Randolph W. Hobler #UNBOUND. 101 Arabian Tales. The complete, forty-minute interview. December 10, 2021. - a podcast by John Batchelor

Photo:   Illustration from The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Nights

101 Arabian Tales: How We All Persevered in Peace Corps Libya, by Randolph W. Hobler  Paperback – August 28, 2020 

101 Arabian Tales: How We All Persevered in Peace Corps Libya is substantially set apart from the over-1,000 published Peace Corps memoirs because they are individual memoirs and this is a unique collective memoir, garnered from in-depth interviews with 101 fellow Libyan returned Peace Corps volunteers. A herculean effort. The story’s spine is Hobler’s own narrative, anchored to and deftly embroidered with hundreds of other anecdotes. Rather than being a narrow, individual view, this collective sharing provides many rich hues and shades of experiences—hilarious, heartbreaking, insightful, poignant, as well as educational and inspiring. 

          These volunteers were spread out over 900 miles, resulting in an omniscient kaleidoscope of experiences, many of which fall under the category of “you can’t make this up” It’s an amazingly detailed chronicle of anecdotes, historical perspectives, fun, adventure and hardship. Hobler’s breezy, whimsical style is accessible and entertaining, capped off with 220 compelling photographs. 

         “Randy Hobler has written the best memoir of a Peace Corps experience that I have ever read. His amazingly detailed book instantly grips the reader by putting Libya in its properly rich and unique historical perspective.” —Niels Marquardt Ambassador to Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Madagascar and the Union of the Comoros; Peace Corps Volunteer—Zaire and Rwanda 

         The book is available on Amazon, Lulu and other publishing sites.   www.101arabiantales.com