The Golem and the Jinni is an intoxicating fusion of fantasy and historical fiction. Helene Wecker's debut novel tells the story of a chance meeting between two supernatural creatures in turn-of-the-century immigrant New York.

Chava is a golem, a creature made of clay by a disgraced rabbi knowledgeable in the ways of dark Kabbalistic magic. She serves as the wife to a Polish merchant who dies at sea on the voyage to America. As the ship arrives in New York in 1899, Chava is unmoored and adrift until a rabbi on the Lower East Side recognizes her for the creature she is and takes her in.

Ahmad is a jinni, a being of fire born in the ancient Syrian desert and trapped centuries ago in an old copper flask by a Bedouin wizard. Released by a Syrian tinsmith in a Manhattan shop, Ahmad appears in human form but is still not free. An iron band around his wrist binds him to the wizard and to the physical world.

Chava and Ahmad meet accidentally and become friends and soul mates despite their opposing natures. But when the golem’s violent nature overtakes her one evening, their bond is challenged. An even more powerful threat will emerge, however, and bring Chava and Ahmad together again, challenging their very existence and forcing them to make a fateful choice.

Compulsively readable, The Golem and the Jinni weaves strands of Yiddish and Middle Eastern literature, historical fiction, and magical fable, in a wondrously inventive tale that is mesmerizing and unforgettable.

Inspired by the true story of a woman who changed the way we understand our world. In 1933, three young, gifted anthropologists are thrown together in the jungle of New Guinea. They are Nell Stone, fascinating, magnetic, and famous for her controversial work studying South Pacific tribes; her intelligent and aggressive husband, Fen; and Andrew Bankson, who stumbles into the lives of this strange couple and becomes totally enthralled.

Within months, the trio are producing their best ever work, but soon a firestorm of fierce love and jealousy begins to burn out of control, threatening their bonds, their careers, and, ultimately, their lives...

Heartbreaking and timely novel by Afghan-American author follows one man’s journey from New York to the clutches of the Taliban and into an unintentional polygamist union. "He is picking up the same bags with the same clothes Lisa packed and folded a year ago. He wishes he were like his clothes, untouched by external forces."

Family man Nick Blake is living in New York City and working for the United Nations. Born and raised in the United States with broad knowledge of the Afghan culture, he is living the All-American life with his wife, Lisa, and their children. His life is turned upside down when, while on a diplomatic mission to Afghanistan, Nick is kidnapped and finds himself in the clutches of the Taliban. Omar Farhad’s debut novel Honor and Polygamy follows Nick throughout his eighteen months in Afghanistan and the devastating and unexpected turns his life takes, as he learns the true meanings of home, history and culture. After being held captive for several months, Nick is forced to marry the sixteen-year-old Shaista. Although he cannot forget his beloved wife and children back home, he finds himself falling in love with his second wife and, overwhelmed with guilt, is torn between his old life and his new one.

Honor and Polygamy is far from simply a captivating fiction story, but is also a brilliant commentary on the United States’ situation with Afghanistan. Farhad expresses his views on both the political and the cultural sides of Afghanistan. Politically, he is predicting how he feels the war will ultimately end, while culturally, he shows readers not familiar with Afghanistan that the 35-year-old war has created a population, which is uneducated, disloyal, and without identity. The United States and many other nations have continuously disrupted Afghanistan with no clear political objectives, and, in his novel, Farhad explores the consequences of these actions. The story of Nick Blake represents the reality of the Afghan culture and the results and disappointments of the political realities in Afghanistan, and shows readers just how unaware we all are of other cultures.

Written by an author who has lived both the American and Afghan ways of life, Honor and Polygamy is a harrowing, haunting and deeply moving tale for our times.

More American women are childless than ever before—nearly half those of childbearing age don’t have children. While our society often assumes these women are “childfree by choice,” that’s not always true. In reality, many of them expected to marry and have children, but it simply hasn’t happened. Wrongly judged as picky or career-obsessed, they make up the “Otherhood,” a growing demographic that has gone without definition or visibility until now.

In Otherhood, author Melanie Notkin reveals her own story as well as the honest, poignant, humorous, and occasionally heartbreaking stories of women in her generation—women who expected love, marriage, and parenthood, but instead found themselves facing a different reality. She addresses the reasons for this shift, the social and emotional impact it has on our collective culture, and how the “new normal” will affect our society in the decades to come.

Notkin aims to reassure women that they are not alone and encourages them to find happiness and fulfillment no matter what the future holds. A groundbreaking exploration of an essential contemporary issue, Otherhood inspires thought-provoking conversation and gets at the heart of our cultural assumptions about single women and childlessness.

Immigrating to Norway is part of the grand scheme, a sacrifice Maya is more than willing to make for her parents. But she'll find that what should be a peaceful transition carries with it more baggage than she intends. The death of her parents in a tragic accident seems only to compound those struggles, but Maya is adamant on finding a way for herself.

Good graces bless her with the acquaintance of a young man, Tor, who refuses to allow her spirits to waver. In her spellbinding novella, Maria Johnsen weaves a tale of an unlikely union that spans across years of tumult. Between her reluctance to fully assimilate into foreign culture, long bouts of joblessness, and struggling to maintain a passionate relationship, Maya becomes susceptible to the supernatural.

As these malicious forces prey on her weakening soul, she must strive to make amends with the obstacles in life if she ever wants to find peace. Her supernatural romance tugs at the hearts of readers, pulling them along right until the smashing conclusion that transcends the boundaries between genres.

Waking Up White is the book Irving wishes someone had handed her decades ago. By sharing her sometimes cringe-worthy struggle to understand racism and racial tensions, she offers a fresh perspective on bias, stereotypes, manners, and tolerance.

As Irving unpacks her own long-held beliefs about colorblindness, being a good person, and wanting to help people of color, she reveals how each of these well-intentioned mindsets actually perpetuated her ill-conceived ideas about race. She also explains why and how she's changed the way she talks about racism, works in racially mixed groups, and understands the antiracism movement as a whole.

Exercises at the end of each chapter prompt readers to explore their own racialized ideas. Waking Up White's personal narrative is designed to work well as a rapid read, a book group book, or support reading for courses exploring racial and cultural issues.

Not Open challenges Christians to remain open, loving, and caring towards others, while also being not open to cultural influences that detract from biblical truths. In today's world, where only 1% of the Millennial generation and 9% of adults maintain a biblical worldview, the authors stress the importance of standing firm on the Word of God.

Culture demands acceptance of its views on morality, family, love, and spirituality, eroding the truth and power of Christian life. This book is a beacon, exposing the deceptions of compromise and urging believers to live a powerful, undiluted life through the truth of Jesus Christ and God's Word.

Join the battle against cultural compromise and embrace the powerful, life-altering path planned for you and your family.

The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly tells the heartwarming story of a hen named Sprout, who is no longer content to lay eggs on command. She dreams of a different life, inspired by the glimpses of freedom she sees every morning through the barn doors. Determined to escape into the wild and hatch an egg of her own, Sprout embarks on a journey of freedom, individuality, and motherhood.

This novel, with its plucky and spirited heroine, is an anthem for those who dare to defy tradition and follow their dreams. Set against the backdrop of Korea, it offers readers a unique cultural perspective while resonating with universal themes.

With a delightful cast of animal characters, including the hen, the duck, the rooster, the dog, and the weasel, this story is reminiscent of classics like Animal Farm and Charlotte’s Web. The first English-language edition of Sun-mi Hwang’s fable beautifully captures the unforgettable journey of Sprout, making it a treasured addition to world literature.

Why is the sky blue? Why is pink for girls and blue for boys? Why do prisoners wear orange? And why can one color have so many opposite meanings? If lobsters are a red emblem of privilege, how is it that a red flag can also be the banner of Communism?

Jude Stewart, a design expert and writer, digs into this rich subject with gusto, telling her favorite stories about color as she discovers what it can really mean. Each chapter is devoted to a color, opening with an infographic map that links such unlikely pairings as fox-hunting and flamingos. From there on in, you're plunged into a kaleidoscopic tour of the universe that encompasses everything from wildflowers to Japanese warriors. The links between them reveal hidden realities that you never would have suspected.

ROY G. BIV is a reference and inspiration for everyone, with sidebars and graphics galore. The aim is simple: to tantalize and inform, and to make you think about color in a completely new way.

Meeting with Christ and Other Poems is written by internationally renowned poet Deepak Chaswal. His poetry has been widely appreciated by eminent poets, critics, and poetry lovers around the globe.

Prof. Hugh Fox (Professor Emeritus of Michigan State University, archaeologist, editor, writer, and iconic poet of international fame) has liked and appreciated this book in these words: "One of the deepest, widest, most universal poetry books ever written about individual spirituality in a world-wide context. And Chaswal has the single most original view of Christianity in all its totality and specifics of anyone else on the contemporary scene. What he wants is individual sanity, salvation, an escape from the depravities of the modern world into an ancient oneness with the universe, a kind of reworking of human spirituality, so that it really functions and Man as such can glide into, drift into individual completeness. Christ isn't someone distant for Chaswal but someone he goes to Jerusalem to meet and converse with, all about a return to essential humanity. He hates greed, selfishness, in a sense the whole mechanical-cybernetic drifting of the modern world into a flow that is turning humankind into something minor and self-involved that it was never intended to be. Chaswal identifies with blacks, whites, Indians in India, Americans....you name it, he identifies with it. Universalism at its most universal. You read his poetry and you go through a kind of spiritual renewal."

In the words of Candice James, Poet Laureate, New Westminster, BC CANADA: "Deepak Chaswal is a master of words and weaves them into an intricate pattern that indelibly imprints the mind. His poem, 'Man', tells succinctly the story of our existence from cradle to grave. In 'Day of Judgement' Chaswal's poetry wanders the bleak alleyways of ignorance, atrocity, and man's inhumanity to man. He then leads us from the paths of iniquity into a gentle serenity with his musing in his poem 'Joy'. Deepak Chaswal bares his soul to bleed onto every page that you may be further enriched for reading it."

Felix Nicolau (prolific poet, novelist, critic and Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at "Hyperion" University of Bucharest, Romania, where he is the Dean of Faculty of Letters and Foreign Languages) observes: "Now and again Christ pops up before our eyes - bearer of intense messages. But when He emerges in front of the Poet there’ll be some mind-twisting revelation for sure. Deepak Chaswal regretfully conjures apocalypse and playfully takes snapshots of voracious appearances. His art can’t sit legs crossed and contemplate ivory towers. Every verse in this book testifies for or against something, proving the intellectual and political charge of contemporary poetry. Then, the details and frailties of a world in turmoil are cunningly surprised by the poet. Such an art refutes the confined vision of Cyclops and energetically assumes the thousand-eyed body of Argus. More than ever, the poet is a seer, full of experience and innocence in the same time."

Philip Ellis, a freelance critic, poet and scholar from Australia comments: "The poetry of Deepak Chaswal's Meeting with Christ and Other Poems invokes the exterior world in language both spiritual and secular, so that the world becomes something newer and stranger than what it was in the past. It is also a melange of images and motifs which appear, disappear and reappear throughout this collection, and it is a body of work unique to his life experiences and his worldview. It is a poetry where the tropes of Western religion, such as Christ and angels, encounter Chaswal's eastern milieu and are transformed, made, again, strange. The result of all this is a verbal and formal richness, using rhyme and free verse alike in its dexterity, and poems that are both distinctive."

Inspired by David Simon’s award-winning HBO series Treme, this book is a vibrant celebration of the culinary spirit of post-Katrina New Orleans. It features recipes and tributes from both real and fictional characters who highlight the Crescent City’s rich foodways.

From chef Janette Desautel’s own Crawfish Ravioli and LaDonna Batiste-Williams’s Smothered Turnip Soup to the city’s finest Sazerac, New Orleans’ cuisine is a mélange of influences from Creole to Vietnamese—at once new and old, genteel and down-home. In the words of Toni Bernette, it is all "seasoned with delicious nostalgia."

As visually rich as the series itself, the book includes 100 heritage and contemporary recipes from the city’s heralded restaurants such as Upperline, Bayona, Restaurant August, and Herbsaint. It also features original recipes from renowned chefs like Eric Ripert and David Chang, alongside other Treme guest stars.

For the six million who come to New Orleans each year for its food and music, this book is the ultimate homage to the traditions that make it one of the world’s greatest cities.

On the heels of a family tragedy, the last thing Katie Greene wants to do is move halfway across the world. Stuck with her aunt in Shizuoka, Japan, Katie feels lost. Alone. She doesn’t know the language, she can barely hold a pair of chopsticks, and she can’t seem to get the hang of taking her shoes off whenever she enters a building.

Then there’s gorgeous but aloof Tomohiro, star of the school’s kendo team. How did he really get the scar on his arm? Katie isn’t prepared for the answer. But when she sees the things he draws start moving, there’s no denying the truth: Tomo has a connection to the ancient gods of Japan, and being near Katie is causing his abilities to spiral out of control. If the wrong people notice, they'll both be targets.

Katie never wanted to move to Japan—now she may not make it out of the country alive.

So, then. You want a story and I will tell you one...Afghanistan, 1952. Abdullah and his sister Pari live with their father and stepmother in the small village of Shadbagh. Their father, Saboor, is constantly in search of work and they struggle together through poverty and brutal winters. To Abdullah, Pari - as beautiful and sweet-natured as the fairy for which she was named - is everything. More like a parent than a brother, Abdullah will do anything for her, even trading his only pair of shoes for a feather for her treasured collection. Each night they sleep together in their cot, their heads touching, their limbs tangled. One day the siblings journey across the desert to Kabul with their father. Pari and Abdullah have no sense of the fate that awaits them there, for the event which unfolds will tear their lives apart; sometimes a finger must be cut to save the hand. Crossing generations and continents, moving from Kabul, to Paris, to San Francisco, to the Greek island of Tinos, with profound wisdom, depth, insight and compassion, Khaled Hosseini writes about the bonds that define us and shape our lives, the ways in which we help our loved ones in need, how the choices we make resonate through history and how we are often surprised by the people closest to us.

I left everything I knew behind. But it was worth it. He was worth it.

No one thought an ordinary girl like me would last two minutes living with the Amish, not even me. There are a lot more rules and a lot less freedom, and I miss my family and the life I once had.

Worst of all, Noah and I aren't even allowed to see each other. Not until I've proven myself. If I can find a way to make it work, we'll be NOAH & ROSE together forever.

But not everybody believes this is where I belong.

The Kite Runner is an unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father’s servant. Set against the backdrop of a country in turmoil, this beautifully crafted novel explores themes such as the power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption.

Discover the power of fathers over sons—their love, their sacrifices, their lies—in this sweeping story of family, love, and friendship. Told against the devastating backdrop of the history of Afghanistan over the last thirty years, The Kite Runner is a powerful novel that has become a beloved classic.

في التائهون, أستلهم فترة شبابي بتصرف شديد. فقد عشتُ تلك الفترة مع أصدقاء كانوا يؤمنون بعالم أفضل. ومع أنَّ لا شبه بين أبطال هذه الرواية وبين أشخاص حقيقيين، فهم ليسوا من نسج الخيال تماماً. فلقد نهلتُ من معين أحلامي واستيهاماتي وحسراتي بقدر ما نهلتُ من معين ذكرياتي.

كان أبطال هذه الرواية متلازمين في شبابهم ثم تشتَّتوا ودبَّ بينهم الخصام وفرّقتهم الأيام، وسيجتمع شملهم بمناسبة وفاة أحدهم. بعضهم أبى أن يغادر وطنه الأم، وبعضهم الآخر هاجر إلى الولايات المتحدة، أو البرازيل، أو فرنسا، وأخذتهم الدروب التي سلكوها في اتجاهات مختلفة. فماذا يجمع بعد بين صاحبة الفندق المتحرِّرة، أو المقاول الذي جمع ثروة، أو الراهب الذي اعتزل العالم وانصرف إلى التأمل؟ بعض الذكريات المشتركة، وحنين لا برء منه للزمن الذي مضى.

Bloomability is a captivating tale by Newbery Award-winning author Sharon Creech, set against the breathtaking backdrop of Lugano, Switzerland. The story follows 13-year-old Dinnie Doone, who is whisked away from her troubled life to an international school in Switzerland by her aunt and uncle.

Surrounded by different cultures, languages, and beliefs, Dinnie struggles to hold on to her past life. However, through friendships and unique experiences, she gradually learns to trust herself and discovers the beautiful "bloomabilities" her new life has to offer.

This novel explores themes of self-discovery, cultural exploration, and the everyday joys that life presents when we open ourselves to new possibilities.

Crossing the Seas: A Diary of My Thoughts documents the author Yuehai Xiao's book reading experience and his reflections upon politics, higher education, society, and pop culture, as well as his mind reading experience. It is a collection of his posts on his blog and on Facebook, where he has been sharing his thoughts and interacting with top political and business leaders, celebrities, and scholars in America, Europe, and Asia, implicitly and explicitly during the past two years (Sept.2010 through Sept.2012).

It seems that his Facebook posts might have inspired lots of creative celebrities who produced stunning songs, movies, and TV shows, evidencing a broad influence on popular culture.

Five thousand years ago, there came to earth a magical being called Krishna, who brought about innumerable miracles for the good of mankind. Humanity despaired of its fate if the Blue God were to die but was reassured that he would return in a fresh avatar when needed in the eventual Dark Age—the Kaliyug.

In modern times, a poor little rich boy grows up believing that he is that final avatar. Only, he is a serial killer.

In this heart-stopping tale, the arrival of a murderer who executes his gruesome and brilliantly thought-out schemes in the name of God is the first clue to a sinister conspiracy to expose an ancient secret—Krishna’s priceless legacy to mankind.

Historian Ravi Mohan Saini must breathlessly dash from the submerged remains of Dwarka and the mysterious lingam of Somnath to the icy heights of Mount Kailash, in a quest to discover the cryptic location of Krishna’s most prized possession. From the sand-washed ruins of Kalibangan to a Vrindavan temple destroyed by Aurangzeb, Saini must also delve into antiquity to prevent a gross miscarriage of justice.

Ashwin Sanghi brings you yet another exhaustively researched whopper of a plot, while providing an incredible alternative interpretation of the Vedic Age that will be relished by conspiracy buffs and thriller-addicts alike.

Rabid charts the history, science, and cultural mythology of rabies, documenting how before its vaccine, the disease caused fatal brain infections and sparked the creations of famous monsters including werewolves, vampires, and zombies. This engrossing, lively history of a fearsome and misunderstood virus binds man and dog.

The most fatal virus known to science, rabies—a disease that spreads avidly from animals to humans—kills nearly one hundred percent of its victims once the infection takes root in the brain. In this critically acclaimed exploration, journalist Bill Wasik and veterinarian Monica Murphy chart four thousand years of the history, science, and cultural mythology of rabies. From Greek myths to zombie flicks, from the laboratory heroics of Louis Pasteur to the contemporary search for a lifesaving treatment, Rabid is a fresh and often wildly entertaining look at one of humankind’s oldest and most fearsome foes.

A young boy stumbles into a portal that transports him back in time more than a hundred years. The longer he stays, the stronger the bonds of friendship grow. Soon, he finds himself faced with a challenge that could change his life, and the lives of the ones he loves most forever.

Will he be able to meet this challenge?

This story presents a unique view of the life of the Cherokee Indians in the years leading up to the Great Removal and the Trail of Tears. Factual historical information and characters are used to make the story more real and entertaining.

Anne Blythe has a great life: a good job, close friends, and a potential book deal for her first novel. When it comes to finding someone to share her life with, however, she just can't seem to get it right.

After yet another relationship ends, Anne comes across a business card for what she thinks is a dating service, and she pockets it just in case. When her best friend, Sarah, announces she's engaged, Anne can't help feeling envious. On an impulse, she decides to give the service a try because maybe she could use a little assistance in finding the right man.

But Anne soon discovers the company isn't a dating service; it's an exclusive, and pricey, arranged marriage service. She initially rejects the idea, but the more she thinks about it—and the company's success rate—the more it appeals to her. After all, arranged marriages are the norm for millions of women around the world, so why wouldn't it work for her?

A few months later, Anne is traveling to a Mexican resort, where in one short weekend she will meet and marry Jack. And against all odds, it seems to be working out—until Anne learns that Jack, and the company that arranged their marriage, are not what they seem at all.

Matilde y Eliah han vuelto a separarse. En el Congo, sus esperanzas de una vida juntos se desvanecieron al ritmo de los celos, las circunstancias hostiles y las bajezas.

Matilde, cirujana pediátrica, se refugia en su pasión: el trabajo humanitario que lleva a cabo para la organización Manos Que Curan. Su nuevo destino es la Franja de Gaza, el territorio más densamente poblado del mundo, donde la consigna diaria es sobrevivir.

Eliah Al-Saud se impone olvidar a Matilde y acabar con la obsesión que lo ata a ella.

En Bagdad, por su parte, Saddam Hussein da los últimos retoques para alcanzar su sueño: convertir a Irak en una potencia nuclear. Y en esta carrera diabólica, Matilde y Eliah se convertirán en piezas clave, debiendo emplearse a fondo no sólo para evitar una catástrofe mundial sino también para salvar la propia vida.

A un ritmo frenético y con giros inesperados, Florencia Bonelli pone fin a su exitosa trilogía Caballo de fuego, una apasionante historia donde el espíritu humano trata de imponerse en un mundo presa de la violencia y el terrorismo, aunque también lleno de bondad y solidaridad.

Fast food has hastened the malling of our landscape, widened the chasm between rich and poor, fueled an epidemic of obesity, and propelled American cultural imperialism abroad. That's a lengthy list of charges, but Eric Schlosser makes them stick with an artful mix of first-rate reportage, wry wit, and careful reasoning.

Schlosser's myth-shattering survey stretches from California's subdivisions, where the business was born, to the industrial corridor along the New Jersey Turnpike, where many of fast food's flavors are concocted. Along the way, he unearths a trove of fascinating, unsettling truths -- from the unholy alliance between fast food and Hollywood to the seismic changes the industry has wrought in food production, popular culture, and even real estate.

From Pulitzer Prize-winner Katherine Boo, a landmark work of narrative nonfiction that tells the dramatic and sometimes heartbreaking story of families striving toward a better life in one of the twenty-first century's great, unequal cities.

In this brilliantly written, fast-paced book, based on three years of uncompromising reporting, a bewildering age of global change and inequality is made human.

Annawadi is a makeshift settlement in the shadow of luxury hotels near the Mumbai airport, and as India starts to prosper, Annawadians are electric with hope. Abdul, a reflective and enterprising Muslim teenager, sees "a fortune beyond counting" in the recyclable garbage that richer people throw away. Asha, a woman of formidable wit and deep scars from a childhood in rural poverty, has identified an alternate route to the middle class: political corruption. With a little luck, her sensitive, beautiful daughter - Annawadi's "most-everything girl" - will soon become its first female college graduate. And even the poorest Annawadians, like Kalu, a fifteen-year-old scrap-metal thief, believe themselves inching closer to the good lives and good times they call "the full enjoy."

But then Abdul the garbage sorter is falsely accused in a shocking tragedy; terror and a global recession rock the city; and suppressed tensions over religion, caste, sex, power and economic envy turn brutal. As the tenderest individual hopes intersect with the greatest global truths, the true contours of a competitive age are revealed. And so, too, are the imaginations and courage of the people of Annawadi.

With intelligence, humor, and deep insight into what connects human beings to one another in an era of tumultuous change, Behind the Beautiful Forevers carries the reader headlong into one of the twenty-first century's hidden worlds, and into the lives of people impossible to forget.

A poignant and inspirational love story set in Burma, The Art of Hearing Heartbeats spans the decades between the 1950s and the present. When a successful New York lawyer suddenly disappears without a trace, neither his wife nor his daughter Julia has any idea where he might be…until they find a love letter he wrote many years ago, to a Burmese woman they have never heard of. Intent on solving the mystery and coming to terms with her father’s past, Julia decides to travel to the village where the woman lived. There she uncovers a tale of unimaginable hardship, resilience, and passion that will reaffirm the reader’s belief in the power of love to move mountains.

Eden Newman must mate before her 18th birthday in six months or she'll be left outside to die in a burning world. But who will pick up her mate-option when she's cursed with white skin and a tragically low mate-rate of 15%?

In a post-apocalyptic, totalitarian, underground world where class and beauty are defined by resistance to an overheated environment, Eden's coloring brands her as a member of the lowest class, a weak and ugly Pearl. If only she can mate with a dark-skinned Coal from the ruling class, she'll be safe.

Just maybe one Coal sees the Real Eden and will be her salvation; her co-worker Jamal has begun secretly dating her. But when Eden unwittingly compromises her father's secret biological experiment, she finds herself in the eye of a storm and thrown into the last area of rainforest, a strange and dangerous land.

Eden must fight to save her father, who may be humanity's last hope, while standing up to a powerful beast-man she believes is her enemy, despite her overwhelming attraction. Eden must change to survive but only if she can redefine her ideas of beauty and of love, along with a little help from her "adopted aunt" Emily Dickinson.

Syrian Folktales is a delightful book that takes you on a journey through the various regions of Syria. This collection of enchanting folktales is beautifully presented, with each tale being located on a regional map.

To add an extra flavor to your reading experience, each story is accompanied by a local, related recipe. Embark on this cultural exploration and discover the rich storytelling tradition of Syria, where culinary delights meet magical narratives.

The Jewel in the Crown is the first of Paul Scott’s renowned historical novels that “limn the Anglo-Indian world with its lovers, friends, family servants, soldiers, businessmen, murderers and suicides—all involved in one another’s fate” (The New York Times). It opens in 1942 as the British fear both Japanese invasion and Indian demands for independence. On the night after the Indian Congress Party votes to support Gandhi, riots break out and an ambitious police sergeant arrests a young Indian for the alleged rape of the woman they both love.

“What has always astonished me about The Raj Quartet is its sense of sophisticated and total control of its gigantic scenario and highly varied characters . . . The politics are handled with an expertise that intrigues and never bores, and are always seen in terms of individuals.” —New Republic

“Paul Scott’s vision is both precise and painterly.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Few people have written about India quite as seductively, or as intelligently, with a sense of loss but also a sense of responsibility and fallibility.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Inspired by true events, The God Complex takes readers on a thrill ride through Chinese medicine. Discover the secrets of the Orient as you embark on a Da Vinci-style adventure. Follow along as a dynamic conspiracy ensues, pitting Eastern medicine against its critics in the West. Each clue brings you one step closer to solving the mystery and uncovering an ancient secret that connects Chinese medicine to martial arts.

SETTING: The God Complex is set in Prague and serves as a surrogate tour guide, offering readers a unique perspective of the city and its culture. Learn a few Czech words, dishes, and customs before arriving. Find the restaurants described inside and dine with locals. Perfect reading for your flight. Turn your trip to Prague into an adventure.

How to Be a Woman is a hilarious and insightful exploration into the life of modern women. Although women now have the vote and access to contraception, life isn't exactly a stroll down the catwalk. Caitlin Moran, with her rapier wit, dives into the uncertainties and questions that plague women today.

Why do bras hurt? Why are we supposed to get Brazilians? And why the incessant talk about babies? Caitlin Moran interweaves laugh-out-loud funny scenes from her own life with provocative observations on women's lives. From the riot of adolescence to her development as a writer, wife, and mother, Moran slices right to the truth—whether it's about the workplace, strip clubs, love, fat, abortion, popular entertainment, or children.

With humor, insight, and verve, How To Be a Woman lays bare the reasons female rights and empowerment are essential issues not only for women today but also for society itself.

In her most powerful novel yet, acclaimed author Lisa See returns to the story of sisters Pearl and May from Shanghai Girls, and Pearl’s strong-willed nineteen-year-old daughter, Joy.

Reeling from newly uncovered family secrets, Joy runs away to Shanghai in early 1957 to find her birth father—the artist Z.G. Li, with whom both May and Pearl were once in love. Dazzled by him, and blinded by idealism and defiance, Joy throws herself into the New Society of Red China, heedless of the dangers in the Communist regime.

Devastated by Joy’s flight and terrified for her safety, Pearl is determined to save her daughter, no matter the personal cost. From the crowded city to remote villages, Pearl confronts old demons and almost insurmountable challenges as she follows Joy, hoping for reconciliation.

Yet even as Joy’s and Pearl’s separate journeys converge, one of the most tragic episodes in China’s history threatens their very lives.

Exercises in Style presents a simple plot: a man engages in an argument with another passenger on a bus. However, this anecdote is retold ninety-nine times, each in a radically different style. Imagine it as a sonnet, an opera, in slang, and in many more permutations. This virtuoso set of variations acts as a linguistic rust-remover and a guide to literary forms.

Waris Dirie ran away from her oppressive life in the African desert when she was barely in her teens, illiterate and impoverished, with nothing to her name but a tattered shawl. She traveled alone across the dangerous Somali desert to Mogadishu—the first leg of a remarkable journey that would take her to London, where she worked as a house servant; then to nearly every corner of the globe as an internationally renowned fashion model; and ultimately to New York City, where she became a human rights ambassador for the U.N.

Desert Flower is her extraordinary story, filled with courage, resilience, and the power of the human spirit.

Written on the brink of World War II, Rebecca West's classic examination of the history, people, and politics of Yugoslavia illuminates a region that is still a focus of international concern. A magnificent blend of travel journal, cultural commentary, and historical insight, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon probes the troubled history of the Balkans and the uneasy relationships among its ethnic groups.

The landscape and the people of Yugoslavia are brilliantly observed as West untangles the tensions that rule the country's history as well as its daily life. In this breathtakingly wide-ranging journalistic work, West richly chronicles her travels throughout Yugoslavia in the 1930s, introducing vivid characters and illuminating details.

More than a travelogue, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon connects the people and places West encounters to the long history of conflict that has formed national identities in the Balkans across a millennium of shifting alliances. West writes, “I had come to Yugoslavia because I knew that the past has made the present, and I wanted to see how the process works.”

As profound, sad, and funny as when it was first published in 1941, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon interrogates the forces that continue to shape our modern world.

A Lover's Discourse: Fragments was revolutionary upon its 1978 publication. Roland Barthes made unprecedented use of the tools of structuralism to explore the whimsical phenomenon of love. This work is rich with references ranging from Goethe's Werther to Winnicott, from Plato to Proust, from Baudelaire to Schubert.

A Lover's Discourse artfully draws a portrait in which every reader will find echoes of themselves. It is a language of solitude, of mythology, and what Barthes calls an image repertoire. This book revives the notion of the amorous subject and is meant to be enjoyed by those who have been in love, or think they have, and those who have never been in love, or think they have not.

High above the sky stands Swarga, paradise, abode of the gods. Still above is Vaikuntha, heaven, abode of God. The doorkeepers of Vaikuntha are the twins, Jaya and Vijaya, both whose names mean 'victory'. One keeps you in Swarga; the other raises you into Vaikuntha. In Vaikuntha there is bliss forever, in Swarga there is pleasure for only as long as you deserve.

What is the difference between Jaya and Vijaya? Solve this puzzle and you will solve the mystery of the Mahabharata.

In this enthralling retelling of India's greatest epic, the Mahabharata, originally known as Jaya, Devdutt Pattanaik seamlessly weaves into a single narrative plots from the Sanskrit classic as well as its many folk and regional variants, including the Pandavani of Chhattisgarh, Gondhal of Maharashtra, Terukkuttu of Tamil Nadu and Yakshagana of Karnataka.

Richly illustrated with over 250 line drawings by the author, the 108 chapters abound with little-known details such as the names of the hundred Kauravas, the worship of Draupadi as a goddess in Tamil Nadu, the stories of Astika, Madhavi, Jaimini, Aravan and Barbareek, the Mahabharata version of the Shakuntalam and the Ramayana, and the dating of the war based on astronomical data.

With clarity and simplicity, the tales in this elegant volume reveal the eternal relevance of the Mahabharata, the complex and disturbing meditation on the human condition that has shaped Indian thought for over 3000 years.

Mishna Wolff grew up in a poor black neighborhood with her single father, a white man who truly believed he was black.

“He strutted around with a short perm, a Cosby-esqe sweater, gold chains and a Kangol—telling jokes like Redd Fox, and giving advice like Jesse Jackson. You couldn’t tell my father he was white. Believe me, I tried,” writes Wolff.

From early childhood, her father began his crusade to make his white daughter Down. Unfortunately, Mishna didn’t quite fit in with the neighborhood kids: she couldn’t dance, she couldn’t sing, she couldn’t double dutch and she was the worst player on her all-black basketball team. She was shy, uncool, and painfully white.

Yet, when she was suddenly sent to a rich white school, she found she was too “black” to fit in with her white classmates.

I’m Down is a hip, hysterical, and at the same time, beautiful memoir that will have you howling with laughter, recommending it to friends, and questioning what it means to be black and white in America.

The Butterfly Mosque tells the extraordinary story of an all-American girl's conversion to Islam and her ensuing romance with a young Egyptian man. It is a stunning articulation of a Westerner embracing the Muslim world.

When G. Willow Wilson—already an accomplished writer on modern religion and the Middle East at just twenty-seven—leaves her atheist parents in Denver to study at Boston University, she enrolls in an Islamic Studies course that leads to her shocking conversion to Islam and sends her on a fated journey across continents and into an uncertain future.

She settles in Cairo where she teaches English and submerges herself in a culture based on her adopted religion. And then she meets Omar, a passionate young man with a mild resentment of the Western influences in his homeland. They fall in love, entering into a daring relationship that calls into question the very nature of family, belief, and tradition.

Torn between the secular West and Muslim East, Willow records her intensely personal struggle to forge a “third culture” that might accommodate her own values without compromising the friends and family on both sides of the divide.

Searing and profound, suffused with beauty, sorrow, and longing, the stories in The Thing Around Your Neck map, with Adichie's signature emotional wisdom, the collision of two cultures and the deeply human struggle to reconcile them.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie burst onto the literary scene with her remarkable debut novel, Purple Hibiscus. Her award-winning Half of a Yellow Sun became an instant classic, showcasing her tremendous gifts—graceful storytelling, knowing compassion, and fierce insight into her characters' hearts.

In her most intimate and seamlessly crafted work to date, Adichie turns her penetrating eye on not only Nigeria but America, in twelve dazzling stories that explore the ties that bind men and women, parents and children, Africa and the United States.

In "A Private Experience," a medical student hides from a violent riot with a poor Muslim woman whose dignity and faith force her to confront the realities and fears she's been pushing away. In "Tomorrow is Too Far," a woman unlocks the devastating secret that surrounds her brother's death. The young mother at the center of "Imitation" finds her comfortable life in Philadelphia threatened when she learns that her husband has moved his mistress into their Lagos home.

The title story depicts the choking loneliness of a Nigerian girl who moves to an America that turns out to be nothing like the country she expected; though falling in love brings her desires nearly within reach, a death in her homeland forces her to reexamine them.

The Thing Around Your Neck is a resounding confirmation of the prodigious literary powers of one of our most essential writers.

Insectopedia is a stunningly original exploration of the ties that bind us to the beautiful, ancient, astoundingly accomplished, and unfathomably different species with whom we share this world.

For as long as humans have existed, insects have been our constant companions. Yet, we hardly know them, not even the ones we're closest to: the insects that eat our food, share our beds, and live in our homes.

Organizing his book alphabetically, with one entry for each letter, Hugh Raffles weaves together brief vignettes, meditations, and extended essays. He embarks on a mesmerizing exploration of history and science, anthropology and travel, economics, philosophy, and popular culture, showing us how insects have triggered our obsessions, stirred our passions, and beguiled our imaginations.

Raffles offers us a glimpse into the high-stakes world of Chinese cricket fighting, the deceptive courtship rites of the dance fly, the intriguing possibilities of queer insect sex, and the vital and vicious role locusts play in the famines of West Africa. He also explores how beetles deformed by Chernobyl inspired art, and how our desire and disgust for insects have prompted our own aberrant behavior.

Deftly fusing the literary and the scientific, Hugh Raffles has given us an essential book of reference that is also a fascination of the highest order.

Hooligan-turned-acclaimed author Dougie Brimson is the UK's most respected authority on soccer hooliganism. Now, in a book written specifically for an American audience, he tells the astonishing story of the rampant hooliganism among European soccer fans and how it could spread to the United States.

Written in the raw, in-your-face style that has won considerable acclaim in Europe, "March of the Hooligans" is a powerfully intimate look at what hooliganism has become and where it is headed.

Somer's life is everything she imagined it would be — she's newly married and has started her career as a physician in San Francisco — until she makes the devastating discovery she never will be able to have children.

The same year in India, a poor mother makes the heartbreaking choice to save her newborn daughter's life by giving her away. It is a decision that will haunt Kavita for the rest of her life, and cause a ripple effect that travels across the world and back again.

Asha, adopted out of a Mumbai orphanage, is the child that binds the destinies of these two women. We follow both families, invisibly connected until Asha's journey of self-discovery leads her back to India.

Compulsively readable and deeply touching, Secret Daughter is a story of the unforeseen ways in which our choices and families affect our lives, and the indelible power of love in all its many forms.

For many years Sierra Leone and Liberia have been too dangerous to travel through, bedevilled by a uniquely brutal form of violence from which sprang many of Africa's cruellest contemporary icons. This travel book touches on one of the most fraught parts of the globe at a different moment in its history.

Chasing the Devil tells the story of Tim Butcher's audacious expedition from Freetown at the mouth of the Sierra Leone river overland through forest-covered mountains and malarial plains to the coast of Liberia. He ventures deep into areas not visited by outsiders for years. Both nations are on a developmental cusp and Tim explores whether national and international attempts to chase away the devil of war can succeed.

Sultana is a Saudi Arabian princess, a woman born to fabulous, uncountable wealth. She has four mansions on three continents, her own private jet, glittering jewels, designer dresses galore. But in reality she lives in a gilded cage. She has no freedom, no control over her own life, no value but as a bearer of sons. Hidden behind her black floor-length veil, she is a prisoner, jailed by her father, her husband, her sons, and her country.

Sultana is a member of the Saudi royal family, closely related to the king. For the sake of her daughters, she has decided to take the risk of speaking out about the life of women in her country, regardless of their rank. She must hide her identity for fear that the religious leaders in her country would call for her death to punish her honesty. Only a woman in her position could possibly hope to escape from being revealed and punished, despite her cloak and anonymity. Sultana tells of her own life, from her turbulent childhood to her arranged marriage--a happy one until her husband decided to displace her by taking a second wife--and of the lives of her sisters, her friends and her servants. Although they share affection, confidences and an easy camaraderie within the confines of the women's quarters, they also share a history of appalling oppression, everyday occurrences that in any other culture would be seen as shocking human rights violations; thirteen-year-old girls forced to marry men five times their age, young women killed by drowning, stoning, or isolation in the women's room, a padded, windowless cell where women are confined with neither light nor conversation until death claims them.

By speaking out, Sultana risks bringing the wrath of the Saudi establishment upon her head and the heads of her children. But by telling her story to Jean Sasson, Sultana has allowed us to see beyond the veils of this secret society, to the heart of a nation where sex, money, and power reign supreme.

At the end of her bestselling memoir Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert fell in love with Felipe, a Brazilian-born man of Australian citizenship who'd been living in Indonesia when they met. Resettling in America, the couple swore eternal fidelity to each other, but also swore to never, ever, under any circumstances get legally married. (Both were survivors of previous bad divorces. Enough said.)

But providence intervened one day in the form of the United States government, which—after unexpectedly detaining Felipe at an American border crossing—gave the couple a choice: they could either get married, or Felipe would never be allowed to enter the country again.

Having been effectively sentenced to wed, Gilbert tackled her fears of marriage by delving into this topic completely, trying with all her might to discover through historical research, interviews, and much personal reflection what this stubbornly enduring old institution actually is.

Told with Gilbert's trademark wit, intelligence, and compassion, Committed attempts to "turn on all the lights" when it comes to matrimony, frankly examining questions of compatibility, infatuation, fidelity, family tradition, social expectations, divorce risks, and humbling responsibilities.

Gilbert's memoir is ultimately a clear-eyed celebration of love with all the complexity and consequence that real love, in the real world, actually entails.

Nothing to Envy follows the lives of six North Koreans over fifteen years—a chaotic period that saw the death of Kim Il-sung, the unchallenged rise to power of his son Kim Jong-il, and the devastation of a far-ranging famine that killed one-fifth of the population. Taking us into a landscape most of us have never before seen, award-winning journalist Barbara Demick brings to life what it means to be living under the most repressive totalitarian regime today—an Orwellian world that is by choice not connected to the Internet, in which radio and television dials are welded to the one government station, and where displays of affection are punished; a police state where informants are rewarded and where an offhand remark can send a person to the gulag for life.

Demick takes us deep inside the country, beyond the reach of government censors. Through meticulous and sensitive reporting, we see her six subjects—average North Korean citizens—fall in love, raise families, nurture ambitions, and struggle for survival. One by one, we experience the moments when they realize that their government has betrayed them.

Love marriages around the world are simple: Boy loves girl. Girl loves boy. They get married. In India, there are a few more steps:

Boy loves Girl. Girl loves Boy. Girl's family has to love boy. Boy's family has to love girl. Girl's Family has to love Boy's Family. Boy's family has to love girl's family. Girl and Boy still love each other. They get married.

Welcome to 2 States, a story about Krish and Ananya. They are from two different states of India, deeply in love and want to get married. Of course, their parents don't agree. To convert their love story into a love marriage, the couple have a tough battle in front of them. For it is easy to fight and rebel, but it is much harder to convince. Will they make it?

From the author of blockbusters Five Point Someone, One Night @ the Call Center and The 3 Mistakes of My Life, comes another witty tale about inter-community marriages in modern India.