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Memoirs and nonfiction that trace the messy intersections of travel, humanitarian work, diplomacy, and global crisis. Stories of people who went abroad to do good (or understand something), and came back changed — or didn’t come back at all.
Score
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| 1 |
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Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures: A True Story From Hell On Earth
by
4.08 avg rating — 4,626 ratings
score: 100,
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1 person voted
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| 2 |
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Backstabbing for Beginners: A Crash Course in International Diplomacy
by
Michael Soussan (Goodreads Author)
4.03 avg rating — 497 ratings
score: 99,
and
1 person voted
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| 3 |
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A House in the Sky
by
Amanda Lindhout (Goodreads Author)
4.28 avg rating — 71,458 ratings
score: 98,
and
1 person voted
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| 4 |
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My Holiday in North Korea: The Funniest/Worst Place on Earth
by
Wendy E. Simmons (Goodreads Author)
3.67 avg rating — 2,499 ratings
score: 97,
and
1 person voted
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| 5 |
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Desert Flower
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4.24 avg rating — 40,340 ratings
score: 96,
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1 person voted
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| 6 |
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The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail
by
Jason De León (Goodreads Author)
4.55 avg rating — 2,166 ratings
score: 95,
and
1 person voted
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| 7 |
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Love Thy Neighbor: A Story of War
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4.38 avg rating — 1,518 ratings
score: 94,
and
1 person voted
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| 8 |
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Eating Mud Crabs in Kandahar: Stories of Food during Wartime by the World's Leading Correspondents (California Studies in Food and Culture, 31)
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4.05 avg rating — 100 ratings
score: 93,
and
1 person voted
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| 9 |
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Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World
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3.84 avg rating — 17,725 ratings
score: 92,
and
1 person voted
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| 10 |
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Out of Steppe: The Lost Peoples of Central Asia
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4.04 avg rating — 107 ratings
score: 91,
and
1 person voted
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| 11 |
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No Dancing, No Dancing: Inside the Global Humanitarian Crisis
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4.09 avg rating — 100 ratings
score: 90,
and
1 person voted
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| 12 |
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The Backpacker
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3.66 avg rating — 1,317 ratings
score: 89,
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1 person voted
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| 13 |
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The Photographer
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4.31 avg rating — 4,013 ratings
score: 88,
and
1 person voted
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| 14 |
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What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding
by
Kristin Newman (Goodreads Author)
3.86 avg rating — 23,866 ratings
score: 87,
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1 person voted
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| 15 |
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A Life Inspired: Tales of Peace Corps Service
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4.50 avg rating — 4 ratings
score: 86,
and
1 person voted
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| 16 |
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The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World
by
Vincent Bevins (Goodreads Author)
4.61 avg rating — 15,776 ratings
score: 85,
and
1 person voted
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| 17 |
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The Education of an Idealist: A Memoir
by
4.34 avg rating — 19,699 ratings
score: 84,
and
1 person voted
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| 18 |
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A Memory of Solferino
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3.90 avg rating — 421 ratings
score: 83,
and
1 person voted
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| 19 |
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City of Thorns: Nine Lives in the World's Largest Refugee Camp
by
Ben Rawlence (Goodreads Author)
4.02 avg rating — 3,390 ratings
score: 82,
and
1 person voted
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| 20 |
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Chasing Chaos: My Decade In and Out of Humanitarian Aid
by
Jessica Alexander (Goodreads Author)
4.09 avg rating — 3,066 ratings
score: 81,
and
1 person voted
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| 21 |
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Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World
by
4.20 avg rating — 88,044 ratings
score: 80,
and
1 person voted
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| 22 |
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Bonobo Handshake: A Memoir of Love and Adventure in the Congo
by
Vanessa Woods (Goodreads Author)
4.01 avg rating — 2,033 ratings
score: 79,
and
1 person voted
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| 23 |
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It's Every Monkey for Themselves: A True Story of Sex, Love, and Lies in the Jungle
by
Vanessa Woods (Goodreads Author)
3.64 avg rating — 87 ratings
score: 78,
and
1 person voted
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| 24 |
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Radio Congo: Signals of Hope from Africa's Deadliest War
by
Ben Rawlence (Goodreads Author)
4.01 avg rating — 418 ratings
score: 77,
and
1 person voted
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| 25 |
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The Fog of Peace: A Memoir of International Peacekeeping in the 21st Century
by
4.32 avg rating — 31 ratings
score: 76,
and
1 person voted
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25 books ·
1 voter ·
list created May 20th
by Andrew Mcc (votes) .
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