50 NOVEMBER 2024 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL e book examines clothes as material objects with their own signi cance outside their symbolic meanings to the wearer and viewer. Faulkner’s own interesting history with fashion and dress is also linked to his world of ction. Christopher Rieger joined the Foreign Service as a generalist in 2023 after 15 years as a professor and director of the Center for Faulkner Studies at Southeast Missouri State University. He is a public diplomacy–coned o cer currently on his rst tour in the consular section in Mexico City. Blood Sweat Tears Christine Reed, ed., Rugged Outdoorswoman Publishing, 2024, $24.99/paperback, e-book available, 294 pages. Blood Sweat Tears is a collection of short essays about being a woman on a trail. e women writers detail their experiences hiking, backpacking, mountaineering, and trail running as they share the challenges, beauty, and self-knowledge they nd in outdoor adventures. One story in the collection, “A Period of Transition,” was written by Public Diplomacy O cer Maggie Seymour, who joined the Foreign Service in 2020 and was rst posted in Montreal. She is currently serving in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research on the INR Watch in Washington, D.C. Zest Quest: Adventures with a Fruit Fanatic Mikkela Thompson, independently published, 2024, $21.40/paperback, e-book available, 120 pages. Mikkela ompson is back, this time with a book on traveling the world in search of exotic fruits to sample. From a fruit haven in Kandy, Sri Lanka, and the night markets of Singapore, to a mountain village in Colombia, and even in the fruit-only menu on an airplane, Zest Quest is all about eating exotic fruit, both good and bad. roughout the pages, ompson follows her passion not just for passionfruit but for adventure. e child of an FSO, Mikkela ompson joined the Foreign Service as an o ce management specialist in 2011 and has served in Dhaka, Bogotá, Caracas, Vancouver, Nassau, Port of Spain, Santo Domingo, Lima, Rome, and Washington, D.C. Before joining the Foreign Service, she worked at AFSA, e Foreign Service Journal, and the Family Liaison O ce (now GCLO). ompson is currently assigned to Diplomatic Technology’s o ce of eDiplomacy, where she helps her colleagues with technology and knowledge management. Her last book, La Dolce Italia, was featured in the November 2023 FSJ. Living Abroad With Children Mary M. Muro, Jill P. Strachan, and John R. Whitman, eds., independently published, 2024, e-book available at no charge, digital only, 209 pages. Fourteen adults—from France, Japan, Norway, and the United States who grew up as third culture kids (TCKs) and all attended the same elementary school in Cairo—o er memories and ideas aimed to make the most of a child’s life overseas. e book is available in 51 countries as a free e-book by searching Apple Books for the title “Living Abroad With Children.” One of the co-editors, John Whitman, grew up overseas as the son of Foreign Service O cer Ross Whitman. e Whitman family lived in Oslo (1951-1953), Tel Aviv (1953-1955), Karachi (1955-1956), Cairo (1957-1961), and Tokyo (1961-1962). Co-editor Jill Strachan grew up overseas as the daughter of Foreign Service O cer D. Alan Strachan and Evelyn B. Strachan. e Strachans were posted to Athens (1947-1952), Lahore (1959-1962), and Cairo (1962-1965). eir story also appeared in the October 2023 FSJ. n
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