The Islamic Quarterly The great book is a classic. With the magic of his pen, the author makes all the historical personalities of his book come alive The skill of narration is enhanced throughout the book with the most regal and dignified English, inspiring the sense of majestic grandeur essential for any literary work dealing with Divine and Eternal Truths. Seyyed Hossein Nasr in Parabola Muhammad is a true work of art, as enthralling and engrossing as the best of novels with the difference that this is no fiction but fact. For those interested in Islam in one way or another, it is mesmerizing. Hamid Algar in Religious Studies Review Despite the vastness of the subject, this biography makes easy and absorbing reading for anyone interested in religion as such. While remaining close to the Arabic sources he cities, Lings show himself able to render Arabic speech incomprehensible and idiomatic English that is neither markedly archaic nor jarringly contemporary, thus conveying what is, for Muslims, the essential timelessness of the events related. Before the appearance of this book, Western languages lacked almost entirely a comprehensive and authentic account of the life of the Prophet Muhammad Now, Lings, has produced a superb narrative that, in its sobriety and dignity of style and its scrupulous and exhaustive fidelity to authentic and reliable sources, constitutes a major addition to Islamic literature in English.
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One day she sees an advertisement for jobs at the NACA. Married with children, Dorothy comes from a middle class black family, well-respected and well-known by other black families in town. In the summer of 1942, Dorothy Vaughan, a math teacher, is also working in a miltary laundry room in order to earn extra money and to support the American war effort. Langley hires some black female computers, but places them in a segregated office called West Area. Further, Jim Crow laws are still in place in the South, which means that Hampton is a segregated place. At the time, mathematicians, who are commonly called “computers,” are almost all women. In 1943, in the midst of World War II, the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory in Hampton, VA seeks to hire hundreds of junior physicists and mathematicians to help in the war effort by supporting engineers in performing aeronautical research as part of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (the NACA). However it did seem interesting, and given all the buzz surrounding Toews’ book and the fawning recommendations for it all over the internet, I was excited to dive in and meet the complex female characters at its center. It was so nightmarish it didn’t seem real. I did a quick look into the story, and could barely stomach the fact that the inspiration for this novel came from a near-identical event around 2010 in Bolivia, where a group of women living in an isolated Mennonite community discover that a number of men in their village have been drugging and sexually assaulting them at night, with some of the victims being small children. I desperately wanted to like Women Talking, which I picked up after seeing it was recently adapted into a film by Sarah Polley, with a phenomenal cast attached (Claire Foy, Frances McDormand, Jessie Buckley, and Ben Whishaw, among others). well, if not interesting, at least unique. You can tell Toews is a gifted writer, and I found her approach to the narrative. I’m happy that the novel shines a light on the heartbreaking, horrifying real-life story of these women, and I think a lot of the themes and ideas discussed within are especially interesting when viewed through the prism of the #MeToo movement. Reading Women Talking by Miriam Toews left me with a lot of mixed feelings. And I have arrived at an answer: pacifism.” “I have done what the verse from Philippians instructed, which is to think about what is good, what is just, what is pure, and what is excellent. The fifth sub-series, Dawn of the Clans (2013–2015) details the formation of the Clans. The third sub-series, Power of Three (2007–2009), centers around three prophesied cats with extraordinary powers, and the fourth sub-series, Omen of the Stars (2009–2012) details said cats using their powers to defeat evil spirit cats. Warriors: The New Prophecy (2005–2006) continues with a focus on the next generation of cats, and chronicles the four Clans' journey to a new home. It details the adventures of a "kittypet" ( housecat) named Rusty who joins ThunderClan, one of the warrior cat clans who inhabit the forest. The first, Warriors: The Prophecies Begin, was published from 2003 to 2004. There are currently eight sub-series, each containing six books. The concept and plot of the pilot series was developed by series editor Victoria Holmes. Published by HarperCollins, the series is written by authors Kate Cary and Cherith Baldry, as well as others, under the collective pseudonym Erin Hunter. The series is primarily set in fictional forests. Warriors (also known as Warrior Cats) is a series of novels based on the adventures and drama of multiple Clans of feral cats. The Observer project was successful, and Adams and Carwardine developed a radio series around the same concept for BBC Radio 4. Adams was met in Madagascar by zoologist Mark Carwardine (who was working for the WWF at the time). The trip was part of a project by the World Wide Fund for Nature and British Sunday newspaper The Observer, sending well-known authors to remote places to seek endangered species and write articles for The Observer Magazine, to help raise awareness of ecological issues. In 1985, Douglas Adams went to Madagascar in search of the (possibly extinct) lemur the aye-aye. In 2009, the BBC broadcast a television follow-up series of the same name, with Stephen Fry replacing the late Adams. In the series, Adams and Carwardine travel to various locations in the hope of encountering species on the brink of extinction. Last Chance to See is a 1989 BBC radio documentary series and its accompanying book, written and presented by Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine. The popular facsimile signature is written towards the bottom of the picture image, also at an angle. The player's name is printed in a bold lowercase font and set at a slight angle on the top area of the card.įinally, the bottom portion is reserved for the player's team name, logo and fielding position. The player image is set inside a cut-out circle that showcases a colored bottom and top border area. Instead, Topps used a modernized layout that features the player in a profile or full-length body pose. The 1959 Topps Baseball design was quite the departure from the normal method of using a player image against a colored background with accompanying text. However, the Fleer Gum Company attempted to take a bite out Topps' market share when they snagged the exclusive rights to Ted Williams for the 1959 season. The continued expansion of their core baseball card set was made possible thanks to the lack of competition Topps faced following the buyout of Bowman. This was the largest Topps set in existence when it was originally released. The 1959 Topps Baseball set was exceedingly large by the standards of the day, weighing in with an impressive 572 cards. A new design, large checklist and a variety of subsets means that '59 Topps is as memorable as it is groundbreaking. Anchored by the rookie card for Bob Gibson and other key Hall of Fame cards, 1959 Topps Baseball offers a big change for vintage collectors in comparison to the previous releases. In England and increasingly in America, Ruth Rendell's devoted fans eagerly anticipate her every excursion into the shadow of the human psyche. This is a slow-moving, atmospheric book, with lush descriptions of Shroves natural beauty and the mostly calm, rather idyllic way that Liza and Eve live. And, finally, Liza tells him of the men who came to Shrove House and never left alive. Each night she tells him a little more about her life: her mother's obsession with Shrove House and her mysterious claim to it, her mother's aversion to the modern world and her fierce desire to shelter Liza from its depredations. A story of obsessive love between mother and daughter and its connection to aseries of unexplained deaths near a remote English manor. Liza, who has grown up completely sheltered from the outside world, finds refuge with a young drifter. Liza lived in the gatekeeper's cottage at Shrove House until the day the police took her mother away forever. Access a growing selection of included Audible Originals, audiobooks and podcasts. Summary: In The Crocodile Bird, Ruth Rendell weaves a mesmerizing story of the obsessive love between a mother and a daughter and its connection to a series of deaths near a remote English manor, magnificent in its hilltop isolation. The Crocodile Bird By: Ruth Rendell Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins 4.3 (25 ratings) Try for 0.00 Pick 1 title (2 titles for Prime members) from our collection of bestsellers and new releases. Join the Circle for author chats and more. Alison Weir pieces together a life steeped in mystery and misfortune, debunking centuries-old myths to give us the truth about Mary Boleyn, the so-called "great and infamous whore." Look for special features inside. With new and compelling evidence, Weir presents the most conclusive answer to date on the paternity of Mary's children, long speculated to have been Henry VIII's progeny. She tracks the probable course of their affair and investigates the truth behind Mary's notorious reputation. Unraveling the truth about Mary's much-vaunted notoriety at the French court and her relations with King Fran ois I, Weir also explores Mary's role at the English court and how she became Henry VIII's lover. Making use of extensive original research, Weir shares revelations on the ambitious Boleyn family and the likely nature of the relationship between the Boleyn sisters. NATIONAL BESTSELLER - NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE New York Times bestselling author and noted British historian Alison Weir gives us the first full-scale, in-depth biography of Mary Boleyn, sister to Queen Anne as well as mistress to Anne's husband, Henry VIII-and one of the most misunderstood figures of the Tudor age. I always try to go into Denenberg’s DA books with a blank slate, but every time either I fail or he continuously disappoints. Early Sunday Morning is good for a brief look at the Pearl Harbor event, but there are other books-like Under the Blood-Red Sun-that deal with the topic so much better. That voice did grate on me after a while (after Pearl Harbor, when Amber is just like “Poor me” all the time), but the set-up to Pearl Harbor was interesting (though far too long) even if the conclusion came too quickly. It reminded me of the voice in Lasky’s Christmas After All, which was delightful. Bad things aside, I did actually enjoy the voice/tone of the book. Early Sunday Morning is too short, doesn’t delve deeply enough into the aftermath of Pearl Harbor (for my tastes, but even so, I think Denenberg was a bit tame considering everything he talked about in One Eye Laughing, the Other Weeping), and has a main character that’s a little too self-centered. They’re just so shallow and bland compared to some of the others. Rating: 2/5 I feel like it’s a bit of a running joke by now, my dislike of Denenberg’s Dear America books. Early Sunday Morning: The Pearl Harbor Diary of Amber Billows, by Barry Denenberg, was published in 2001 by Scholastic. Although I have published 13 books, the one readers seem to enjoy the most is An Intimate History of Killing, which came out in 1999 and won both the Wolfson Prize and the Fraenkel Prize. I am an historian, based at Birkbeck (University of London), who has spent much of my career exploring the dark side of human experiences. Joanna's Bourke's next work is coming out in October, later this year and will also be available from the publisher, as well as all good bookshops. Of course, if you're not one of the lucky winners, or if you're simply not entering the competition, you can still get your hands on a copy of this fascinating and beautifully illustrated book here, direct from the publisher, Reaktion Books. As the last submissions for the Art of War contest come rolling in, we speak to Professor Joanna Bourke, a celebrated historian and the award-winning author of our prize giveaway book, War and Art. |