Under a Sickle Moon

Under a Sickle Moon PDF Author: Peregrine Hodson
Publisher: Grove Press
ISBN: 9780802139528
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description
In 1984 journalist Peregrine Hodson crossed the Pakistan border into Afghanistan with rebel mujahedin smuggling arms and ammunition, beginning a thousand-mile journey through the war-torn nation. Fluent in Farsi, he was able to observe the war with stunning intimacy and eloquently capture the essence of the Afghan people and their culture. As the travelers survived bombings by Soviet aircraft, an ambush by a rival faction, and becoming swept up in a major offensive, Hodson would come to gain a unique perspective on their hopes for peace and religious devotion. Bringing together travel writing, war reportage, and history, this is a richly rendered portrait of a complex people. "Gripping and moving ... [a] powerful account of a war that has often been described as 'forgotten.'" -- Gail Pool, The Christian Science Monitor "Will long remain the most vivid account of a strange and horrible wrong." -- Ahmed Rashid, The Independent (London) "Vivid and intriguing." -- Jonathan Kirsch, -- Los Angeles Times Book Review

Under a Sickle Moon

Under a Sickle Moon PDF Author: Peregrine Hodson
Publisher: Grove Press
ISBN: 9780802139528
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 246

Get Book Here

Book Description
In 1984 journalist Peregrine Hodson crossed the Pakistan border into Afghanistan with rebel mujahedin smuggling arms and ammunition, beginning a thousand-mile journey through the war-torn nation. Fluent in Farsi, he was able to observe the war with stunning intimacy and eloquently capture the essence of the Afghan people and their culture. As the travelers survived bombings by Soviet aircraft, an ambush by a rival faction, and becoming swept up in a major offensive, Hodson would come to gain a unique perspective on their hopes for peace and religious devotion. Bringing together travel writing, war reportage, and history, this is a richly rendered portrait of a complex people. "Gripping and moving ... [a] powerful account of a war that has often been described as 'forgotten.'" -- Gail Pool, The Christian Science Monitor "Will long remain the most vivid account of a strange and horrible wrong." -- Ahmed Rashid, The Independent (London) "Vivid and intriguing." -- Jonathan Kirsch, -- Los Angeles Times Book Review

A Circle Round the Sun

A Circle Round the Sun PDF Author: Peregrine Hodson
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 9780749306106
Category : Japan
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description


A Journey Through Afghanistan

A Journey Through Afghanistan PDF Author: David Chaffetz
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226100642
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
Shortly before the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, David Chaffetz and a fellow American student slipped from the protection of Western culture and immersed themselves in the customs, fears, and hopes of the Afghan people, setting out on horseback through the mountains and into a lonely, hermetic world of nomads and isolated villages. Chaffetz's vivid, honest, and often poignant account of their experience reveals a great deal about the people of Afghanistan-and Willard Wood, his traveling companion, contributes a foreword considering the experience of the Afghan people in the new light of autumn, 2001.

Tumble & Blue

Tumble & Blue PDF Author: Cassie Beasley
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0698189078
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 402

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Book Description
From the New York Times bestselling author of Circus Mirandus comes the magic-infused story of a golden gator, two cursed kids, and how they take their destinies into their own hands. When the red moon rises over the heart of the Okefenokee swamp, legend says that the mysterious golden gator Munch will grant good luck to the poor soul foolish enough to face him. But in 1817, when TWO fools reach him at the same time, the night’s fate is split. With disastrous consequences for both . . . and their descendants. Half of the descendants have great fates, and the other half have terrible ones. Now, Tumble Wilson and Blue Montgomery are determined to fix their ancestors’ mistakes and banish the bad luck that’s followed them around for all of their lives. They’re going to face Munch the gator themselves, and they’re going to reclaim their destinies. But what if the legend of Munch is nothing but a legend, after all? Full of friendship, family, and the everyday magic and adventure that readers of Savvy and A Snicker of Magic love, Cassie Beasley’s newest middle grade book is another crowd-pleasing heart-warmer—perfect for reading by yourself, or sharing with someone you love.

Nocturne

Nocturne PDF Author: James Attlee
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226030962
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
“Nobody who has not taken one can imagine the beauty of a walk through Rome by full moon,” wrote Goethe in 1787. Sadly, the imagination is all we have today: in Rome, as in every other modern city, moonlight has been banished, replaced by the twenty-four-hour glow of streetlights in a world that never sleeps. Moonlight, for most of us, is no more. So James Attlee set out to find it. Nocturne is the record of that journey, a traveler’s tale that takes readers on a dazzling nighttime trek that ranges across continents, from prehistory to the present, and through both the physical world and the realms of art and literature. Attlee attends a Buddhist full-moon ceremony in Japan, meets a moon jellyfish on a beach in Northern France, takes a moonlit hike in the Arizona desert, and experiences a lunar eclipse on New Year’s Eve atop the snowbound Welsh hills. Each locale is illuminated not just by the moonlight he seeks, but by the culture and history that define it. We learn about Mussolini’s pathological fear of moonlight; trace the connections between Caspar David Friedrich, Rudolf Hess, and the Apollo space mission; and meet the inventors of the Moonlight Collector in the American desert, who aim to cure all kinds of ailments with concentrated lunar rays. Svevo and Blake, Whistler and Hokusai, Li Po and Marinetti are all enlisted, as foils, friends, or fellow travelers, on Attlee’s journey. Pulled by the moon like the tide, Attlee is firmly in a tradition of wandering pilgrims that stretches from Basho to Sebald; like them, he presents our familiar world anew.

Moon Observer's Guide

Moon Observer's Guide PDF Author: Peter Grego
Publisher: Firefly Books
ISBN: 9781552978887
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 202

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Book Description
A night-by-night guide to studying the moon. The moon is usually the first celestial body that captures a stargazer's attention and imagination. Throughout history, the moon has endured as a universal subject of myth, poems, entertainment and intense scientific endeavor. In clear language and with full color photographs and illustrations throughout, Moon Observer's Guide offers practical guidance to amateur astronomers viewing Earth's only natural satellite. There is valuable advice for observing the Moon with the naked eye, binoculars and telescopes. Central to this book is a detailed 28-day guide to lunar features. Lunar geology and the various causes of physical features, such as craters and volcanoes, are described. Also included are: Guidelines for choosing binoculars and telescopes Ways of recording observations Digital and conventional photography Using Internet resources, personal computers and lunar software programs Safety tips for observing the moon during solar and lunar eclipses Detailed moon maps This book is an ideal reference for the growing numbers of beginning astronomers.

T-Minus

T-Minus PDF Author: Jim Ottaviani
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1416986820
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 129

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Book Description
In graphic novel format, presents the story of two world superpowers racing to land a man on the moon, and the people who worked on the project.

Balcony on the Moon

Balcony on the Moon PDF Author: Ibtisam Barakat
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 0374302510
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 239

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Book Description
A stand-alone companion to the successful Tasting the Sky, this memoir further examines the author's childhood in Palestine.

Tales from the Life of Bruce Wannell

Tales from the Life of Bruce Wannell PDF Author: Kevin Rushby
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781900209250
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Bruce Wannell was a true original, remembered here with affection, humour and wonder by seventy writers including such friends as Kevin Rushby, Lisa Chaney, Tim Mackintosh-Smith, Tahir Shah and William Dalrymple. Bruce Wannell was the greatest Orientalist traveller of his generation: a Paddy Leigh Fermor of the East, a Kim for our own time. He lived in Iran through the 1979 revolution, worked for a decade in the North West Frontier during the wars in Afghanistan and could transcribe the most complex Arabic calligraphy by sight. Although he lived in the lands of Islam he also knew all the artistic treasures of Christendom. His curious combination of talents - scholar, linguist, musician, translator and teacher - were duplicated by an international network of friendships with poets, spies, aid-workers, diplomats, artists and writers. Speaking Iranian and Afghan Persian with a dazzling, poetic fluency, he could also talk in Arabic, Pushtu, Urdu, Swahili and could lecture fluently in French, Italian, English or German. In the last fifteen years of his life he lived for a third of the year in Delhi with William Dalrymple, hunting down unpublished Mughal histories and providing the author with translations of historical documents. It was an extraordinarily successful double act, which produced four revisionist south-Asian histories that were also international best sellers. The rest of the year was balanced by other travels, working as a dragoman-guide or pursuing his own esoteric researches, based in the modest footprint of a tiny attic in York, triple-lined with books. It was worthy of a medieval wandering scholar or a bare footed Dervish. Bruce had a number of identities, which gives this collection of original essays from trusted friends and old colleagues a dazzling diversity. They give a fascinating insight into a remarkable and diverse life. He was a man who could quote Hafiz from memory, rustle up a lethal cocktail, lose himself in Brahms, open any door, organise a concert within days of arriving in a foreign city or walk across a mountain with just walnuts and dried mulberries in his pocket.

The Mighty 12

The Mighty 12 PDF Author: Charles R. Smith
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 0316032026
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 91

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Book Description
Meet the most impressive of the gods and goddesses of Olympus-and even a few monsters-and see them revealed for what they really were: ancient superheroes with the power to shift shape, move mountains, and change fate. In this innovative introduction to Greek mythology, energetic poems and dynamic comic book style illustrations create a seamless blend of the ancient and contemporary that depicts the gods in all their super-human glory.