Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

Samira and Samir

by Siba Shakib

With her bestseller, Afghanistan, Where God Only Comes to Weep, Siba Shakib drew attention to the distressing situation of Afghan women. Taking up this theme again, she now tells a wonderful story of love and courage, and of a remarkable woman who finds her own path in life. When the young girl, Samira, is born, her father - a brave commander fighting in the mountainous land of Afghanistan - decides to bring her... (more)

Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West

Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West

by Benazir Bhutto

Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan in October 2007, after eight years of exile, hopeful that she could be a catalyst for change. Upon a tumultuous reception, she survived a suicide-bomb attack that killed nearly two hundred of her countrymen. But she continued to forge ahead, with more courage and conviction than ever, since she knew that time was running out—for the future of her nation, and for her life. In... (more)

The Places In Between

by Rory Stewart

Wanting Mor

by Rukhsana Khan

Jameela and her family live in a poor, war-torn village in Afghanistan. Even with her cleft lip and lack of educational opportunities, Jameela feels relatively secure, sustained by her Muslim faith and the love of her mother, Mor. But when Mor dies, Jameela’s father impulsively decides to start a new life in Kabul. Jameela is appalled as he succumbs to alcohol and drugs, then suddenly remarries, a situation that... (more)

Mass Casualties: A Young Medic's True Story of Death, Deception, and Dishonor in Iraq

Mass Casualties: A Young Medic's True Story of Death, Deception, and Dishonor in Iraq

by Michael Anthony

From the Introduction: “Look around,” the drill sergeant said. “In a few years, or even a few months, several of you will be dead. Some of you will be severely wounded or so badly mutilated that your own mother can’t stand the sight of you. And for the real unlucky ones, you will come home so emotionally disfigured that you wish you had died over there.” It was Week 7 of Basic Training . . . 18 years old and I... (more)

John Wells: Book 2

The Ghost War

by Alex Berenson

CIA agent John Wells returns, in a novel that reaches beyond today's headlines to foretell dangers yet to come, from the author of The Faithful Spy - "one of the best spy stories ever told" ( The Wall Street Journal ). Alex Berenson's 2006 debut was one of the most acclaimed suspense novels of the year, "the best spy thriller in a long, long while" ( The Kansas City Star ). The Ghost War proves that he is... (more)

Boy Overboard

by Morris Gleitzman

Engaging the Muslim World

by Juan Ricardo Cole

With clarity and concision, Juan Cole disentangles the key foreign policy issues that America is grappling with today--from our dependence on Middle East petroleum to the promotion of Islamophobia by the American right--and delivers his informed advice on the best way forward. Cole’s unique ability to take the true Muslim perspective into account when looking at East-West relations make his insights well-rounded... (more)

The Mulberry Empire: A Novel

by Philip Hensher

With Tolstoyan sweep and Dickensian vitality, this epically involving historical novel relates England’s tragic adventure in Afghanistan, which began with the triumphant arrival of the Army of the Indus in 1839 and ended three years later in rout and massacre. At the center of The Mulberry Empire is Alexander Burnes, a Scots explorer who travels to the unfathomably remote kingdom of Afghanistan and first... (more)

Jawbreaker: The Attack on Bin Laden and Al Qaeda: A Personal Account by the CIA's Key Field Commander

Jawbreaker: The Attack on Bin Laden and Al Qaeda: A Personal Account by the CIA's Key Field Commander

by Gary Berntsen

In Jawbreaker Gary Berntsen, until recently one of the CIA’s most decorated officers, comes out from under cover for the first time to describe his no-holds-barred pursuit of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. With his unique mix of clandestine knowledge and paramilitary training, Berntsen represents the new face of counterterrorism. Recognized within the agency for his aggressiveness, Berntsen, when dispatched to... (more)

Soldiers of God: With Islamic Warriors in Afghanistan and Pakistan

Soldiers of God: With Islamic Warriors in Afghanistan and Pakistan

by Robert D. Kaplan

First time in paperback, with a new Introduction and final chapter World affairs expert and intrepid travel journalist Robert D. Kaplan braved the dangers of war-ravaged Afghanistan in the 1980s, living among the mujahidin—the “soldiers of god”—whose unwavering devotion to Islam fueled their mission to oust the formidable Soviet invaders. In Soldiers of God we follow Kaplan’s extraordinary journey and learn... (more)

Charlie Wilson's War the Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History

The Moonlit Cage: A Novel

by Linda Holeman

Daryâ’s simple life in mid-nineteenth-century Afghanistan is torn apart when a hateful curse by a jealous tribeswoman leaves her an outcast in her small Muslim village. She looks to her arranged marriage to the son of a nomadic tribal chief with hope that it will deliver her from this oppression; instead, Daryâ finds herself regularly beaten by her wrathful husband, and more isolated than she can bear. Seeing no... (more)

My War At Home

by Masuda Sultan

Born in Kandahar in 1978, Sultan fled to the United States at age five with her family. Raised in Brooklyn and Flushing, Queens, Sultan saw her life change when she was married by arrangement at the young age of seventeen to a virtual stranger fourteen years her senior -- a marriage she struggled to maintain and then hastily fought, eventually (after three years) being granted a divorce. This very divorce would... (more)

First In: An Insider's Account of How the CIA Spearheaded the War on Terror in Afghanistan

First In: An Insider's Account of How the CIA Spearheaded the War on Terror in Afghanistan

by Gary C. Schroen

While America held its breath in the days immediately following 9/11, a small but determined group of CIA agents covertly began to change history. This is the riveting first-person account of the treacherous top-secret mission inside Afghanistan to set the stage for the defeat of the Taliban and launch the war on terror. As thrilling as any novel, First In is a uniquely intimate look at a mission that began... (more)

Companions of Paradise

by Thalassa Ali

In A Singular Hostage and A Beggar at the Gate , Thalassa Ali introduced us to the lush, intriguing world of nineteenth-century British India—and to Mariana Givens, a brave, beautiful Englishwoman. Now, as vengeful Afghan tribesmen close in, Mariana must face the repercussions of her marriage to a Punjabi Muslim, and choose between the people she calls her own—and the life that owns her heart. Mariana Givens... (more)

West of Kabul, East of New York: An Afghan American Story

West of Kabul, East of New York: An Afghan American Story

by Mir Tamim Ansary

The day after the World Trade Center was destroyed, Tamim Ansary sent an anguished e-mail to twenty friends, discussing the attack from his perspective as an Afghan American. The message reached millions. Born to an Afghan father and American mother, Ansary grew up in the intimate world of Afghan family life and emigrated to San Francisco thinking he’d left Afghan culture behind forever. At the height of the... (more)

In the Graveyard of Empires: America's War in Afghanistan

In the Graveyard of Empires: America's War in Afghanistan

by Seth G. Jones

A definitive account of the American experience in Afghanistan from the rise of the Taliban to the depths of the insurgency. Longtime Afghanistan expert and RAND analyst Seth G. Jones watched as American optimism evaporated after the Taliban defeat in 2001; by 2005, a new “war of a thousand cuts” had brought Afghanistan to its knees. Harnessing important new historical research on insurgencies and ... (more)

Apache Dawn: Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned

Apache Dawn: Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned

by Damien Lewis

In the summer of 2007 the British Army's 662 Squadron deployed its most potent weapons system in combat for the very first time - the iconic Apache attack helicopter. This is the definitive story of the aircraft and of the crew who fly her, and of their baptism of fire in the battle for Helmand Province, Afghanistan. Under the call-sign Ugly, four of the Army Air Corps' finest pilots flew a relentless series of... (more)

In a Time of War: The Proud and Perilous Journey of West Point's Class of 2002

In a Time of War: The Proud and Perilous Journey of West Point's Class of 2002

by Bill Murphy

The dramatic story of West Point’s class of 2002, the first in a generation to graduate during wartime They came to West Point in a time of peace, but soon after the start of their senior year, their lives were transformed by September 11. The following June, when President George W. Bush spoke at their commencement and declared that America would “take the battle to the enemy,” the men and women in the class of... (more)

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