We often write about passion. Passion is the ingredient that we discovered when researching for our books about  succesful chefs and productive writers.

Dr. Phil puts it this way when he talks about personal power. “Passion is what fuels the jet engine propelling you toward your goals and a meaninful existance.”

Brenda C. Hill
International Food Wine & Travel Writers Association
Books By Hills Success With Writing
Where and What in the World

Finalist in the Writing and Publishing category of the 2009 Next Generation Indie Book Awards,”$uccess, Your Path to a Successful Book.”

I just discovered this on Shelf Awareness, and felt it was worth passing on. I don’t have a name to credit the photo, so I’ll credit Operation Medical Libraries.

Operation Medical Libraries was created in response to nearly three decades of war and religious extremism in Afghanistan, which “have devastated medical libraries and crippled the educational system for doctors, nurses and other health professionals,” the New York Timesreported.

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The program “began modestly in 2007 with a plea for books from a U.C.L.A. medical graduate serving in the Army,” but “has since been embraced by 30 universities and hospitals, more than a dozen professional organizations and scores of individual doctors and nurses.”

Valerie Walker is the director of UCLA’s Medical Alumni Association and helps lead the project. She said the Taliban “not only burned the books, but they sent monitors into the classroom to make sure there were no drawings of the human body on the blackboard.”

Walker estimated that “27,000 medical texts have reached Afghanistan through Operation Medical Libraries, but she adds that the number is probably much higher. Donors can contribute directly by visiting the project’s website to find a military volunteer’s address, then shipping the books on their own,” the Timeswrote.

Norm and I frequently donate books to troops, but this undertaking is quite special.

Maralyn D. Hill, President
International Food Wine & Travel Writers Association
Books By Hills Success With Writing Where & What in the World
Member: Society of Professional Journalists

Finalist in the Writing and Publishing category of the 2009 Next Generation Indie Book Awards, ”$uccess, Your Path to a Successful Book,”

A long time ago my father told me about a line in the book, “Man’s Search  for Himself.”

It was written by the distinguished psychiatrist, Rollo May.

Dr May said “The opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice … It is conformity.”