B.A. East

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B.A. East

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January 2014

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Author and diplomat Ben East published Two Pumps for the Body Man as a Bush-Cheney era black comedy set in Saudi Arabia. Two Pumps does for American diplomacy and the War on Terror what Catch-22 did for military logic during the Second World War: The enemy can’t kill us if our institutions kill us first.

His second novel, Patchworks, examines American gun culture in a similar light.

Diplomatic assignments have taken the Connecticut native to India, Washington, Mexico, Ghana, Nicaragua, and Saudi Arabia. He taught literature and composition at the American School of Asuncion in Paraguay; at Brooklyn College Academy in New York; and as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Malawi.

A Night of Despair and a Voice of Hope

This episode of SoftPower/FulStories, uncharacteristically in-the-moment, offers two hopeful voices paddling calmly, sanely, purposefully, across our current river of despair. The American dream ain't dead.
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Published on January 23, 2026 18:07
Average rating: 4.25 · 24 ratings · 14 reviews · 2 distinct works
Two Pumps for the Body Man

4.28 avg rating — 18 ratings2 editions
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Patchworks

4.17 avg rating — 6 ratings2 editions
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* Note: these are all the books on Goodreads for this author. To add more, click here.

The Enhanced League
Ben East is currently reading
by C.S. Boyack (Goodreads Author)
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Patchworks
Ben East is currently reading
by B.A. East (Goodreads Author)
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Ben’s Recent Updates

B.A. East wrote a new blog post

A Night of Despair and a Voice of Hope

This episode of SoftPower/FulStories, uncharacteristically in-the-moment, offers two hopeful voices paddling calmly, sanely, purposefully, across our Read more of this blog post »
Ben East rated a book it was amazing
The Lost Trees of Willow Avenue by Mike Tidwell
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A Hopeful Look at Our Universal Crisis

Reading The Lost Trees of Willow Avenue feels like strolling the hometown with an affable neighbor, one filled with deep respect for the natural world and a pragmatic concern for its demise. Along the way we meet
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Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
“Why don’t you write an anti-glacier book instead?’
What he meant, of course, was that there would always be wars, that they were as easy to stop as glaciers. I believe that too.”
Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

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Dedicated to those who love spy, spec-ops, and clandestine books from Tom Clancy, Vince Flynn, David Morrell, Barry Eisler, Brad Thor...Ludlum, S ...more
39209 KSA Book Club [ نادي القراءة السعودي ] — 2790 members — last activity Jan 08, 2026 01:22PM
if you are from Saudi Arabia or living in it and want to join a Saudi community in Goodreads, This is the place for you! Join , participate, and invit ...more
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A book club focused on reading and discussing books on the FSOT Suggested Reading list.
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A place for anyone interested in/reading about international politics, economics, and law. Currently not moderated but drop me a message if you are in ...more
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A celebration and conversation of all literature that is of the intelligent dark humor or satirical variety.
57055 The Humour Club — 1645 members — last activity Jan 14, 2026 04:04PM
A group for readers and writers of humorous fiction.
13707 Catch-22 — 33 members — last activity Oct 20, 2013 04:18AM
Catch-22 is like no other novel. It is one of the funniest books ever written, a keystone work in American literature, and even added a new term to th ...more
46429 The Liberal Politics & Current Events Book Club — 989 members — last activity Feb 12, 2023 06:02PM
Do you enjoy keeping up with politics? Are you interested in current events and contemporary history? Do you consider yourself leftist, liberal, socia ...more
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This is a group for Deep State Radio Nerds and all who are interested in and inquisitive about the world and how it works. We will read fiction and no ...more
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