Monique and the Mango Rains is my first LibraryThing Early Reviewers book. And, boy, did they start out with a winner!
FOR THE FUTURE READER – A REVIEW
Two years in the Peace Corps. A poor African village. Another memoir. Another culture story. Nope, this book was anything but worn.
Kris Holloway spent her two years in the Peace Corps in the Malian village of Nampossela. She spent two years by the side of Monique Dembele, a midwife for hundreds of women. The author’s love for the African village, and especially Monique, transcended the pages. Holloway found a true friend in Monique and became part of the village rather than becoming a white savior. We get to experience the births and deaths and living of the villagers not from a removed, clinical perspective, but from a real and empathetic point of view.
Intensely readable, I would recommend Monique and the Mango Rains as a story of friendship first and a story of culture second.
Monique and the Mango Rains, by Kris Holloway 
Other Reviews:
Literarily
FOR THE PRESENT READER – A QUESTION
How did this book affect your views of Africa? Of African ways of life? Of childbirth? Of modern medicine?
FOR THE PAST READER – A RESPONSE
This book ultimately helped me see that all humans want and need the same basic things: food, water, and shelter, but mostly love and understanding. International problems will be solved by people who truly care enough about people to understand what is needed most. As trite as it seems, one person can make a difference. (Monique’s family has set up a clinic in her memory. Donate to Monique’s clinic here.)
Buy Monique and the Mango Rains
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Books about experiences in foreign lands, situations, cultures, those are my favorites. As long as they don’t turn the whole Peace Corps experience into a preachy monologue, reading about those experience are vastly rewarding.
At least for me they are.
Sounds fantastic; thanks for the great review. I’m adding it to my TBR list.
Blake – This book was definitely not preachy. Subjects as like medical care, birth control, female genital mutilation, etc. were covered, but from within the view point of the village, rather than from a westerner coming in a judging everyone.
SmallWorld Reads – This is definitely a good, quick read.