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Hemingway Book Club Of Kosovo
 
 
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Hemingway Book Club Of Kosovo [Hardcover]

Paula Huntley (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)

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From Publishers Weekly

Huntley's husband volunteered for an American Bar Association project in Kosovo to help create a new legal system in the fall of 2000, the year after NATO bombing had ended. With trepidation, Huntley decided to go, too, enrolling first in a crash course on the teaching of English as a second language so she'd have something to offer. On arriving in Prishtina, she volunteered at a language school and started keeping this diary. Her (mostly Albanian) students became her personal connection to everyday life in Kosovo; this diary, where she recorded her impressions, became her way of sharing Kosovo with the world. There are the usual funny details of life in a foreign country, e.g., the laboriously translated menu that offered "chicken buttocks on screwers." Before long, however, her students' stories take center stage: how they survived the Serb roundups, tortures and killings. As a taxi driver explained, "Some men are hard as stones." Teaching supplies are scarce, so it's serendipitous that the one American-language paperback that Huntley came across is a copy of Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, which she photocopied for a reading club she started. Initially leery-"God knows this country doesn't need anymore [sic] macho"-she was pleased to find her students responding to the strength and endurance of Hemingway's protagonist. Huntley and her husband returned home in April 2001, but stayed in touch, largely via e-mail, with their Kosovar friends. Huntley's journal not only shares their stories, but reminds readers that by volunteering, people get back more than they give.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

In August 2002 Huntley made a decision to accompany her husband on an assignment to help build a legal system in war-ravaged Kosovo. In a move that would forever alter the core of her existence, Paula kept a journal of her experiences to memorialize and come to terms with the pain inspired by the tragic human stories she came across every day. The violence of the ethnic cleansing puppeteered by Milosevic in the late 1990s left the Yugoslavian province in shambles, but the indomitable spirit of the people stirred Paula to try and make a difference in her own way, and she volunteered to teach English to Albanian students anxious to grasp the language of freedom. By sharing with them Hemingway's Old Man and the Sea, Paula bridges the language barrier to form a touching bond with the students in her class. Although she never intended for her journal to be published, its beautiful, soul-searching passages deserve to be embraced by the world. Elsa Gaztambide
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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In three days we leave for Kosovo, and I am scared. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews

13 Reviews
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 (1)
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Average Customer Review
4.6 out of 5 stars (13 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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4.0 out of 5 stars Both more and less than its cracked up to be, Mar 25 2004
By 
Peggy Vincent "author and reader" (Oakland, CA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Hemingway Book Club Of Kosovo (Hardcover)
The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo is a wonderful tale of the virtues and rewards of volunteering to help those in countries less fortunate (at least for the present) than the US; at the same time, it's not exactly great literature or great writing. However, that's not what it's advertised to be, and it's not the aspiration of the author to compete with the writers of great literature. For how it came to be (a collection of emails to friends and family during the 8 months the author spent teaching English in Kosovo), this book more than meets its goal.
Paula Huntley went to Kosovo with her husband, who volunteered for an ABA project to help set up a new legal system for the new war-torn country. She took a crash course in teaching English as a second language and, once in Prishtina, Kossovo, quickly found a job teaching the language to a classroom of eager and charming Albanian students.
The book begins as Huntley's story but quickly evolves into being the story of the country and its inhabitants, specifically those who were blessed to be her students. Like volunteers everywhere, Huntley quickly learned that she was gaining and receiving far more than she was giving, in terms of compassion, understanding, insight, and personal growth.
It's not 'literature,' but it's sure a terrific little book. Don't miss it. I learned a whole, whole lot about a part of the world about which I have very little knowledge.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't put this down..., Feb 12 2004
By A Customer
This review is from: Hemingway Book Club Of Kosovo (Hardcover)
I learnt a lot from and was infinitely moved by Paula Huntley's journal of the eight months she and he husband spent working in post-war Kosova. Understated, beautiful writing and none of the straining for effect that mars so many memoirs. She was clearly writing straight from the heart. I rarely do this but as soon as I finished the book, I found her website and donated something to the scolarship fund for young Albanian Kosovars. A fascinating and inspiring story of some very resilient people.
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5.0 out of 5 stars In response to "New York's" and "peace loving person", Aug 22 2003
By 
This review is from: Hemingway Book Club Of Kosovo (Hardcover)
With the review you have given to Paula's book - that is considered an angel for me - you made me laugh despite the sad
reality of what you non-sense'd about.
"Hemingway book club of Kosova" a racist book??? No way, in contrary you were recommending a racist book that protects what
Serbs have done to Kosova, Croatia and Bosnia.
Goodness me, I can not understand people who make (war) crimes
and yet find reasons to justify their ugly deeds. Shame to all of them who do that.

Hemingway Book Club of Kosova, is the best book written about KOSOVA so far, that's in my opinion and if since I can make recommendation in here - I'd like to recommend Philip J. Cohen's
book "Serbia's Secret War" - that has some similiarities with
Hemingway book Club of Kosova.
Hemingway book Club of Kosova talks about LOVE between Kosovars
and Americans while the "Serbia's Secret War" talks about the
Serbian cooperations with Nazi's throughout the 2-nd world war. And by the way, I am asking you since "I have forgotten"
Who was the person who started the First World War, and those in Slovenia, and Croatia, and Bosnia and Kosova at last.
With all due respect to you "peace loving person" - You have no room to protect the Serbs who have done more then horrible crimes
in not less than 4 countries.
Now who's the racist here, Mrs Huntley or the Serbs she talked about (even though she didn't generalize them all).

God Bless Mrs Huntley and her husband, God Bless U.S.A and all
Peace loving people throughout the world - excluding the fake ones.

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