Still looking for that perfect holiday present for the bookworm in your life? Need some reading material for the long trip over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house? You’re in luck! We’ve reviewed four books by authors with World Learning connections just in time for all of your holiday shopping and travel needs.
It Happened On the Way to War: A Marine’s Path to Peace. By Rye Barcott. (Bloomsbury USA, 352 pp., $26)
Review by Michael Roberts
Two kinds of service, military and civic, are the overarching themes in Rye Barcott’s new book It Happened on the Way to War: A Marine’s Path to Peace. As an undergraduate at the University of North Carolina on a full military scholarship, Barcott decides to undertake a summer research project on ethnic violence in Kenya. He rents a shack in Nairobi’s Kibera slums and by summer’s end has learned that action, not research, has the power to transform communities.
After graduation, but prior to full military service, Barcott, a former World Learning trustee, co-founds Carolina for Kibera (CFK), a community health and youth leadership organization, with Kenyan nurse Tabitha Atieno Festo and community leader Salim Mohamed. Throughout the next six years, Barcott works tirelessly to support CFK while also serving in the military.
The juxtaposing worlds of the military and CFK were easily my favorite portions of the book, and make this an essential read for anyone interested in international development or the military. Barcott argues that the practice of sending Marines on six-month tours may make for good, safe soldiers, but it does not make for good nation building. As Barcott ebbs and flows through what he believes are ineffective military tours, CFK continues to gain momentum through the sustained commitment of its co-founders.
Toward the end of the book Barcott notes that CFK’s annual budget is less than what the United States spends every minute in Iraq. The fact was not surprising, yet underlined the financial inefficiency of war, as well as the thrift of CFK’s co-founders. With CFK, they show us that solutions often come not from governments, or expensive wars, but through communities with strong local leaders.
This Life is in Your Hands: One Dream, Sixty Acres, and a Family Undone. By Melissa Coleman. (HarperCollins, 325 pages, $25.99)
Review by Gwenn Wells
Readers can go back to the land with 1960s hippie pioneer parents in Melissa Coleman’s family memoir.
Coleman’s parents were disciples of Vermont- and Maine-based rural lifestyle gurus Helen and Scott Nearing, whose 1954 book, Living the Good Life, became a counter-culture bible.
Sue and Eliot Coleman’s journey took them from well-off families and elite schools to life in rural Maine without electricity, running water, phones, or health insurance. It brought them face to face with the joys and challenges of organic farming, but ultimately left them ill-prepared to deal with the reality of family tragedy.
Coleman, a 1990 alumna of SIT Study Abroad’s Nepal: Tibetan and Himalayan Peoples program, shares her family story in lyrical, heartfelt prose. She recalls her extraordinary childhood in a manner that is alternately delightful and heart-breaking.
Readers can revel in the pleasures of the berry patch and the charming confusion posed by unfamiliar indoor plumbing on Melissa’s first days of public school. But they might find the comings and goings of various apprentices a bit repetitive and the clear foreshadowing of a death to come detracted from the narrative at times.
Coleman has produced a fascinating portrait. It is likely to resonate with those who hold dear the values of simplicity, authenticity, sustainability, and the appeal of a return-to-nature movement so rooted in the very state that also gave birth to The Experiment and SIT.
To Timbuktu. By Casey Scieszka (author) and Steven Weinberg (illustrator). (Roaring Book Press, 496 pp., $19.99)
Review by Carla Lineback
This travel memoir by two alumni of SIT Study Abroad’s Morocco: Multiculturalism and Human Rights program is sure to entertain both experienced and new adventurers. Casey’s easy-to-read writing drew me in to the story and I often found myself giggling at the candid storytelling, widening my eyes in surprise, and nodding my head in agreement. Steven’s accompanying whimsical drawings perfectly complemented the writing and pulled me into every scene.
The book is based on Casey and Steven’s travels over a 16-month period. Their adventures begin in China where both worked as English teachers for six months. They then skipped their way through Southeast Asia and Europe visiting friends and family. They conclude their travels with nine months in Mali where Casey conducted research as a Fulbright Scholar and both of them sought to feed their creativity and make real connections with the local people. Their discoveries of new foods, new words, and new systems are presented in short vignettes which made it easy to pick up the book even if I only had five minutes to read. I was never bored and always eager to read more about their adventures. This book is sheer entertainment.
Working World: Careers in International Education, Exchange, and Development. By Sherry L. Mueller and Mark Overmann. (Georgetown University Press, 246 pp., $26.95.)
Review by Laura Ingalls
Working World is carefully designed to help international job seekers make sense of the often confusing and overwhelming nature of career planning in the information age. The stated purpose of the book is to equip people to make informed career choices and become aware of the related trade-offs and potential for achievement.
The first section of the book is unique in that it juxtaposes the advice of career veteran Sherry Mueller, with that of young professional Mark Overmann. Mueller is president emerita of the National Council for International Visitors, a former World Learning board member, and an alumna of its Experiment in International Living program. Overmann serves as the assistant director and senior policy specialist at the Alliance for International Educational and Cultural Exchange.
Their divergent views on how best to identify your cause, network, utilize mentors, and continue developing as a professional are as relevant to recent graduates as they are to mid-career professionals and those seeking post-retirement employment. The overall effect is empowering to readers, allowing them to evaluate different approaches and reflect on how they might apply to their own careers.
The second section of the book contains its own surprise. The bulk is dedicated to web and print resources that cover selected job search sites, professional associations, internships, and volunteering, as well as guides to working within the business sector, nonprofits, the US government, and multinational organizations. These resources also contain a discussion of where to find international jobs at the state and local levels for those who do not want to work in Washington, DC or New York.
However, it is the inclusion of 12 profiles on working professionals at various levels that sets this section apart. If you’ve ever wondered, “How do I get from here to there in my career?” these profiles will be especially illuminating. At least three of the individuals profiled have a World Learning connection.
Mueller and Overmann hope to collaborate on a new edition in the coming year.
Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them? Are there any other books you would recommend to give or read?
More than half of the world’s population is under the age of 30. In 2011, World Learning worked with this rising generation in more than 140 countries, helping them understand the world and develop the skills and motivation to address the issues that will shape the future.
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