Souza (Ivory Coast 2000-02, Madagascar 2002-03) THOMAS AND PETER WECK, along with illustrator Len DiSalvo, have created a series of children’s books for 4–8 year olds called The Lima Bear Stories, three of which, The Megasaurus, How Back-Back Got His Name, and The Cave Monster, I have had the pleasure of reading to my two and three-year-olds over the past week. The stories, about a kingdom of lima bean-sized bears and a number of regular-sized animal friends of the bears, are based on stories Thomas told his children. The books are handsome and beautifully illustrated, and knowing what my children would do to the books . . .

One Hand Does Not Catch A Buffalo: 50 Years of Amazing Peace Corps Stories: Volume One, Africa Edited by Aaron Barlow (Togo 1988–1990); Series editor Jane Albritton (India 1967–1969) Travelers’ Tales May 2011 452 pages $18.95 Reviewed by Tony D’Souza (Ivory Coast 2000–2002, Madagascar 2002–2003) ONE HAND DOES NOT CATCH A BUFFALO: 50 Years of Amazing Peace Corps Stories: Volume One, Africa is the first of a series of four anthologies celebrating and recording Peace Corps’ accomplishments and contributions to the world through its first half century of life. The idea for this massive compendium came to Jane Albritton in 2007, and must have seemed to anyone willing to listen to her at the time an endeavor nearly as gargantuan, daunting, and Quixotic as the founding of the Peace Corps itself. Four volumes to cover the regions of the world where Volunteers have served — Africa, The Americas, The Heart . . .

When the World Calls: The Inside Story of the Peace Corps and Its First Fifty Years by Stanley Meisler (PC/HQ 1963-67) Beacon Press 272 pages February 2011 Reviewed by Robert B. Textor (PC/HQ 1961-62) STAN MEISLER’S “COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE” in writing this book is significant. During the mid-Sixties, he served as a member, and later deputy director, of the PC’s Evaluation Division, reporting to the legendary Charlie Peters. This evaluation function was initially conceived by Bill Haddad, one of the PC’s founders. Its purpose was to visit the PCVs in the field, and to identify problems before they became serious, so that corrective and preventive action could be taken. From the beginning, Haddad and Peters stressed that these evaluators should be journalists or lawyers. (It is no accident that Haddad was a journalist, and Peters was a lawyer). Their reports were to be brutally truthful, and interesting to read — and . . .

The Chronicle of Sargent Shriver  By Thomas Hebert (Nigeria 1962-64) Unlike the death of John or Robert Kennedy, Elvis Presley, the beginning of the 1968 North Vietnamese Tet Offensive, or the Watergate Break-in, I confess I can’t remember where I was when I learned of Sargent Shriver’s death. It’s taken some days for this passage to sink in, become knowable. But it comes back. You see, in an earlier time, I wrote a bit of something about this American and his contributions to our life. My words appear in a long-ago Job Application and a writing sample, below, which I included with it. The position: The National Chronicler (Senior Executive Service, by Presidential Appointment). Closing date: June  15, 1995. Unfortunately that Clinton-era initiative never went beyond seeking applicants. It was quickly submerged in Republican assaults on the Administration. Few remember the story. (The entire annotated Position Description will be published . . .

Darcy M. Meijer was a Peace Corps EFL teacher in Gabon, and has taught ESL for the past 25 years. She is also the editor of the Gabon Letter, the quarterly newsletter of the Friends of Gabon. Currently she is working in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, and spends cool summers in the Bay of Fundy, Canada. Here she reviews RJ Huddy’s first novel, The Verse of the Sword. • The Verse of the Sword R J Huddy (Morocco 1981–83) XPat Fiction September 2009 456 pages $17.50 Reviewed by Darcy M. Meijer (Gabon 1982–84) THE VERSE OF THE SWORD, RJ Huddy’s first novel, is a thoroughly enjoyable read. The book is funny, informative, and engaging on many levels. It’s time someone wrote a literary novel about the Middle East that faces religious extremism in a human, thoughtful way. Verse opens in an Intensive Care Unit in Boston, where . . .

Reviewer Cynthia Morrison Phoel’s first book of fiction, Cold Snap: Bulgaria Stories, will be published in June 2010 by Sourthern Methodist University Press. She holds degrees from Cornell University and the Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers. Her short stories have appeared The Missouri Review, The Gettysburg Review, and Harvard Review. She lives near Boston with her husband and three children. Cynthia has reviewed Doug Eadie’s The Blind Visionary for Peace Corps Worldwide. • The Blind Visionary by Doug Eadie (Ethiopia (1965–67) and Virginia Jacko Governance Edge January 2010 162 pages $19.95 Reviewed by Cynthia Morrision Phoel (Bulgaria 1994–96) ABOUT SIX MONTHS after I returned from the Peace Corps, I was diagnosed with retinal detachment. I was 25 at the time and an unlikely candidate for a condition that more commonly occurs in older people. Retinal detachment is a serious problem and can result in permanent vision loss. I had . . .