Read Globally. Connect Locally.
We are excited to introduce The CAPCA Bookshelf, a monthly feature of stories designed to spark conversation and reflection across our community.
If you have a bookshelf recommendation, please email us at capca1961@gmail.com with the Subject: Bookshelf. We would love to share it!
September: Demon Copperhead (2022) by Barbara Kingsolver
For September, we’re featuring a recommendation from an RPCV through our write-in suggestions. Winner of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the novel follows a young boy growing up in Appalachia while navigating poverty, foster care, addiction, and the opioid crisis. Inspired by Dickens’ David Copperfield, the story explores inequality, resilience, and the systems that shape young people’s lives. (560 pages | 4.46 stars)
Peace Corps Connection:
Kingsolver lives in southwestern Virginia, a state with a strong Peace Corps community and several active RPCV affiliate groups.
We’re also highlighting Barbara Kingsolver ahead of CAPCA’s October 17 outing to see her at the Chicago Humanities Festival, where she’ll discuss her new book, Partita. CAPCA members can purchase their own ticket and RSVP through Connect+ to join the group. (Details)
Past recommendations are:
August: Hello Beautiful (2023) by Ann Napolitano
Set in Pilsen is a family saga about four sisters and the things that connect them and tear them apart. It explores the complexity of family and mental illness and features the Northwestern basketball team. This is a great book to enjoy discussing while walking around Pilsen. (592 pages, 4.4 stars)
July: The Old Drift (2019) by Namwali Serpell
Won the Arthur C. Clarke award 2020 for futuristic elements–those are some interesting mosquitos! Set on the Zambian/Zimbabwean border 1903-2019, this genre-defying novel spans colonial times to the near digital age exploring family and national identities, public health crises and three generations of three Zambian families on the banks of the Zambezi River. (576 pages, 3.7 stars)
Peace Corps Zambia 1994-present: One of the first countries to welcome volunteers back after the Covid-19 pandemic. There have been 2,415 volunteers in Zambia since its inception, and it is one of Africa’s largest Peace Corps programs. The author was born in Lusaka and currently teaches writing at Harvard.
June: Arsenic and Adobo (2021) by Mia P. Manansala
This book is a cozy mystery which celebrates Filipino food & culture. This is the first book in a new culinary series featuring Lila Macapagal as an amateur sleuth recovering from a break-up and trying to save her family’s restaurant. (336 pages, 4/5 stars)
The Philippines is the second oldest Peace Corps country program starting in October 1961. Volunteers continue to serve today and number at about 10,000 volunteers collectively.
May: The Stationery Shop (2019) by Marjane Kamali
Spanning more than sixty years, a couple impacted by political turmoil in 1950’s Tehran shows the transcendent power of the tender connections we make with each other. Though decades, continents and circumstances divide Roya and Bahman, and their lives go on, the bond they shared and the place that created it comes vividly to life. The book explores Iranian history and culture while also exploring the immigrant experience. (320 pages, 4.4/5)
Peace Corps volunteers served in Iran from 1962-1976 and their association had their final meeting, attended by more than 100 RPCVs. This affiliate group will cease to exist as of June 2026. Check out peacecorpsiran.org for more about the anti-war advocacy these RPCVs’ from Iran are doing, or listen to the SoftPower/FulStories podcast episode interviewing Paul Barker RPCV Iran.
April 19th: In person meeting of the CAPCA Book Club (Details)
Homegoing (2016) by Yaa Gyaasi
The story of two half-sisters and their generational legacies from 18th century to modern day Ghana/US. An epic novel tracing the blood ties between our countries. (300 pages, 4.5/5 rating)
Ghana was the first Peace Corps country, and more than 5,000 volunteers have served there since August 30, 1961.
March: Beneath a Scarlet Sky (2017) by Mark T. Sullivan*
This book is based on a true story about Pino Lella a young Italian man who joins an underground railroad in the Dolomites helping Jews escape persecution in WWII. (500 pages, 4.4/5 rating)
*Mark T. Sullivan, RPCV Niger 1980-82. This is Mark’s 14th published book.
February: The Snow Child (2012) by Eowyn Ivey
This is good one for Chicago’s winter. The author comes from Alaska and this first of her novels was a Pulitzer finalist. The mythical story (Snegurochka, a character from Russian lore is an inspiration) is about 1920’s homesteaders and captures the spirit of Alaska. (390 pages, 4/5 rating)
1,084 volunteers from Alaska have served since 1961
Happy reading!