Tag Archives: Near East

Iran and the United States

Posted on May 13, 2016 by smellincoffee

Iran and the United States: An Insider’s View on the Failed Past and the Road to Peace© 2014 Seyed Hossein Mousavian368 pages The United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran have not been on speaking terms since the hostage … Continue reading →

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After the Prophet

Posted on May 4, 2016 by smellincoffee

After the Prophet: the Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split © 2009 Lesley Hazleton256 pages When Muhammad lay in his deathbed, legend has it that he cried to God for pity on those who would follow him. With no sons and … Continue reading →

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Equal of the Sun

Posted on February 28, 2016 by smellincoffee

Equal of the Sun© 2012 Anita Amirrezvani431 pages When Javaher came to the Iranian court, he did so with a secret mission: he intended to find out who murdered his father, and then return the favor.  So intent was he … Continue reading →

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Lost to the West

Posted on February 14, 2016 by smellincoffee

Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire that Rescued Western Civilization © 2009 Lars Brownsworth 329 pages The Roman empire not not fade quietly into history in 474, when a Gothic warlord decided to run the city of Rome directly instead … Continue reading →

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This week: the usual suspects

Posted on February 8, 2016 by smellincoffee

Well, dear readers, it’s another month! I have a serious itch for science and science fiction at the moment, so I have no less than five potential science reads stacked up now, and three potential SF books. Among the numbers…Domesticated: Evolution in … Continue reading →

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Destiny, Disrupted

Posted on January 12, 2016 by smellincoffee

Destiny, Disruted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes© 2009 Tamim Ansary416 pages When Tamim Ansary was a boy, he loved history. Specifically, he loved narrativehistory, the kind of drama that brought the past to life.  The problem was that the … Continue reading →

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The Lost History of Christianity

Posted on November 9, 2015 by smellincoffee

The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia — And How It Died© 2008 Philip Jenkins315 pages For the first millennium of the church’s history, Europe was less … Continue reading →

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The Kite Runner

Posted on October 7, 2015 by smellincoffee

The Kite Runner © 2003 Khaled Hosseini 400 pages . The Kite Runner is a stirring story of betrayal and redemption set in Afghanistan as the country is destroyed through revolution, war, and the takeover by Taliban militias.  The novel … Continue reading →

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The Egyptians

Posted on September 26, 2015 by smellincoffee

The Egyptians© 1997 Barbara Watterson368 pages “We stand where Caesar and Napoleon stood, and remember that fifty centuries look down upon us; where the Father of History came four hundred years before Caesar, and heard the tales that were to … Continue reading →

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