Reading Room: RPCV Book Clubs

RPCV book clubs are rekindling the friendships, curiosity, and global spirit that first called Volunteers to serve.

Nobody joins Peace Corps without a hunger to understand cultures beyond their own. But where does that hunger go once Volunteers are home again, amid traffic, school pickups, and email pings? For many, book clubs have become a doorway back to service, a place where returned Volunteers can feel the same spark of curiosity that once led them across oceans. Each meeting is an echo of those shared nights in far-flung Peace Corps sites, trading tattered copies of The Poisonwood Bible for One Hundred Years of Solitude. 

In Portland, Oregon, Bill Stein (Niger 1990–93) has been tending one of the longest-running RPCV book clubs in the country via the Portland Peace Corps Association. “We started in 2010,” he said. “We meet every month and have about 15 people at each gathering. We read any book set in a Peace Corps country or by a returned Volunteer.” Their approach is democratic: an annual survey, rotating hosts, and plenty of debate. “I want every book to express something about culture and community,” Stein added. “I’ve got a bias toward fiction and I like a story that makes me want to turn the page.” 

Over the years, the Portland club has welcomed more than 45 authors, from Peter Hessler to first-time RPCV writers. “Sometimes the author steals the show,” Stein said, laughing, “but the real energy comes when someone has been to the country we’re reading about. That’s when the stories spill out.” A novel describing violence in Mexico once led to a raw discussion about sexual harassment, stories long unspoken until a book made them visible. “That was powerful,” Stein recalled.  

The book clubs span states and generations. Through Zoom, a group of Niger RPCVs from the 1980s reunited and rekindled their shared love of reading. Beth Wilson (Niger 1986–88) of Salem, Oregon, recounted, “When we were in Niger, reading was what you did. There was no TV, no electricity. You read, you talked, that was your entertainment.” Her friend Dan Holic (Niger 1986–89) added, “I wasn’t a big reader before service, but there I became like the librarian at the Peace Corps house. Those books are burned into my brain.” 

The Niger group’s story began, fittingly, not with a book but with a reunion. Holic said, chuckling, “You know, there’s that old joke—how many Peace Corps Volunteers does it take to screw in a light bulb? One to do it, and two to reminisce about it.” Wilson added, “We were doing just that, sitting around the campfire reminiscing about 12-hour bus rides and bouts of dysentery, and dancing for hours.” Out of that laughter and shared memory came a spark—someone suggested reading together again, the way they once had in Niger. What began as nostalgia turned into a living tradition, a way to carry the energy of service into the present.  

Their group now meets every six weeks, choosing titles by vote, some Peace Corps–related and some not, with recent picks including The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey and The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon. “It’s both about the books and the camaraderie,” Wilson explained. For these RPCVs, the club has strengthened old bonds and built new ones. “Most people I hadn’t seen since our reunion,” Wilson said. “This club has enhanced those friendships. A few just went to visit a Volunteer in Ketchikan, Alaska. We visit each other all over the place. It reminds me how much that experience shaped who we are, even decades later.”  

Beyond friendship, these readers see a deeper mission: to keep learning about other cultures and to resist American isolationism. “I vote for the international flavor,” Holic said. “Books like A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende inspire me to learn more about history and the world.” 

Wilson, who now teaches economics of the developing world, brings that global lens to her classroom and her book club. “The more we understand and respect other cultures, the more likely we are to get along and not go to war,” she said. “We don’t need to fear people who don’t speak English or share our traditions. When Americans lose interest in studying languages or other religions, when we start thinking we have nothing to learn, that’s when unrest begins. Reading keeps that window open.” 

In Washington state, Marilee Fuller of the Seattle Area Peace Corps Association (SEAPAX) echoed that idea. Her group meets five times a year and often chooses to gather at restaurants that match the cuisine of their book’s setting. “We read We Will Be Jaguars by Mitch Anderson and Nemonte Nenquimo, and it was fabulous,” she said. “It told how Indigenous communities in South America stood up to the oil industry. We want to know more about the world from different viewpoints. Reading helps me understand the world. It’s how I stay connected, not just to the Peace Corps, but to humanity.” 

Across these living rooms and Zoom screens, the Peace Corps experience continues to teach former Volunteers to see the world through someone else’s eyes. “Every time we meet,” Holic said, “I’m energized. Reading opens up worlds, and you learn. Trying to encourage people with the joy of reading and having a book club is a great way to expand on that.” 

Stein looks to the future, saying, “I don’t see a time when we’ll ever stop. It’s the community that drives it.” They may no longer be reading under a mosquito net with a headlamp, but through stories, these RPCVs continue to return to the wild, complicated world that first called them to serve. 

Amy J. Miller (Thailand 2009–11) is a writer and graphic designer whose work focuses on food justice, international travel, and service. She is currently an editorial fellow at the National Peace Corps Association.