The Foreign Service Journal, November 2012

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | NOVEMBER 2012 39 Ticket to Tomorrow: From the Bizarre to the Bazaar Jamie Kendall and Carol O’Riley, Brighton Publishing LLC, 2012, $12.95, paperback, 210 pages. In a lively account of two Foreign Service officers’ lives, Jamie Kendall and Carol O’Riley—the noms de plume of two retired diplomats—recount the journeys that brought them into the Foreign Service and the beautiful friend- ship that grew from serving together in Chile. In deeply human writing, the authors tell of young love and profound loss. One spent too many years living her life for her husband; the other tried to ignore abuse and isolation in a mac- ramé veil. These women embody the immense bravery it takes to seek independence and the rewards it brings. Laughter intertwines with tears as their stories meld together. And, as often happens abroad, adventures ensue. Lively exploits like taking Carol’s mother to the Japanese version of Chippen- dales are meshed with personal revelations; recipes of family favorites and local dishes; and, of course, dishing about foreign men. They are particularly insightful when describing the chal- lenges of life in the Foreign Service for single women and women with families. Co-authors Jamie Kendall and Carol O’Riley met in Chile. After a health scare in Paraguay, Jamie retired from the For- eign Service early, but later participated in the When Actually Employed Program for a last few adventures in Africa. Carol retired after one last FS tour, in Baghdad. Both now live in Florida. Journey from Banna— An Autobiography Gordon Young, Xlibris, 2011, $19.99, paperback, 326 pages. Since birth, Gordon Young’s life has been full of adventure and unique experi- ences in Asia. He has spent more than 40 years in tiny jungle villages, as well as in the flourishing cities of Thailand, Laos, Burma, Vietnam and India. Recently, in retelling the story of an encounter with a snow leopard to his grandson, he was inspired to put his memory store in writing. Journey from Banna is the result: a narrative account of Gordon Young’s life journeys through the world, through time and toward enlightenment. Young recalls his abnormal birth in the remote area of Banna in China’s Yunnan province; a childhood spent roaming the mountain landscape with tools and tactics he learned through his family’s interaction with the Ku-lao Lahu tribe of mountain people; and the tumult and excitement of war in his young-adult life. Vivid descriptions of the landscapes, scenery, people and his own emotional growth bring this memoir alive. Gordon Young, a retired FSO with USAID, compiled the first informal ethnography of Thailand’s northern tribes, received the title of “Master Hunter” from a Ku-lao Lahu chief and helped to found the Chiang Mai Zoo. His upbringing in various small rugged Asian jungle towns is also reflected in the biography, Run for the Mountain s (see p. 27), and a novel, The Wind Will Yet Sing (see p. 42). H e resides in San Luis Obispo, Calif. Forever Tandem: A Love Story with Ancillary Passion for the Foreign Service David and Teresa Jones, Xlibris, 2011, $25, paperback, 449 pages. Forever Tandem is the Foreign Service story of David and Teresa (Chin) Jones, both retired senior career diplomats who specialized in arms control, science policy, economic negotiations, intelligence and political analysis. Their memoir offers a cool-eyed examination of some of the major foreign affairs and political military issues of the past gen- eration. Experience the struggles over missile deployments and negotiations for the defining arms control Reagan-Gorbachev treaty that eliminated short- and medium-range nuclear missiles. Watch and rub elbows with Canadians, Quebecers and Ameri- cans all contesting the future of Canada. Gain insights into the infighting over intelligence estimates and trade negotiations, among many other things. The couple’s experience unfolds in interviews with Charles Stuart Kennedy for the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training’s Foreign Affairs Oral History collection. This volume is part of ADST’s Diplomatic Oral History Series. David T. Jones is the editor of The Reagan-Gorbachev Arms Control Breakthroug h (see p. 28) a nd co-author of Uneasy Neighbo(u)rs: Canada, the USA and the Dynamics of State, Indus- try and Culture (Wiley, 2007).