PEACE CORPS 50TH ANNIVERSARY 

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011 

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 

PEACE CORPS WRITERS’ BOOKS 

IN THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 

 

 

 

 

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 

PEACE CORPS WRITERS’ BOOKS 

IN THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

PEACE CORPS 50TH ANNIVERSARY, 

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

 Bibliographer: Rex A. Hudson

 Federal Research Division 

Library of Congress 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 

This bibliography owes its existence to an exchange of letters between Rep. John 

Garamendi (Ethiopia, 1966–68) and Dr. James Billington, the Librarian of Congress. In his letter 

of December 17, 2010 [see http://peacecorpsworldwide.org/pc-writers/files/2011/01/letter.pdf], 

the Honorable Rep. Garamendi asked Dr. Billington to mark the special 50th anniversary of the 

Peace Corps on September 22, 2011, “by establishing a collection of books about the Peace 

Corps experience written by former Peace Corps Volunteers and Peace Corps staff.” In response, 

the Librarian of Congress offered to develop “a bibliography of books and creative works by 

former volunteers that could be made available through the Library’s Web site.” 

The bibliographer (Rex A. Hudson, Bolivia, 1970–71) is grateful to the following Library 

of Congress persons: 

 Sabrina C. Thomas, Program Planning Specialist, Library Services, for managing 

this project so efficiently; 

 Brynda Joyce Harris of the Library’s Congressional Relations Office for 

conducting liaison with Congress; 

	 Cindy E. Moore, Office of the Librarian’s Chief of Staff, for creating the cover 

artwork and preparing the page layout for the printed version using Adobe’s 

InDesign software; 

 Roberta W. Goldblatt, Section Head, Federal Research Division, for supporting 

the project so helpfully; 

 William E. Kellum, Office of Special Initiatives (OSI), for coordinating the Website version of the bibliography; and 

	 Elizabeth Jenkins-Joffe, a Library recommending officer and a returned Peace 

Corps volunteer (Colombia, 1963–65), for reviewing a collection of books sent by 

Peace Corps writers to the office of Rep. Garamendi. 

The bibliographer acknowledges “The Bibliography of Books by Peace Corps Writers” 

(http://www.peacecorpswriters.org/pages/depts/resources/bibliog/bib.html). Edited by John 

Coyne and published by Marian Haley Beil, PeaceCorpsWriters.org is an associate of 

Amazon.com. The bibliographer relied on PeaceCorpsWriters.org as an authoritative guide for 

identifying most returned Peace Corps authors. However, he used the Library of Congress 

Catalog as the source of all bibliographic data. The bibliographer also acknowledges the 

publishers of the cited books for the book descriptions quoted in the annotations. 

ii 
NAMES OF CITED AUTHORS 

Adams, Jerome R...................................................................................................................... 1
 

Alter, Bernie .............................................................................................................................. 1
 

Anderson, Peggy........................................................................................................................ 1
 

Arias, Ron .................................................................................................................................. 1
 

Armstrong, Sara........................................................................................................................ 2
 

Arsenault, Emily ....................................................................................................................... 2
 

Banerjee, Dillon......................................................................................................................... 3
 

Barlow, Aaron ........................................................................................................................... 3
 

Barnett, Stephen........................................................................................................................ 3
 

Bissell, Tom................................................................................................................................ 3
 

Black, Bonnie Lee...................................................................................................................... 4
 

Boeder, Robert B....................................................................................................................... 5
 

Boldt, Lana McGraw................................................................................................................ 5
 

Bolles, Edmund Blair................................................................................................................ 5
 

Borg, Parker W., ....................................................................................................................... 5
 

Botkin, Daniel B. ....................................................................................................................... 6
 

Brazaitis, Mark ......................................................................................................................... 6
 

Brooks, Earle, and Rhoda Brooks........................................................................................... 7
 

Brown-Waite, Eve ..................................................................................................................... 7
 

Bubriski, Kevin ......................................................................................................................... 7
 

Buckler, Michael L.................................................................................................................... 7
 

Carrozzi, Craig J....................................................................................................................... 8
 

Carter, Jason ............................................................................................................................. 8
 

Carter, Lillian............................................................................................................................ 8
 

Carter IV, W. Hodding............................................................................................................. 8
 

Casebolt, Marjorie DeMoss...................................................................................................... 9
 

Cazacu, Lisa Fisher................................................................................................................... 9
 

Chayes, Sarah............................................................................................................................ 9
 

Chilson, Peter ............................................................................................................................ 9
 

Chura, Patrick......................................................................................................................... 10
 

Ciullo, James A........................................................................................................................ 10
 

Clark, Andrew F. .................................................................................................................... 10
 

Clarke, Thurston..................................................................................................................... 10
 

Clinton, Jerome W.................................................................................................................. 11
 

Coburn, Broughton................................................................................................................. 11
 

Cowan, Paul............................................................................................................................. 11
 

Cowan, Rachel......................................................................................................................... 11
 

Cumings, Bruce ....................................................................................................................... 12
 

Daley, Kevin Vincent .............................................................................................................. 12
 

Dambach, Charles F. (Chic)................................................................................................... 12
 

Daoust, Pamela (see Kincaid, Katharine)............................................................................. 12
 

Davidson, Rob ......................................................................................................................... 12
 

Davis, Matthew........................................................................................................................ 13
 

Destler, Ivo M.......................................................................................................................... 13
 

iii 
Deutschle, Phil......................................................................................................................... 14
 

D’Haem, Jeanne ...................................................................................................................... 14
 

Dintenfass, Mark..................................................................................................................... 14
 

Dirlam, Sharon........................................................................................................................ 14
 

Dodd, Christopher J. .............................................................................................................. 15
 

Donelson, Linda....................................................................................................................... 15
 

Dooling, Richard ..................................................................................................................... 15
 

D’Souza, Tony ......................................................................................................................... 15
 

Drew, Eileen............................................................................................................................. 16
 

Eckert, Carter J ...................................................................................................................... 16
 

Edmisten, Patricia Taylor ...................................................................................................... 16
 

Eggers, Ellen K........................................................................................................................ 17
 

Eggers, Paul............................................................................................................................. 17
 

Erdman, Sarah ........................................................................................................................ 17
 

Fisher, James F........................................................................................................................ 17
 

Frank, Robert H...................................................................................................................... 17
 

Fulton, Bruce ........................................................................................................................... 18
 

Givens, John ............................................................................................................................ 18
 

Godwin, Jack........................................................................................................................... 18
 

Goetzfridt, Nicholas J. ............................................................................................................ 18
 

Goodwin, Stefan ...................................................................................................................... 18
 

Grobel, Lawrence.................................................................................................................... 18
 

Hanner, Eloise ......................................................................................................................... 19
 

Hanson, Thor........................................................................................................................... 19
 

Haruf, Kent.............................................................................................................................. 19
 

Hazuka, Tom ........................................................................................................................... 19
 

Herrera, Susana ...................................................................................................................... 19
 

Hessler, Peter........................................................................................................................... 20
 

Highland, Frederick................................................................................................................ 20
 

Hillmann, Michael Craig........................................................................................................ 20
 

Hiltebrand, Ellen..................................................................................................................... 20
 

Hirsch, Jane Brown ................................................................................................................ 21
 

Hirst, Stephen.......................................................................................................................... 21
 

Holbrooke, Richard C. ........................................................................................................... 21 
 

Holloway, Kris......................................................................................................................... 21
 

Howard, Christopher R.......................................................................................................... 21
 

Howe, Herbert M. ................................................................................................................... 22
 

Hudson, Rex A......................................................................................................................... 22
 

Ingold, Doug ............................................................................................................................ 23
 

Jacobs, Mark ........................................................................................................................... 23
 

Jochum, John S. ...................................................................................................................... 24
 

Johnson, Shelton ..................................................................................................................... 24
 

Kehmeier, Norman and Dorothy........................................................................................... 24
 

Khalil, Dawn Stutzman .......................................................................................................... 24
 

Kitterman, Barry .................................................................................................................... 24
 

Kempers, Anne Grimshaw..................................................................................................... 25
 

iv 
Kennedy, Geraldine ................................................................................................................ 25
 

Kincaid, Katharine ................................................................................................................. 25
 

Klein, Henry ............................................................................................................................ 25
 

Klein, Robert ........................................................................................................................... 25
 

Kleymeyer, Charles D............................................................................................................. 26
 

Kluge, Paul F. .......................................................................................................................... 26
 

Krasner, Stephen D................................................................................................................. 26
 

Kwitny, Jonathan.................................................................................................................... 27
 

Larson, Charles R. .................................................................................................................. 27
 

Leamer, Laurence................................................................................................................... 27
 

Lefcourt, Peter......................................................................................................................... 28
 

Levitt, Leonard........................................................................................................................ 28
 

Levy, Michael .......................................................................................................................... 28
 

Limbert, John W..................................................................................................................... 28
 

Linden, Anne Bates................................................................................................................. 28
 

Lipez, Richard......................................................................................................................... 29
 

Lorentz, John H. ..................................................................................................................... 29
 

Lowerre, Susan........................................................................................................................ 29
 

Lowther, Kevin G.................................................................................................................... 29
 

Luz, Susan [Corry].................................................................................................................. 29
 

MacBean, James Roy.............................................................................................................. 30 
 

MacDougall, David ................................................................................................................. 30
 

MacKinnon, Colin................................................................................................................... 30
 

Magnarella, Paul J.................................................................................................................. 31
 

Mair, Victor Henry ................................................................................................................. 31
 

Mankiewicz, Frank ................................................................................................................. 31
 

Maren, Michael ....................................................................................................................... 31
 

Margolin, Phillip ..................................................................................................................... 31
 

Martin, Bradley K................................................................................................................... 32
 

Maskarinec, Gregory G.......................................................................................................... 32
 

Matsen, Brad ........................................................................................................................... 32
 

Matthews, Christopher........................................................................................................... 33 
 

McCann, David R.................................................................................................................... 33
 

McCauley, William ................................................................................................................. 33
 

McLaurin, Tim........................................................................................................................ 33
 

McNeely, Jeffrey A.................................................................................................................. 33
 

McQuillan, Karin.................................................................................................................... 34
 

Meek, Sandra........................................................................................................................... 34
 

Meisler, Stanley....................................................................................................................... 35
 

Meijer, Darcy Munson............................................................................................................ 35 
 

Merullo, Roland ...................................................................................................................... 35
 

Messinger, Delfi....................................................................................................................... 35
 

Meyer, Michael........................................................................................................................ 36
 

Miles, William F. S.................................................................................................................. 36
 

Miller, Christopher L. ............................................................................................................ 36
 

Mills, Nick B. ........................................................................................................................... 37
 

v 
Monninger, Joseph.................................................................................................................. 37
 

Moran, Michael....................................................................................................................... 39
 

Morton, Fred ........................................................................................................................... 39
 

Morrow, Baker H.................................................................................................................... 39
 

Moyers, Bill.............................................................................................................................. 39
 

Mueller, Marnie ...................................................................................................................... 39
 

Müller, Karin........................................................................................................................... 40
 

Murray, Charles...................................................................................................................... 40
 

Neelon, Ann ............................................................................................................................. 41
 

Nemeth, David J...................................................................................................................... 41
 

Newman, Paul.......................................................................................................................... 41
 

Niedenthal, Jack...................................................................................................................... 41
 

Noyes Mass, Leslie .................................................................................................................. 41
 

O’Hanlon, Michael E.............................................................................................................. 42
 

Omang, Joanne........................................................................................................................ 42
 

Orth, Maureen......................................................................................................................... 42
 

Osborn, Donald Zhang ........................................................................................................... 43
 

O’Toole, Thomas..................................................................................................................... 43
 

Packer, George ........................................................................................................................ 43
 

Pastor, Robert A...................................................................................................................... 44
 

Peirce, Leslie P. ....................................................................................................................... 45
 

Perkins, John........................................................................................................................... 45
 

Pfunder, Malcolm ................................................................................................................... 46
 

Pope, Carl D. ........................................................................................................................... 46
 

Quigley, Kevin F. F. ................................................................................................................ 46
 

Radelet, Steven ........................................................................................................................ 46
 

Restle, Barbara........................................................................................................................ 47
 

Ricks, Thomas M. ................................................................................................................... 47
 

Ridgell, Reilly .......................................................................................................................... 47
 

Roadarmel, Paul...................................................................................................................... 47
 

Robinson, Michael Edson....................................................................................................... 48
 

Robson, Lucia St. Clair .......................................................................................................... 48
 

Rosen, Barry............................................................................................................................ 49
 

Rosenberg, Robert .................................................................................................................. 49
 

Ross, Mark C........................................................................................................................... 49
 

Rubio, Gwyn Hyman .............................................................................................................. 50
 

Rush, Norman ......................................................................................................................... 50
 

Sadow, Sue ............................................................................................................................... 51
 

Sagafi-nejad, Nancy Black ..................................................................................................... 51
 

Saltonstall, Katharyn W......................................................................................................... 51 
 

Scanlon, Thomas J. ................................................................................................................. 52
 

Scheper-Hughes, Nancy.......................................................................................................... 52
 

Schmidt, Monique Maria ....................................................................................................... 52
 

Schwab, Peter .......................................................................................................................... 52
 

Searles, P. David...................................................................................................................... 53
 

Shacochis, Bob......................................................................................................................... 53
 

vi 
Shannon, John......................................................................................................................... 54
 

Shea, Christina ........................................................................................................................ 54
 

Sheeley, Ellen R....................................................................................................................... 55
 

Shriver, Sargent ...................................................................................................................... 55
 

Shurtleff, Bill ........................................................................................................................... 55
 

Skelton, Jr., James W. ............................................................................................................ 56
 

Smith, Charlie ......................................................................................................................... 56
 

Smith, Ed ................................................................................................................................. 56
 

Smith, Daniel Jordan.............................................................................................................. 56
 

Smith, Mary-Ann Tirone........................................................................................................ 56
 

Sobania, Neal W...................................................................................................................... 57
 

Sochaczewski, Paul Spencer [formerly Wachtel]................................................................. 57
 

Spaulding, Marcy L. ............................................................................................................... 57
 

Stearman, Allyn MacLean ..................................................................................................... 57
 

Stockley, Grif........................................................................................................................... 58
 

Storti, Craig............................................................................................................................. 58
 

Sullivan, Mark T. .................................................................................................................... 59
 

Sumner, Melanie ..................................................................................................................... 60
 

Suziedelis, Saulius Augustinas ............................................................................................... 60
 

Swiller, Josh............................................................................................................................. 60
 

Szumowski, Margaret C......................................................................................................... 61
 

Tayler, Jeffrey ......................................................................................................................... 61
 

Taylor, David A....................................................................................................................... 63
 

Textor, Robert B. .................................................................................................................... 64
 

Theroux, Paul .......................................................................................................................... 64
 

Thomas, Maria ........................................................................................................................ 66
 

Thomsen, Moritz..................................................................................................................... 66
 

Tidwell, Mike........................................................................................................................... 67
 

Toner, Jim................................................................................................................................ 67
 

Townson, Annabelle................................................................................................................ 68
 

Tsongas, Paul E. ...................................................................................................................... 68
 

Unger, Marvin H..................................................................................................................... 68
 

Vestal, Theodore M................................................................................................................. 68
 

Vila, Bob................................................................................................................................... 68
 

Warren, Dennis M. ................................................................................................................. 68
 

Waters, Tony ........................................................................................................................... 69
 

Watson, Elsa ............................................................................................................................ 69
 

White, Virginia P. ................................................................................................................... 69
 

Wiley, Richard......................................................................................................................... 69
 

Wilfong Holt, Lorissa.............................................................................................................. 70
 

Wilson, Angene Hopkins, and Jack Wilson.......................................................................... 70
 

Worrick, Roberta (see Thomas, Maria)................................................................................ 71
 

Wyss, Susi ................................................................................................................................ 71
 

Zelitch, Simone........................................................................................................................ 71
 

Zimmerman, Jonathan........................................................................................................... 71
 

vii 
PREFACE 

This is a selected bibliography of authors with Peace Corps service—primarily former 

volunteers but also nine former staff members (two of whom were also former volunteers). The 

two main categories are nonfiction (70 percent) and fiction (30 percent). The nonfiction authors 

include anthropologists, biologists, conservationists, political and social scientists, professors, 

and even a few politicians and former ambassadors. Although “the Peace Corps experience” is a 

core component of this annotated bibliography, the niche category of memoirs accounts for less 

than a quarter of the cited 284 books. In the fiction category, only about 15 percent of the 284 

books may reflect the Peace Corps experience; they include 31 novels and 10 collections of short 

stories. (Children’s books are included in a separate bibliography.) 

Whatever the subject, these books are representative of the creativity, scholarship, and 

knowledge of the developing world of authors with Peace Corps service. As such, they attest to 

the formative influence that Peace Corps service in 83 countries in the developing world had on 

the authors. Of the 233 authors/editors cited in this bibliography, only about a quarter are female; 

they authored mostly memoirs, novels, and short stories. In addition to those categories, the male 

authors also wrote numerous general works of nonfiction. 

This selected bibliography attempts to be representative of authors with Peace Corps 

service whose books are in the Library of Congress collections. In addition to more than 550 

books searchable using the “Peace Corps” keyword, these collections include many other books 

authored by returned Peace Corps volunteers or former staff members. (A few titles marked with 

an asterisk (*) are currently unavailable.) This bibliography does not reflect any official 

endorsement or policy position by the Library of Congress or the U.S. government in general; 

the bibliographer alone was responsible for compiling it. 

The citations are listed alphabetically and in accordance with the Chicago Manual of 

Style (16th ed.). Country and years of Peace Corps service in parentheses follow the initial 

reference to an author. The sources for the Peace Corps service information are the 

“Bibliography of Books by Peace Corps Writers” of PeaceCorpswriters.org, and the National 

Peace Corps Association’s Directory of the Peace Corps Community (2006). Each book cited 

also has a Library of Congress Control Number (LCCN) Permalink, which takes the reader to the 

Library’s complete bibliographic metadata for the book. Unless the subject of the book is evident 

by its title, a brief annotation, usually provided by the publisher, follows the citation. 

viii 
 

 

 “We are torchbearers of a vital tradition—that of shedding light in the mythical heart of 

darkness.” 

—Novelist Bob Shacochis (Eastern Caribbean, 1975–76)1 

Adams, Jerome R. (Colombia, 1963–65). Liberators, Patriots, and Leaders of Latin America: 32 

Biographies. 2nd ed. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co., Publishers, 2010. 

Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2009049834 

Adams, Jerome R. Notable Latin American Women: Twenty-Nine Leaders, Rebels, Poets, 

Battlers, and Spies, 1500–1900. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co., 1995. 

Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/94040310 

Alter, Bernie (India, 1967–69), and Pat Alter (Paraguay, 1970–72), eds. Gather the Fruit One 

by One: 50 Years of Amazing Peace Corps Stories.* 1st ed. Palo Alto, California: Solas 

House/Travelers Tales, 2011. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2011005702 

Publisher’s summary: An anthology of stories about the work of Peace Corps volunteers 

in Latin America, ranging “from overland journeys to the Amazon Basin, into a village in 

Honduras terrorized by insurgent forces, and to the ball fields of Ecuador for an unusual 

game of béisbol.” 

Anderson, Peggy (Togo, 1962–64). Nurse: The True Story of Mary Benjamin, R.N. New York: 

St. Martin’s Press, 1978. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/78003994 

Publisher’s description: “The national bestseller—over two million copies sold. A 

shocking, inspirational bestseller, Nurse is the story of eight weeks in the life of a nurse 

in a large urban hospital. It is all here: the joy and pain, the death and drama, the 

mistakes, successes, and secrets. Nurse reads like a novel, but sticks in the memory like 

real experience—because it is.” 

Arias, Ron (Peru, 1963–64). Five Against the Sea: A True Story of Courage and Survival. New 

York: New American Library, 1989. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/89035187 

Publisher’s summary: “An account of the five-month nightmare of five Costa Rican 

fishermen, who survived against almost insurmountable odds and were rescued at sea 

after a journey of 4,500 miles.” 

1

 As quoted in part by John Coyne, “Peace Corps Prose: Ours Alone to Make,” December 16, 

2010, Peacecorpsworldwide.org, http://peacecorpsworldwide.org/pc-writers/2010/12/16/why-peace-corps-writers/. 

1
Arias, Ron. Moving Target: A Memoir of Pursuit. Tempe, Arizona: Bilingual Press/Editorial 

Bilingüe, 2003. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2002026164 

Subject: This is a biography of the author’s parents, particularly his father, Armando, 

who was a prisoner of war in Korea. It is also a memoir of the author’s development as a 

writer, from a chance encounter with Hemingway in Pamplona to a course in English 

literature in Argentina taught by Jorge Luis Borges. 

Armstrong, Sara (Uganda, 1966–68). The Shattered Pearl: An Odyssey of Service, Savagery and 

Survival. Victoria, B.C.: Trafford, 2001. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2004463302 

Publisher’s description: “The Shattered Pearl is an account of the ten years the author 

spent in Uganda. It begins with an inside look at Peace Corps training in 1966 against the 

backdrop of the civil rights movement. Sara finds herself the only black Peace Corps 

trainee in a group of 150. Once in Uganda, Sara teaches science and math and travels 

around East Africa with her Peace Corps friends observing the natural beauty and 

abundant wildlife in the game parks. They even attempt to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. In 

April 1968, Sara marries a Ugandan, James Wanambwa; resigns from the Peace Corps 

and begins a new life. Their son Edward is born in 1970. James is trying to start a dairy 

farm and Sara is still teaching. On January 25, 1971, Idi Amin Dada overthrows the 

government of Milton Obote and plunges Uganda into a cycle of terror and bloodshed. 

Even the birth of their daughter, Lillian, in 1972 only temporarily distracts Sara and 

James from the tragedy that is unfolding. During the next five years, the situation 

worsens. Sara moves about the country freely, seeing many things that are not reported in 

the press. She lives as an ordinary Ugandan but sees the events from an American 

viewpoint, including the Israeli raid on Entebbe Airport. Finally, in 1977, Sara and James 

decide that they must leave Uganda if they are to retain their sanity and give their 

children a chance for a normal life. They go through the harrowing process of getting 

permission to leave the country, procuring travel documents, and finally are forced to 

leave overland when the airport becomes too dangerous to use. They arrive safely in the 

USA, tired, relieved and saddened to have witnessed the shattering of the Pearl of 

Africa.” 

Arsenault, Emily (South Africa, 2004–06). The Broken Teaglass: A Novel. New York: 

Delacorte Press, 2009. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2008039167 

Publisher’s description: “The dusty files of a venerable dictionary publisher...a hidden 

cache of coded clues...a story written by a phantom author...an unsolved murder in a 

gritty urban park—all collide memorably in Emily Arsenault’s magnificent debut, at once 

a teasing literary puzzle, an ingenious suspense novel, and an exploration of definitions: 

of words, of who we are, and of the stories we choose to define us. In the maze of 

cubicles at Samuelson Company, editors toil away in silence, studying the English 

language, poring over new expressions and freshly coined words—all in preparation for 

the next new edition of the Samuelson Dictionary. ...Mona has just made a startling 

discovery: a trove of puzzling citations, all taken from the same book, The Broken 

2
 
Teaglass. ... Charged with wit and intelligence, set against a sweetly cautious love story, 

The Broken Teaglass is a tale that will delight lovers of words, lovers of mysteries, and 

fans of smart, funny, brilliantly inventive fiction.” 

Banerjee, Dillon (Cameroon, 1994–96). The Insider’s Guide to the Peace Corps: What to Know 

before You Go. 2nd ed. Berkeley, California: Ten Speed Press, 2009. Library of Congress 

Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2008043720 

Publisher’s description: “In this candid guide, experienced Peace Corps volunteers give 

the complete lowdown on all anyone needs to know before applying and volunteering, 

examining everything from the highly competitive application process to living like a 

local to Peace Corps rules and policy. The only handbook of its kind, this pragmatic 

manual provides answers that cannot be found anywhere else. Containing the latest 

information and resources on Peace Corps programs, this is an essential reference for 

anyone contemplating the ‘toughest job you’ll ever love.’” 

Barlow, Aaron, ed. (Togo, 1988–90). One Hand Does Not Catch a Buffalo: 50 Years of Amazing 

Peace Corps Stories: volume one, Africa.* Jane Albritton (India, 1967–69), Series ed. 

1st ed. Palo Alto, California: Travelers’ Tales, 2011. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2010054339 

 Silver Award in the Travel Division, 2011 Independent Publisher Book Awards 

Summary: The first of a series of four anthologies celebrating and recording Peace Corps 

volunteers’ accomplishments and anecdotes, this one is devoted to volunteers in Africa. 

Barnett, Stephen (Sierra Leone, 1976–78). The Road to Makokota: A Novel. San Francisco: 

MacAdam/Cage, 2003. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2003014113 

Publisher’s description: “The Road to Makokota is set in a war-torn former British colony 

in present-day West Africa. Craig Allan Hammond, a black American, returns to Africa 

to find his former love, Oussumatu Turay, and her son—his son—Abu. Sixteen years 

earlier, Hammond left Oussu and Abu in Makokota after completing a road-building 

project; she was nineteen when he left, and his son only a few weeks old. He has not seen 

them since. Now the country is decimated by a civil war. Wracked by guilt and fear, 

Hammond needs to find mother and son and bring them out of the killing zone to 

safety—in order to save himself. Hammond scours refugee camps in the French-speaking 

country across the border from Makokota. Having no success, he journeys with a Polish 

nurse deep into the ravaged land and its violent and dismal reality. Before his journey is 

over, he will learn that you can’t find anything until you’ve lost everything.” 

Bissell, Tom (Uzbekistan, 1996–97). Chasing the Sea: Being a Narrative of a Journey through 

Uzbekistan, including Descriptions of Life Therein, Culminating with an Arrival at the 

Aral Sea, the World’s Worst Man-made Ecological Catastrophe, in one Volume. 1st ed. 

New York: Pantheon Books, 2003. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2003042032 

 Peace Corps Writers Best Travel Writing Award winner, 2004 

3
 
Publisher’s description: “In 1960, the Aral Sea was the size of Lake Michigan: a huge 

body of water in the deserts of Central Asia. By 1996, when Tom Bissell arrived in 

Uzbekistan as a naïve Peace Corps volunteer, disastrous Soviet irrigation policies had 

shrunk the sea to a third its size. Bissell lasted only a few months before complications 

forced him to return home, but he had already become obsessed with this beautiful, brutal 

land. Five years later, Bissell convinces a magazine to send him to Central Asia to 

investigate the Aral Sea’s destruction. There, he joins forces with a high-spirited young 

Uzbek named Rustam, and together they make their often-wild way through the ancient 

cities—Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara—of this fascinating but often misunderstood part 

of the world. Slipping more than once through the clutches of the Uzbek police, who 

suspect them of crimes ranging from Christian evangelism to heroin smuggling, the two 

young men develop an unlikely friendship as they journey to the shores of the devastated 

sea. ...Sometimes hilarious, sometimes powerfully sobering, Chasing the Sea is a 

gripping portrait of an unfamiliar land and the debut of a gifted young writer.” 

Bissell, Tom. The Father of All Things: A Marine, His Son, and the Legacy of Vietnam. 1st ed. 

New York: Pantheon Books, 2007. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2006049427 

Publisher’s description: “In April 1975, as Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese Army, 

John Bissell, a former Marine officer living in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, was 

glued to his television. Struggling to save his marriage, raise his sons, and live with his 

memories of the war in Vietnam, Bissell found himself racked with anguish and horror as 

his country abandoned a cause for which so many of his friends had died. Opening with a 

gripping account of the chaotic and brutal last month of the war, The Father of All Things 

is Tom Bissell’s powerful reckoning with the Vietnam War and its impact on his father, 

his country, and Vietnam itself. Through him, we learn what it was like to grow up with a 

gruff but oddly tender veteran father who would wake his children in the middle of the 

night when the memories got too painful. Bissell also explores the many debates about 

the war, from whether it was winnable to Ho Chi Minh’s motivations to why America’s 

leaders lied so often. Above all, he shows how the war has continued to influence 

American views on foreign policy more than thirty years later. At the heart of this book is 

John and Tom Bissell’s unforgettable journey back to Vietnam. As they travel the 

country and talk to Vietnamese veterans, we relive the war as John Bissell experienced it, 

visit the site of his near-fatal wounding, and hear him explain how Vietnam shaped him 

and so many of his generation.” 

Black, Bonnie Lee (Gabon, 1996–98). Somewhere Child. New York: Viking Press, 1981. 

Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/81065273 

Publisher’s biographical note: “Casting caution to the wind at the age of fifty, New York 

caterer and food writer Bonnie Lee Black decided to close her catering business and join 

the Peace Corps. Posted to the tiny town of Lastoursville in the thickly rain-forested 

interior of Gabon, Central Africa, Bonnie taught health, nutrition, and cooking, in French, 

primarily to local African women and children.” 

4
 
Boeder, Robert B. (Malawi, 1965–66). Malawi. World Bibliographic Series. Oxford, England; 

Santa Barbara, California: Clio Press, 1979. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/83233802 

Boldt, Lana McGraw (Marshall Islands, Micronesia 1967–69). Flower of the Pacific. New 

York: Bantam Books, 1984. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2007566824 

Summary: A novel of war in the Pacific in 1941, beginning at Pearl Harbor, as told by 

four friends, one of whom becomes Tokyo Rose. 

Bolles, Edmund Blair (Tanzania, 1966–68). Babel’s Dawn: A Natural History of the Origins of 

Speech. Berkeley, California: Counterpoint, 2011. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2011012335 

Babel’s Dawn is a saga covering six million years. Like a walk through a natural history 

museum, Bolles demonstrates how members of the human lineage came to speak. 

Beginning with a scene of the last common ancestor ignoring a bird as it flies by, he 

guides us through generations, illuminating how it became possible for two Homo 

sapiens to not only acknowledge the songbird, but to also discuss the meaning of its song. 

Tracing the rise of voluntary vocalizations as well as the first word, phrases, and 

sentences, Bolles works against the common belief that the reason apes cannot speak is 

they are not smart enough. In this groundbreaking work, Bolles proposes that we now 

have substantial evidence that this age-old idea can no longer stand. With concrete 

portrayals of living individuals interwoven with evidence, data, and theory, Babel’s 

Dawn is a powerful account of a great scientific revolution.” 

Bolles, Edmund Blair. Einstein Defiant: Genius versus Genius in the Quantum Revolution. 

Washington, DC: Joseph Henry Press, 2004. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2003023735 

Publisher’s synopsis: “Quantum mechanics was perhaps the single greatest scientific 

discovery of twentieth-century physics. But the man who was arguably the greatest 

physicist of them all, Albert Einstein, struggled with the theory, seeking a more complete 

explanation of the physical phenomena that scientists were observing. Einstein’s 

reluctance to embrace the quantum ultimately pitted him against another great genius of 

the era, Niels Bohr, a pragmatist who readily accepted a theory that allowed for 

unpredictability. Einstein stubbornly insisted on a deeper understanding. This contest of 

visions ripped through the scientific community, giving rise to one of the most 

impassioned debates of modern physics.” 

Borg, Parker W., Maureen J. Carroll, Patricia MacDermot Kasdan, and Stephen W. Wells, eds. 

(all Philippines, 1961–63). Answering Kennedy’s Call: Pioneering the Peace Corps in 

the Philippines.* Oakland, California: Peace Corps Writers, 2011. Library of Congress 

Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2010943323 

5
 
Publisher’s description: “Fifty years after President Kennedy signed the 1961 Executive 

Order creating the Peace Corps, nearly 100 former volunteers who joined the new 

organization in the first year for service in the Philippines recall why they joined, what 

they experienced, and how this service in the Philippines affected their lives. ...The 

Peace Corps program in the Philippines was the first in Asia. Three factors set it apart 

from others during the early years of the Peace Corps’ existence. First, it was the largest 

program in the world, absorbing 25 per cent of all volunteers at the beginning. Second, all 

volunteers in the first years were assigned to be “teacher’s aides,” a position that was 

never clearly defined and that the Country Director later admitted was a “non-job.” And 

third, the Philippine program occurred in a nation that only fifteen years earlier had 

become independent from the United States.... This history gave the Philippine program 

a distinctly different political and social dynamic from what was the case in all of the 

other early Peace Corps countries.... The stories illustrate varying degrees of integration 

into the local culture, different ways of coping with the frustrations of their “non-job,” 

and what many learned as they came to terms with themselves living far from familiar 

comforts on a salary of about $55 per month. Above all the stories tell of the 

determination and spirit of these early volunteers in establishing a strong basis for one of 

the important first Peace Corps programs.” 

Botkin, Daniel B. (Philippines, 1962–64). Strange Encounters: Adventures of a Renegade 

Naturalist. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, 2003. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2003050118 

Publisher’s description: “Daniel B. Botkin, the coauthor of one of the most widely 

adopted textbooks on environmental science, uses this narrative of his adventures to 

illuminate the complex and ever-changing relationship between human beings and their 

environment.” 

Brazaitis, Mark (Guatemala, 1991–93). The River of Lost Voices: Stories from Guatemala. 

Series: Iowa Short Fiction Award. Iowa City, Iowa: University of Iowa Press, 1998. 

Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/98024437 

 Winner of the 1998 Iowa Short Fiction Award 

Summary: This is a collection of short stories based on the daily lives of Guatemalans. 

Brazaitis, Mark. Steal My Heart: A Novel. Van Neste Books, 2000. Library of Congress 

Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/99046825 

 Winner of the 2001 Maria Thomas Fiction Award presented by Peace Corps Writers 

Subject: This is a tragicomedy set in Guatemala. Carlton James, an American ex-pat 

pickpocket and swindler, targets tourists visiting Panajachel. As a gringo, he escapes 

suspicion, at least until a detective-turned-farmer teams up with a local Peace Corps 

volunteer and solves the case. However, James and his female Indian accomplice resist 

arrest, with tragic consequences. 

6
 
Brooks, Earle, and Rhoda Brooks (Ecuador, 1962–64). The Barrios of Manta: A Personal 

Account of the Peace Corps in Ecuador. Illustrations by Rhoda Smith Brooks, New 

York: New American Library, 1965. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/65022670 

Summary: Two older married volunteers “describe their training, experiences, and 

afterthoughts of two years of community development and teaching for the Peace Corps 

in a coastal fishing town of Ecuador.” 

Brown-Waite, Eve (Ecuador, 1988–89). First Comes Love, Then Comes Malaria: How a Peace 

Corps Poster Boy Won My Heart and a Third-World Adventure Changed My Life. 1st ed. 

New York: Broadway Books, 2009. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2008022034 

Publisher’s description: “After meeting John, her [Peace Corps] recruiter, Eve embarks 

on a journey that leads her from New York to Ecuador to Uganda. She is both gung-ho 

and hesitant about each step, thinking about what she might be leaving behind by leaving 

the comfort of the United States for a poor town in Ecuador or a part of Uganda that U.S. 

officials are not even allowed to enter because of the danger. ... In the process, she sheds 

light on important social causes and dangerous situations and introduces us to a few of 

the people who are working to make the world a better place.... First Comes Love, Then 

Comes Malaria is a memoir about love, perseverance, sacrifice, hard work, and the fact 

that a few dedicated people really can make a difference.” 

Bubriski, Kevin (Nepal, 1975–79). Pilgrimage: Looking at Ground Zero. Afterword by Richard 

B. Woodward. 1st ed. New York: PowerHouse Books, 2002. Library of Congress 

Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2002068434 

Publisher’s description: “In the weeks immediately following September 11, Kevin 

Bubriski made four pilgrimages to the World Trade Center site from his home in 

Vermont to witness and record the impact of the tragedy. Like so many who had 

experienced the events from a distance, Bubriski was driven to visit Ground Zero in an 

attempt to come to terms with the horrifying scenes reported on television and in the 

papers. At the barricades surrounding the site, Bubriski found people experiencing not 

only a remarkable sense of community, but also the deepest kind of personal reflection on 

loss and mortality.” 

Bubriski, Kevin. Portrait of Nepal. Introduction by Arthur Ollman. San Francisco: Chronicle 

Books, 1993. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/92015439 

Publisher’s description: “Familiar with Nepal from living and working in remote villages 

there, Bubriski returned in 1984 and produced this in-depth portrait of a people and 

culture quickly changing in the face of modern intrusions.” 

Buckler, Michael L. (Malawi, 2006–08). From Microsoft to Malawi. Lanham, Maryland: 

Hamilton Books, 2011. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2010937529 

7
 
 

Publisher’s description: “In this compelling narrative, Michael L. Buckler draws readers 

into the challenging, yet rewarding world of the Peace Corps. Inspired by his journals, the 

book recounts his life as a Peace Corps teacher after a heartbreaking divorce and a 

demanding legal career prompted him to make a change. Assigned to a village school in 

Malawi, Buckler opens his tiny home to three boys, embarking with them on a journey of 

cross-cultural discovery, personal sacrifice, and transformative growth. Determined to 

help his village, Buckler collaborates with community leaders to build a boarding school 

for girls. As momentum builds, a powerful bureaucrat tries to shut down the project and 

Buckler becomes discouraged. As he agonizes over whether to leave, the village takes 

matters into its own hands in a moving display of the persistent, courageous spirit of 

Malawi.” 

Carrozzi, Craig J. (Colombia, 1978–80). The Road to El Dorado. San Francisco: Southern Trails 

Publishing, 1997. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/97091717 

Subject: This is a fictional story of a Peace Corps volunteer who struggles “to gain the 

trust of a tough group of juvenile delinquents and the guards and administration of a 

detention facility in Colombia.” 

Carter, Jason (South Africa, 1998–2000). Power Lines: Two Years on South Africa’s Borders. 

Washington, DC: National Geographic Society, 2002. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2002022370 

 Peace Corps Writers Paul Cowan Nonfiction Award winner, 2003 

Subject: As a Peace Corps volunteer, Jason Carter, the grandson of former president 

Jimmy Carter, spent two years with a rural family in a former black homeland near the 

Swaziland border. Power Lines is the author’s story of a community’s quest to dissolve 

deep racial barriers. 

Carter, Lillian (India, 1967–69), and Gloria Carter Spann. Away from Home: Letters to My 

Family. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1977. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/77008433 

Subject: At the age of 68, Lillian Carter (1898–1983), the mother of former President 

Jimmy Carter, joined the Peace Corps and served in India. 

Carter IV, W. Hodding (Kenya, 1984–86). A Viking Voyage: In which an Unlikely Crew 

Attempts an Epic Journey to the New World. 1st ed. New York: Ballantine Books, 2000. 

Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/00701282 

Publisher’s summary: A Viking Voyage is the author’s account of how he reenacted Leif 

Eriksson’s voyage a thousand years ago from Greenland to North America to fulfill a 

childhood obsession. 

8
 
Casebolt, Marjorie DeMoss (Guatemala, 1988–91). Margarita: A Guatemalan Peace Corps 

Experience. 1st ed. Gig Harbor, Washington: Red Apple Publisher, 2000. Library of 

Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/00131293 

Publisher’s description: “In 1988 the author was assigned to serve in the Peace Corps as a 

nutritionist in a health center in southeastern Guatemala. In her field of home economics 

and education, she started women’s groups, taught public health in local schools, and 

worked at the health center with Guatemalan medical interns and with a nurse, especially 

weighing and measuring babies. Since her name Marjorie could not be translated into 

Spanish, everyone called her Margarita. In her two years of living and working in the 

small, poverty-stricken village of Llano Grande, she felt totally accepted because of the 

wonderful people.” 

Cazacu, Lisa Fisher (Romania, 2002–04), and Rosemary Colgrove. Bread, Salt, & Plum 

Brandy: A True Story of Love and Adventure in a Foreign Land. 1st ed. San Diego, 

California: Aventine Press, 2009. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2009924678 

Publisher’s description: “Bread, Salt & Plum Brandy is an insightful and eye-opening 

account of Lisa Fisher Cazacu’s odyssey as a Peace Corps volunteer in post-communist 

Romania. With humor and pathos, Lisa shares her experiences, and her relationship with 

a charming young lawyer from Bucharest, who experienced first-hand the horrors of 

Nicolae Ceausescu’s reign of terror. Often humorous, sometimes heartbreaking, this 

collection of observations and experiences offers a unique insight into the journey of a 

Peace Corps volunteer, and the indomitable spirit of the Romanian people.” 

Chayes, Sarah (Morocco, 1984–86). The Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan After the 

Taliban. New York: Penguin Press, 2006. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2006043499 

Summary: The Punishment of Virtue is the author’s account of her four years in 

Afghanistan, first as a National Public Radio reporter covering the Taliban in 2002 and 

then as a manager of a nonprofit founded by President Hamid Karzai’s warlord brother. 

Chilson, Peter (Niger, 1985–87). Disturbance-Loving Species: A Novella and Stories. Boston: 

Houghton Mifflin, 2007. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2007004210 

Publisher’s description: “In the tradition of Paul Theroux, Peter Chilson’s fiction debut 

delivers a fascinating, heart-wrenching view of modern African culture, filtered through 

the lens of the West. The collection explores the experiences of Americans struggling to 

cope with life in Africa, and of Africans acclimating to life in the United States. In a 

novella and four short stories, Chilson uses a phrase borrowed from biology to point out 

how our “disturbance-loving species” thrives in the most chaotic, seemingly 

uninhabitable situations. In the opening novella, an idealistic young college graduate 

teaching in Niger witnesses his colleague’s abduction by soldiers at gunpoint. “American 

9
 
Food,” winner of the Gulf Coast Prize for fiction, finds a West African professor trying to 

preserve his culinary customs while living in a small Oregon town.” 

Chilson, Peter. Riding the Demon: On the Road in West Africa. Athens: University of Georgia 

Press, 1999. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/98023609 

Subject: This nonfiction travel memoir focuses on Niger, a country without railroads or 

domestic airlines, where the roads are the only lifeline. 

Chura, Patrick (Lithuania, 1992–94). Thoreau the Land Surveyor. Gainesville, Florida: 

University Press of Florida, 2010. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2010007782 

Author’s summary: According to the author, Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) made more 

than 165 professional surveys that “resolved ownership disputes, aided in the laying out 

of Concord’s roads, regularized notoriously erratic property lines in Middlesex County, 

and plotted off large stretches of woodland for sale and cutting.” One of Thoreau’s last 

surveys was of the Concord River where he “took literally thousands of river soundings, 

sometimes returning to the same spot hourly to check on barely measurable fluctuations 

of the water level.” 

Ciullo, James A. (Venezuela, 1969–71). Orinoco. Five Star Publisher, 2007. 1st ed. Library of 

Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2007008154 

Publisher’s summary: “Marialena Morales, a young college student, becomes a CIA 

agent after September 11, 2001, and is assigned to Venezuela, where she happens upon 

the ambush of two U.S. senators.” Unknown adversaries have assassinated one senator 

and kidnapped the other, who is Joe LaCarta, the novel’s protagonist. The plot of this 

mystery/suspense novel unfolds along Venezuela’s mysterious Río Orinoco. 

Clark, Andrew F. (Senegal, 1978–81), and Lucie Colvin Phillips. Historical Dictionary of 

Senegal. 2nd edition, Metuchen, New Jersey: Scarecrow Press, 1994. Library of Congress 

Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/93027031 

Clarke, Thurston (Tunisia, 1968). Ask Not: The Inauguration of John F. Kennedy and the 

Speech That Changed America. 1st ed. Henry Holt and Co., 2004. Library of Congress 

Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2003067720 

Publisher’s description: Ask Not is a detailed account of the week leading up to JFK’s 

inaugural speech that provided inspiration for the Peace Corps.” [“And so, my fellow 

Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your 

country.”] 

Clarke, Thurston. Searching for Paradise: A Journey among the Last Real Islands. New York: 

Ballantine Books, 2001. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2002283351 

10
 
Subject: The author recounts his island-hopping around the oceans of the world from Más 

a Tierra [Isla Juan Fernández] (Daniel Defoe’s inspiration for Robinson Crusoe) to Jura 

in the Hebrides, where George Orwell wrote 1984. 

Clarke, Thurston. Equator: A Journey. 1st ed. New York: Morrow, 1988. Library of Congress 

Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/88005197 

Summary: Following in the footsteps of Mark Twain, the author recounts his travels 

through the equatorial countries of French Guiana, Brazil, Ecuador, Gabon, Zaire 

(present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo), Sumatra, Borneo, Christmas Island 

(Kiritimati), and Abermama. 

Clinton, Jerome W. (Iran, 1962–64), Donald L. Stilo, and Kamran Talattof. Modern Persian: 

Spoken and Written. 1st ed. 2 v. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1991. 

Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2004115007 

Subject: “Volume I emphasizes speaking and understanding, and Volume 2 focuses on 

the written language.” 

Coburn, Broughton (Nepal, 1973–75). Everest: Mountain without Mercy. Washington, DC: 

National Geographic Society, 1997. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/97010765 

Subject: “The author traces (and photographs) each step of the Mount Everest expedition 

of David Breashears, the first American to scale Everest twice.” 

Coburn, Broughton. Nepali Aama: Life Lessons of a Himalayan Woman. New York: Anchor 

Books, 1995. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/94023630 

Summary: While living in teaching school in a farming village on the edge of Nepal’s 

Himalayan Mountains in 1973, Coburn developed a unique friendship with 

a septuagenarian native widow named Vishnu Maya Gurung. Illustrated with his own 

photos, Nepali Aama is Coburn’s account of his experiences living, working, and 

traveling with Aama. 

Cowan, Paul (Ecuador, 1966–67). The Making of an Un-American; A Dialogue with 

Experience. New York: Viking Press, 1970. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/72083251 

Subject: After describing his experience working in the Black ghetto in the first half of 

his book, the author recounts his experience as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ecuador. 

Cowan, Rachel (Ecuador, 1966–67). Growing Up Yanqui. New York: Viking, 1975. Library of 

Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/75016334 

11
 
Publisher’s description: “The author recounts her life as a Peace Corps volunteer in 

Ecuador, and other related experiences, describing how she changed from being a naive 

believer in United States foreign policy to a critic of it.” 

Cumings, Bruce (South Korea, 1967–69). Korea’s Place in the Sun: A Modern History. New 

York: W. W. Norton, 2005. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2006276040 

Publisher’s description: “Bruce Cumings traces the growth of Korea from a string of 

competing walled city-states to its present dual nationhood. He examines the ways in 

which Korean culture has been influenced by Japan and China, and the ways in which it 

has subtly influenced its more powerful neighbors. Cumings also considers the recent 

changes in the South, where authoritarianism is giving way to democracy, and in the 

North, which Cumings depicts as a “socialist corporatist” state more like a neo-Confucian 

kingdom than a Stalinist regime. Korea’s Place in the Sun does much to help Western 

readers understand the complexities of Korea’s past and present.” 

Daley, Kevin Vincent (Samoa, 1986–89). South Pacific Survivor: In Samoa. 1st ed. Boston: 

NovelsPlus, 2009. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2009935316 

Publisher’s description: “An assassin decapitates a U.S. congressman in American Samoa 

then enters independent Samoa for other targets. Polynesian beauty Pua, the sole agent of 

the Samoan Secret Service, must protect their national leader—her grandfather. With an 

anti-colonial chip on her shoulder and a black belt to back it up, she faces Ken, a downon-his-luck CIA agent. They close in on each other and the warrior-assassin as they race 

to discover Robert Louis Stevenson’s secret. It leads to evidence that could reignite civil 

war, which a shadowy chief tries to do.” 

Dambach, Charles F. (Chic) (Colombia, 1967–69); introduction by Congressman John 

Garamendi (Ethiopia, 1966–68); foreword by Peter Yarrow. Exhaust the Limits: The Life 

and Times of a Global Peacebuilder. Baltimore, Maryland: Apprentice House, 2010. 

Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2010022705 

Publisher’s description: “Inspired by the leaders, causes, and music of his youth, Chic 

Dambach set out to change the world. This is the fascinating life story of a ‘60s antiwar 

and free speech leader who remained true to his values and helped build a more peaceful 

world. Along the way, he witnessed the torture of a black football teammate, he led a 

strike for his Peace Corps training group, his best friend and mentor was murdered, he 

donated a kidney to save his son's life, faced financial ruin, helped end two major wars in 

Africa, and created the first Global Symposium of Peaceful Nations. Exhaust the Limits is 

a compelling adventure story and road map for idealists young and old.” 

Daoust, Pamela (see Kincaid, Katharine). 

Davidson, Rob (Grenada, 1990–92). Field Observations: Stories. Columbia: University of 

Missouri Press, 2001. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2001023364 

12
 
 Peace Corps Writers Maria Thomas Fiction Award winner, 2002 

Publisher’s description: “Field Observations, the debut fiction collection from Rob 

Davidson, contains stories about people who find themselves at difficult turning points in 

their lives—times when they are faced with hard choices, broken promises, and the fear 

of self-destruction. Davidson’s characters are diverse: a retired math teacher, an 

auto[mobile] repair worker, a technical writer, a nurse living overseas. What connects 

them is the way Davidson renders each character with essential human dignity, regardless 

of his or her flaws. This collection addresses such contemporary concerns as love 

relationships, cultural interaction, divorce, aging, and alcoholism in a lively, sometimes 

offbeat way. ... “A Private Life” renders a young Peace Corps volunteer grappling with 

her loneliness in a foreign country, with a sense of exposure and violation. ...Rendered in 

clean, smooth prose with sharply observed details and driven by Davidson’s fine ear for 

dialogue, these stories poignantly capture the difficult in-between states that trouble 

people every day. Fully defined and evocatively written, this collection addresses 

important real-life issues and concerns.” 

Davis, Matthew (Mongolia, 2000–02). When Things Get Dark: A Mongolian Winter’s Tale. 1st 

ed. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2010. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2009039232 

Publisher’s description: “At 23, Matt Davis moved to a remote Mongolian town to teach 

English. What he found when he arrived was a town—and a country—undergoing 

wholesale change from a traditional, countryside existence to a more urban, modern 

identity. When Things Get Dark documents these changes through the Mongolians Matt 

meets, but also focuses on the author’s downward spiral into alcohol abuse and 

violence—a scenario he saw played out by many of the Mongolian men around him. 

Matt’s self-destruction culminates in a drunken fight with three men that forces him to a 

hospital to have his kidneys X-rayed. He hits bottom in that cold hospital room, his body 

naked and shivering, a bloodied Mongolian man staring at him from an open door, the 

irrational thought in his head that maybe he is going to die there. His personal struggles 

are balanced with insightful descriptions of customs and interactions, and interlaced with 

essays on Mongolian history and culture that make for a fascinating glimpse of a 

mysterious place and people.” 

Destler, Ivo M. (Nigeria, 1961–63), and Ivo H. Daalder. In the Shadow of the Oval Office: 

Profiles of the National Security Advisers and the Presidents They Served: From JFK to 

George W. Bush. 1st Simon & Schuster hardcover ed. New York: Simon & Schuster, 

2009. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2008040699 

Publisher’s description: “Who are these people, the powerful officials who operate in the 

shadow of the Oval Office, often out of public view and accountable only to the 

presidents who put them there? Some remain obscure even to this day. But quite a 

number have names that resonate far beyond the foreign policy elite: McGeorge Bundy, 

Henry Kissinger, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice. Ivo Daalder and 

Mac Destler provide the first inside look at how presidents from John F. Kennedy to 

13
 
George W. Bush have used their national security advisers to manage America’s 

engagements with the outside world. They paint vivid portraits of the fourteen men and 

one woman who have occupied the coveted office in the West Wing, detailing their very 

different personalities, their relations with their presidents, and their policy successes and 

failures.” 

Deutschle, Phil (Nepal, 1977–80). Across African Sand: Journeys of a Witch Doctor’s Son-inLaw. 1st ed. Salem, Oregon: DIMI Press, 2000. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/99067881 

Subject: This is a former Peace Corps volunteer’s account of his experience cycling in the 

Kalahari Desert. 

Deutschle, Phil. The Two Year Mountain: The Gripping Story of One Man’s Spiritual and 

Physical Odyssey in the Mountains of Nepal. New York: Universe Books, 1986. Library 

of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/86040206 

D’Haem, Jeanne (Somalia, 1968–70). The Last Camel: True Stories about Somalia. 

Lawrenceville, New Jersey: Red Sea Press, 1997. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/97008108 

 Winner of the 1998 Paul Cowan Nonfiction Award given by Peace Corps Writers 

Publisher’s description: “The Last Camel is a collection of stories about the people who 

live in a little village in Northern Somalia. These are compelling tales about African 

spirits, clever women, untouchable Midgaans, sagacious elders who struggle with modern 

technology, bandits, and a few goats. The stories are embellished; each one illustrates a 

special aspect of Somali culture. The tales are told by a young American Peace Corps 

teacher who lived alone in the village of Arabsiyo in Northern Somalia in the late 60s. 

The village had no electricity, no telephone, no reliable water supply, and little food. The 

Somali villagers who were born in Arabsiyo, and the American who came to live among 

them, struggled mightily to understand each other and the changing world about them. 

The book reveals the complex hearts and minds of the Somali people because it was 

written by a young woman who slept among the camels, spoke the language, starved, 

smiled, and savored life in Africa.” 

Dintenfass, Mark (Ethiopia, 1964–66). Make Yourself an Earthquake: A Novel. Boston: Little, 

Brown, 1969. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/69012631 

Note: This is the first of the author’s half-dozen novels published during 1969–86, all of 

which are in the Library of Congress collection. 

Dirlam, Sharon (Russia/Far East, 1996–98). Beyond Siberia: Two Years in a Forgotten Place. 

Santa Barbara, California: McSeas Books, 2004. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2004302995 

14
 
Publisher’s description: “Sharon Dirlam and John McCafferty were Peace Corps 

volunteers in Birobidjan, capital of the Jewish Autonomous Region of Russia, a place 

that was cut off from foreigners for most of the twentieth century. The Russians they 

came to know, their relationships with these two Americans and with each other, and the 

passions and intrigues of the people around them are the heart of this true story.” 

Dodd, Christopher J. (Dominican Republic, 1965–67), and Larry Bloom. Letters from 

Nuremberg: My Father’s Narrative of a Quest for Justice. 1st ed. New York: Crown 

Publishing Group, 2007. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2007013380 

Summary: Former Sen. Christopher J. Dodd’s account of his father’s service as a staff 

lawyer in the Nuremberg trial for crimes against humanity draws on Thomas J. Dodd’s 

nightly letters to his wife, Grace. 

Donelson, Linda (Cameroon, 1965–66; Ghana, 1966–67). Out of Isak Dinesen: Karen Blixen’s 

Untold Story. Foreword by Don Mowatt; afterword by Anne Born. Iowa City, Iowa: 

Coulsong; Chicago: [distributor] IPG, 1998. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/98072165 

 RPCV [Returned Peace Corps Volunteer] Writers & Readers’ Paul Cowan Nonfiction 

Award, 1996 

 Writer’s Digest Grand Prize 

Subject: This is a nonfiction biography of Karen Blixen (1885–1962), also known by her 

pseudonym, Isak Dinesen, Danish author of the classic novel Out of Africa. Subjects 

include Blixen’s home in Kenya; Kenyan social life and customs, 1895–1963; and 

Kenyan intellectual life in the twentieth century. 

Dooling, Richard (Sierra Leone). White Man’s Grave. 1st ed. New York: Farrar, Straus, and 

Giroux, 1994. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/93037427 

 National Book Award Finalist 

Publisher’s description: “When Peace Corps volunteer Michael Killigan goes missing in 

West Africa [Sierra Leone], his father Randall and his best friend Boone Westfall begin 

separate quests to find him. Randall, a bankruptcy lawyer, is the warlord of his world, a 

shark in a fishbowl, exercising power with mad, relentless, hilarious glee; Boone, an 

American innocent abroad, journeys to the African bush, protected by the twin charms of 

the passport and the almighty dollar. In seeking Michael, both men find much more than 

they bargain for.” 

D’Souza, Tony (Côte d’Ivoire, 2000–02; Madagascar, 2002–03). The Konkans. 1st ed. 

Orlando, Florida: Harcourt, 2008. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2007015303 

Publisher’s description: “Francisco D’Sai is a firstborn son of a firstborn son—all the 

way back to the beginning of a long line of proud Konkans. Known as the “Jews of 

India,” the Konkans kneeled before the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama’s sword and 

15
 
before Saint Francis Xavier’s cross, abandoned their Hindu traditions, and became 

Catholics. In 1973, Francisco’s Konkan father, Lawrence, and American mother, Denise, 

move to Chicago, where Francisco is born. His father, who does his best to assimilate 

into American culture, drinks a lot and speaks little. But his mother, who served in the 

Peace Corps in India, and his uncle, Sam (aka Samuel Erasmus D’Sai), are passionate 

raconteurs who do their best to preserve the family’s Konkan heritage. Friends, allies, and 

eventually lovers, Sam and Denise feed Francisco’s imagination with proud visions of 

India and Konkan history.” The author loosely based his novel on his mother’s Peace 

Corps service in India (1969–70). 

D’Souza, Tony. Whiteman. 1st ed. Orlando, Florida: Harcourt, 2006. Library of Congress 

Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2005025459 

 Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters 

 Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist for First Fiction 

Publisher’s summary: “Whiteman is the author’s debut novel about a maverick American 

relief worker caught in a violent conflict in an Ivory Coast village, which he refuses to 

abandon despite the cut-off of his funding.” It is also about a white man’s assimilation 

into Ivorian village culture. 

Drew, Eileen (Zaire, 1979–81). Blue Taxis: Stories about Africa. Foreword by Rosellen Brown. 

Minneapolis, Minnesota: Milkweed Editions, 1989. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/89012595 

 Milkweed National Fiction Prize, 1989 

 New York Times Notable Book, 1989 

Publisher’s note: “Stories deal with the interaction between native Africans and 

American diplomats, volunteer workers, and missionaries.” 

Eckert, Carter J. (South Korea, circa 1968–72). Offspring of Empire: The Koch’ang Kims and 

the Colonial Origins of Korean Capitalism, 1876–1945. Seattle: University of 

Washington Press, 1991. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/90047159 

Publisher’s summary: “Focusing his study on one powerful clan of Korean businessmen, 

Eckert examines the extent to which Japanese imperialism molded modern Korean 

capitalism.” 

Edmisten, Patricia Taylor (Peru, 1962–64). Nicaragua Divided: La Prensa and the Chamorro 

Legacy. Pensacola: University of West Florida Press, 1990. Library of Congress 

Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/89027505 

Subject: This book is about Nicaraguan politics and government during 1979–90 and 

more specifically about the struggle for press freedom by the Chamorro family, which 

owned the La Prensa newspaper. 

16
 
 

Eggers, Ellen K. (Malaysia, 1976–78). Historical Dictionary of Burundi. 3rd ed. Lanham, 

Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 2006. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2006013959 

Eggers, Paul (Malaysia, 1976–78). Saviors. 1st ed. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1998. Library of 

Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/98015452 

 Winner of the Maria Thomas Fiction Award, 2000 

Publisher’s description: “In a tale that combines the clash of cultures, the lure of the 

exotic, and the brutal reality of a refugee’s life into a memorable human comedy, we 

come to understand what it means to be an American. The saviors of this witty novel set 

in a Vietnamese refugee camp are a pair of Americans who find themselves fomenting 

rebellion.” 

Erdman, Sarah (Côte d’Ivoire, 1998). Nine Hills to Nambonkaha: Two Years in the Heart of an 

African Village. 1st ed. New York: Henry Holt, 2003. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2003044955 

 Winner of the Peace Corps Writers Paul Cowan Nonfiction Award, 2004 

Publisher’s description: The author, a longtime Peace Corps worker based in 

Washington, D.C., paints “a portrait of a resilient African village, ruled until recently by 

magic and tradition, now facing modern problems and responding, often triumphantly, to 

change. As a Peace Corps volunteer, the author was the first Caucasian to venture to 

Nambonkaha since the French colonialists... Lyrical and topical, Erdman’s beautiful 

debut captures the astonishing spirit of an unforgettable community.” 

Fisher, James F. (Nepal, 1962–64). Sherpas: Reflections on Change in Himalayan Nepal. 

Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/89027155 

Publisher’s description: The author “traces the trajectory of contemporary Sherpa society 

reeling under the impact of modern education and mass tourism, and assesses the 

Sherpa’s concerns for their future and how they believe these problems should be and 

eventually will be resolved.” 

Frank, Robert H. (Nepal, 1966–68), and Ben S. Bernanke. Principles of Economics. 2nd ed. New 

York: McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2011. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2008024670 

Frank, Robert H. Microeconomics and Behavior. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2010. Library 

of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2009022661 

Publisher’s description: “Robert Frank’s Microeconomics and Behavior covers the 

essential topics of microeconomics while exploring the relationship between economics 

analysis and human behavior. The book’s clear narrative appeals to students, and its 

numerous examples help students develop economic intuition. This book introduces 

17
 
modern topics not often found in intermediate textbooks. Its focus throughout is to 

develop a student’s capacity to ‘think like an economist.’” 

Fulton, Bruce (South Korea, 1978–79). The Red Room: Stories of Trauma in Contemporary 

Korea. Trans. By Bruce and Ju-Chan Fulton. Foreword by Bruce Cumings. Honolulu: 

University of Hawai’i Press, 2009. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2009020882 

Givens, John (South Korea, 1967–69). Irish Walled Towns. Dublin: Liffey Press, 2008. Library 

of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2008428272 

Publisher’s summary: “Presents the story of each of 20 key settlement areas throughout 

Ireland is told. Illustrated with contemporary photographs as well as historical maps and 

drawings, this book explores an aspect of Ireland’s history and heritage. It profiles towns 

and cities including Athenry, Athlone, Carlingford, Carrickfergus, Cashel, Clonmel, 

Cork, and Derry.” 

Givens, John. The Plum Rains & Other Stories. Dublin: Liffey, 2010. Library of Congress 

Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2010444321 

Publisher’s summary: “It’s Japan. The last decade of the seventeenth century. Men who 

lived by the sword find themselves without a vocation while women begin to confront 

new opportunities and threats hitherto unimaginable. This title includes the stories that 

portray this colourful but remote world.” 

Godwin, Jack (Gabon, 1982–84). The Arrow and the Olive Branch: Practical Idealism in U.S. 

Foreign Policy. Foreword by Leon E. Panetta. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger Security 

International, 2008. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2007038904 

Goetzfridt, Nicholas J. (Fiji, 1983–85). Indigenous Literature of Oceania: A Survey of Criticism 

and Interpretation. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1995. Library of Congress 

Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/94037081 

Goodwin, Stefan (Nigeria, 1965–67). Africa in Europe. 2 v. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington 

Books, 2009. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2008024523 

Publisher’s description: “Vol. 1: Antiquity into the Age of Global Exploration; Vol. 2: 

Interdependencies, Relocations, and Globalization.” 

Grobel, Lawrence (Ghana, 1968–71). The Art of the Interview: Lessons from a Master of the 

Craft. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2004. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2004004664 

Publisher’s description: “Lawrence Grobel is the author of well-received biographies of 

Truman Capote, Marlon Brando, James Michener, and the Huston family.... Now, in The 

18
 
 

Art of the Interview, he offers step-by-step instruction on all aspects of nailing an 

effective interview...from research and question writing to final editing....” 

Hanner, Eloise (Afghanistan, 1971–73; Paraguay, 1999–2000). Letters from Afghanistan. 

Boston: Branden Books, 2003. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2002153045 

Publisher’s description: “The year was 1971...The Russian hadn’t invaded and the 

Taliban didn’t exist. Eliose Hanner now takes us back to a simpler time and shares her 

story as a young teacher, living in Afghanistan as an American Peace Corps volunteer. 

Her letters to her mother bring to life the challenges she and her husband faced living as 

young volunteers and let us experience for ourselves the people and the customs of 

Afghanistan.” 

Hanson, Thor (Uganda, 1993–95). The Impenetrable Forest: My Gorilla Years in Uganda. 

Warwick, New York: 1500 Books, 2008. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2009279184 

Publisher’s description: “For two years, Thor Hanson lived in a remote village on the 

edge of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest where he worked with the local trackers to save one 

of the world’s most magnificent endangered species, the mountain gorilla. He survived 

the local moonshine, baboons stealing his vegetables and army ants attacking in his sleep 

with grace and good humor. In The Impenetrable Forest, Thor offers an unforgettable 

glimpse into the world of mountain gorillas and the African cultures that surround them.” 

Hanson is also author of Feathers: The Evolution of a Natural Miracle (New York: Basic 

Books, 2011). 

Haruf, Kent (Turkey, 1966–68). Plainsong. New York: Alfred A. Knopf: Distributed by 

Random House, 1999. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/99015606 

 Recipient of the John Dos Passos Prize for Literature 

Publisher’s description: “The interwoven lives of a community in Colorado. The 

characters include two cattle farmers who take in a girl, thrown out of her house for 

becoming pregnant. The novel describes the girl’s impact on their lives, both men being 

bachelors.” 

Hazuka, Tom (Chile, 1978–80). In the City of the Disappeared: A Novel. 1st ed. Bridgehampton, 

New York: Bridge Works Publisher, 2000. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/99055391 

Subject: This is historical fiction involving Americans and the Peace Corps in Chile 

during the military regime of 1973–88. 

Herrera, Susana (Cameroon, 1992–94). Mango Elephants in the Sun: How Life in an African 

Village Let Me Be in My Skin. Boston: Shambhala, 1999. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/98041764 

19
 
 Winner of the 2000 Paul Cowan Nonfiction Award given by Peace Corps Writers 

Publisher’s description: “When the Peace Corps sends Susana Herrera to teach English in 

northern Cameroon, she yearns to embrace her adopted village and its people...and to 

forget a bitter childhood and painful past. To the villagers, however, she is a rich 

American tourist, a nasara (white person) who has never known pain or want. They stare 

at her in silence.... Gradually, Susana and the village become part of each other. They 

will never be the same again.” 

Hessler, Peter (China, 1996–98). River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze. 1st ed. New York: 

HarperCollins, 2000. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/00049872 

 Peace Corps Writers Paul Cowan Nonfiction Award winner, 2002 

Publisher’s description: “Records the author’s experiences as a Peace Corps English 

teacher in the small Chinese city of Fuling, during which time he witnessed such events 

as the death of Deng Xiaoping, the return of Hong Kong to the mainland, and the 

construction of the Three Gorges Dam.” 

Hessler, Peter. Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory. 1st ed. New 

York: Harper, 2010. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2009027502 

Publisher’s description: “In this penetrating narrative account, Hessler investigates 

China’s lurch into modernity as he survives the advent of the nation’s uniquely terrifying 

car culture, probes the transformation of village life, and explores China’s frantic 

industrialization.” 

Highland, Frederick (Micronesia, 1967–69). Night Falls on Damascus. 1st ed. New York: 

Thomas Dunne Books, 2006. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2006042919 

Publisher’s description: “Set in the exotic and turbulent world of Syria in the 1930s, 

Night Falls on Damascus tells the story of a French-Syrian police inspector, Nikolai 

Faroun, caught up in a complex murder investigation of a beautiful and controversial 

woman from a prominent Damascus family.... A gripping murder mystery, Night Falls 

on Damascus richly evokes a time and place where the deadly conflict between 

modernism and tradition in the Middle East first came into play.” 

Hillmann, Michael Craig (Iran, 1965–67). Iranian Culture: A Persianist View. Lanham, 

Maryland: University Press of America, 1990. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/89029018 

Hiltebrand, Ellen (Guatemala, 1991–93). When I Was Elena. Sag Harbor, New York: 

Permanent Press, 2006. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2005056137 

20
 
Summary: This is a memoir of a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala named Ellen 

Urbani. Although a privileged Southerner, she has the fortitude to persevere in the face of 

daunting challenges. 

Hirsch, Jane Brown (Nigeria, 1966–68). Alhaji: A Peace Corps Adventure in Nigeria. Santa 

Barbara, California: Fithian Press, 1994. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/94007825 

Subject: This is a Peace Corps teacher’s account of her encounter with Nigerian social 

life and customs and the Hausa tribe in the village of Katsina. 

Hirst, Stephen (Liberia, 1962–64). I Am the Grand Canyon: The Story of the Havasupai People. 

3rd ed. Grand Canyon, Arizona: Grand Canyon Association, 2006. Library of Congress 

Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2006013552 

Publisher’s description: “I Am the Grand Canyon is the story of the Havasupai people. 

From their origins among the first group of Indians to arrive in North America some 

20,000 years ago to their epic struggle to regain traditional lands taken from them in the 

nineteenth century, the Havasupai have a long and colorful history. The story of this tiny 

tribe once confined to a too small reservation depicts a people with deep cultural ties to 

the land, both on their former reservation below the rim of the Grand Canyon and on the 

surrounding plateaus.” 

Holbrooke, Richard C. (Staff: country director/Morocco, 1970–72). To End A War. New York: 

Modern Library, 1999. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/97045741 

Publisher’s description: “To End a War” is a brilliant portrayal of high-wire, high-stakes 

diplomacy in one of the toughest negotiations of modern times. A classic account of the 

uses and misuses of American power, its lessons go far beyond the boundaries of the 

Balkans and provide a powerful argument for continued American leadership in the 

modern world.” 

Holloway, Kris (Mali, 1989–91). Monique and the Mango Rains: Two Years with a Midwife in 

Mali. John Bidwell, consulting editor. Long Grove, Illinois: Waveland Press, 2007. 

Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2007296716 

Summary: This is a memoir about a white volunteer assigned to a remote village in Mali 

to assist a midwife, Monique. Together they make changes in how African women are 

treated. 

Howard, Christopher R. (Mongolia, 1997). The Tea of Ulaanbaatar: A Novel. A Seven Stories 

Press 1st ed. New York: Seven Stories Press, 2011. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2010040155 

 National Magazine Award finalist 

21
 
Publisher’s description: “...Christopher Howard’s debut novel, Tea of Ulaanbaatar: the 

story of disaffected Peace Corps volunteer Warren, who flees life in late-capitalist 

America to find himself stationed in the post-Soviet industrial hell of urban Mongolia. As 

the American presence crumbles, Warren seeks escape in tsus, the mysterious “blood tea” 

that may be the final revenge of the defeated Khans—or that may be only a powerful 

hallucinogen operating on an uneasy mind—as a phantasmagoria of violence slowly 

envelops him. With prose that combines Benjamin Kunkel’s satiric bite, William 

Burroughs’s dark historical reimagining, and a lush literary beauty all his own, 

Christopher Howard in Tea of Ulaanbaatar unfolds a story of expatriate angst, the dark 

side of globalization, and middle-class nightmares—and announces himself as one of the 

most inventive and ambitious of the new generation of American novelists.” 

Howe, Herbert M. (Nigeria, 1966–67). Ambiguous Order: Military Forces in African States. 

Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2001. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/00042551 

Publisher’s description: “Faced with a growing crisis of military insecurity, some African 

states have actually collapsed while others are threatened by ongoing insurgencies. This 

original work examines three potential options for increasing state security in 

contemporary Africa: regional military groupings, private security companies, and a 

continent-wide, professional peacekeeping force.” 

Hudson, Rex A. (Bolivia, 1970–71). Sociology and Psychology of Terrorism. New York: Nova 

Science Publishers, 2010. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2009031736 

Online PDF version: http://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/pdf-files/Soc_Psych_of_Terrorism.pdf 

Summary: This is a third reprint of the author’s September 1999 Library of Congress 

(Federal Research Division) study entitled “The Sociology and Psychology of Terrorism: 

Who Becomes a Terrorist and Why?” In developing profiles of a dozen terrorist groups, 

the author surveyed three decades’ worth of books in the Library’s collection relating to 

the subject. Contradicting the stereotype of the psychopathic terrorist, the study 

highlighted an apparent consensus among psychologists that a dominant characteristic of 

terrorists is their normality, despite their extreme alienation from society. In his 

predictive section on “New Forms of Terrorist Threat Scenarios,” the author based his 

key scenario on a version of a future plot option masterminded by Ramzi Yousef and 

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and reported in 1995. Osama Bin Laden implemented this 

plot on September 11, 2001, as the Planes Operation. Although the World Trade Center 

scenario was edited out of the author’s initial draft as “too sensational,” his watered-down 

Washington-area scenario still provided the only open-source forewarning of the 9/11 

plot. News media began widely citing the study on May 16, 2002—a few hours after the 

national security adviser claimed that nobody could have predicted that terrorists would 

“slam” airplanes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. 

22
 
Ingold, Doug (Brazil, 1965–67). The Henderson Memories: A Novel. 1st ed. Garberville, 

California: Wolfenden Publishers, 2010. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2009939091 

Publisher’s description: “The Henderson Memories is a story of idealism and loss, of 

passions felt and lessons learned. In 1965, two young American Peace Corps Volunteers 

arrived at a small town in the Brazilian state of Bahia. Kyle and Jolene Henderson were 

determined to confront the poverty and social inequality surrounding them, but a few 

months later the Hendersons suddenly left Brazil. They returned to the States, established 

careers, raised and family and eventually died, having never spoken to their children of 

Brazil or the Peace Corps. What happened to the Hendersons in Brazil? Daughter Connie 

Scheel thinks Clint Estergard knows the answers and she flies to Vancouver, B.C. hoping 

to get them. But Professor Estergard has a tale to tell, and he’s going to insist on telling it 

his way.” 

Jacobs, Mark (Paraguay, 1978–80). A Handful of Kings: A Novel. New York: Simon & 

Schuster, 2004. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2003065353 

Publisher’s description: “With explosive tension and masterful suspense, A Handful of 

Kings is a page-turning thriller about what really happens in the world of espionage, by 

an insider who has lived it. American diplomat Vicky Sorrell learns the hard way that all 

is fair in love—and espionage. A Handful of Kings, the latest novel by prolific author and 

former Foreign Service officer Mark Jacobs, follows Vicky’s fast-paced tour of duty— 

one where she must decide who the bad guys are, who is lying, and who just might be 

telling the dangerous truth. Vicky is changing her life. She is leaving the Foreign Service 

and her lover at the same time. But before she departs the U.S. embassy in Madrid for 

home, a well-known American writer shows up with a strange request. Vicky knows that 

what the writer wants from her is not necessarily what he is asking. But curiosity leads 

her to play along, and she is quickly drawn into the murky underground of terrorists and 

spies into which the writer himself has been reluctantly led. The track she takes is full of 

wrong turns. And at the end of the tunnel, it’s not light she sees but an unspeakable threat 

to people she loves. Recalling Graham Greene in The Comedians, Jacobs weaves an 

engrossing story that takes place over three continents and illuminates the unexpected 

ways people betray and defend one another and, ultimately, how they learn to love.” 

Jacobs, Mark. Stone Cowboy. New York: Soho Press, 1997. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/97020257 

 Winner of the Maria Thomas Fiction Award in 1998 

Publisher’s summary: “Agnes, an American social worker, comes to Bolivia to look for 

her brother, who is a magician for a drug lord. Roger, a stranded American, offers to be 

her guide in return for help to leave the country, and the two fall in love. A tour of the 

drug world.” 

23
 
Jochum, John S. (Zaire, 1975–78). Letters from Zaire: A Peace Corps Life in Africa. Enumclaw, 

Washington: Winepress Publisher, 2005. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2004093847 

Subject: This appears to be a memoir about Peace Corps service in Zaire (present-day 

Democratic Republic of the Congo) and social life and customs of the country. 

Johnson, Shelton (Liberia, 1982–83). Gloryland: A Novel. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books 

[Berkeley, California]: Distributed by Publishers Group West, 2009. Library of Congress 

Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2009020643 

Publisher’s description: “Born on Emancipation Day, 1863, to a sharecropping family of 

African and Indian blood, Elijah Yancy never lived as a slave, but his self-image as a free 

person is at war with his surroundings: Spartanburg, South Carolina, in the Reconstructed 

South. Exiled for his own survival as a teenager, Elijah walks west to the Nebraska plains 

and, like other rootless young African-American men of that era, joins up with the U.S. 

Cavalry.” 

Kehmeier, Norman and Dorothy (Chad, 1978–79). Chadian Diary: A Peace Corps Experience.* 

1st ed. Eckert, Colorado: Keh-Land, 2010. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2010906753 

Publisher’s description: “An American couple exchanges U.S. farm life for Peace Corps 

adventure near Lake Chad in Chad, Africa, in 1978–1979 during postindependence civil 

turmoil in the African Sahel. A journal of the thirteen months in the Peace Corps 

preparing for and living in Chad. A description of the habits and the traditions of the 

Islamic Kanembous of Matafo.” 

Kempers, Anne Grimshaw (Zaire, 1976–78). Heart of Lightness: Experiences of a Peace Corps 

Volunteer in Africa. Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Peter E. Randall, 1993. Library of 

Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/93222241 

Publisher’s description: “Mother of four and a teacher of French for twenty years, author 

Kempers had an experience different from that of the majority of (Peace Corps) 

Volunteers. Her “totally positive” tour of duty also contrasts sharply with Joseph 

Conrad’s grim tale of the Congo, Heart of Darkness. Assigned to a teachers college to 

teach English and language teaching methods to mature students, she lived in a large city 

located at a relatively high altitude with consequent temperate climate. She enjoyed good 

health and many modern conveniences. This was not the situation of most volunteers, 

who lived in rural settlements helping villagers with agricultural, sanitary or domestic 

projects.” 

Kennedy, Geraldine, ed. (Liberia, 1962–64). From the Center of the Earth: Stories Out of the 

Peace Corps. Santa Monica, California: Clover Park Press, 1991. Library of Congress 

Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/91071570 

24
 
Subject: This is a collection of 13 stories written by former Peace Corps volunteers and 

mostly based in Africa. 

Kennedy, Geraldine. Harmattan: A Journey Across the Sahara. Santa Monica, California: 

Clover Park Press, 1994. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/93073120 

 RPCV Writers & Readers’ Paul Cowan Nonfiction Award, 1995 

Subject: This is a Peace Corps teacher’s account of her travels in the Sahara from Liberia 

to Algeria with four other Peace Corps women. 

Khalil, Dawn Stutzman (Botswana, 1990–92). Letters from Botswana: A Peace Corps Odyssey. 

Cranston, Rhode Island: Writers’ Collective, 2003. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2003012337 

Subject: This is the author’s memoir of her Peace Corps service in Botswana, where her 

American idealism clashed with the Botswanian way of life. 

Kincaid, Katharine [pseudonym of Pamela Daoust (Brazil, 1966–68)]. Tropical Captive. New 

York: Zebra Books, 1991. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/98815683

 Subject: This is historical romance fiction set in Brazil. According to the publisher, 

Kincaid’s books “...often feature horses—along with dashing heroes and adventurous 

heroines who find each other through their love for horses.” 

Kitterman, Barry (Belize, 1976–78). The Baker’s Boy: A Novel. 1st ed. Dallas, Texas: Southern 

Methodist University Press, 2008. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2007042696 

Publisher’s description: “Set in Central America and in Middle Tennessee, The Baker’s 

Boy gives us two intertwined stories: In the first, Tanner Johnson, nearing midlife, has 

left his pregnant wife and taken a job as a baker, working nights, trying to avoid a 

shadowy presence that haunts him from the past. In the second, Tanner relives his painful 

experiences as a Peace Corps volunteer in Belize, where he taught at a boys’ reform 

school nearly a quarter century ago. Haunted by the past, he struggles to find the courage 

to accept his role as a husband and prospective father.” 

Klein, Henry (Ethiopia, 1974–76). Through Ferrengi Eyes: The Diary of a Peace Corps 

Volunteer in Ethiopia, 1974–1976. 1st ed. Hicksville, New York: Exposition Press, 1979. 

Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/79115082 

Subject: This is a memoir of a former Peace Corps volunteer in Ethiopia, who discusses 

his service and Ethiopian politics and government, 1974–91. 

Klein, Robert (Ghana, 1961–63). Being First: An Informal History of the Early Peace Corps. 

Tucson, Arizona: Wheatmark, 2010. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2010925686 

25
 
Summary: The author, one of the initial Peace Corps volunteers, describes the creation of 

the Peace Corps and the experiences of the first contingent of volunteer teachers serving 

in Ghana. 

Kleymeyer, Charles D. (Peru, 1966–68). ¡Imashi! ¡Imashi! Adivinanzas poéticas de los 

campesinos indígenas del mundo Andino: Ecuador, Perú y Bolivia [Poetic Riddles of the 

Indigenous Campesinos of the Andean World: Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia]. 3rd ed. 

Quito, Ecuador: Ediciones Abya-Yala, l996. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/99489858 

Subject: Quechua riddles in the Andean countries of Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru, 

translated into Spanish. 

Kleymeyer, Charles D. Padre Sol, Madre Luna: Cuentos del desarrollo de base pluricultural = 

Inti Tayta, Killa Mamma: Runallaktakunapak Tauka Yachaykuna = Father Sun, Mother 

Moon: Stories of Pluricultural Grassroots Development. 1st ed. Quito, Ecuador: Abya 

Yala, 2000. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/00403919 

Subject: Fiction related to rural and social conditions in Ecuador, Indians and blacks in 

Ecuador, popular stories in Ecuadorian literature, and Quechua literature and folklore. 

Kluge, Paul F. (Micronesia, 1967–69). The Edge of Paradise: America in Micronesia. 1st ed. 

New York: Random House, 1991. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/90053145 

 RPCV Writers & Readers’ Paul Cowan Nonfiction Award, 1992 

Publisher’s description: “In 1967 the Peace Corps sent P. F. Kluge to paradise—or so the 

American possessions in Micronesia seemed. His assignment was as noble as it was 

adventurous: to help the people of those half-forgotten Pacific islands move from old to 

new, so that paradise would have prosperity and freedom as well as physical beauty. He 

immersed himself in the lives of the diverse peoples of the islands. He composed 

speeches for their leaders. He wrote a stirring manifesto that became the Preamble to the 

Constitution of Micronesia. He began a friendship with a man who would one day be 

president of Palau. And then, a generation later, P. F. Kluge went back.... The Edge of 

Paradise shows the impact and ironies of America’s presence in an undeveloped part of 

the world, how perhaps there’s no way ‘a big place can touch a little one without harming 

it.’” 

Krasner, Stephen D. (Nigeria, 1963–65). Power, the State, and Sovereignty: Essays on 

International Relations. London; New York: Routledge, 2009. Library of Congress 

Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2008035319 

Publisher’s description: “A collection of essays discussing the importance of power, 

ideas, and domestic structures in world politics. It discusses structured evaluation of U.S. 

domestic politics and foreign policy, international politics and sovereignty. It is suitable 

for scholars of international politics.” 

26
 
Kwitny, Jonathan (Nigeria, 1964–66). Endless Enemies: The Making of An Unfriendly World: 

How America’s Worldwide Interventions Destroy Democracy and Free Enterprise and 

Defeat Our Own Best Interests. 1st ed. New York: Congdon & Weed; distributed by St. 

Martin’s Press, 1984. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/84005806 

Subject: The author examines the postwar history of the involvement of American 

corporations in developing countries from 1945 to 1989. 

Larson, Charles R. (Nigeria, 1962–64). The Insect Colony: A Novel. 1st ed. New York: Holt, 

Rinehart and Winston, 1978. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/78004701 

Publisher’s summary: “Set in West Africa at the end of the 1960s and across the border 

from the war in Biafra, this is an arresting novel of sexual obsession, self-deception, and 

self-discovery.” 

Larson, Charles R. The Ordeal of the African Writer. London; New York: Zed Books, 2001. 

Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/00043476 

Publisher’s description: “This book demonstrates how only a small number of African 

writers—like Chinua Achebe, Ben Okri, Nuruddin Farah, and Wole Soyinka—have 

become known outside of their own continent. It also details the enormous obstacles they 

face within Africa to get their work published, let alone to support themselves financially 

from their writing. Charles R. Larson combines writers’ own testimony, pen portraits of 

their lives, and factual investigation to explore the full dimensions of this problem.” 

Leamer, Laurence (Nepal, 1964–66). The Kennedy Men, 1901–1963: The Laws of the Father. 

New York: William Morrow, 2001. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2001031689 

Subject: This is a biography of Joseph P. Kennedy (1888–1969), John F. Kennedy (1917– 

63), and the Kennedy family. 

Leamer, Laurence. The Kennedy Women: The Saga of an American Family. 1st ed. New York: 

Villard Books, 1994. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/94015361 

Publisher’s description: “Based on five years of research, and with unprecedented 

cooperation from Kennedy family and associates, Laurence Leamer paints startling, indepth portraits of the mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters who struggled to build and 

maintain the Kennedy dynasty—from steerage on an immigrant vessel to the slums of 

Boston, from the court of St. James to the White House.” 

Leamer, Laurence. Sons of Camelot: The Fate of an American Dynasty. New York: William 

Morrow, 2004. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2003056871 

27
 
Publisher’s description: “The legendary first Peace Corps Country director in Nepal 

focuses on Joseph P. Kennedy’s sons and grandsons in the years following the 

assassination of JFK, and provides an account of John F. Kennedy, Jr.’s life as 

remembered by ten of his closest friends.” 

Lefcourt, Peter (Togo, 1962–64). The Deal: A Novel. 1st ed. New York: Random House, 1991. 

Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/90053473 

Wikipedia summary: “Peter Lefcourt’s experiences working behind the scenes in 

Hollywood have inspired much of his fiction. Actor William H. Macy adapted The Deal, 

one of Lefcourt’s numerous satirical novels, for the screen, and it debuted at the 2008 

Sundance Film Festival. It is about a down-and-out movie producer whose leading man is 

kidnapped from the set during filming.” 

Levitt, Leonard (Tanzania, 1963–65). An African Season. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1967. 

Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/67012159 

Subject: This memoir is about the author’s first year serving as a Peace Corps volunteer 

in a rural upper-primary school in Tanzania. 

Levy, Michael (China, 2005–06). Kosher Chinese: Living, Teaching, and Eating with China’s 

Other Billion.* New York: Henry Holt & Co., 2011. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2010040319 

Publisher’s summary: “An irreverent account of the author’s experiences as a JewishAmerican Peace Corps volunteer serving in rural China describes his observations about 

the lives of China’s interior populations and their complex relationships with local 

traditions and the rapid changes of modernization.” 

Limbert, John W. (Iran, 1964–66). Negotiating with Iran: Wrestling the Ghosts of History. 

Washington, DC: U.S. Institute of Peace Press, 2009. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2009015716 

Publisher’s description: “Challenges both Americans and Iranians to end decades of 

mutually hostile mythmaking. This title outlines 14 principles to guide the American who 

finds himself in a negotiation-commercial, political, or other—with an Iranian 

counterpart. It is suitable for those interested in understanding US-Iranian history and 

relations.” 

Linden, Anne Bates (Ukraine, 1992–95). Assumptions and Misunderstandings: Memoir of an 

Unwitting Spy. Ivano-Frankivsk: Misto NV, 2006. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2007617383 

Publisher’s description: “Assumptions and Misunderstandings is a memoir based strictly 

on letters written family and friends between November 15, 1992, and February 1, 1994, 

about the first 15 months of my stint as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ukraine. The end of 

28
 
central planning, an annual inflation rate of 2000 percent, and reform that was “virtually 

nonexistent” made living there both incredibly difficult and fascinating.” 

Lipez, Richard (Ethiopia, 1962–64), and Peter Stein. Grand Scam. New York: Dial Press, 1979. 

Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/79000554 

Subject: The plot of Richard Lipez’s debut mystery novel involves oil industries. 

Lorentz, John H. (Iran, 1962–64). Historical Dictionary of Iran. 2nd ed. Lanham, Maryland, 

Scarecrow Press, 2007. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2006028034 

Lowerre, Susan (Senegal, 1985–87). Under the Neem Tree. Sag Harbor, New York: Permanent 

Press, 1991. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/90043906 

Subject: This is a Peace Corps volunteer’s anthropological study of her experience living 

in the Senegalese village of Walli Jalia, its fish culture, social life and customs, and the 

Fula tribe. 

Lowther, Kevin G. (Sierra Leone, 1963–65; Peace Corps/Washington, 1965–68). The African 

American Odyssey of John Kizell: A South Carolina Slave Returns to Fight the Slave 

Trade in his African Homeland. Foreword by Joseph Opala. Columbia: University of 

South Carolina Press, 2011. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2011005929 

Publisher’s description: “The inspirational story of John Kizell celebrates the life of a 

West African enslaved as a boy and brought to South Carolina on the eve of the 

American Revolution. Fleeing his owner, Kizell served with the British military in the 

Revolutionary War, began a family in the Nova Scotian wilderness, then returned to his 

African homeland to help found a settlement for freed slaves in Sierra Leone. He spent 

decades battling European and African slave traders along the coast and urging his people 

to stop selling their own into foreign bondage. This in-depth biography—based in part on 

Kizell’s own writings—illuminates the links between South Carolina and West Africa 

during the Atlantic slave trade’s peak decades.” 

Lowther, Kevin G., and C. Payne Lucas. Keeping Kennedy’s Promise: The Peace Corps, Unmet 

Hope of the New Frontier. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1978. Library of 

Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/77021187 

Publisher’s description: “Special expanded edition of the 1978 Peace Corps classic. 

Reprinted to mark the Agency’s 40th anniversary.” 

Luz, Susan [Corry] (Brazil, 1972–75), and Marcus Brotherton. The Nightingale of Mosul: A 

Nurse’s Journey of Service, Struggle, and War. New York: Kaplan Publishing, 2010. 

Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2010534953 

29
 
Publisher’s description: “The true story of a female soldier in Iraq who was awarded the 

Bronze Star—not for fighting, but for fighting to care. She is today’s Florence 

Nightingale. At age 56, Susan Luz was deployed to Iraq. By the time she returned home, 

she had helped save the lives of 30,000 wounded soldiers, contractors, Iraqi civilians, and 

detainees. But this was not the first time Luz responded to the call of duty: this is the 

inspirational story of a life dedicated to service and to the ideal of fighting for what truly 

matters. As a young woman, Luz served in the Peace Corps in Brazil, where she 

experienced the brutality of poverty and violence. As a public health nurse, she has 

worked in jails, psychiatric wards, and a violent inner city high school. But nothing 

prepared her for what she would see in Iraq. Working under constant fire, Luz routinely 

witnessed the most horrific effects of the war. Her dedication to her job earned her the 

Bronze Star in honor of her selflessness and the life-saving work she carried out under 

unfathomably difficult circumstances. Susan Luz is a true hero and her story will resonate 

in the hearts and minds of readers for generations to come.” 

MacBean, James Roy (Malawi, 1962–64). Film and Revolution. Bloomington: Indiana 

University Press, 1975. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/75001936 

MacDougall, David (Malawi, 1962–64). The Corporeal Image: Film, Ethnography, and the 

Senses. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. 2006. Library of Congress 

Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2004060754 

Publisher’s description: “In this book, David MacDougall, one of the leading 

ethnographic filmmakers and film scholars of his generation, builds upon the ideas from 

his widely praised Transcultural Cinema and argues for a new conception of how visual 

images create human knowledge in a world in which the value of seeing has often been 

eclipsed by words.” 

MacKinnon, Colin (Iran, 1965–67). The Contractor: A Novel. New York: St. Martin’s Press. 

2009. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2008034060 

Publisher’s description: “Rick Behringer is an outside contractor working for the CIA. By 

day, he provides communications security for small businesses and government offices. 

In the shadows, Rick’s a spy who is in a desperate struggle to take down a terrorist 

mastermind with the means to unleash hell on Earth.” 

MacKinnon, Colin. Morning Spy, Evening Spy. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2006. Library of 

Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2006040590 

Publisher’s description: “CIA officer Paul Patterson races to track down Kareem, a 

former Afghan resistance fighter who has become an al-Qaeda and Taliban operative, in a 

novel about the search for terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden in the months prior to 

September 11th.... [T]his gripping and fast-paced novel, written by the author praised by 

The New Yorker for capturing “the le Carré; manner,” inspired in part by The 9/11 

Report, captures the world of the CIA and the terrorists with the intensity John le Carré; 

brought to the Cold War.” 

30
 
Magnarella, Paul J. (Turkey, 1963–65). Tradition and Change in a Turkish Town. Cambridge: 

Schenkman: New York: John Wiley, 1974 (revised ed. Schenkman, 1981). Library of 

Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/74014927 

Subject: The book is an expansion of the author’s Harvard University dissertation thesis. 

Mair, Victor Henry, ed. (Nepal, 1965–67). The Columbia History of Chinese Literature. New 

York: Columbia University Press, 2002. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2001028236 

Subject: The first 900 pages of this massive volume are divided into sections on 

Foundations; Poetry; Prose; Fiction; Drama; Commentary, Criticism, and Interpretation; 

and Popular and Peripheral Manifestations. It has an additional 440-page-long Appendix. 

Mankiewicz, Frank (Staff: Peru, 1962–64; Washington, DC, 1964–66), and Kirby Jones 

(Dominican Republic, 1963–65; staff/Washington, 1965–67). With Fidel: A Portrait of 

Castro and Cuba. 1st ed. Chicago, Illinois: Playboy Press/Ballantine Books, 1975. 

Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/74033552 

Maren, Michael (Kenya, 1977–80). The Road to Hell: The Ravaging Effects of Foreign Aid and 

International Charity. New York: Free Press, 1997. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/96041168 

Publisher’s description: “Michael Maren has spent much of the last twenty years in 

Africa, first as an aid worker, later as a journalist.... He brings firsthand reports of 

African farmers, Western aid workers, and corrupt politicians from many countries, 

joined together in a vicious circle of self-interest. Above all, he heralds an important 

truth: humanitarian intervention and foreign aid activity is necessarily political. It gets 

hijacked by powerful charities and agricultural interests. It is cynically manipulated by 

local strongmen to control rebellious populations. And it is the last refuge of Western 

colonialism.” 

Margolin, Phillip (Liberia, 1965–67). Executive Privilege. HarperCollins, 2008. Library of 

Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2008002356 

Publisher’s description: “New York Times bestselling author Phillip Margolin is back, this 

time with a powerful tale of murder that snakes its way through Washington, D.C.’s halls 

of power, leading straight to the White House and the most powerful office on earth.... 

Executive Privilege, with its nonstop action, unforgettable characters, and edge-of-yourseat suspense, proves once again that Phillip Margolin...belongs in the top echelon of 

thriller writers.” 

Margolin, Phillip. Fugitive: A Novel. 1st ed. New York: HarperCollins, 2009. Library of 

Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2008050713 

31
 
Publisher’s description: “Phillip Margolin has written fourteen New York Times 

bestsellers, including his latest novels Fugitive and Executive Privilege. Each displays a 

unique, compelling insider’s view of criminal behavior, which comes from his long 

career as a criminal defense attorney who has handled thirty murder cases.... Defense 

attorney Amanda Jaffe, the heroine of Wild Justice and Proof Positive, becomes 

entrapped in a case of international intrigue and murder that leads her deep into the past 

... and into the crosshairs of a killer.” 

Margolin, Phillip. Supreme Justice: A Novel of Suspense. 1st ed. New York: Harper, 2010. 

Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2010004914 

 Winner of the Distinguished Northwest Writer Award 

Publisher’s description: “Sarah Woodruff, on death row in Oregon for murdering her 

lover, John Finley, has appealed her case to the Supreme Court just when a prominent 

justice resigns, leaving a vacancy. Then, for no apparent reason, another justice is 

mysteriously attacked. Dana Cutler—one of the heroes from Margolin’s bestselling 

Executive Privilege—is quietly called in to investigate. ... With nonstop action, Supreme 

Justice picks up where Executive Privilege left off, putting readers right back where they 

were-on the edge of their seats.” 

Martin, Bradley K. (Thailand, 1965–67). Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North 

Korea and the Kim Dynasty. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2004. Library of 

Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2004056158 

Publisher’s description: “Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader offers in-depth 

portraits of North Korea’s two ruthless and bizarrely Orwellian leaders, Kim Il-Sung and 

Kim Jong-Il. Lifting North Korea’s curtain of self-imposed isolation, this book will take 

readers inside a society that, to a Westerner, will appear to be from another planet. 

Subsisting on a diet short on food grains and long on lies, North Koreans have been 

indoctrinated from birth to follow unquestioningly a father-son team of megalomaniacs.” 

Maskarinec, Gregory G. (Nepal, 1979–81). The Rulings of the Night: An Ethnography of 

Nepalese Shaman Oral Texts. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995. Library of 

Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/94023024 

Matsen, Brad (Niue, 1999–2000). The Descent: The Heroic Discovery of the Abyss. New York: 

Pantheon/Random House, 2005. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2004053530 

Publisher’s description: “In this vivid narrative history of scientific vision, courage, and 

adventure, Brad Matsen illuminates the dramatic achievements of [William] Beebe and 

[Otis] Barton against the backdrop of the great age of exploration, in a riveting tale of 

man and nature.” 

32
 
Matsen, Brad. Titanic’s Last Secrets: The Further Adventures of Shadow Divers John Chatterton 

and Richie Kohler. 1st ed. New York: Hachette/Twelve, 2008. Library of Congress 

Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2008003193 

Publisher’s description: “After rewriting history with their discovery of a Nazi U-boat off 

the coast of New Jersey, legendary divers John Chatterton and Richie Kohler decided to 

investigate the great enduring mystery of history’s most notorious shipwreck: Why did 

Titanic sink as quickly as it did? ...Titanic’s Last Secrets is the never-before-told story of 

the Ship of Dreams, a contemporary adventure that solves a historical mystery.” 

Matthews, Christopher (Swaziland, 1968–70). American: Beyond Our Grandest Notions. New 

York: Free Press, 2002. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2002034741 

Publisher’s description: “In American, Matthews presents a portrait of a country that 

enters the world arena even today armed with an extremely potent weapon: the collective 

notions we carry of America at its best. We have saluted them in our popular culture, 

from the Great Gatsby to “Casablanca” to “Rocky,” and throughout our American 

history, from 1776 to 9/11. Matthews paints a picture of more than just a nation 

challenged but a people ready and eager to prevail.” 

McCann, David R., ed. (South Korea, 1966–68). Early Korean Literature: Selections and 

Introductions. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000. Library of Congress 

Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/99053800 

McCauley, William (Sierra Leone, 1985–87). The Turning Over. Sag Harbor, New York: 

Permanent Press, 1998. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/97030147 

Publisher’s description: “The experiences of an American aid worker in Africa. He hates 

the rampant corruption, but likes the plentiful sex and drugs. Sent on a fishing project 

into the interior of Sierra Leone, he runs into armed rebels and nearly dies.” 

McLaurin, Tim (Tunisia, 1982–83). The Acorn Plan. 1st ed. New York: Norton, 1988. Library 

of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/87032169 

Publisher’s description: “Open The Acorn Plan and listen to its sad, comic chorus of 

Southern voices, and to the story of Billy Riley, a brooding, reckless young man 

struggling to resolve the competing claims of love, loyalty, and ambition.” 

McNeely, Jeffrey A. (Thailand, 1968–70), and Susan A. Mainka. Conservation for a New Era. 

Gland, Switzerland: International Union for Conservation of Nature, 2009. Library of 

Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2009498816 

Online PDF version: http://data.iucn.org/dbtw-wpd/edocs/2009-026.pdf 

Publisher’s description: “Conservation for a New Era outlines the critical issues facing us 

in the 21st century, developed from the results of the World Conservation Congress in 

Barcelona in October 2008. The landmark publication takes on the pressing issues of 

33
 
today and highlights the solutions to be found through investing in nature. The book is 

essential reading for governments, businesses, and decision makers.” 

McQuillan, Karin (Senegal, 1971). Deadly Safari. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1990. Library 

of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/89024102 

Publisher’s description: “It’s open season on rich Americans. Leading the pack are two 

wealthy businessmen...with an aging wife apiece.... Two of them will soon be dead. 

Faced with this unnatural attrition, Jazz Jasper admits that her first run as an independent 

safari guide may also be her last. But every animal—even a desperate two-legged one— 

leaves a trail, and Jazz, hardly certain whether she is hunter or game, sets about trapping 

a remorseless human predator.” 

McQuillan, Karin. Elephant’s Graveyard. New York: Ballantine Books, 1993. Library of 

Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/92054391 

Publisher’s description: “McQuillan’s Kenya is Isak Dinesen’s, seventy years later, a 

paradise lost but still breathtaking and rich in wildlife, with the potent magic to restore 

the spirits of Americans and Europeans in search of new beginnings. Recovering from a 

bad marriage and a worse divorce, American expatriate Jazz Jasper happily ekes out a 

living running safari tours and working for animal rights. When the lifeless body of 

wealthy American Ammet Laird, head of the Save the Elephants foundation, is found 

beside a watering hole, Emmet’s grieving lover, Mikki, presses her friend Jazz to 

investigate. But as Jazz stalks her game high in the forested hills and through the streets 

of Nairobi, she becomes certain that the murderer she seeks is someone she knows 

well....” 

Meek, Sandra (Botswana, 1989–91). Biogeography. 1st paperback ed. Dorset, Vermont: Tupelo 

Press, 2008. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2008926704 

 Winner of the Dorset Prize [for poetry] 

Publisher’s description: “...[T]his two-time Georgia Author of the Year gives us [a] 

user’s guide to the animal and mineral world, taking us on a poetic odyssey from the 

American West to the rainforests of Suriname, with many startling destinations (of spirit 

and location) along the way. These are powerful, life-changing poems offering new ways 

to connect with the natural universe, and successive epiphanies — the bridges that link 

bio and geography. As we have devastated the land, so also we have devastated each 

other. In these poems, the eroding of a love affair is seen through “a crumbling sandstone 

wing/studded with iron-stained crystals/beneath the city”; the hubris of a still-at-large 

former dictator and the grief of a victim’s sister intertwine in the startling red blooms of 

flamboyants shadowing a bullet-pocked wall. What abides is transience, that of 

“spiderweb baskets/glistening in grass, early morning,” and of a sky “a patina/of volcanic 

ash.” These poems yield that most generative of human possibilities: the chance and 

choice to begin again, to rediscover a “flamboyant faith,” a lost “nomenclature of 

wonder” that might just save us.” 

34
 
Meisler, Stanley (staff/Washington, 1964–67). When the World Calls: The Inside Story of the 

Peace Corps and its First Fifty Years. Boston: Beacon Press, 2011. Library of Congress 

Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2010033723 

Publisher’s description: “Not an institutional history, When the World Calls is the first 

complete and balanced look at the Peace Corps’s first fifty years. Revelatory and candid, 

Stanley Meisler’s engaging narrative exposes Washington infighting, presidential 

influence, and the Volunteers’ unique struggles abroad. Meisler deftly unpacks the 

complicated history with sharp analysis and memorable anecdotes, taking readers on a 

global trek starting with the historic first contingent of Volunteers to Ghana on August 

30, 1961. The Peace Corps has served as an American emblem for world peace and 

friendship, yet few realize that it has sometimes tilted its agenda to meet the demands of 

the White House. Tracing its history through the past nine presidential administrations, 

Meisler discloses, for instance, how Lyndon Johnson became furious when Volunteers 

opposed his invasion of the Dominican Republic; he reveals how Richard Nixon literally 

tried to destroy the Peace Corps, and how Ronald Reagan endeavored to make it an 

instrument of foreign policy in Central America. But somehow the ethos of the Peace 

Corps endured, largely due to the perseverance of the 200,000 Volunteers themselves, 

whose shared commitment to effect positive global change has been a constant in one of 

our most complex-and valued-institutions.” 

Meijer, Darcy Munson, ed. (Gabon, 1982–84). Adventures in Gabon: Peace Corps Stories from 

the African Rainforest.* 1st Peace Corps Writers ed. Oakland, California: Peace Corps 

Writers, 2011. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2011935224 

Merullo, Roland (Micronesia, 1979–80). Fidel’s Last Days: A Novel. 1st ed. New York: Shaye 

Areheart Books, 2008. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2008021278 

Publisher’s description: “Roland Merullo has consistently wowed critics with his brilliant 

storytelling and his refusal to be pigeonholed, hopscotching from the coming-of-age tale 

(In Revere, in Those Days) to the novel-as-fable (Golfing with God) to the road trip genre 

(Breakfast with Buddha). Now Merullo delivers a dazzling and finely nuanced political 

thriller about a clandestine plot to assassinate Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.” 

Merullo, Roland. The Italian Summer: Golf, Food, and Family at Lake Como. New York: Simon 

& Shuster, 2009. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2008026229 

Publisher’s description: “The author traces his 2007 summer near the shore of Italy’s 

Lake Como, where he played on several northern-region courses of distinction, shared 

lavish meals with his family, and interacted with a host of eccentric locals.” 

Messinger, Delfi (Zaire, 1984–87). Grains of Golden Sand: Adventures in War-Torn Africa. 

Honolulu, Hawaii: The Fine Print Press, 2007. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2006923404 

35
 
Subject: The book appears to be based on the author’s Peace Corps experience in Zaire 

(present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo) and the city of Kinshasa. A main topic 

appears to be the Bonobo, once known as the pygmy chimpanzee. 

Meyer, Michael (China, 1995–97). The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing 

Backstreets of a City Transformed. New York: Walker & Co., 2008. Library of Congress 

Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2008015546 

Publisher’s description: “A fascinating, intimate portrait of Beijing through the lens of its 

oldest neighborhood, Dazhalan. Meyer examines how the bonds that hold the 

neighborhood together are being torn by forced evictions as century-old houses and ways 

of life are increasingly destroyed to make way for shopping malls, the capital’s first WalMart, high-rise buildings, and widened streets for cars replacing bicycles.” 

Miles, William F. S. (Niger, 1977–79). Hausaland Divided: Colonialism and Independence in 

Nigeria and Niger. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1994. Library of 

Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/93031669 

Publisher’s description: “How have different forms of colonialism shaped societies and 

their politics? What can borderland communities teach us about nation building and 

group identity? William F. S. Miles focuses on the Hausa-speaking people of West 

Africa, whose land is still split by an arbitrary boundary established by Great Britain and 

France at the turn of the century. In 1983, Miles returned as a Fulbright scholar to the 

region where he had served as a Peace Corps volunteer in the late 1970s. Already fluent 

in the Hausa language, he established residence in carefully selected twin villages on 

either side of the border separating the Republic of Niger from the Federal Republic of 

Nigeria. Over the next year, and then during subsequent visits, he traveled by horseback 

between the two places, conducting surveys, collecting oral testimony, and living the 

ethnographic life. Miles argues that the colonial imprint of the British and the French can 

still be discerned more than a generation after the conferring of formal independence on 

Nigeria and Niger.” 

Miller, Christopher L. (Zaire [present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo], 1975–77). 

Blank Darkness: Africanist Discourse in France. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 

1985. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/85001157 

Publisher’s description: “Blank Darkness: Africanist Discourse in French is a brilliant 

and altogether convincing analysis of the way in which Western writers, from Homer to 

the twentieth century have...imposed their language of desire on the least-known part of 

the world and have called it ‘Africa.’ There are excellent readings here of writers ranging 

from Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Sade, and Celine to Conrad and Yambo Ouologuem, but even 

more impressive and important than these individual readings is Mr. Miller’s wideranging, incisive, and exact analysis of ‘Africanist’ discourse, what it has been and what 

it has meant in the literature of the Western world.”—James Olney, Louisiana State 

University 

36
 
Miller, Christopher L. The French Atlantic Triangle: Literature and Culture of the Slave Trade. 

Durham: Duke University Press 2008. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2007033635 

Publisher’s description: “The French slave trade forced more than one million Africans 

across the Atlantic to the islands of the Caribbean. It enabled France to establish SaintDomingue, the single richest colony on earth, and it connected France, Africa, and the 

Caribbean permanently. Yet the impact of the slave trade on the cultures of France and its 

colonies has received surprisingly little attention. Until recently, France had not publicly 

acknowledged its history as a major slave-trading power. The distinguished scholar 

Christopher L. Miller proposes a thorough assessment of the French slave trade and its 

cultural ramifications, in a broad, circum-Atlantic inquiry. This magisterial work is the 

first comprehensive examination of the French Atlantic slave trade and its consequences 

as represented in the history, literature, and film of France and its former colonies in 

Africa and the Caribbean.” 

Mills, Nick B. (Colombia, 1965–66). The Failing American Intervention and the Struggle for 

Afghanistan. New York: John Wiley, 2007. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2007026599 

Publisher’s description: “The untold story of Hamid Karzai’s dramatic rise to the 

presidency of Afghanistan and the problems he and his country face. In 2004, Hamid 

Karzai was elected president in Afghanistan’s first-ever democratic election. Today, 

criticized for indecisiveness and targeted for assassination by extremists, President Karzai 

struggles to build on the country’s modest post-Taliban achievements before civil unrest 

undermines his government. Now, author Nick Mills draws on months of candid personal 

interviews with the charismatic Afghan president to offer a revealing portrait of the figure 

known to millions by his familiar uniform of karakul cap and long green chappan. 

Timely and compelling, Karzai tells the fascinating story of a unique leader with a keen 

intellect, a natural gift for storytelling, and a presidency in peril.” 

Monninger, Joseph (Upper Volta [present-day Burkina Faso], 1975–77). Eternal on the 

Water: A Novel. New York: Gallery Books, 2010. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2009025680 

Publisher’s description: “From the day Cobb and Mary meet kayaking on Maine’s 

Allagash River and fall deeply in love, the two approach life with the same sense of 

adventure they use to conquer the river’s treacherous rapids. But rivers do not let go so 

easily...and neither does their love. So when Mary’s life takes the cruelest turn, she vows 

to face those rough waters on her own terms and asks Cobb to promise, when the time 

comes, to help her return to their beloved river for one final journey. Set against the 

rugged wilderness of Maine, the exotic islands of Indonesia, the sweeping panoramas of 

Yellowstone National Park, and the tranquil villages of rural New England, Eternal on 

the Water is at once heartbreaking and uplifting—a timeless, beautiful rendered story of 

true love’s power.” 

37
 
Monninger, Joseph. Home Waters: Fishing With an Old Friend. San Francisco: Chronicle 

Books, 1999. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/98039431 

Publisher’s description: “This wonderfully written memoir about a man, his dog, and 

their journey together is as revealing about life as it is warm and amusing. The author, 

Joseph Monninger, is the kind of man who “feels a connection with an animal beyond 

what others might consider normal.” When his dog, a golden retriever named Nellie, 

develops lumps that are most likely cancer, the forty-year-old author refuses to abandon 

her to the animal hospital; instead, he takes her on a final road trip through the West to 

visit their old mountain haunts and fish their favorite trout streams. As they wend their 

way through Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana, the author rediscovers the pleasures of 

fishing and hiking and also rediscovers his past. The memories of Nellie and what she has 

seen him through weave together with their outdoor adventures to create a poignant 

meditation on life, freedom, love, and nature.” 

Monninger, Joseph. Two Ton: One Fight, One Night: Tony Galento v. Joe Louis. 1st ed. 

Hanover, New Hampshire: Steerforth Press, 2006. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2006012828 

Publisher’s description: “Beetle-browed, nearly bald, a head that rode his collarbones like 

a bowling ball returning on rails, his waist size more than half his five-foot-eight height, 

Two Ton Tony Galento appeared nearly square, his legs two broomsticks jammed into a 

vertical hay bale. By all measures, he stood no chance when he stepped into the ring 

against the Brown Bomber, Joe Louis, the finest heavyweight of his generation, in 

Yankee Stadium on a June night in 1939. “I’ll moida da bum,” Galento predicted, and 

though Louis was no bum, Tony, the Falstaff of boxing, lifted him from the canvas with a 

single left hook and entered the record books as one of the few men to put the great Louis 

down. A palooka, a thug, a vibrant appetite of a man, he scrapped his way out of the 

streets and into the brightest light in American life. For two splendid seconds he stood on 

the canvas at Yankee Stadium, the great Joe Louis stretched out before him, champ of the 

world, the toughest man alive, the mythical hero of the waterfront, of Orange, New 

Jersey, of an American nation little more than a year away from war. Joe Monninger’s 

spellbinding portrait of a man, a moment, and an era reminds us that sometimes it is 

through effort, and not the end result, that people most enduringly define themselves.” 

Monninger, Joseph. The Viper Tree. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1991. Library of Congress 

Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/90010182 

Publisher’s description: “Nothing in Monninger’s previous work...prepares one for this 

extraordinary novel, an intriguing psychological puzzle that explores the nature of belief 

in religion and in superstitious magic as well as the thin line between the two. AWOL 

Nazi soldier Fredereich Loebus flees Europe, unwittingly ending up in West Africa, 

where he is captured and treated viciously by a primitive tribe. Escaping into the desert, 

he is saved from death by a mission of French nuns.... Under threat of prison by the 

French authorities, Loebus escapes again, hiding in the bush, where he becomes “purely 

African,” acquiring a reputation as a healer with miraculous powers. Years later, Loebus, 

38
 
now known as Father Faujas, has become a nyanga, or witch man, with the ability to 

inflict deadly curses; even after his death, his reputation lives on in a macabre fashion. 

Monninger renders a stunning picture of West Africa, describing the terrain, the weather, 

and the customs and rituals of native tribes in a measured prose that also chillingly sets 

off the brutal events of the narrative.” 

Moran, Michael (Morocco, 1981–83). Younger Than That Now: A Peace Corps Volunteer 

Remembers Morocco. 1st ed. San Antonio, Texas: Full Court Press, 1994. Library of 

Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/94096345 

Morton, Fred (Nigeria, 1964–65), Jeff Ramsey, and Part Themba Mgadia. Historical Dictionary 

of Botswana. Historical Dictionaries of Africa; no. 44. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow 

Press, 2008. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2007052314 

Morrow, Baker H. (Somalia, 1968–69). Horses Like the Wind and Other Stories of Africa. 

Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2001. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2001002646 

Publisher’s description: “Set in Somalia just after its independence in the 1960s, Horses 

Like the Wind and Other Stories of Africa is a collection of nine short storied that paint a 

portrait of the many different lives that intertwine along the Horn of Africa. A ruthless 

horse dealer comes up against the best tracker in the Somali army; transplanted Italian 

farmers look to a future of stark disintegration as they struggle to hold on to their lands 

and their families; gutsy American women attempt to establish lives of their own in the 

remote East African desert; and a beggar and an idealist meet in a chance encounter on 

the steps of a Mogadishu bank, with mind-numbing consequences.” 

Moyers, Bill (staff/Washington, 1961–63). Genesis: A Living Conversation. New York: 

Doubleday, 1996. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/96015318 

Publisher’s description: “The stories in the Book of Genesis captured our ancestors’ 

imagination thousands of years ago—and they speak to us today. In Genesis, acclaimed 

television journalist Bill Moyers explores the contemporary relevance of the ageless 

wisdom from the Bible’s epic first book. Creation, temptation, murder, exile, and family 

strife—these themes emerge from every page of Genesis as fresh as the morning 

headlines or the evening news. Genesis invites readers into a lively and accessible 

discussion of the manifold meanings of these stories, and engages us in a fascinating 

exploration of the relationship between interpreter and text.” 

Mueller, Marnie (Ecuador, 1963–65). Green Fires: Assault on Eden: A Novel of the Ecuadorian 

Rain Forest. Willimantic, Connecticut: Curbstone Press, 1994. Library of Congress 

Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/94002426 

 American Book Award, 1994 

 RPCV Writers & Readers’ Maria Thomas Fiction Award, 1995 

39
 
Publisher’s description: “For her honeymoon, a former Peace Corps volunteer takes her 

husband to Ecuador to revisit old haunts. They get caught up in the violent politics of the 

rainforest where a multinational company is exterminating Indian tribes.” 

Müller, Karin (Philippines, 1987–89). Along the Inca Road: A Woman’s Journey into an Ancient 

Empire. Washington, DC: Adventure Press: National Geographic Society, 2000. Library 

of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2001274256 

Publisher’s description: “In this vivid, freewheeling expedition, Karin Müller travels the 

ancient route to explore its dramatic history and discover new adventures along its length 

and breadth.... As she spins the wool of her stories into a modern tapestry of faces and 

memories, Muller intertwines a chronicle of the ancient Inca from their race’s mythical 

birth on an island in lofty Lake Titicaca to their sudden plunge from the height of 

imperial power at the hands of a ragtag band of Spanish soldiers of fortune. We learn 

how they lived, worshipped, and warred, and why such a magnificent culture proved so 

vulnerable to invaders.” 

Müller, Karin. Hitchhiking Vietnam: A Woman’s Solo Journey in an Elusive Land. 1st ed. Old 

Saybrook, Connecticut: Globe Pequit Press, 1998. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/97047233 

Publisher’s description: “The author, an American woman, tells the story of her sevenmonth adventure hitchhiking through Vietnam in search of villages and people untouched 

by the encroaching commercialism of the Western world.” 

Murray, Charles (Thailand, 1965–67). Human Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence in 

the Arts and Sciences, 800 B.C. to 1950. New York: HarperCollins, 2003. Library of 

Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2003047820 

Publisher’s description: “A panoramic survey of human excellence...from the age of 

Homer to our own time. Employing techniques that historians have developed over the 

last century but that rarely have been applied to books written for the general public, 

Murray compiles inventories of the people who have been essential to the stories of 

literature, music, art, philosophy, and the sciences—a total of 4,002 men and women 

from around the world, ranked according to their eminence. The heart of Human 

Accomplishment is a series of enthralling descriptive chapters: on the giants in the arts 

and what sets them apart from the merely great on the differences between great 

achievement in the arts and in the sciences on the meta-inventions, 14 crucial leaps in 

human capacity to create great art and science and on the patterns and trajectories of 

accomplishment across time and geography. Straightforwardly and undogmatically, 

Charles Murray takes on some controversial questions: Why has accomplishment been so 

concentrated in Europe? Among men? Since 1400? He presents evidence that the rate of 

great accomplishment has been declining in the last century, asks what it means, and 

offers a rich framework for thinking about the conditions under which the human spirit 

has expressed itself most gloriously.” 

40
 
Neelon, Ann (Senegal, 1978–79). Easter Vigil: Poems. Tallahassee, Florida: Anhinga Press, 

1996. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/96083909 

 RPCV Writers & Readers’ Best Poetry Book Award, 1997 

 Winner of the Anhinga Prize for Poetry 

Publisher’s description: “To enter the world of these poems is to enter a place where all 

of us reside, a world full of emotional contradictions. And yet, Ann Neelon’s voice insists 

on making sense of the absurdities that come with living. At the end of this century, 

words like hope and community are not to be taken lightly, nor are they words that come 

easily.” 

Nemeth, David J. (South Korea, 1972–74). The Architecture of Ideology: Neo-Confucian 

Imprinting on Cheju Island, Korea. Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 

1987. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/87010826 

Publisher’s description: “Cheju Island, Korea’s historic island of exile, with a harsh 

natural environment, early developed a negative image as human habitat. The author 

challenges this perception and shows how Neo-Confucian state ideology during the Yi 

dynasty (A.D. 1392–1910) created and conserved the island as a viable habitat by using 

feng-shui—a powerful medieval science of surveying—to shape the island’s built 

environment and quality of life. The outcome, reflecting sustained political commitment 

to the philosophical concept of enlightened underdevelopment, was a sincere landscape 

inhabited by a virtuous people.” 

Newman, Paul (Nigeria, 1961–63). The Hausa Language: An Encyclopedic Reference 

Grammar. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/99054069 

Newman, Paul. A Hausa-English Dictionary. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007. Library 

of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2007920770 

Niedenthal, Jack (Marshall Islands, 1981–84). For the Good of Mankind: A History of the 

People of Bikini and Their Islands. Majuro, Marshall Islands: Micronitor/Bravo 

Publishers; Second edition, 2001. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2003446414 

Publisher’s description: “The story of the people of Bikini Atoll and their islands in the 

words of the people. This oral history takes the reader from ancient to modern times.” 

Noyes Mass, Leslie (Pakistan, 1962–64) Back to Pakistan: A Fifty-Year Journey. Lanham, 

Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2011. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2011019782 

Publisher’s description: “In 1962, Leslie Noyes was one of the first to answer the call of 

President Kennedy. She found herself in a remote village in Pakistan, 21 years old, and 

fresh from college graduation, with the only directive to “find something to do” in a 

41
 
Muslim village with no other Peace Corps volunteers, no other Westerners, no program, 

and scarce resources. Coming face to face with her naiveté, youthful arrogance, and 

inexperience, she muddles her way through her first year of service, moves on to a larger 

city with other volunteers, then returns home to pursue a career as an educator. Fortyseven years later, she returns to Pakistan—a much-changed woman to a much-changed 

country. She intersperses the current-day tale with the journal entries from 1962, thereby 

providing a colorful and poignant comparison between a country in its infancy and a 

country in transition, and the woman of 21 with the woman of 68.” 

O’Hanlon, Michael E. (Zaire [present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo], 1982–84). 

Budgeting for Hard Power: Defense and Security Spending under Barack Obama. 

Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2009. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2009018697 

Publisher’s description: “Lays out the issues and relative costs facing the new president: 

prioritizing among competing demands for defense spending, homeland-security 

investment, diplomacy, and security assistance; determining how much money will be 

needed, available, and allocated. Suggests a path for the new White House in its resourceallocation decisions affecting U.S. national security.” 

O’Hanlon, Michael E. A Skeptic’s Case for Nuclear Disarmament. Washington, DC: Brookings 

Institution Press, 2010. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2010026368 

Publisher’s description: “An endorsement for nuclear disarmament, especially the 

dismantling of existing bomb inventories, but with caveats relating to threats posed by 

nations or groups inside the agreement framework who do not abide by it and those 

outside who have never allied themselves with those advocating a nuclear-free world.” 

Omang, Joanne (Turkey, 1964–66). Incident at Akabal. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1992. 

Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/91018230 

 RPCV Writers & Readers’ Maria Thomas Fiction Award, 1993 

Publisher’s description: Political fiction based in Central America in 1979. Joanne 

Omang, the Washington Post’s first female foreign correspondent, bases her novel on a 

true incident that took place in the Guatemalan mountain village of Aqabal. 

Orth, Maureen (Colombia, 1964–66). The Importance of Being Famous: Behind the Scenes of 

the Celebrity-Industrial Complex. 1st ed. New York: Henry Holt, 2004. Library of 

Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2003056890 

Publisher’s description: “Vanity Fair’s Maureen Orth always makes news. From 

Hollywood to murder trials to the corridors of politics, this National Magazine Award 

winner covers lives led in public, on camera, in the headlines. Here she takes us close-up 

into the world of fame-bridging entertainment, politics, and news-and the lives of those 

who understand the chemistry, the very DNA, of fame and how to create it, manipulate it, 

sustain it. Moving from former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to Michael Jackson, 

42
 
the ultimate child/monster of show business, Orth describes our evolution from a society 

where talent attracted attention to a place where the star-making machinery of the 

“celebrity-industrial complex” shapes, reshapes, and sells its gods (and monsters) to the 

public.... Orth delivers a portrait of an era. She shows us the real world of the big room 

where the rules that govern mere mortals don’t matter—and anonymity is a crime.” 

Osborn, Donald Zhang (Togo, 1979–81; Mali, 1983–85; Guinea 1985–87; staff/Niger, 2000–), 

David J. Dwyer (Cameroon, 1963–65), and Joseph I. Donahue, Jr. A Fulfulde 

(Maasina)-English-French Lexicon: A Root-Based Compilation Drawn from Extant 

Sources Followed by English-Fulfulde and French-Fulfulde Listings. East Lansing: 

Michigan State University Press, 1993. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/92035325 

O’Toole, Thomas (Guinea, 1963–65). The Central African Republic: The Continent’s Hidden 

Heart. Series: Profiles: Nations of Contemporary Africa. Boulder, Colorado: Westview 

Press, 1986. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/86004099 

O’Toole, Thomas, and Janice E. Baker. Historical Dictionary of Guinea. 4th ed. Historical 

Dictionaries of Africa, no. 94. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 2005. Library of 

Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2004021010 

Packer, George (Togo, 1982–83). The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq. New York: Farrar 

Straus and Giroux, 2005. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2005011521 

Publisher’s description: “The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq recounts how the United 

States set about changing the history of the Middle East and became ensnared in a 

guerilla war in Iraq. It brings to life the people and ideas that created the Bush 

administration’s war policy and led America to the Assassins’ Gate—the main point of 

entry into the American zone in Baghdad. The consequences of that policy are shown in 

the author’s brilliant reporting on the ground in Iraq, where he made four tours on 

assignment for The New Yorker. We see up close the struggles of American soldiers and 

civilians and Iraqis from all backgrounds, thrown together by a war that followed none of 

the preconceived scripts. The Assassins’ Gate also describes the place of the war in 

American life: the ideological battles in Washington that led to chaos in Iraq, the ordeal 

of a fallen soldier’s family, and the political culture of a country too bitterly polarized to 

realize such a vast and morally complex undertaking. George Packer’s first-person 

narrative combines the scope of an epic history with the depth and intimacy of a novel, 

creating a masterful account of America’s most controversial foreign venture since 

Vietnam.” 

Packer, George. Betrayed. New York: Samuel French, 2009. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2007047949 

Publisher’s description: “...[T]he mostly young men and women who embraced 

America’s project so enthusiastically that they were prepared to risk their lives for it by 

aiding the U.S. forces constitute a small minority. On a cold, wet night in January 2007, 

43
 
 

George Packer met two such Iraqi men in the lobby of the Palestine Hotel, in central 

Baghdad to hear their story and those of other Iraqis working as translators and additional 

key personnel for the U.S. military and occupation authorities. They assumed that their 

perspective would be valuable to foreigners who knew little or nothing of Iraq. But 

instead of respect and gratitude, those who chose to help bridge the gap between the 

occupiers and the occupied were met with suspicion and hostility. They have been killed 

by insurgents and militias, ignored by U.S. officials, fired from their jobs without reason 

or recourse, and prevented from fleeing to the States for safety. Based on Packer’s 

account in The New Yorker, Betrayed is a riveting and morally complex drama that 

explores in the Iraqis’ own words the ways in which we have already abandoned them.” 

Packer, George. Interesting Times: Writings from a Turbulent Decade. 1st ed. New York: Farrar, 

Straus and Giroux, 2009. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2009010186 

Publisher’s summary: “In this collection of essays from the past extraordinary decade, 

from September 11 to the rise of Barack Obama, journalist Packer brings insight and 

passion to his accounts of the war on terror, Iraq, troubled societies, political writers, and 

the 2008 election.” 

Packer, George. The Village of Waiting. 1st Farrar, Straus, Giroux ed. New York: Farrar, Straus 

and Giroux, 2001. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2001091276 

Publisher’s description: “Now restored to print with a new Foreword by Philip 

Gourevitch and an Afterword by the author, this book is a frank, moving, and vivid 

account of contemporary life in West Africa. Stationed as a Peace Corps instructor in the 

village of Lavié (the name means “wait a little more”) in tiny and underdeveloped Togo, 

Packer reveals his own schooling at the hands of an unforgettable array of townspeople— 

peasants, chiefs, charlatans, children, market women, cripples, crazies, and those who, 

having lost or given up much of their traditional identity and fastened their hopes on 

“development,” find themselves trapped between the familiar repetitions of rural life and 

the chafing monotony of waiting for change.” 

Pastor, Robert A. (Malaysia, 1970–72). Not Condemned to Repetition: The United States and 

Nicaragua. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1988. Library of Congress 

Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2002005022 

Publisher’s description: “During the last three decades, Nicaragua posed three of the most 

difficult challenges faced by U.S. foreign policy-makers in the third world: how to cope 

with a declining, repressive, but previously “friendly” dictator? How to relate to an antiAmerican revolutionary government? How to facilitate a democratic transition? The 

Nicaraguan challenge was to establish a democratic and autonomous government, with as 

much support and as little interference as possible from the great powers. This book 

demonstrates how an unproductive interaction led to both sides’ worst nightmares. 

Through the fall of Anastasio Somoza, the rise of the Sandinistas, and the contra war, the 

United States and Nicaragua seemed destined to repeat the mistakes made by the U.S. 

and Cuba forty years before. The 1990 election in Nicaragua broke the pattern. Robert 

44
 
Pastor was a major US policymaker in the critical period leading up to and following the 

Sandinista Revolution of 1979. ...This revised and updated edition covers the events of 

the democratic transition, and it extracts the lessons to be learned from the past.” 

Pastor, Robert A. Whirlpool: US Foreign Policy Toward Latin America and the Caribbean. 

Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1992. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/92011284 

Publisher’s description: “Robert Pastor maintains that the collapse of Communism is less 

important in permitting the United States to escape the whirlpool of Latin American 

politics than are the new trends of democracy and freer trade in the region.” 

Peirce, Leslie P. (Turkey, 1964–66). The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the 

Ottoman Empire. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. Library of Congress 

Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/93018967 

Publisher’s description: “The unprecedented political power of the Ottoman imperial 

harem in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is widely viewed as illegitimate and 

corrupting.... By examining political action in the context of household networks, Peirce 

demonstrates that female power was a logical, indeed an intended, consequence of 

political structures.... The Imperial Harem argues that the exercise of political power was 

tied to definitions of sexuality. Within the dynasty, the hierarchy of female power, like 

the hierarchy of male power, reflected the broader society’s concern for social control of 

the sexually active. 

Perkins, John (Ecuador, 1968–71). Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. San Francisco: 

Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2004. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2004046353 

Publisher’s description: Confessions of an Economic Hit Man reveals a game that, 

according to John Perkins, is “as old as Empire” but has taken on new and terrifying 

dimensions in an era of globalization. And Perkins should know. For many years he 

worked for an international consulting firm where his main job was to convince LDCs 

[less developed countries] around the world to accept multibillion-dollar loans for 

infrastructure projects and to see to it that most of this money ended up at Halliburton, 

Bechtel, Brown and Root, and other United States engineering and construction 

companies. This book, which many people warned Perkins not to write, is a blistering 

attack on a little-known phenomenon that has had dire consequences on both the 

victimized countries and the U.S.” 

Perkins, John. Hoodwinked: An Economic Hit Man Reveals Why the World Financial Markets 

Imploded—and What We Need to Do to Remake Them. 1st ed. New York: Broadway 

Books, 2009. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2009033257 

Publisher’s description: “John Perkins has seen economic meltdowns before—the 

banking industry collapse, the rising tide of unemployment, the shuttering of businesses 

45
 
are all too familiar symptoms of a far greater disease. As an economic hit man, he was 

involved in events once confined to the Third World, that have now sent the United 

States—and in fact the entire planet—spiraling toward disaster. Here, Perkins shows how 

we’ve been hoodwinked by the CEOs who run those few corporations that control the 

capital, land, and resources—and the politicians they manipulate. These corporate fat cats 

have sold us all on what he calls predatory capitalism, an exploitation of the many to 

benefit the already very wealthy. Their arrogance, gluttony, and mismanagement have 

brought us to the edge. But there is a way out. As Perkins makes clear, we can create a 

healthy economy that will encourage businesses to act responsibly, in the interests of 

their employees, their customers, the environment, and society at large.” 

Pfunder, Malcolm (Turkey, 1965–67). Village in the Meadows.* Tünel, Istanbul: Çitlembik, 

2007. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2009339447 

Publisher’s description: Village in the Meadows in the Black Sea region of Turkey was 

Malcolm Pfunder’s Peace Corps site and home for nearly two years in the 1960s. These 

memoirs about his time there spring from a desire to share the memorable, often 

humorous stories of the things that he did, and that happened there. The Peace Corps 

experience entailed a great deal of time spent outdoors and lots of freedom to experiment, 

with the vague impetus of “Go forth and be relevant” as encouragement. Pfunder’s 

narrative of his “wonderful adventure” among the locals of that beautiful mountain 

village is a sympathetic story of the villagers’ way of life at the time and what he and his 

site partner Allen did to try to improve it, followed by Pfunder’s interesting account of all 

the changes he has seen occur in the intervening years on periodic visits back to the 

village.” 

Pope, Carl D. (India, 1968–69). Sahib: An American Misadventure in India. New York: 

Liveright Press, 1972. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/70184099 

Subject: This is a personal narrative of Peace Corps service in India, apparently involving 

a birth-control project. 

Quigley, Kevin F. F. (Thailand, 1976–79). For Democracy’s Sake: Foundations and 

Democracy Assistance in Central Europe. Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Center 

Press; Baltimore, Maryland: Distributed by Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997. 

Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/97001541 

Publisher’s description: “This pathbreaking study examines foundations’ democracy 

assistance programs in Central Europe in the years immediately following the fall of the 

Berlin Wall, both measuring their size and evaluating their strategies.” 

Radelet, Steven (Western Samoa, 1981–83). Emerging Africa: How 17 Countries Are Leading 

the Way. With an introduction by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Washington, DC: Center for 

Global Development: Brookings Institution Press, 2010. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2010533478 

 Nominated for Peace Corps Writers’ Paul Cowan Non-Fiction Award, 2010 

46
 
Publisher’s description: “Emerging Africa describes the too-often-overlooked positive 

changes that have taken place in much of Africa since the mid-1990s. In 17 countries, 

five fundamental and sustained breakthroughs are making old assumptions increasingly 

untenable. These include the rise of democracy brought on by the end of the Cold War 

and apartheid; stronger economic management; the end of the debt crisis and a more 

constructive relationship with the international community; the introduction of new 

technologies, especially mobile phones and the Internet; and the emergence of a new 

generation of leaders. With these significant changes, the countries of emerging Africa 

seem poised to lead the continent out of the conflict, stagnation, and dictatorships of the 

past. The countries discussed in the book are Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, 

Ethiopia, Ghana, Lesotho, Mali Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, São Tomé 

and Principe, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.” 

Restle, Barbara (Fiji, 1979–80). Shadow over Fiji: A Memoir. New York: Vantage Press, 1999. 

Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/99093570 

Subject: A former Peace Corps volunteer narrates her experience in Fiji involving women 

ranchers, cattle, and Fijian social life and customs. 

Ricks, Thomas M. (Iran, 1964–66), and Yahya Armajani. Middle East: Past and Present. 2nd 

ed. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1986. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/85006515 

Subject: Ricks, an Iran scholar, examines the Middle East in general. 

Ridgell, Reilly (Micronesia, 1971–73). Bending to the Trade Winds: Stories of the Peace Corps 

Experience in Micronesia. Mangilao: University of Guam Press, 1991. Library of 

Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/93195624 

Subject: This is an anthology of fictional stories based on experiences of Peace Corps 

volunteers in Chuuk in the early 1970s. 

Roadarmel, Paul (India, 1965–68). Beach House 7. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1987. Library 

of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/86026288 

Publisher’s description: “A ship filled with boat people floats listlessly toward a reef. 

Aboard is an escaping South Vietnamese lieutenant carrying a module for an extravagant 

CIA computer left behind after the victory of the Communist forces. Peter Voss, who 

operated this computer for the U.S. Army from Beach House 7, wants to reclaim the 

powerful module to help him rifle banks in southeast Asia. He recruits the help of David 

Sloan, a recently retired banker and erstwhile pilot. In his second novel (The Kaligarh 

Fault), Roadarmel suspends the reader between Conradian tragedy and le Carré-like 

complexity. He adroitly manipulates a clutch of hard-boiled, sometimes seedy characters, 

all of whom face despair on the one hand and deep-seated corruption on the other. Fastpaced, gritty dialogue and grisly scenes keep this thriller a cut above the average.” 

47
 
Robinson, Michael Edson (South Korea, 1968–71). Korea’s Twentieth-Century Odyssey. 

Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2007. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2006038995 

Subject: This work examines twentieth-century Korean history and democratization in 

South Korea, 1987–2000. 

Robson, Lucia St. Clair (Venezuela, 1964–66). Ghost Warrior. 1st ed. New York: Forge, 2002. 

Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2001058612 

Publisher’s description: “Some call her the Apache Joan of Arc. For more than a century, 

Apaches have kept alive the memory of their hero Lozen. Lozen, valiant warrior, revered 

shaman, and beautiful woman, fought alongside Geronimo, Cochise, and Victorio, 

holding out against the armies of both the United States and Mexico.... Orphaned sister 

of Victorio, Lozen has known since childhood that the spirits have chosen her to defend 

Apache freedom. As the U.S. army prepares to move her people to an Arizona 

reservation, Lozen forsakes marriage and motherhood to fight among the men. Supported 

by her brother and the other chiefs, Lozen proves her mettle as a soldier, reconnaissance 

scout, and peerless military strategist. Rafe Collins is a young adventurer and veteran of 

the Mexican War. On a dangerous journey between El Paso and Santa Fe, he builds an 

unlikely but enduring rapport with the Warm Spring Apaches. When his bond to Lozen 

goes far beyond friendship, he must undertake a perilous course that will change his life 

forever. A sensitive treatment of a little-known Native American figure, Ghost Warrior is 

a rich and powerful frontier tale with unforgettable characters.” 

Robson, Lucia St. Clair. Shadow Patriots. 1st ed. New York: Forge, 2005. Library of Congress 

Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2004062878 

Publisher’s description: “As Commander-in-chief George Washington declares a major 

victory in New York, the rest of the colonies separate into Patriots and Tories. Kate 

Darby never expected to be swept up in this political storm. The Darbys are Quakers who 

have pledged their allegiance to God first—but that soon changes. Kate’s younger 

brother, Seth, can no longer deny his soul’s cry against tyranny. Fleeing from his Loyalist 

parents’ house to join General Washington’s ragtag forces, Seth enters a life he never 

expected. With the influx of British soldiers, Philadelphia soon becomes a temporary 

base camp for the English forces. When the Darbys find themselves forced to take in 

Major Jonathan Andre, Kate falls quickly for his charm. Despite her warring affections, 

Kate finds herself drawn deep into the war. As she attempts to follow her brother, she 

risks her life and her family’s reputation by becoming a spy for the patriot forces, a role 

that quickly transforms the once-timid Quaker girl.” 

Robson, Lucia St. Clair. Mary’s Land. 1st ed. New York: Ballantine Books, 1995. Library of 

Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/95001735 

 An Alternate Selection of the Literary Guild and the Doubleday Book Club 

48
 
Publisher’s description: “A historical novel on the colonization of Maryland in the 

seventeenth century. It follows the fortunes of immigrants, among them a wealthy 

noblewoman fleeing the persecution of Catholics in England, and a girl pickpocket who 

is being deported for sale as a servant. Filled with details on everyday life, the story 

describes New World conflicts between Virginians and Marylanders, Catholics and 

Protestants.” 

Robson, Lucia St. Clair. The Tokaido Road: A Novel of Feudal Japan. 1st ed. New York: 

Ballantine Books, 1991. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/90093213 

Publisher’s description: “Lady Asano vows to avenge the forced suicide execution of her 

father and restore his name to honor. To do so she will have to travel the Tokaido Road.” 

Rosen, Barry (Iran, 1967–69), Barbara Rosen, and George Feifer. The Destined Hour: The 

Hostage Crisis and One Family’s Ordeal. Garden City. 1st ed. New York: Doubleday, 

1982. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/81043857 

Publisher’s description: “Former hostage, Barry Rosen, gives a first-person account of 

the takeover of the American Embassy in Iran and his 444 days in captivity juxtaposed 

with his wife’s account of the effect of these events on the families of the hostages.” 

Rosen was serving as press attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, when militants took 

him and 51 other Americans hostage on November 4, 1979. 

Rosenberg, Robert (Kyrgyzstan, 1994–96). This Is Not Civilization: A Novel. Boston: Houghton 

Mifflin, 2004. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2004042729 

Publisher’s description: This is a novel about a former Peace Corps volunteer now 

working as a refugee resettlement officer in Istanbul, who finds himself hosting two 

friends from his two Peace Corps villages in Kyrgyzstan, “unaware that they will soon 

face one of the most disastrous earthquakes of the century. Sweeping, compassionate, and 

deeply moving, this novel celebrates the power of human connection in a largely 

unsettled world.” 

Ross, Mark C. (Kenya, 1977–79). Dangerous Beauty: Life and Death in Africa: True Stories 

from a Safari Guide. 1st ed. New York: Hyperion, 2001. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/00062000 

Publisher’s description: “On March 1, 1999, American safari guide Mark Ross was 

camping with four clients in Uganda searching for endangered mountain gorillas. By 

day’s end, two of these clients and six other tourists were dead at the hands of Rwandan 

rebels. As a man who loves East Africa, Ross felt betrayed by this horror, which made 

headlines around the world. He writes, “The continent has always been the love of my 

life. Now there is trouble between us.” Dangerous Beauty is the story of that love and 

trouble. Ross writes here about his close-up encounters with danger and natural beauty in 

Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and Uganda. He describes his walks in the bush and the 

way he teaches his clients to read unearthly silences and stillnesses in the wind that 

49
 
signify trouble. He writes about deadly charges by elephants and the electric excitement 

of witnessing the mass migrations of wildebeest and zebras. He writes, too, in detail 

about the terrible events of 1999.” 

Rubio, Gwyn Hyman (Costa Rica, 1971–73). Icy Sparks. New York: Viking, 1998. Library of 

Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/98002829 

 A New York Times Notable Book and the March 2001 selection of Oprah’s Book Club® 

Publisher’s description: “Icy Sparks is the sad, funny and transcendent tale of a young 

girl growing up in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky during the 1950s. Gwyn Hyman 

Rubio’s beautifully written first novel revolves around Icy Sparks, an unforgettable 

heroine in the tradition of Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird or Will Treed in Cold Sassy 

Tree. At the age of ten, Icy, a bright, curious child orphaned as a baby but raised by 

adoring grandparents, begins to have strange experiences. Try as she might, her 

“secrets”—verbal croaks, groans, and physical spasms—keep afflicting her. As an adult, 

she will find out she has Tourette’s Syndrome, a rare neurological disorder, but for years 

her behavior is the source of mystery, confusion, and deep humiliation. Narrated by a 

grown-up Icy, the book chronicles a difficult, but ultimately hilarious and heartwarming 

journey, from her first spasms to her self-acceptance as a young woman. Curious about 

life beyond the hills, talented, and energetic, Icy learns to cut through all barriers— 

physical, mental, and spiritual—in order to find community and acceptance.” 

Rubio, Gwyn Hyman. The Woodsman’s Daughter. New York: Viking, 2005. Library of 

Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2004065104 

Publisher’s description: “Now, Rubio has done it again with The Woodsman’s Daughter, 

a richly absorbing tale of the gothic South that, like Icy Sparks, has another unforgettable 

heroine at its heart. Dalia is the brassy and beautiful eldest daughter of Monroe Miller, a 

shrewd turpentine farmer in 1800s southern Georgia haunted by a devastating secret... In 

this spellbinding, page-turning epic, Rubio brings the swaying pines, humble 

shantytowns, and insular bustle of small-town living vibrantly to life. The Woodsman’s 

Daughter is certain to cement Rubio’s reputation as a major southern voice in American 

fiction.” 

Rush, Norman (Botswana, country director, 1978–83). Mortals: A Novel. 1st ed. New York: 

Alfred A. Knopf, 2003. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2002043289 

Publisher’s description: “In the heart of Botswana, the lives of three Americans—an 

undercover CIA agent, his disaffected wife, and an iconoclastic black holistic 

physician—entangle with that of a local populist leader as a violent insurrection erupts in 

the area.... Through lives lived ardently in an unforgiving land, Mortals examines with 

wit and insight the dilemmas of power, religion, rebellion, and contending versions of 

and love. It is a study of a marriage over time, and a man’s struggle to find his way when 

his private and public worlds are shifting.” 

50
 
 

Rush, Norman. Mating. 1st ed. New York: A. A. Knopf: Distributed by Random House, 1991. 

Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/90025752 

 National Book Award 

Publisher’s description: “Set in the African republic of Botswana...Norman Rush’s novel 

simultaneously explores the highest of intellectual high grounds and the most tortuous 

ravines of the erotic... An anthropologist in her early thirties on the loose in Africa 

pursues a fit, late-forties utopian male in Botswana. Dreams, plans, and schemes surround 

their courtship.” 

Rush, Norman. Whites: Stories. 1st ed. New York: Knopf, 1986. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/85045598 

Subject: This is a critically acclaimed collection of short stories set in Botswana and 

focusing on American whites in the country. 

Sadow, Sue (Sierra Leone, 1961–63). Can do (Said Sue): A Rich Life Helping the Poor: 

Autobiography. 1st ed. Denver, Colorado: Beaumont Books, 1992. Library of Congress 

Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/90083463 

Summary: Sue Sadow’s autobiography discusses philanthropists and volunteer workers 

in social service. Part of this book is an excerpt from the book of the author’s experiences 

in Sierra Leone entitled Into Africa with the Peace Corps. 

Sadow, Sue. Into Africa with the Peace Corps: Sue Sadow, First Senior Citizen Volunteer, 

Remembers Sierra Leone in the ‘60s. Foreword by Sargent Shriver; edited by Margaret 

Malsam. Westminster, Colorado: Beaumont Books, 1986. Library of Congress 

Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/86071096 

Sagafi-nejad, Nancy Black (Iran, 1965–68). Friends at the Bar: A Quaker View of Law, Conflict 

Resolution, and Legal Reform. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2011. 

Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2010020730 

Publisher description: “In this fascinating, wide-ranging book, a Quaker lawyer explores 

the relationship between Quakers and the American legal system and discusses Friends' 

legal ethics. ...Nancy Black Sagafi-nejad sketches the history and beliefs of the early 

Quakers in England and America, then goes on to look at important twentieth-century 

constitutional law cases involving Quakers, many involving civil rights issues. Sagafinejad’s survey of 100 Quaker lawyers shows them to be at odds with the adversarial 

system and highlights a legal practice that must balance truth-telling and zealous 

advocacy. The Quaker development of extralegal dispute resolution to solve debates 

amongst Friends is discussed, along with a look at the possible future of mediation.” 

Saltonstall, Katharyn W. (Nigeria, 1963–65). Small Bridges to One World: A Peace Corps 

Perspective, Nigeria, 1963–1965. Portsmouth, New Hampshire: P.E. Randall Publisher, 

1986. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/88209982 

51
 
 

Subject: This is a memoir of an early Peace Corps volunteer in Nigeria. 

Scanlon, Thomas J. (Chile, 1961–63). Waiting for the Snow: The Peace Corps Papers of a 

Charter Volunteer. Forewords by Sargent Shriver and Theodore M. Hesburgh. Chevy 

Chase, MD: Posterity Press, 1997. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/97204050 

Subject: The author recounts his experience serving in Chile as a Peace Corps pioneer. 

Scheper-Hughes, Nancy (Brazil, 1964–66). Death Without Weeping: The Violence of Everyday 

Life in Brazil. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992. Library of Congress 

Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/91012829 

 RPCV Writers & Readers’ Paul Cowan Nonfiction Award, 1992 

Schmidt, Monique Maria (Benin, 1998–2000). Last Moon Dancing: A Memoir of Love and Real 

Life in Africa. 1st ed. Santa Monica, California: Clover Press, 2005. Library of Congress 

Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2004113743 

Subject: Women teachers with the Peace Corps find romance in Benin. 

Schwab, Peter (Liberia, 1962–64). Cuba: Confronting the U.S. Embargo. 1st ed. New York: St. 

Martin’s Press, 1999. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/98044271 

Publisher’s description: “Cuba: Confronting the U.S. Embargo details and analyzes the 

effects of the U.S. embargo on Cuban society and the response of Cuba and its population 

to overcoming its consequences. Although the embargo disrupts and harms almost all 

aspects of life, the book focuses on those sectors most affected. It is framed by the issue 

of human rights—from both the Cuban and the U.S. perspective—an ideological gulf 

which underpins the political differences that exist between the two countries and which 

raises the question of how extensively the implementation of the embargo violates the 

human rights of Cuba and its citizens.” 

Schwab, Peter. Designing West Africa: Prelude to 21st-Century Calamity. 1st ed. New York: 

Palgrave, 2004. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2003065827 

Publisher’s description: “Many African countries are now described as “Fourth World 

nations,” ones which essentially have no future. How could this have happened? Through 

the scope of the 1960s, the first decade of African independence, Peter Schwab presents a 

compelling and provocative answer to this question. Designing West Africa tells the story 

of a pivotal decade in African history, when the fate of the continent was decided. 

Focusing on the six most visible leaders of the period—Sékou Touré, Kwame Nkrumah, 

and others—Schwab shows how Africa served as a ground to play out larger international 

conflicts, namely the Cold War. He does not fall back solely on blaming non-African 

involvement for the failure to build a viable leadership for the continent rather, he 

critiques the African leaders themselves for their individual failings.” 

52
 
Schwab, Peter. Africa, A Continent Self-Destructs. 1st ed. New York: Palgrave for St. Martin’s 

Press, 2001. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2001021864 

Publisher’s description: “Can Africa survive? Many of the nations of sub-Saharan Africa 

have all but ceased to exist as organized states: tyranny, diseases such as AIDS, civil war 

and ethnic conflict, and border invasions threaten the complete disintegration of a region. 

Peter Schwab offers a clear, authoritative portrait of a continent on the brink. 

Globalization and an accompanying level of economic health have passed over Africa. 

Added to these factors is a patronizing attitude from the West that change in Africa must 

take place within Western parameters, a UN that lacks any real power, and a U.S. foreign 

policy in Africa that is unclear. Looking to South Africa as an example of successful 

Western support of an African nation, Schwab suggests that the United States should use 

its leverage to help democrats into positions of power and then work with them under a 

framework dictated by the leaders themselves. It is only with a distinctly African 

approach to African problems that the survival of the continent can be assured.” 

Searles, P. David (Peace Corps Director Philippines, 1971–74, Peace Corps/Washington, 

1974–76). The Peace Corps Experience: Challenge and Change, 1969–1976. Lexington, 

Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 1997. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/96038656 

Publisher’s description: “A former deputy director of the Peace Corps offers both a firsthand look at life in the agency—in the field and at headquarters—and a radical 

reinterpretation of its history during the Nixon and Ford administrations. By the end of 

the 1960s, the Peace Corps was in disarray. Debate raged over its effectiveness, and 

many new volunteers embraced the anti-establishment behavior of the days’ youth. When 

President Nixon appointed Joseph Blatchford as director in 1969, some insiders felt the 

agency’s days were numbered—especially when Blatchford set about re-evaluating the 

Peace Corps’ mission and initiated a program called New Directions to reorient its work. 

Many observers simply lump Blatchford’s efforts with the failures and faults of the 

Nixon administration. David Searles, however, contends that the new director’s 

initiatives revitalized the Peace Corps and made it more relevant. He relates the history of 

these policies and their implementation in the field, drawing on his experience as country 

director for the Peace Corps in the Philippines. He shows how, despite constant carping 

from veterans of the early Peace Corps and much furor at headquarters, New Directions 

re-energized the agency and renewed and reaffirmed the Peace Corps’ mission.” 

Shacochis, Bob (Eastern Caribbean, 1975–76). Easy in the Islands: Stories. New York: Crown 

Publishers, 1985. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/84015570 

 Winner of the 1985 National Book Award 

Subject: This is a collection of fictional stories about Caribbean social life and customs. 

Shacochis, Bob. Swimming in the Volcano. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1993. Library of 

Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/92037116 

 Winner of the RPCV Writers & Readers’ Maria Thomas Fiction Award, 1994 

53
 
Publisher’s description: “The volcano at the heart of the island of St. Catherine has 

smoldered as ominously and impotently as its politics for years, but lately things seem to 

be heating up. Mitchell Wilson, an American expatriate and economist for the Ministry of 

Agriculture, becomes unwittingly embroiled in an internecine war between rival factions 

of the government. Into this potentially eruptive scene enters a woman, Johanna, whom 

Mitchell once loved and lost but who remains an enchanting and powerful temptation— 

one he will not resist. At once a beguiling love story and a superbly sophisticated political 

novel about the fruits of imperialism in the twentieth century, Swimming in the Volcano 

is as brutally seductive a novel as the world it evokes. Triumphantly compassionate, and 

imbued with Shacochis’s insight into human affairs that “ranks with the best of Conrad 

and Hemingway,” here is a commanding performance by ‘one of the most talented young 

writers working in America today.’” 

Shannon, John (Malawi, 1968–70). City of Strangers: A Jack Liffey Mystery. 1st Carroll & Graf 

ed. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2003. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2003273798 

Publisher’s description: “In the sixth novel of this best-selling private-eye series, Jack 

Liffey probes the complex ethnic mix—Muslim, Jewish, Baha’i, Christian, and secular— 

of the Persian communities in Los Angeles. A gripping tale that confronts youthful 

idealism with perfervid fundamentalism, it lands bright, earnest Fariborz Bayat, who has 

gone missing from an elite L.A. high school with three other Persian-American boys, in a 

cell of Arab terrorists. Hired to find the boys, Liffey finds himself in a nightmare, unless 

he and Fariborz can thwart the cell’s plot to set off a dirty bomb full of radioactive waste 

high over L.A.” 

Shannon, John. Streets on Fire: A Jack Liffey Mystery. 1st Carrol & Graf ed. New York: Carroll 

& Graf, 2002. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2005282452 

Publisher’s description: “In the gripping fifth novel of what the Philadelphia Inquirer 

calls a “lean and literate” crime series, Jack Liffey—the rough-edged, compassionate 

private detective who garners even more enthusiastic reviews and fans with each new 

case—once again searches the volatile and dangerous ethnic communities buried in the 

urban sprawl of Los Angeles for another of the city’s mysteriously lost. This time out, 

Liffey is looking for a prominent 1960s civil rights campaigner’s adopted son, who has 

gone suspiciously missing in the wake of an unsettling run-in with a motorcycle gang at a 

local jazz club. The whole city is unsettled, in fact, by the chokehold death of AbdullahIbrahim—a black Muslim and the Dodgers’ new ace spitball pitcher—at the hands of the 

L.A. police. In the course of his investigation, Liffey runs afoul of skinheads, white 

supremacists, and black separatists. He also confronts his own latent racism before the 

city erupts into the full-fledged civil riot that could cost Liffey his life.” 

Shea, Christina (Hungary, 1990–92). Moira’s Crossing. 1st ed. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 

2000. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/99089054 

54
 
Publisher’s description: “An exquisitely wrought debut novel about sisterhood through 

three generations in Ireland and America. It is 1921 in Ireland. When their mother dies in 

childbirth, Moira and Julia O’Leary are left to rear their infant sister, Ann, while their 

father, a sheep farmer, despairs. After Ann dies, Moira and Julia depart Cork for Boston, 

but the painful secret behind Ann’s death haunts their new lives and presages the 

confusion that will come to trouble the next generation. Moira and Julia have always 

been strikingly different, but theirs is a mercilessly dependable relationship—Moira’s 

boldness is fortified by Julia’s quiet inner purpose, while Julia lives vicariously through 

her sister’s impulsive actions. Moira’s Crossing charts their shared journey through 

marriage, children, and lobstering off the coast of Maine. At once an examination of the 

troubled intimacy of sisterhood and an inquiry into the meaning of faith, Moira’s 

Crossing is also a story of what we leave behind and who we become because of it.” 

Sheeley, Ellen R. (Samoa/Western, 1983–85). Reclaiming Honor in Jordan: A National Public 

Opinion Survey on ‘Honor’ Killings. 1st ed. Amman: s.n. [Black Iris Publications], 2007. 

Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2008295268 

Publisher’s description: “In early 2003, Ellen R. Sheeley began to educate herself about 

“honor” killings, particularly those that take place in Jordan. That summer she journeyed 

from her home in San Francisco, California, USA, to Amman, Jordan, where she learned 

of the needs for empirical, objective, baseline data pertaining to the Jordanian public’s 

attitudes, opinions, and beliefs about “honor” killings and for a sustained marketing 

campaign to change hearts and minds. As a seasoned marketing professional, she was 

confident she had the ability and the qualifications to fulfill these needs. Unable to secure 

funding or sponsorship from the obvious and even the not-so-obvious sources and, yet, 

unwilling for mere lack of financial support to give up on the needs of the at-risk 

individuals and the victims, she quit her job, moved from her home, placed her personal 

effects in storage, bade adieu to her loved ones, and returned to Amman in October 2005 

to perform the work pro bono, funded by her private savings. Reclaiming Honor in 

Jordan is a result of this effort and reveals a number of surprising findings about public 

opinion on this subject. Profits from this book will contribute to “honor” killings work.” 

Shriver, Sargent (Peace Corps director, 1961–66). Point of the Lance. 1st ed. New York: 

Harper & Row, 1964. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/64025288 

Subject: Soon after taking office, President John F. Kennedy appointed Sargent Shriver 

(November 9, 1915 – January 18, 2011) to head a task force creating the Peace Corps. 

This is a compilation of speeches by the Peace Corps’ first director, who was the driving 

force behind its creation. 

Shurtleff, Bill (Nigeria, 1963–66). A Peace Corps Year with Nigerians. Edited and annotated by 

Hans Brinkmann. Series: Diesterwegs neusprechliche Bibliothek. Frankfurt am Main, 

Berlin, Bonn, München: Diesterweg, 1966. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/72418976 

55
 
 

Subject: A memoir of the author’s Peace Corps experience in Nigeria, the subject relates 

to Nigerian social life and customs. 

Skelton, Jr., James W. (Ethiopia, 1970–72). Volunteering in Ethiopia: A Peace Corps Odyssey. 

1st ed. Denver, Colorado: Beaumont Books, 1991. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/91072041 

Subject: This book focuses on the experiences of the fourteenth group of Peace Corps 

volunteers in Ethiopia in the early 1970s. 

Smith, Charlie (Micronesia, 1968–70). Three Delays: A Novel. 1st Harper Perennial ed. New 

York: Harper Perennial, 2010. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2010282177 

Publisher’s description: “Billy Brent and Alice Stephens are star-crossed like all great 

lovers. Their need for each other drives them from Istanbul to Miami, Venice to Mexico. 

After years of encounters and escapes, they lose themselves deep in a desert wilderness, 

searching for a way forward, only to learn that sometimes the trail simply forks.” 

Smith, Daniel Jordan (Sierra Leone, 1984–87). A Culture of Corruption: Everyday Deception 

and Popular Discontent in Nigeria. Princeton University Press, 2006. Library of 

Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2006006620 

Publisher’s description: “E-mails proposing an “urgent business relationship” help make 

fraud Nigeria’s largest source of foreign revenue after oil. But scams are also a central 

part of Nigeria’s domestic cultural landscape. Corruption is so widespread in Nigeria that 

its citizens call it simply “the Nigerian factor.” Willing or unwilling participants in 

corruption at every turn, Nigerians are deeply ambivalent about it—resigning themselves 

to it, justifying it, or complaining about it. They are painfully aware of the damage 

corruption does to their country and see themselves as their own worst enemies, but they 

have been unable to stop it. A Culture of Corruption is a profound and sympathetic 

attempt to understand the dilemmas average Nigerians face every day as they try to get 

ahead—or just survive—in a society riddled with corruption.... It is impossible to 

comprehend Nigeria today—from vigilantism and resurgent ethnic nationalism to rising 

Pentecostalism and accusations of witchcraft and cannibalism—without understanding 

the role played by corruption and popular reactions to it.” 

Smith, Ed (Ghana, 1962–64). Where to, Black Man? Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1967. Library 

of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/67021640

 Subject: This is a memoir of an early African-American Peace Corps volunteer in Ghana. 

Smith, Mary-Ann Tirone (Cameroon, 1965–67). An American Killing. New York: Henry Holt 

and Company, 1998. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/97046663 

56
 
Publisher’s description: “A smart-mouthed, fast-paced tale of marriage, murder, and 

double-dealing in the best-selling tradition of Susan Isaacs, Olivia Goldsmith, and Diane 

Johnson.... Combining the political savvy of Anonymous, the barbed wit of Sue Grafton, 

and the Lone Ranger instincts of Travis McGee, An American Killing is this year’s big 

best-seller.” 

Smith, Mary-Ann Tirone. Lament for a Silver-Eyed Woman. 1st ed. New York: Morrow, 1987. 

Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/86033299 

Subject: New York’s Newsday: “Good fiction on a serious subject written with a 

wonderfully funny voice.” 

Sobania, Neal W. (Ethiopia, 1968–72). Culture and Customs of Kenya. Series: Culture and 

Customs of Africa. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2003. Library 

of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2002035219 

Publisher’s summary: “An in-depth survey of the history, culture, and customs of 

Kenya.” 

Sochaczewski, Paul Spencer [formerly Wachtel] (Borneo, 1969–71). The Sultan and the 

Mermaid Queen: Surprising Asian People, Places, and Things that Go Bump in the 

Night. Singapore: Editions Didier Millet, 2008. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2008339773 

Publisher’s summary: “A collection of stories, essays, and articles that explore the 

people, places, and legends of Asia.” 

Spaulding, Marcy L. (Mali, 2000–02). Dancing Trees and Crocodile Dreams: My Life in a West 

African Village: Journals from Two Years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Mali. Fresno, 

California: Poppy Lane Publisher, 2004. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2005272986 

Summary: The author kept a journal during her Peace Corps service in Mali and based 

this memoir on it. 

Stearman, Allyn MacLean (Bolivia, 1964–67). Yuquí: Forest Nomads in a Changing World. 

New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1989. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/88008428 

Publisher’s description: “This book examines the effects of twentieth-century social and 

cultural changes on the Yuquí, a group of fewer than 100 nomadic foragers who have 

survived without houses or the ability to produce fire. Recently contacted by 

missionaries, the Yuquí now face enormous pressures from outside developers and other 

forces of modernization.” 

57
 
Stewart, Gary (Sierra Leone, 1968–70), and John Amman (Sierra Leone, 1979–82). Black 

Man’s Grave: Letters from Sierra Leone. 1st Cold Run ed. Berkeley Springs, West 

Virginia: Cold Run Books, 2007. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2006909302 

Publisher’s description: “The memoir and the movie have only scratched the surface. 

Black Man’s Grave tells what happened to place the boy-turned-soldier in jeopardy and 

why Sierra Leone’s diamonds acquired their bloody tinge. Meet the greedy politicians 

who hijacked a fledgling democracy, the rebels who brought them down, and the 

villagers who struggled to survive the country’s chaotic descent. The cast includes Sierra 

Leone’s “big man,” Siaka Stevens; RUF [Revolutionary United Front] leader Foday 

Sankoh, whose grandfatherly demeanor belied the viciousness with which he sought to 

impose his “revolution”; and one who aspired to the big-man role, Charles Taylor from 

next-door Liberia. Taylor’s support for Sierra Leone’s rebel war expanded from initial 

hostility toward Stevens’s handpicked successor into a commercial venture that supplied 

arms in exchange for diamonds. In an offshoot of that pernicious trade, links between 

Sierra Leone’s diamonds and al-Qaeda have been traced. The revelations of Black Man’s 

Grave help us understand the frustrations that simmer throughout much of the third world 

and threaten a peaceful future.” 

Stockley, Grif (Colombia, 1965–67). Expert Testimony. New York: Summit Books, 1991. 

Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/90020346 

Author’s summary: “Meet Gideon Page—wry public defender, widower caught between 

grief and desire and a new hero for mystery fans. Powerful Arkansas state senator Hart 

Anderson has been gunned down by Perry Sarver, a patient of Anderson’s psychiatrist 

wife, Carolyn. Sarver’s defense has been assigned to public defender Page who, 

representing a surly client accused of murdering the state’s most popular politician, finds 

himself in a classic no-win situation.” The author notes that Page served in the Peace 

Corps and brought back a Colombian wife. 

Stockley, Grif. Blind Judgment: A Gideon Page Novel. New York: Simon & Shuster, 1997. 

Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/97016826 

Publisher’s description: “In Arkansas, lawyer Gideon Page agrees to defend a black 

accused of murdering his Chinese employer. Page thinks the Chinese was killed by 

people who wanted his meatpacking factory, which he refused to sell, and that the black 

man was framed.” 

Storti, Craig (Morocco, 1970–72). The Art of Crossing Cultures. 2nd ed. Yarmouth, Maine: 

Intercultural Press, 2001. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/89084387 

Publisher’s description: “With over 40,000 copies in print, this book has become a 

standard guide to the experience of living and working in another country. Whether 

you’re in business or government, a foreign student or a foreign aid worker, The Art of 

Crossing Cultures describes what it’s like to encounter another culture, to be thrown by 

it, and to make the adjustments necessary to succeed and feel at home in an overseas 

58
 
environment. In the book, Craig Storti takes readers through the stages of cultural 

adjustment—from culture shock to successful adaptation—with numerous anecdotes 

from the world of business, diplomacy, and foreign aid. The book also features 

observations on being a foreigner from some of the world’s greatest writers, including 

Mark Twain, E. M. Forster, D. H Lawrence, and Graham Greene.” 

Sullivan, Mark T. (Niger, 1980–82). Ghost Dance. New York: Avon Books, 1999. Library of 

Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/99014877 

Publisher’s description: “Filmmaker Patrick Gallagher investigates mutilation murders in 

Vermont to determine if they were the work of an Indian demon or a human hand. He is 

joined by police sergeant Andromeda Nightingale and their probe leads to romance.” 

Sullivan. Mark T. Labyrinth: A Thriller. New York: Atria Books, 2002. Library of Congress 

Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2002104622 

Publisher’s description: “A heart-pounding rappel into the chasms of darkness. Whitney 

Burke is a renowned cave researcher and marine biologist who has abandoned her 

livelihood after losing an assistant in a tragic caving accident. Though Whitney vows 

never to enter Labyrinth Cave again, her husband and daughter join a NASA-sponsored 

caving expedition. When the expedition is overtaken by a group of criminals, Whitney 

must overcome her paralyzing fear to save her husband Tom, her daughter Cricket and, 

ultimately, herself. Mark T. Sullivan’s driving narrative explores the cave’s terrifying 

subterranean atmosphere, a range of fascinating characters, and heart-stopping action 

sequences. Sullivan drops the reader into the story with force and momentum in this 

intensely told and adroitly crafted thriller, an astounding tale of adventure.” 

Sullivan. Mark T. Triple Cross. 1st ed. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2009. Library of Congress 

Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2008035867 

Publisher’s description: “The Jefferson Club is a remote, private resort for the superrich—the buildings, the amenities, and the security are state of the art and beyond 

compare. Many of the world’s wealthiest people—business leaders, entrepreneurs, 

politicians, celebrities—gather for the most exclusive New Year’s Eve party in the world. 

As expensive champagne flows and multibillion dollar deals are arranged, the 

unimaginable happens—a highly trained, heavily armed paramilitary force calling itself 

the Third Position Army breaches the world’s best security system and takes everybody 

hostage. “Mickey” Hennessey, former U.S. Special Agent, is the head of security for the 

Jefferson Club. A divorced father of three teenagers, he’s spending the holiday with his 

kids. When the club is attacked, his entire team is wiped out and only he makes it out of 

the club alive. Now he’s outside while his kids are trapped inside, hostages of the Third 

Position Army who are putting seven of the ten richest men on “trial” for their crimes 

against humanity, live on the internet for the world to see. While a top FBI rescue team 

works feverishly to rescue all the hostages, Hennessey is determined to do all he can, to 

overcome every obstacle, to ensure his children’s safety—or die trying.” 

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Sumner, Melanie (Senegal, 1988–90). The Ghost of Milagro Creek: A Novel. 1st ed. Chapel Hill, 

North Carolina: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2010. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2010005531 

Publisher’s description: “Sumner presents the story of Ignacia Vigil Romero, a full 

Jacarilla Apache, and the two boys, Mister and Tomas, she has raised to adulthood in a 

barrio of Taos, New Mexico—a mixed community of Native Americans, Hispanics, and 

whites.... Set in a terrain that becomes a character in its own right, The Ghost of Milagro 

Creek brilliantly illuminates this hidden corner of American society.” 

Sumner, Melanie. Polite Society. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1995. Library of Congress 

Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/94041324 

 RPCV Writers & Readers’ Maria Thomas Fiction Award, 1995 

Publisher’s description: “Melanie Sumner’s remarkable fiction has received early 

recognition from The New Yorker, which published two selections from Polite Society. 

Her work has been anthologized in New Stories from the South and Voices of the Xiled. 

Polite Society resounds with unusual spirit and searing honesty. Darren, a not-so-nice 

young woman from Tennessee, joins the Peace Corps for lack of a better idea. Fitting in 

with Southerners was hard enough, but trying to understand friends, lovers, and herself 

while unemployed in Senegal sends Darren reeling. The world that spirals around her is 

full of outrageous encounters, interracial affairs, and nights of drunken revelry. Against 

the backdrop of a society that is governed by hospitality and good manners but is full of 

strangers and unfamiliar customs, Darren runs headlong into her own insecurities, fears, 

and desires.” 

Suziedelis, Saulius Augustinas (Ethiopia, 1967–69). Historical Dictionary of Lithuania. Series: 

European Historical Dictionaries no. 21. Scarecrow Press: Lanham, MD and London, 

1997. 

Swiller, Josh (Zambia, 1994–96). The Unheard: A Memoir of Deafness and Africa. New York: 

Henry Holt, 2007. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2007012047 

Publisher’s description: “A young man’s quest to reconcile his deafness in an unforgiving 

world leads to a remarkable sojourn in a remote African village that pulsates with beauty 

and violence. “These are hearing aids. They take the sounds of the world and amplify 

them.” Josh Swiller recited this speech to himself on the day he arrived in Mununga, a 

dusty village on the shores of Lake Mweru...Zambia, where Swiller worked as a Peace 

Corps volunteer for two years. There he would encounter a world where violence, 

disease, and poverty were the mundane facts of life. But despite the culture shock, 

Swiller finally commanded attention—everyone always listened carefully to the white 

man, even if they did not always follow his instruction. ...Swiller had finally found, he 

believed, a place where his deafness did not interfere, a place he could call home. Until, 

that is, a nightmarish incident blasted away his newfound convictions. At once a poignant 

account of friendship through adversity, a hilarious comedy of errors, and a gripping 

60
 
narrative of escalating violence, The Unheard is an unforgettable story from a noteworthy 

new talent.” 

Szumowski, Margaret C. (Zaire, 1973–74; Ethiopia, 1974–75). The Night of the Lunar Eclipse. 

1st paperback ed. Dorset, Vermont: Tupelo Press, 2005. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2005903084 

Publisher’s description: “In The Night of the Lunar Eclipse, her second collection, 

Szumowski explores the roots of our culture while remaining true to her own. Time 

collapses in this collection, melding the images of our past: archangels and ancient Rome 

with a saloon somewhere in east-nowhere Frackville, creating a unique texture to her 

work that is light, loving, and just this side of ecstatic. Szumowski’s work unravels the 

tenderness from each subject with gentle and eager wordplay that scintillates the heart as 

it pierces with sublime purity. In her poems, the sensitive, aching of the human heart 

reminds us that the real world is still in motion its inhabitants clinging to something 

beautiful even after we have reached the final page.” 

Szumowski, Margaret C. I Want This World.1st paperback ed. Dorset, Vermont: Tupelo Press, 

2001. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2001132518 

Publisher’s description: “I Want This World explores what it means to be human and in 

danger across many landscapes: the costs of World War II to family-forced labor in 

Siberia, the Italian Campaign, prison camp in Murmansk, as a hostage in Africa and in 

the muddied politics in the Rio Grande Valley. We feel the complexity, terror and beauty 

inherent in each of these domains. If I Want This World is about moments that overcome 

as well as those that make us shudder, it is also about delight and irresistible love. The 

poet laughs herself to collapse seeing the roseate spoonbills, the great crater, Ngorogoro, 

the immigrants’ shrine in the Rio Grande Valley, the way Poles crowd Chopin’s house 

every Sunday for concerts as if Chopin were still playing his Polonaise. Margaret 

Szumowski challenges us to experience the ineffable. Reading about Bronislaw, 

Czechek, Victor, Christine, and Jan Szumowski, we wonder how to measure ourselves 

against the previous generation without feeling inadequately endowed with courage. To 

understand the effect of war on the human spirit, the poet gently brings us to enter the 

minds of another generation.” 

Tayler, Jeffrey (Morocco, 1988–90; Peace Corps Staff/Poland, 1992; Uzbekistan, 1992–93). 

Angry Wind: Through Muslim Black Africa by Truck, Bus, Boat, and Camel. Boston: 

Houghton Mifflin, 2005. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2004054066 

Publisher’s description: “...Tayler penetrates one of the most isolated, forbidding regions 

on earth—the Sahel. This lower expanse of the Sahara marks the southern limit of 

Islam’s reach on the continent. It boasts such mythologized places as Mopti and 

Timbuktu, as well as Africa’s poorest countries, Chad and Niger. In parts of the Sahel, 

hard-line Sharia law rules and slaves are still traded. Racked by lethal harmattan winds, 

chronic civil wars, and grim Islamic fundamentalism, it is not the ideal place for a 

traveler with a U.S. passport. Tayler finds genuine danger in many guises, from drunken 

61
 
soldiers to a thieving teenage mob. But he also encounters patience and generosity of the 

sort only Africans can achieve. Traveling overland by the same rickety means as the 

natives themselves—tottering, overfull buses, bush taxis with holes in their floors, 

disgruntled camels—he uses his fluency in French and Arabic (the region’s lingua 

francas) to illuminate its roiling, enigmatic cultures and connect with its inhabitants as no 

other Western writer could.” 

Tayler, Jeffrey. Glory in a Camel’s Eye: Trekking through the Moroccan Sahara. Boston: 

Houghton Mifflin, 2003. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2002027611 

Publisher’s description: “...Tayler penetrates one of the most isolated, mythic regions on 

earth—the Moroccan Sahara. Traveling along routes little altered since the Middle Ages, 

he uses his linguistic and observational gifts to illuminate a venerable, enigmatic culture 

of nomads and mystics. Though no stranger to privation (having journeyed across Siberia 

and up the Congo for his earlier books), Tayler is unprepared for the physical challenges 

that await him in a Sahara desiccated by an unprecedented eight-year drought. The last 

Westerner to attempt this trek left his skeleton in the sand, and even Tayler’s camels wilt 

in the searing wastes. But he also finds a certain purity; the Saharawi Bedouins are UrArabs, untouched by the modernity or radicalism that festers elsewhere in the Arab 

world. By revealing their ingenuity, their wit, their unrivaled hospitality, and more, 

Tayler upends our notions of what is, and what is not, essentially Arab.” 

Tayler, Jeffrey. Murderers in Mausoleums: Riding the Back Roads of Empire between Moscow 

and Beijing. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2009. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2008013302 

Publisher’s description: “A gripping journey through some of the planet’s most remote 

and challenging terrain and its peoples, in search of why democracy has yet to thrive in 

lands it seemed so recently ready to overtake. Across the largest landmass on earth, in 

lands once conquered by Genghis Khan and exploited by ruthless Communist regimes, 

autocratic and dictatorial states are again arising, growing wealthy on petrodollars and 

low-cost manufacturing. More and more, they are challenging the West. Media reports 

focus on developments in Moscow and Beijing, but the peoples inhabiting the vast 

expanses in between remain mostly unseen and unheard, their daily lives and aspirations 

scarcely better known to us now than they were in Cold War days. Tayler finds, among 

many others, a dissident Cossack advocating mass beheadings, a Muslim in Kashgar 

calling on the United States to bomb Beijing, and Chinese youths in Urumqi desiring 

nothing more than sex, booze, and rock and roll—all while confronting over and over 

again the contradiction of people who value liberty and the free market but idealize 

tyrants who oppose both. From the steppes of southern Russia to the conflict-ridden 

Caucasus Mountains to the deserts of central Asia and northern China, Tayler shows that 

our maps have gone blank at the worst possible time.” 

Tayler, Jeffrey. River of No Reprieve: Descending Siberia’s Waterway of Exile, Death, and 

Destiny. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2005024728 

62
 
Publisher’s description: “In a custom-built boat, Jeffrey Tayler travels some 2,400 miles 

down the Lena River from near Lake Baikal to high above the Arctic Circle, recreating a 

journey first made by Cossack forces more than three hundred years ago. He is searching 

for primeval beauty and a respite from the corruption, violence, and self-destructive urges 

that typify modern Russian culture, but instead he finds the roots of that culture—in 

Cossack villages unchanged for centuries, in Soviet outposts full of listless drunks, in 

stark ruins of the gulag, and in grand forests hundreds of miles from the nearest hamlet. 

That’s how far he is from help when he realizes that his guide, Vadim, a burly Soviet 

army veteran embittered by his experiences in Afghanistan, detests all humanity, 

including Tayler. Yet he needs Vadim’s superb skills if he is to survive a voyage that 

quickly turns hellish. Though they must navigate roiling whitewater in howling storms, 

they eschew life jackets because, as Vadim explains, the frigid water would kill them 

before they could swim to shore. Though Tayler has trekked by camel through the Sahara 

and canoed down the Congo during the revolt against Mobutu, he has never felt so 

threatened as he does now.” 

Taylor, David A. (Mauritania, 1983–85). Ginseng, the Divine Root: The Curious History of the 

Plant That Captivated the World. 1st ed. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: Algonquin Press, 

2006. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2005052726 

 Winner of the Peace Corps Writers 2007 award for best Travel Writing 

Publisher’s description: “The story behind ginseng is as remarkable as the root itself. 

Prized for its legendary curative powers, ginseng launched the rise to power of China’s 

last great dynasty, inspired battles between France and England, and sparked a boom in 

Minnesota comparable to the California Gold Rush. It has made and broken the fortunes 

of many and has inspired a subculture in rural America unrivaled by any herb in the plant 

kingdom. Today ginseng is at the very center of alternative medicine, believed to 

improve stamina, relieve stress, stimulate the immune system, enhance mental clarity, 

and restore well-being. It is now being studied by medical researchers for the treatment of 

cancer, diabetes, and Parkinson’s disease. In Ginseng, the Divine Root, David Taylor 

tracks the path of this fascinating plant—from the forests east of the Mississippi to the 

bustling streets of Hong Kong and the remote corners of China. He becomes immersed in 

a world full of wheelers, dealers, diggers, and stealers, all with a common goal: to hunt 

down the elusive “Root of Life.” Weaving together his intriguing adventures with 

ginseng’s rich history, Taylor uncovers a story of international crime, ancient tradition, 

botany, herbal medicine, and the vagaries of human nature.” 

Taylor, David A. Soul of a People: the WPA Writer’s Project Uncovers Depression America. 

Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley, 2009. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2008047041 

Publisher’s description: “In the wake of the Crash of 1929, companies fired an average of 

20,000 workers every day; in some cities over half the adult population was unemployed. 

The story of writers rescued from joblessness by the Federal Writers’ Project is as much 

the compelling drama of people caught when a soaring economy suddenly crashes as it is 

the fascinating account of some of America’s best writers—before they were famous— 

63
 
turned loose on the landscape with a government mandate to ‘hold up a mirror to 

America.’ ... In 1935, the federal government’s WPA Writers’ Project offered a lifeline: it 

hired unemployed writers to document life in America for a series of state travel guides. 

The WPA writers walked streets, interviewed passersby, described urban landmarks and 

rural landscapes, chatted about nightclubs and bars, recorded folklore and folk music, and 

compiled what is now very precious information about how Americans lived and how 

America looked. With striking images, firsthand accounts, and new discoveries from 

personal collections and other sources, David Taylor’s Soul of a People brings it all to 

vibrant and unruly life: the writers, their friendships, the hardships, the political battles, 

and the enduring outcome.” 

Textor, Robert B., ed. (staff/Washington, 1961–62, as full-time anthropological consultant 

for seven months). Cultural Frontiers of the Peace Corps. Foreword by Margaret Mead. 

Cambridge, M. I. T. Press, 1966. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/66017083 

Summary: This scholarly volume is predicated on the view that the Peace Corps is about 

the volunteers rather than the bureaucratic machinations of the Washington staff. Country 

experts such as anthropologist Paul L. Doughty and political scientist David Scott Palmer 

(Peru, 1962–64) authored its 14 chapters, which are country case studies examining 

cultural aspects that their Peace Corps programs need to take into account. For the 

occasion of the Peace Corps 50th Anniversary, the MIT Press and Stanford University 

Libraries have made this early anthropological approach to the Peace Corps mission 

available for downloading at Professor Textor’s Stanford University Web site at: 

http://www.stanford.edu/~rbtextor/publications.html 

Theroux, Paul (Malawi, 1963–65). Ghost Train to the Eastern Star: On the Tracks of the Great 

Railway Bazaar. Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 2008. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2008011436 

Publisher’s description: “Thirty years after the epic journey chronicled in his classic work 

The Great Railway Bazaar, the world’s most acclaimed travel writer re-creates his 

25,000-mile journey through eastern Europe, central Asia, the Indian subcontinent, 

China, Japan, and Siberia.” 

Theroux, Paul. Great Railway Bazaar: By Train through Asia. 1st Mariner Books ed. Boston: 

Houghton Mifflin, 2006. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2006287162 

Publisher’s description: “First published more than thirty years ago, Paul Theroux’s 

strange, unique, and hugely entertaining railway odyssey has become a modern classic of 

travel literature. Here Theroux recounts his early adventures on an unusual grand 

continental tour. Asia’s fabled trains—the Orient Express, the Khyber Pass Local, the 

Frontier Mail, the Golden Arrow to Kuala Lumpur, the Mandalay Express, the TransSiberian Express—are the stars of a journey that takes him on a loop eastbound from 

London’s Victoria Station to Tokyo Central, then back from Japan on the Trans-Siberian. 

64
 
Brimming with Theroux’s signature humor and wry observations, this engrossing 

chronicle is essential reading for both the ardent adventurer and the armchair traveler.” 

Theroux, Paul. Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Cape Town. Boston: Houghton 

Mifflin, 2003. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2002032710 

Publisher’s description: “A rich and insightful travel book in the tradition that made Paul 

Theroux’s reputation, Dark Star Safari takes us the length of Africa by rattletrap bus, 

forgotten train, and rusting steamer. Theroux confronts delay, discomfort, bullets, and 

bad food while encountering a remarkable mix of places and people. Beginning in Cairo 

and ending in Cape Town, he goes on the ultimate safari to the true heart of Africa, not 

the lavish game parks with overfed guests but the small villages of the bush and the filthy 

chaotic cities that define this forgotten continent. No one is more qualified than Paul 

Theroux to undertake the vast task of describing Africa. He got his start as a writer in 

Africa nearly forty years ago when he taught in the Peace Corps in Malawi and at 

Makerere University in Uganda. Now he returns to find countries in the throes of 

corruption and poverty. Able to strike up a conversation with anyone, Theroux is the 

perfect guide: keenly observant, wry, entertaining, and wise. We encounter villagers, 

farmers, bureaucrats, political figures, white settlers, smug tourists, and aid workers, each 

with a distinctive point of view. ...The first account of a single trip since his bestseller 

The Pillars of Hercules, Dark Star Safari conveys all the vast contrasts and the glory and 

misery of Africa and is Paul Theroux at his very best.” 

Theroux, Paul. Old Patagonian Express: By Train through the Americas. Boston: Houghton 

Mifflin, 1979. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/79015353 

 1981 Nominee, American Book Award 

Publisher’s description: “Starting with a rush-hour subway ride to South Station in 

Boston to catch the Lake Shore Limited to Chicago, Theroux winds up on the poky, 

wandering Old Patagonian Express steam engine, which comes to a halt in a desolate 

land of cracked hills and thorn bushes. But with Theroux the view along the way is what 

matters: the monologuing Mr. Thornberry in Costa Rica, the bogus priest of Cali, and the 

blind Jorge Luis Borges, who delights in having Theroux read Robert Louis Stevenson to 

him.” 

Theroux, Paul. The Mosquito Coast. London; New York: Penguin Books, 1982. Library of 

Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/96147929 

 1983 Nominee, American Book Award 

 James Tait Black Award 

Publisher’s description: “In a breathtaking adventure story, the paranoid and brilliant 

inventor Allie Fox takes his family to live in the Honduran jungle, determined to build a 

civilization better than the one they’ve left. Fleeing from an America he sees as mired in 

materialism and conformity, he hopes to rediscover a purer life. But his utopian 

experiment takes a dark turn when his obsessions lead the family toward unimaginable 

danger.” 

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Theroux, Paul. Riding the Iron Rooster: By Train through China. 1st Mariner Books ed. Boston: 

Houghton Mifflin, 2006. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2006028745 

Publisher’s description: “Paul Theroux invites us to join him on the journey of a lifetime, 

in the grand romantic tradition, by train across Europe, through the vast underbelly of 

Asia into the heart of Russia, and then up to China. Here is China by rail (the Iron 

Rooster is the name of a train), as seen and heard through the eyes and ears of one of the 

most intrepid and insightful travel writers of our time.” 

Thomas, Maria (pseudonym of Roberta Worrick; Ethiopia, 1971–73). African Visas: A Novella 

and Stories. New York: Soho, 1991. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/91003829 

Subject: “Set in Africa, this is an acclaimed collection of a novella and six stories about 

the intractable problems of the continent, Ethiopia in particular, as seen by adventurous 

women. For example, “Jiru Road,” the novella, is a first-person account of Sarah’s life in 

the Peace Corps.” African Visas is published posthumously; Thomas died on a relief 

mission to Ethiopia on August 7, 1989, in a plane crash that also killed Congressman 

Mickey Leland of Texas and 13 other people. 

Thomas, Maria. Antonia Saw the Oryx First. 1st ed. New York: Soho, 1987. Library of Congress 

Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/86031570 

Publisher’s description: “A young woman doctor in Africa [Tanzania], facing exile, seeks 

to touch the culture she was raised in through a young African woman whom she has 

saved with Western surgery.” 

Thomsen, Moritz (Ecuador, 1965–67). The Farm on the River of Emeralds. Boston: Houghton 

Mifflin, 1978. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/78006760 

Subject: In The Farm on the River Emeralds, the author (1915–91) returns to Ecuador to 

purchase and hack a farm out of the jungle with his friend Ramón from Rioverde. 

Thomsen and Ramón struggle to establish the farm, hire workers, and adjust to the 

community. 

Thomsen, Moritz. Living Poor: A Peace Corps Chronicle. Seattle: University of Washington 

Press, 1969. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/77089492 

Subject: The author, a California farmer, became a Peace Corps farmer in Ecuador at the 

age of 44. This is a chronicle of his experience living in the Ecuadorian coastal village of 

Rioverde during his Peace Corps service. 

Thomsen, Moritz. The Saddest Pleasure: A Journey on Two Rivers. Saint Paul, Minnesota: 

Graywolf Press, 1990. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/89027450 

 RPCV Writers & Readers’ Paul Cowan Nonfiction Award, 1990, for his collected works 

 1991 Governor’s Writers Award (now the Washington State Book Awards) 

66
 
Publisher’s description: “The Saddest Pleasure is a deeply personal look at the people, 

poverty, beauty, art, music, literature, and passion of South America by an American who 

has spent most of his life there. Moritz Thomsen was one of the early Peace Corps 

volunteers. Through his skill as a writer, he vividly brings to life the people and 

landscapes he loves. The Saddest Pleasure tells the story of Thomsen’s desperate 

departure from Ecuador at the age of sixty-three and his soul-searching journey through 

Brazil and the Amazon River. Along the way, the author reflects on the meaning of his 

own life and the world around him, his friendships, and on the distances between people 

and cultures. Thomsen’s spirited observations are tinged with irascibility, as he moves 

from city to feudal countryside, from primitive conditions to the startlingly contemporary 

details of a culture in transition. Paul Theroux’s introduction to this book is a testament to 

Mr. Thomsen’s remarkable life.” 

Thomsen, Moritz. My Two Wars. 1st ed. South Royalton, Vermont: Steerforth Press, 1996. 

Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/96001203 

Publisher’s description: “Washington Post in reviewing My Two Wars. Thomsen here 

describes the two great battles in his life—one against his rich, tyrannical father; the other 

against German pilots and antiaircraft gunners in 1943 and 1944. Thomsen had an 

abiding hatred for his father, and with this portrait of the man he has given us one of 

literature’s true monsters.” 

Tidwell, Mike (Zaire, 1985–87). Amazon Stranger: A Rainforest Chief Battles Big Oil. New 

York: Lyons & Burford, 1996. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/95051297 

 RPCV Writers & Readers’ Paul Cowan Nonfiction Award, 1997 

Publisher’s description: “The author tells of the efforts of American Randy Borman to aid 

the Cofan Indians of Ecuador in their struggle against the international oil companies 

who want to exploit the jungle.” 

Tidwell, Mike. The Ponds of Kalambayi: An African Sojourn. New York: Lyons & Burford, 

1990. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/90040035 

 RPCV Writers & Readers’ Paul Cowan Nonfiction Award, 1991 

Summary: The author describes his two-year sojourn as a Peace Corps volunteer among a 

remote tribe in south-central Zaire (present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo), 

where he struggled to make a fish-farming project viable despite irrational traditional 

practices. 

Toner, Jim (Sri Lanka, 1989–91). Serendib. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 

2001. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/00044724 

Subject: This is a travel memoir of the author’s Peace Corps service in Sri Lanka. 

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Townson, Annabelle (Romania, 2001–03). We Wait for You: Unheard Voices from PostCommunist Romania.* Lanham, Maryland: Hamilton Books, 2005. Library of Congress 

Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2005929684 

Publisher’s summary: “The author, an American Peace Corps volunteer from 2001–2003, 

chronicles the lives of average citizens in post-Ceauşescu Romania.” 

Tsongas, Paul E. (Ethiopia, 1962–64). Heading Home. New York: Vintage Books, 1992 [with a 

new preface by the author]. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/92050162 

Subject: A U.S. senator and former presidential candidate heads home from Washington 

to Massachusetts to battle lymphoma cancer. 

Unger, Marvin H. (Liberia, 1964–66). Pawpaw, Foofoo, and Juju: Recollections of a Peace 

Corps Volunteer. 1st ed. New York: Citadel Press, 1968. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/68019124 

Summary: In this memoir, the author reflects on the power of the person in the guise of a 

Peace Corps volunteer. 

Vestal, Theodore M. (staff/Ethiopia, 1964–66). The Lion of Judah in the New World: Emperor 

Haile SeLassie of Ethiopia and the Shaping of Americans’ Attitudes toward Africa. Santa 

Barbara, California: Praeger, 2011. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2010047141 

Publisher’s description: “Tells the story of a dynamic ruler who influenced the perception 

of an entire continent. This title includes a brief biography of the Emperor and also 

explores the geography and long, colorful history of Ethiopia.” 

Vila, Bob (Panama, 1969–70), and Jane Davidson. This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, 

and Renovating an Older House. Boston: Little, Brown, 1980. Library of Congress 

Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/80036745 

Warren, Dennis M. (Ghana, 1964–66), and Brian Ethan Schwimmer, eds. Anthropology and the 

Peace Corps: Case Studies in Career Preparation. Ames: Iowa State University Press, 

1993. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/90020352 

Publisher’s description: “This volume examines growth and change in American 

anthropology as the field has been influenced by Peace Corps volunteers. It does so 

through writings by 21 former Peace Corps volunteers, including the editors, who became 

professional anthropologists. Part I creates a general profile of Peace Corps volunteers 

who entered careers in anthropology. Part II presents specific accounts that discuss each 

of the contributors’ motivations for joining the Peace Corps. The contributors also 

discuss their corps experiences, their reasons for choosing or maintaining careers in 

anthropology, the matches and mismatches of academic anthropology with experiences in 

the field, and the impact of the Peace Corps experience on academic anthropology.” 

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Waters, Tony (Thailand, 1980–82). Bureaucratizing the Good Samaritan: The Limitations to 

Humanitarian Relief Operation. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 2001. Library of 

Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/00043988 

Publisher’s description: “Bureaucratizing the Good Samaritan is about the organization 

of refugee relief programs. It describes the practical, political, and moral assumptions of 

the “international refugee relief regime.” Tony Waters emphasizes that the agencies 

delivering humanitarian relief are embedded in rationalized bureaucracies whose values 

are determined by their institutional frameworks. The demand for “victims” is observed 

in the close relation between the interests of the popular press and the decisions made by 

bureaucracies. This presents a paradox in all humanitarian relief organizations, but 

perhaps no more so than in the Rwanda Relief Operations (1994-96) which ended in the 

largest mass forced repatriation since the end of World War II. This crisis is analyzed 

with an assumption that there is a basic contradiction between the demands of the 

bureaucratized organization and the need of relief agencies to generate the emotional 

publicity to sustain the interest of northern donors. The book concludes by noting that if 

refugee relief programs are to become more effective, the connection between the press’s 

emotional demands for ”victims” and the bureaucratic organization’s decision processes 

need to be identified and reassessed.” 

Watson, Elsa (Guinea–Bissau, 1996–98). Maid Marian: A Novel. New York: Crown Publishers, 

2004. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2003014671 

Publisher’s description: “In an irresistible reimagining of the Robin Hood legend, Maid 

Marian brings to life the rollicking—and romantic—world of the Middle Ages. ... 

Determined not to be sold into another sham marriage, she seeks out the one man whose 

spies can help uncover the queen’s plans: Robin Hood, the notorious Saxon outlaw of 

Sherwood Forest.” 

White, Virginia P. (Hungary, 1992–94). Over the Hill in Hungary. Commack, New York: 

Kroshka Books, 1999. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/98048597 

Publisher’s description: “When the Soviet Army that kept Hungary’s communist 

government in power for 40 years marched away in 1990, they left an economically 

despondent heavily polluted country whose dispirited people had become cynical and 

embittered by too many broken promises of happy tomorrows in exchange for hard work 

and sacrifice today. Their life expectancy was among the world’s lowest and their suicide 

rate among the highest. By the middle 1990s, Hungary was being hailed as “The 

economic miracle of post-communist Eastern Europe.” Virginia White observed the 

transformation and chronicled it in Over the Hill in Hungary. At an age when most 

people are planning their retirement or may be already retired, she went to Hungary with 

the U.S. Peace Corps and taught English in a “gymnasium” (high school)....” 

Wiley, Richard (South Korea, 1967–69). Ahmed’s Revenge: A Novel. 1st ed. New York: 

Random House, 1998. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/97015374 

69
 
Publisher’s description: “The people in Richard Wiley’s fiction live in the dangerous 

territory where cultures and worlds collide.... In...Ahmed’s Revenge, Wiley introduces 

us to Nora Grant, a young coffee farmer living in Kenya in the 1970s, [who]...has 

disbelievingly stumbled upon her husband, Julius, engaged in what appears to be ivory 

smuggling, one of the Europeans’ dirtiest games. Before Nora can confront Julius, he is 

killed in accidental circumstances that soon look more like murder. Nora investigates her 

husband’s affairs, coming across a succession of people whose lives intertwine and 

intersect....” 

Wiley, Richard. Festival for Three Thousand Maidens. New York: Dutton, 1991. Library of 

Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/90044044 

Subject: This is a novel about a Peace Corps volunteer assigned to teach English in rural 

Korea. 

Wiley, Richard. Soldiers in Hiding. 1st ed. Boston: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1986. Library of 

Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/85022916 

 Winner of PEN/Faulkner Award for Best American Fiction in 1987 

Publisher’s description: “The protagonist was Teddy Maki, a Japanese-American whose 

jazz band was playing in Tokyo at the moment Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.” 

Wilfong Holt, Lorissa (Hungary, 1990s). A Gift of Life: A Memoir of a Peace Corps Volunteer 

in Hungary. Boise, Idaho: Book Lore Publications, 2003. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2003105443 

Subject: This is a memoir of a Holocaust survivor’s two-year service as a Peace Corps 

volunteer teaching English in a middle school in Komádi, Hungary. 

Wilfong Holt, Lorissa. I Remember...: A Memoir of Nazi Invasion, Forced Exile & 

Concentration Camp. Boise, Idaho: Book Lore Publications, 2008. Library of Congress 

Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2010282032 

Subject: The author recounts her experience as a child prisoner in the Dachau 

concentration camp during World War II (1939–45). 

Wilson, Angene Hopkins, and Jack Wilson, eds. (Liberia, 1962–64; Sierra Leone, 1966–68). 

Voices from the Peace Corps: Fifty Years of Kentucky Volunteers. Lexington, Kentucky: 

University Press of Kentucky, 2011. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2010042385 

Publisher’s description: “President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps on 

March 1, 1961. In the fifty years since, nearly 200,000 Americans have served in 139 

countries, providing technical assistance, promoting a better understanding of American 

culture, and bringing the world back to the United States. In Voices from the Peace 

Corps: Fifty Years of Kentucky Volunteers, Angene Wilson and Jack Wilson...follow the 

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experiences of volunteers as they make the decision to join, attend training, adjust to 

living overseas and the job, make friends, and eventually return home to serve in their 

communities. They also describe how the volunteers made a difference in their host 

countries and how they became citizens of the world for the rest of their lives.... Voices 

from the Peace Corps emphasizes the value of practical idealism in building meaningful 

cultural connections that span the globe.” 

Worrick, Roberta (see Thomas, Maria). 

Wyss, Susi (Central African Republic, 1990–92). The Civilized World: A Novel in Stories. 1st 

ed. New York: Henry Holt and Co., 2011. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/2010028288 

Publisher’s description: “A glorious literary debut set in Africa about five unforgettable 

women—two of them haunted by a shared tragedy—whose lives intersect in unexpected 

and sometimes explosive ways.... At once deeply moving and utterly charming, The 

Civilized World follows five women as they face meddling mothers-in-law, unfaithful 

partners, and the lingering aftereffects of racism, only to learn that their cultural 

differences are outweighed by their common bond as women. With vibrant prose, Susi 

Wyss explores what it means to need forgiveness—and what it means to forgive.” 

Zelitch, Simone (Hungary, 1991–93). The Confession of Jack Straw: A Novel. Seattle: Black 

Heron Press, 1991. Library of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/92113903 

 Winner of the University of Michigan’s Hopwood Award For Major Fiction 

Subject: The subjects of this work of historical fiction include Jack Straw, a fourteenthcentury figure in Great Britain; Tyler’s Insurrection of 1381; peasant uprisings; and 

Richard II, 1377–99. 

Zelitch, Simone. Louisa. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2000. Library of Congress Permalink: 

http://lccn.loc.gov/00026766 

Subject: This is fiction about Righteous Gentiles in the Jewish Holocaust (1939–1945). 

Nora Gertz, a Hungarian Holocaust survivor, and her daughter-in-law, Louisa, emigrate 

to Palestine in 1949. 

Zimmerman, Jonathan (Nepal, 1983–85). Innocents Abroad: American Teachers in the 

American Century. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2006. Library 

of Congress Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/2006043740 

Publisher’s description: “Since the 1890s, thousands of American teachers—mostly 

white, middle-class and inexperienced—have fanned out across the globe. Drawing on 

archives of their letters and diaries, this book tells the story of what they intended to teach 

and the lessons they learned, and explores the teachers’ shifting attitudes about their 

country and themselves.” 

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