Fast Times in Palestine...Pamela Olson event...

Fast Times in Palestine:
A Love Affair with a Homeless Homeland
by Pamela J. Olson

“No other book has conveyed such an authentic, penetrating, and enchanting sense of the Palestinian people and their long struggle for rights and security.” — Richard Falk, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories.

Pamela Olson, a small town girl from eastern Oklahoma, had what she always wanted: a physics degree from Stanford University. But instead of feeling excited for what came next, she felt consumed by dread and confusion. This
irresistible memoir chronicles her journey from aimless ex-bartender to Ramallah-based journalist and foreign press coordinator for a Palestinian presidential candidate. With dizzying speed she found herself attending
Yasser Arafat's funeral, tour-guiding Israeli friends around the West Bank, dating a Palestinian from a conservative village, being held at gunpoint and injured by a stun grenade, and witnessing the 2005 Disengagement from inside
the Gaza Strip. The gripping narrative focuses not only on violence, terror, and politics but also on the daily rounds of house parties, concerts, barbecues, weddings, jokes, harvests, and romantic drama that happen in
between. Funny, gorgeous, shocking, and galvanizing, Fast Times in Palestine challenges the way we think not only about the Middle East but about human nature and our place in the world. Named a Top 10 Travel Book of 2013 by
Publishers Weekly and a Best Travel Book of Spring by National Geographic. A question and answer session will follow the book discussion.

Two Events:

Sunday, March 23, 2014, 3:00 PM. First Unitarian Universalist Church of
Columbus, 93 W. Weisheimer, Columbus, Ohio 43214.

Monday, March 24, 2014, 7:00 PM. St. John’s Evangelical Protestant Church,
59 East Mound St., Columbus, Free parking is available in the gravel lot
directly east of our church, at the corner of Mound and Third streets, on
Sunday mornings and for special events. (Please do not park in the lot
directly across the street; towing is enforced.)

Copies of her book will be available for signing after the event. Free and
open to the public (donations accepted to help Pamela continue her book
tour). Light refreshments provided. Sponsored by Central Ohio Middle East
Peace Group, Currents Forum of Saint John’s Evangelical Protestant Church
and the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Columbus.