Tag Archives: Middle East

The Iran Wars

Posted on October 3, 2018 by smellincoffee

The Iran Wars: Spy Games, Bank Battles, and the Secret Deals that Reshaped the Middle East © 2016 Jay Solomon 352 pages When the young people of Iran hit the streets in protest about suspicious election returns in 2009, the … Continue reading →

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The Looming Tower

Posted on September 28, 2018 by smellincoffee

The Looming Tower: Al-Queda and the Road to 9/11 © 2006 Lawrence Wright 480 pages “[…] we’re told that they were zealots, fueled by religious fervor…religious fervor. And if you live to be a thousand years old, will that make … Continue reading →

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The Ministry of Guidance Invites You Not To Stay

Posted on May 23, 2018 by smellincoffee

The Ministry of Guidance Invites You Not to Stay© 2010 Hooman Majd272 pages Hooman Majd left Iran for the first time as a young boy, barely eight months old, and when his own son was eight months old, Majd returned. … Continue reading →

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Mirrors of the Unseen

Posted on May 16, 2018 by smellincoffee

Mirrors of the Unseen:  Journeys in Iran © 2006 Jason Elliot 432 pages Readers uninterested in the origins and history of Islamic art, metaphysics, or pigeons, should skip to the next chapter, here. In the late nineties, before Afghanistan was … Continue reading →

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The Ayatollah Begs to Differ

Posted on May 10, 2018 by smellincoffee

The Ayatollah Begs to Differ: The Paradox of Modern Iran288 pages© 2008 Hooman Majd Whatever nebulous conception most Americans have of the Middle East, Iran should stand apart. Not because it is currently DC’s designated enemy,  but because Iran is … Continue reading →

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Short rounds: things that are not Star Trek, like North Koreans and Aeneas

Posted on May 5, 2018 by smellincoffee

Believe it or not, I have been reading books without a Star Trek label appended to them this week. Just recently I finished off Don’t Go There, a short collection of travel pieces that interested me with its mention of visits to … Continue reading →

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Fool’s Errand

Posted on February 8, 2018 by smellincoffee

Fool’s Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan © 2017 Scott Horton 318 pages Incredible as it sounds, it is nearly possible for a child conceived in the first week of the US invasion of Afghanistan to have come … Continue reading →

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Baghdad without a Map

Posted on June 14, 2017 by smellincoffee

Baghdad without a Map and Other Adventures in Arabia© 1992 Tony Horowitz285 pages So your wife is on extended assignment in Cairo, and you’re a freelance journalist without a regular gig. What do you do? Why not wander around northern … Continue reading →

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Neither East nor West

Posted on June 8, 2017 by smellincoffee

Neither East Nor West: One Woman’s Journey Through the Islamic Republic of Iran© 2001 Christiane Bird396 pages Christiane Bird didn’t have an ordinary childhood. Her father was a doctor attached to a Presbyterian mission a world away, in Iran.  They … Continue reading →

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Confront and Conceal

Posted on May 13, 2017 by smellincoffee

Confront and Conceal: Obama’s Secret Wars and Surprising Use of Power 496 pages © 2012 David E. Sanger Barack Obama may have been the only Nobel Peace Prize winner in history to order lethal force used on a regular basis, … Continue reading →

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