Ben East Books

Category: Writing

  • Foreign Service Blogs

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    Ben East
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    The Books & News blog finds itself in good company, listed among many others at the American Foreign Service Association’s round up of Foreign Service Blogs. They got me looking around at the work being posted by other diplomats and colleagues overseas. Here’s a summary of the first few. Address: TBD Recounts the early steps in the foreign service…

  • Gratitude: Pie with Beer

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    Ben East
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    The six year old appears bedside in the dark, wants to know if he can go downstairs and write. “I’ll get up and write with you.” He’s written a war story called The Attack of the Red Army. It’s three chapters long. In chapter one Sam and Jacob are enjoying the last bit of summer…

  • Billy Lynn’s Long Thanksgiving Slog

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    Ben East
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    Thanksgiving. The most American day of the year. More American, perhaps, than the Fourth of July. Throw in a hyperbolically American venue—Texas stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys—and you’ve got Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk (also now in theaters). For the heroes of Bravo squad, barnstorming the U.S. on a brief victory tour to rile up…

  • Two Pumps for the Librarian

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    Ben East
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    Six months back, guy walks into the library. Hands over his Foreign Service novel. “Here ya go.” “What’s this?” “It’s a book. Go ahead. Put it on the shelf.” “Not so fast, sonny. Two Pumps for the Body Man? Sounds dirty.” “You don’t want this novel for your patrons?” “We want four copies of that novel…

  • The Literary Excellence, III

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    Ben East
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    My nominations for The Stephen T. Colbert Award for The Literary Excellence continue. Boy, this effort is really lifting my mood! In Preston Lang’s The Sin Tax a female baddy flashes her gun at a male ex-con baddy: “You have to jump through a lot of hoops to get a carry permit in New York. It’s insane. But once…

  • The Literary Excellence, II

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    Ben East
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    My nominations for The Stephen T. Colbert Award for The Literary Excellence continue. Writers, friends, and fellow bureaucrats looking for the most eloquent way to describe their mood this past week should look no further than Sterling Johnson’s masterpiece of contemporary literature: English as a Second F*cking Language. This gem, in the shape of Strunk & White’s classic treatise…

  • The Literary Excellence

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    Ben East
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    Seriously, wake up America. These are the times you live in now. “Heroes, by buying and reading this book, you’ve proven you get it–and are therefore now members of the nominating committee for The Stephen T. Colbert Award for The Literary Excellence.” Use the medallions below to nominate any book that you feel embodies the values of…

  • Street Food with Lou Stoole

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    Ben East
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    I don’t watch Anthony Bourdain’s television programs but I understand the attraction behind them. Here’s a guy traveling the world to sample bizarre cuisine, satisfying the viewer’s appetite for the exotic and the edible. His narrative is wry, crisp, and authoritative. His locations distant to the point of being surreal. His choices of food—practically supernatural. But what happens when…

  • Avery Dick Disappoints

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    Ben East
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    I had high hopes for the Avery Dick series. Diplomatic Security (DS) Agents have some of the most colorful stories in the Foreign Service trade. They walk like cops. They talk like cops. They’re security professionals steeped the gritty detail of protective service. Their beat is peculiar: sniff out bombs and throw up barricades; investigate…

  • B.A. East

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    Ben East
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    Novelist Foreign Service Officer Returned Peace Corps Volunteer B.A. East taught English Lit and Composition in Malawi as a Peace Corps Volunteer, at Brooklyn College Academy in New York, and at the American School of Asuncion in Paraguay. Later he joined the State Department’s Foreign Service, taking assignments in Saudi Arabia, Nicaragua, Ghana, Mexico, and…