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Lives and the Courage to Live Them: Thoughts of a Third Culture Kid Therapist by Dr Rachel Cason

Dr Cason is a British therapist who is also a Third Culture Kid (TCK) and caters to TCKs. In this book she touches on all the things TCKs celebrate and struggle with. Trauma, change, moving the furniture, resilience, loss, boarding school, language, relationship, balance. It is a very real and helpful book that is easy to read without a lot of professional mumbo jumbo. I highly recommend it to anybody with a nomadic childhood.

Africa in my Soul, Memoir of a Childhood Interrupted by Cheryl King Duvall, PhD

Cheryl moves to Nigeria with her family when she is eight. Her parents joined a Christian Mission and are sent to Lagos. Soon she is sent off to boarding school at the missionary school in Miango northeast of Lagos. The school is very strict and confining with no privacy and even her letters are censored. She has a difficult time adjusting. But when not at school, she takes every opportunity to soak up the sights and culture of this African country. She falls in love with it. She also lives through the start of the Biafran war and sees people gunned down in the streets. She struggles to come to terms with her family’s decision to move there, her difficult time at boarding school, and her return to the US. Even through all the heartache, I came away with a positive feeling.

The Black Attaché, Vignettes from a Life by JK Cheema

JK Cheema was born in northern India when India and Pakistan were still one country. She shares her loving memories of visiting her grandparents in a small village when she was a child. And the confusion when her mother managed to get them on the last train out before the border was closed on the newly formed Pakistan. As an adult she is accepted into a PhD program at the University of Michigan in International Development. From there she joins USAID and works in Burkina Faso, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Eritrea. She shares memories of each country along with visits to her own India. This book is a lovely stroll through JK’s life.

A good read

I used to be an avid reader.  I read everything I could get my hands on.  Growing up overseas it was the only real entertainment I had.  Books could be hard to find so I wasn’t all that picky.  I read whatever came my way.  As an adult I always had a book going.  I would usually read before bed just to relax and get my mind off things.  People recommended things or gave me things or I would pick something up at the bookstore or library.

After I had my child I stopped reading.  I just didn’t have the time or the energy anymore.  I could not focus on reading at night.  Several years went by and I only read a handful of books.

When I was ready to start reading again, I noticed a shift.  Either the quality books that were coming out had deteriorated considerably or my tolerance level was way down.  I would start books that I thought looked interesting and after a while I would stop reading them and put them back on the shelf.  I just couldn’t be bothered with a book that didn’t really hold my attention.  And sadly many of them didn’t.

In the past couple of years I have started reading again.  I still have problems with books I just can’t finish but I have found some really good ones.  Last year I read the Dragon Tattoo Trilogy in two weeks.  And those are big books.  I couldn’t put them down.

Maybe there is something in the Scandinavian air but I came across another good one the other day, this time out of Norway.  I am writing a memoir and recently I have been trying to read as many memoirs as I can.  In the past two weeks I have started three.  One I doubt I will finish.  Another is interesting and I will probably finish it eventually but it isn’t gripping.  The third one I read in two evenings.  I started it in the evening after work and read until midnight.  I toyed with the idea of taking it to work with me next day since it was on my iPad but decided against it.  I finished it when I got home.

It is a story teller’s story.  Remember The Princess Bride?  My all time favorite movie.  The grandfather comes into the sick boy’s room and starts to read and the boy doesn’t ever want  him to stop.  There are no giants or pirates or six handed men in this book.  But there is love, adventure, confusion, hope, disappointment, challenge, sorrow, contentment, and joy.  All the elements of a good story.  It is about living a life and I am sure most people will find they can personally identify with at least some of the things that happen in Maggies’ life.  I know I could.

Fly Away Home by Maggie Myklebust is a good read.  Put it on your list!