booksEveryone knows that if you plan to write a book yourself you need to check out the competition. You need to read books like the one you are going to write to find out what works and what doesn’t, to get ideas and be motivated by the fact that if someone else can do it why can’t you? On my blog I like to draw your attention to every book that I think will inspire my students, mentees and readers. As I have lived abroad for 22 years and believe in writing about what I know it makes sense that expat living has become my specialism. Further, because of the knock-on effect, many of my clients are writing such books too. So, now it’s time I told you about Danielle Barkhouse’s Expat Arc.
Robin Pascoe, expat expert and author of many books on living abroad, recommended this book to me and I have to admit that I was suspicious to hear it was a blook. That’s a blog turned into a book, complete with photographs. I expected to find a book that was lightweight and filled with LOLs, asterisks and other incomprehensible acronyms. I was wrong. What I found was a deep and insightful read about a very real relocation to Chennai by a totally honest and very witty Canadian. Written to stay connected with her family what Danie Barkhouse found was a following of others keen to learn about her move and, through her many links to Wikipedia and other sources of further reading, meanwhile she created a wonderful resource on how to survive in India. Snakes, monsoons, traffic and handling domestic staff are among her many typical experiences and her accounts tell it how it is, showing Danie in her true colours. In addition, her candid account of her culture shock and eventual acculturation will provide many readers with a valuable insight into the reality of being a trailing spouse. As one myself, having lived in Dubai, Oman, Norway and the Netherlands, I could empathise, even though in my 22 years abroad I have only ever seen one snake.
Danie’s book is a great example of someone who:
- writes about real life
- writes honestly
- can write humour
- adds character and dialogue
- adds lots of useful resources
- shares her emotion
As an editor myself I have to confess that I would have liked the book to have had a rigorous proofread, and as a fussy so and so I would have liked the entries to be dated and evenly spaced so I could keep track, but that’s just me being picky. Read it for yourself and see what you think. and while you are at it you can follow Danie on Twitter at ExpatArc. Her website is www.daniellebarkhouse.com
