100 Letters Home: My Two Years in Kyrgyzstan - Memoir of Peace Corps Experience, Travel Adventures & Cultural Insights | Perfect for Book Clubs, Travel Enthusiasts & History Lovers

This book was selected by my book club, mostly due to the fact that the other two reviews were so overwhelmingly positive. I was really looking forward to learning more about another culture and hearing a compelling Peace Corps story. While I did learn a lot about Kyrgyzstan, this particular experience was a bit of a disappointing read for me. I kept waiting for a big event to happen or for something dramatic that would be worthy of making a book out of. I don't in any way intend to belittle the actions of the author who dedicated 2 years of her life to try to teach other people English and endure the frustrations and difficulties she did. But I'm just not sure this book deserves the praise it has received for being a "compelling" story that is hard to put down. It felt more like an endless list of complaints, requests, and score keeping of who was or wasn't writing. While I get that that is how a person would write home to their family and friends (although maybe minus the keeping track and telling them where they stand part), I'm not sure this particular story was truly one worth printing and sharing other than with those specific people. In addition, there were lots of gaps in detail, explanation and background on who people were. And leading up to some of the bigger "events", like visits from family members and travel, there would be very little detail of the actual event other than "thanks for visiting... I hope you had fun." It was very disappointing to me and my entire book club. However, it did lead to an interesting discussion about the Peace Corps, living in a foreign country and how the book could have been written better.