Showing titles in Middle East

Once upon a time an Indian writer name Amitav Ghosh set out to find an Indian slave, name unknown, who some 700 years before had traveled to the Middle East. The journey took him to a small village in Egypt, where medieval customs coexist with 20th-century desires and discontents. But even as Ghosh sought to re-create the life of his Indian predecessor, he found himself immersed in those of his modern Egyptian neighbors.

Arabian Sands is Wilfred Thesiger’s stunning account of five years spent crossing the Arabian Peninsula by foot and on camels, with nomadic Bedouin tribesmen as guides. Travelling between 1945 and 1950, the British explorer treks through Yemen, the Empty Quarter, Oman, and parts of the then Trucial States, crossing and re-crossing around 250,000 miles of this most inhospitable terrain. He was the first European ever to set eyes on the dunes and wadis of these deserts.

This extraordinary book is the result of Saul Bellow’s sojourn in Israel in 1975. A personal record of his stay—his experiences and impressions—as well as a meditation, it crackles with wit and controversy on America’s relationship with this embattled country.

Drawn by a fascination with Egypt's rich history and culture, Peter Hessler moved with his wife and twin daughters to Cairo in 2011. He wanted to learn Arabic, explore Cairo's neighborhoods, and visit the legendary archaeological digs of Upper Egypt. After his years of covering China for The New Yorker, friends warned him Egypt would be a much quieter place. But not long before he arrived, the Egyptian Arab Spring had begun, and now the country was in chaos.

With razor-sharp wit and insight, intrepid journalist Tony Horwitz gets beyond solemn newspaper headlines and romantic myths of Arabia to offer startling close-ups of a volatile region few Westerners understand. His quest for hot stories takes him from the tribal wilds of Yemen to the shell-pocked shores of Lebanon; from the malarial sands of the Sudan to the eerie souks of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, a land so secretive that even street maps and weather reports are banned.

Mokhtar Alkhanshali grew up in San Francisco, one of seven siblings raised by Yemeni immigrants in a tiny apartment. At age 24, unable to pay for college, he works as a doorman. Until: a statue of an Arab raising a cup of coffee awakens something in him. He sets out to learn the rich history of coffee in Yemen and the complex art of tasting and identifying varietals. He travels to Yemen, collects samples of beans, eager to bring improved cultivation methods to the farmers. And he is on the verge of success when civil war engulfs Yemen in 2015 and he is trapped in Sana'a.

In Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms, former diplomat Gerard Russell ventures to the distant, nearly impassable regions where these mysterious religions still cling to survival. He lives alongside the Mandaeans and Ezidis of Iraq, the Zoroastrians of Iran, the Copts of Egypt, and others. He learns their histories, participates in their rituals, and comes to understand the threats to their communities.

Four thousand miles, two companions, and several other means of local conveyance later, he emerged on the Mediterranean. The story Morrison tells of this spectacular - and spectacularly harrowing - journey is a mash-up of narrative travel writing, investigative reportage, and current history, resulting in a thoughtful, funny, and frightful trip across a region whose people are trying to claw their way from war and poverty to something better.

As a lifelong student of Scripture, Kathie Lee Gifford has always desired a deeper understanding of God's word and a deeper knowledge of God himself. But it wasn't until she began studying the biblical texts in their original Hebrew and Greek - along with actually hiking the ancient paths of Israel - that she found the fulfillment of those desires. As you journey through The Rock, the Road, and the Rabbi, you'll also find additional content from Messianic Rabbi Jason Sobel throughout the book.

Lawrence Durrell's evocative memoir of living in Cyprus, just before the Greek/Turkish partition. This is a touching and atmospheric account of a place, now changed, where the two races lived side by side.

Out of the heart of China into the mountains of Central Asia, across Northern Afghanistan and the plains of Iran into Kurdish Turkey, Colin Thubron undertakes a journey along the greatest land route on earth: the Silk Road. Travelling 7,000 miles in eight months, he traces the passage not only of trade and armies, but of ideas, religions and inventions.

Learn to read, write, speak and understand Turkish by yourself, even if you are a beginner What will I achieve by the end of this book? If you intend to start learning Turkish language, this book contains elementary information for the beginners who want to start speaking, reading, and writing Turkish language. By the end of this book you will have elementary level to communicate with Turkish spoken people. Is this book for me? This book has focused on Turkish as spoken in Turkey as Formal Turkish language. Also, it assumes that the readers have any information about Turkish language ...

At first sight, modern-day Egypt is an unruly and chaotic place: a cacophony of sounds, an overload of smells, and a swirling visual feast. Ancient church domes and medieval minarets share the same space with fast-food chains and chic air-conditioned cafes. Egyptian society has undergone dramatic changes in recent years, yet tradition and deeply conservative views prevail. Culture Smart! Egypt explores the codes and paradoxes of Egyptian life, outlines the country's history, and shows the forces that have shaped its sensibility.

On the perimeter of Israel's Jezreel Valley, with the Carmel mountains rising up in the west, Meir Shalev has a beloved garden, "neither neatly organized nor well kept", as he cheerfully explains. Often covered in mud and scrapes, Shalev cultivates both nomadic plants and "house dwellers", using his own quirky techniques. He extolls the virtues of the lemon tree, rescues a precious variety of purple snapdragon from the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway, and does battle with a saboteur mole rat. He even gives us his superior private recipe for curing olives.

UAE - Culture Smart! will help you turn your visit - whether it's for business or pleasure - into a memorable and enriching experience. Its contents include: local customs and traditions; the impact of history, religion, and politics; the Emiratis at home, work, and play; eating and drinking, Emirati style; dos, don'ts, and taboos; business practices; communication, spoken and unspoken; and many practical tips for managing the unexpected.

From the New York Times best-selling author Victoria Twead comes the third in the Old Fools series. Reluctantly, Vicky and Joe leave their Spanish mountain village to work for a year in the Middle East. How could they know that the Arab revolution was poised to erupt, throwing them into violent events that would make world headlines? Teaching Arab kids, working with crazy teachers, forming lifelong friendships and being placed under house arrest, Vicky and Joe laugh and lurch through their year in Bahrain.

Gather the Olives is a dangerous book. That’s because it is about peace in a time when peace in the Holy Land is a faraway, even radical notion. It is about hope and food and community and the way there can be solidarity in sharing a meal. Hence the danger: this book might remind its brave listeners of how peace is nourished and how hope can’t be extinguished.

This travel book humorously chronicles the trip Twain called his "Great Pleasure Excursion," on board the chartered vessel Quaker City through Europe and the Holy Land in 1867. The excursion was billed as a Holy Land expedition, with numerous stops and side trips along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, such as the train excursion from Marseille to Paris for the 1867 Paris Exhibition during the reign of Napoleon III and the Second French Empire, a journey through the Papal States to Rome, a side trip through the Black Sea to Odessa, and finally culminating in an excursion through the Holy Land.

Most visitors to Israel face an important task: crossing the highlights off their list. After guiding countless tours through the highlights, Shakked realized that they can never replace the excitement of discovering a hidden gem. In her book Secret Israel, Shakked reveals the Israel that she knows and loves, the one most people never get to see. Hidden sites off the beaten path are presented to the listener from a personal angle of a 10th-generation native Israeli Jewess with a spicy personality, guaranteeing a fun listen.

Dom Joly was born in Beirut and lived there until he was 18. He lived through the civil war, went to school with Osama Bin Laden, and learned to ski. At the age of seven he was sent to an English boarding school. It was a schizophrenic existence. Dom's parents divorced when he was 18, and he moved permanently to the UK, becoming a diplomat, a political journalist and then famous as a man who dressed as a giant squirrel. He has been back to Lebanon only twice since. Then he read about an attempt to encourage tourism in this long-suffering country: The Lebanon Mountain Trail.