Thank you Jess at Random House Canada for sending me this book!
TITLE: First Comes Love, then Comes Malaria
AUTHOR: Eve Brown-Waite
GENRE: Memoir
RATING; 3 Stars
I have read quite a lot of reviews on this book and it seems to me that, for the most part, it is quite loved by all. I was, therefore, very excited to "dig in". I love memoirs where the author explores a subject that I am not particularly familiar with and, of course, joining the Peace Corps is something that I have heard many Americans mention, but I had never really bothered to read about it much.
First off, I have to say that I really, really like the author Eve Brown (at least that was her name when she actually joined the Peace Corps). Here is a wide-eye young girl, who had basically bragged for a good part of her life that she would like to "join the Corps" some day. Well, fresh out of college - she figures "what the heck, its now or never". So she heads off to the local office and signs up! this is where the action starts (and we are not even in Ecuador yet! As she registers for the Peace Corps (am I doing the right thing - running throuh her mind for pretty much the whole book)...she instantly falls in love with the person who is registering her!
To be honest, I felt as though this was a) a cheap contrived ploy to advance the book and b) impossible!!! in real life this would not happen. But I then remembered that this was actually a memoir and therefore someone's actual life experience. Because I really liked the author and found her engaging and fun, I put my disbelief on the back burner. Once I did this, I found this book was extremely interesting.
As mentioned, Eve is bright, fun, sarcastic and her personality comes right through this story. Some of the events she described were touching and some were awful, I also felt scared at times, but most of all, I feel extremely badly for the people in some of these remote countries. It made me stop and think about how lucky we are here in Canada to have all that we have, but more importantly to have the freedoms that we have (okay, off my soapbox now!).
First off, I have to say that I really, really like the author Eve Brown (at least that was her name when she actually joined the Peace Corps). Here is a wide-eye young girl, who had basically bragged for a good part of her life that she would like to "join the Corps" some day. Well, fresh out of college - she figures "what the heck, its now or never". So she heads off to the local office and signs up! this is where the action starts (and we are not even in Ecuador yet! As she registers for the Peace Corps (am I doing the right thing - running throuh her mind for pretty much the whole book)...she instantly falls in love with the person who is registering her!
To be honest, I felt as though this was a) a cheap contrived ploy to advance the book and b) impossible!!! in real life this would not happen. But I then remembered that this was actually a memoir and therefore someone's actual life experience. Because I really liked the author and found her engaging and fun, I put my disbelief on the back burner. Once I did this, I found this book was extremely interesting.
As mentioned, Eve is bright, fun, sarcastic and her personality comes right through this story. Some of the events she described were touching and some were awful, I also felt scared at times, but most of all, I feel extremely badly for the people in some of these remote countries. It made me stop and think about how lucky we are here in Canada to have all that we have, but more importantly to have the freedoms that we have (okay, off my soapbox now!).
This book is written with an honest heart and was an intriguing and interesting read.
The reason I am rating this book a 3 star is that although I found it a good read, I had absolutely no problem putting it down for a few days stretch at a time and then could not really remember the last few pages I had read and needed to go back to them. This is unusual for me - and tells me that while I thought the book was good, it was not a book that "stayed" with me or even really "called" to me - and I know that all readers out there will know what I mean when I say that. When I am really into a book, its all I can do to pry it out of my hands long enough to take a shower!!!
This book is a good read and has gotten many positive reviews, so I encourage everyone who has an interest in this one to at least check it out.
2 comments:
This is in my TBR pile and I'm looking forward to reading it. I hope I like it more than you did.
Hmmm, I don't know how I missed this review, must have been away.
Well I will definitely read this one. When I was a teenager I actually wanted to join the Peace Corp!
Thanks for uncovering this book for me! You have so many books on here that I have never heard of! I love it! You continue to be my favorite book review blog!
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