 | The Valleys of the Assassins: and Other Persian Travels (Modern Library Paperbacks) by Freya Stark
Buy new: $10.20 / Used from: $4.98 These unparalleled experiences of this brave European woman are told in her own narratives that were richly drawn from the perspective of those she engaged with on her extraordinary travels across the mountains and deserts. She gave the entire world new insight into people and places that we had never witnessed before they were totally lost to us.
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 | Persian Mirrors: The Elusive Face of Iran by Elaine Sciolino
Buy new: $11.70 / Used from: $2.98 A fascinating account of revolutionary Iran by an American journalist, from its earliest beginnings in 1979 after the US Embassy hostage crisis, when this young correspondent for Newsweek traveled to Tehran with the Ayatollah Khomeini on his return from exile, through the new millennium and the fight for the country's future that's going on today.
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 | Lawrence of Arabia (Limited Edition)
Buy new: $32.49 / Used from: $3.97 A magnificent experience, both visually and intellectually, in the masterful hands of Sir David Lean. Peter O'Toole's portrayal of Lawrence is as strong as the sweeping desert vistas and a perfect match for Anthony Quinn's Auda ibu Tayi and Alec Guinness's Prince Feisal. It leaves you wanting to know and understand the people even more.
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 | The Last Transition... by Bob Magnant
Buy new: $30.00 / Used from: $3.98 This fact-based adventure is drawn from today's East-West headlines. After two years, the threat of widening the war to Iran is still promoted by an administration that has hijacked our legal system and threatened our way of life. Everyone needs to understand that, learn what's happening and get involved; the openness of the Internet can make that possible.
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 | Islam: A Short History (Modern Library Chronicles) by Karen Armstrong
Buy new: $10.17 / Used from: $4.99 This was a gift from a dear friend who was born in Israel. What Ms. Armstrong's words brought home to me was how todays secular structures in the West evolved away from religious influences - for over four centuries! - and dramatically changed the way that people relate to one another around the world.
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 | A Prince of Our Disorder: The Life of T. E. Lawrence by John E. Mack
Buy new: $23.50 / Used from: $12.66 I plowed through the original hardcover some 30 years ago during a reflective period of my life, having lived and worked in the Middle East and still being fascinated with the area and what was happening then. Mack's understanding of Lawrence and the range of influences on him provides the reader with much food for thought.
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 | A Thousand Veils by D. J. Murphy
Buy new: $19.75 / Used from: $15.33 This is an inspiring tale of love and understanding seen through western eyes after a personalized 'wake-up call' opened the heart of one Wall Street lawyer to the plight of a spirited and passionate Iraqi poet. This global adventure offers Muslim insights and perceptions of the in this post-9/11 world for our review and consideration.
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 | The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad
Buy new: $10.07 / Used from: $0.15 A fascinating picture of traditional life in an emerging Afghanistan that was still faced with post-Taliban realities of war and the censorship and the male-dominated traditions of the Muslim culture that will continue. Seierstad was able to capture the essence of a complex Afghani family, the people that she invisibly lived with for three months.
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 | The Places In Between by Rory Stewart
Buy new: $10.76 / Used from: $2.60 A different perspective of the Afghan people comes in the form of a riveting narrative by the young Scotsman about his journey on foot across the rugged Afghanistan landscape, an adventure that began just six weeks after the Taliban had been driven from power there by the US-led allied offensive after 9/11.
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 | El Cid (Two-Disc Deluxe Edition) (The Miriam Collection)
Buy new: $18.99 / Used from: $9.40 When I first saw El Cid in 1961, I fell madly in love with Sophia Loren, the most noble beauty of the cinema for all time. But it was Charlton Heston's questioning of 'why must Christians and Muslims continue killing each other?' that brings the film to mind again. It is a fundamental question that is still valid. The restoration of this classic is very timely...
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 | Caravans by James A. Michener
Buy new: $7.99 / Used from: $0.01 Living in the Middle East in the 70s was the most exciting time of my life; reading 'Caravans' later made me homesick for it. Written in the 60s, this early Michener novel accurately acquaints you with the Afghanistan of the 1940s and its traditions while entertaining you with the romantic adventures of a young Afghan engineer and his American wife.
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 | The Southern Gates of Arabia: A Journey in the Hadhramaut (Modern Library Paperbacks) by Freya Stark
Buy new: $11.25 / Used from: $2.62 If you enjoyed 'Valleys of the Assassins', you might also want to read 'The Southern Gates' as well, as Stark continued her bold adventures traveling along the spice routes of the Arabian Coast [part of Britain's South Arabian Protectorate after WWI] through Yemen and the Hadhramaut Valley. Her intimate descriptions of people and places are captivating.
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