Eastern Women

In June 1941, when Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa, Lyudmila Pavlichenko left her university studies and ignored the offer of a position as a nurse to become one of Soviet Russia's 2,000 female snipers. Less than a year later, she had 309 recorded kills, including 29 enemy sniper kills. She was withdrawn from active duty after being injured. She was also regarded as a key heroic figure for the war effort.

Brigitte Gabriel lost her childhood to militant Islam. Because They Hate is a political wake-up call. Brigitte warns that the United States is threatened by fundamentalist Islamic theology in the same way Lebanon was - radical Islam will stop at nothing short of domination of all non-Muslim countries.

Yoga is thought of by many as a fitness hobby—a gentler alternative to SoulCycle and CrossFit—but its underlying philosophy offers much more than a good workout. Yoga can relieve stress, focus the mind, and provide a path to reinvention, resilience, and a meaningful life. In Beyond the Mat, physician, executive, and yoga instructor Julie Rosenberg reveals how the essential lessons of the four-thousand-year-old Yoga Sutras contain a relevant framework in which to thrive both personally and professionally.

Egyptian-born and London-raised, Alya Mooro grew up between two cultures and felt a pull from both. Where could she turn for advice and inspiration when it seemed there was nobody else like her? Today, Mooro is determined to explore and explode the myth that she must identify either as ‘Western’ or as one of almost 400 million other ‘Arabs’ across the Middle East.

Susan Shumsky is a successful author in the new age/spirituality field, writing books on meditation, intuition, prayer, auras, chakras, and the like. But in the 1970s, she was one of only a handful of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s personal attendants and administrators, in India, Switzerland, and elsewhere. Following the teachings of Maharishi displaced Susan’s devotion to the hippie lifestyle, as she learned about meditation and grew spiritually self-aware. Maharishi founded the spiritual movement TM (Transcendental Meditation).

The untold story of generations of Middle Eastern freedom fighters—horsewomen who safeguarded an ancient breed of Caspian horse—and their efforts to defend their homelands from the Taliban and others seeking to destroy them, Book of Queens reaches back centuries to the Persian Empire and a woman disguised as a man, facing an invading army, protected only by light armor and the stallion she sat astride. Mahdavi draws a thread from past to present.

When the Overton clan—one husband, three almost-sister-wives, and their eleven children—arrive in Mallard Bay, summer on the Eastern Shore heats up. The Overtons and their television show are ready for prime time until the family patriarch disappears. Lightning Strike Films wants their leading man in front of the cameras in two weeks, and Heath Overton’s wives want him home yesterday. Everyone’s upset, even before the murders start.

Wealthy, eccentric Bishop has survived an avalanche, a hijacking, and a kidnapping plot. Did he die for real this time in a tragic accident, or was he helped along to his last headline? Bishop's death shocks everyone, especially Grace, who's so close to escaping the village of Mallard Bay she can nearly taste the lime in a Key West daiquiri.

In 1955, Katharine Clark, the first American woman wire reporter behind the Iron Curtain, saw something none of her male colleagues did. What followed became one of the most unusual adventure stories of the Cold War. While on assignment in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, Clark befriended a man who, by many definitions, was her enemy. But she saw something in Milovan Djilas, a high-ranking Communist leader who dared to question the ideology he helped establish, that made her want to work with him. It became the assignment of her life.

Once upon a time, an American girl moved to a little town in Slovakia, and she fell in love with the country, and with a boy. And then another boy. And then about a dozen boys fell in love with her. Many linguistic and romantic antics ensued, and a happy ending unlike any she could have foreseen.

The Mama Sutra spans an 18-year journey through motherhood as a spiritual practice, chronicling Cushman’s first pregnancy, her daughter's tragic stillbirth, the joyful birth of her son, the “home retreat” of early motherhood, the challenges of parenthood, the diagnosis and gifts of her son’s developmental differences, the meltdown of her nuclear family and its reconfiguration into a new and joyful form, and more. This is a powerful story of the rawness and beauty of life.

Returning to the UK in September 2010 after serving in Iraq as the political adviser to the top American general, Emma Sky felt no sense of homecoming. She soon found herself back in the Middle East traveling through a region in revolt. In a Time of Monsters bears witness to the demands of young people for dignity and justice during the Arab Spring; the inability of sclerotic regimes to reform; the descent of Syria into civil war; the rise of the Islamic State; and the flight of refugees to Europe.

If Arab women were given a voice, what story would they tell? To be a woman is a gift. But that gift does not come without challenges. Historically, women around the globe have fought to be heard. The stories of Arab women in particular have often been veiled in mystery. In Hear Us Speak, Suzy Kanoo lifts the veil. As a CEO, Suzy has enjoyed great success as an Arab businessperson; as a woman, she has witnessed firsthand how Arab legislation and culture has not always kept pace with a world that continues to evolve.

After the fall of the Parthians, the Sassanids came into power. In this Middle East history audiobook, we will be discussing the transfer of power and the change in society that came along with it. It’s nice to look back into the past every now and then because that’s the only way that you will better understand the present. Buy this audiobook now.