"Letters from Brazil III" is a continuation of Professor Mike Gaherty's adventures in Brazil. It chronicles in fiction Mike's initiation into the Portuguese-Brazilian academic world in the milieu of a major international "congress." The academic affair is followed by Mike's friendship and involvement with singer-composer Chico Buarque de Hollanda, the reporting for the New York Times of his songs jousting with Brazil's "prior censorship" board, and Mike's participation in one of Chico's LP's and successive concerts in Sao Paulo and Rio. The latter experience becomes dicey and dangerous with interference, surprising cooperation and then bad times with the military regime's enforcement agency - the "Department of Public Security." Mike, still a bachelor, is entertained and then becomes enmeshed in fun times turned complicated with beautiful "carioca" women.

Letters from Brazil II is a continuation of Letters from Brazil, 2017. Mike Gaherty, now an assistant professor at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, is back in Brazil to continue research and begin the battle for publication in a “publish or perish” academic world. He now has a Brazilian visa as journalist-researcher in his role of writing occasional “Letters” to the New York Times’s international section and is working in liaison with the Department of Research–Western Hemisphere Analysis of the US State Department (INR–WHA). “Letters” will chronicle what he sees and experiences in Brazil – politics, economics, and especially, daily life under the evolving military regime. The Brazilian intelligence agencies, the DOPS and the SNI, are aware of his role and keep constant surveillance on his activities. Life gets complicated as Mike juggles romantic interests both back at home and in Rio de Janeiro. And research evolves to treat the relationship between the folk-popular stories in verse (“literatura de cordel”) and MPB (Brazilian Popular Music), especially regarding the composer, singer, and musician Chico Buarque de Hollanda and his efforts to write and perform in Brazil while battling with the general’s censorship laws under AI-5. There are many surprises for Mike—some pleasurable, a few dangerous. Life for a researching professor turns out to be not as pedestrian as might be expected.

"The Writing and Publishing Journey" is a summary and catalogue of all of Professor Curran's writings. It includes the academic books before retirement, the academic and cultural books during retirement, the experiments with fiction based on the former, and a brief addendum of academic articles in research journals. Each volume is introduced by the cover image in full color. The abiding objective is to recall in a conversational way the when, why and how of each book, that is, when it was written, the circumstances of how and why it was written, and perhaps most interesting the odyssey of getting it into print. Any professor in Academia will relate to this endeavor, and amateur writers and interested readers should enjoy the journey as well.

RURAL ODYSSEY III Dreams Fulfilled and Back to Abilene, A Fictional and Historical Narrative” is the third in the series of fictionalized stories based on Mark Curran’s autobiography “The Farm.” Mike O’Brien and Mariah Palafox fulfill their dreams of graduate education, travel and research in Mexico, and return to Abilene where life offers new adventures.