Century


Fred Mustard Stewart - 1981
    From Brooklyn to Hollywood, this is the story of an indomitable Italian family caught up in the mightiest events of all time.

The Gendarme


Mark Mustian - 2010
     Emmett Conn is an old man, near the end of his life. A World War I veteran, he's been affected by memory loss since being injured during the war. To those around him, he's simply a confused man, fading in and out of senility. But what they don't know is that Emmett has been beset by memories, of events he and others have denied or purposely forgotten. In Emmett's dreams he's a gendarme, escorting Armenians from Turkey. A young woman among them, Araxie, captivates and enthralls him. But then the trek ends, the war separates them. He is injured. Seven decades later, as his grasp on the boundaries between past and present begins to break down, Emmett sets out on a final journey, to find Araxie and beg her forgiveness. Mark Mustian has written a remarkable novel about the power of memory-and the ability of people, individually and collectively, to forget. Depicting how love can transcend nationalities, politics, and religion, how racism creates divisions where none truly exist, and how the human spirit fights to survive even in the face of hopelessness, The Gendarme is a transcendent novel.

The Memory of Love


Jim Fergus - 2013
    Precocious, passionate, talented, the free-spirited Chrysis rebels against a society and an art world in which men have all the privilege and women none. By day, a serious student at the prestigious l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, at night Chrysis loses herself to the sensual pleasures of the Montparnasse nightlife, where all seems permissible. There, she and the American cowboy will live the love of a lifetime."

In the Eye of the Sun


Ahdaf Soueif - 1993
    Here, a woman who grows up among the Egyptian elite, marries a Westernized husband, and, while pursuing graduate study, becomes embroiled in a love affair with an uncouth Englishman.

The Man Who Died


D.H. Lawrence - 1929
    Lawrence takes up the theme of Christ's resurrection and his final days on Earth. Lawrence recounts Christ's agonizing journey from death back to life with an alarmingly proffane realism, depicting the tale from teh moment of his initial painful awakening to his eventual redemptive sexual relationship with the priestess of the pagan goddess Isis.The story expands beyond its Christian roots to explore and embrace Lawrence's abiding faith in the life-force apparent in every aspect of the natural world. For his final work, Lawrence has encapsulated a lifetime of extraordinary vision into one profound and exquisite parable.

The Sirens of Baghdad


Yasmina Khadra - 2006
    A young Iraqi student, unable to attend college because of the war, sees American soldiers leave a trail of humiliation and grief in his small village. Bent on revenge, he flees to the chaotic streets of Baghdad where insurgents soon realize they can make use of his anger. Eventually he is groomed for a secret terrorist mission meant to dwarf the attacks of September 11th, only to find himself struggling with moral qualms. The Sirens of Baghdad is a powerful look at the effects of violence on ordinary people, showing what can turn a decent human being into a weapon, and how the good in human nature can resist.From the Trade Paperback edition.

There Should Have Been Castles


Herman Raucher - 1978
    They were two scared kids in love – and reaching for the stars…That’s how it was for Ben and Ginnie in 1951.Ben, the writer who couldn’t seem to make it.Ginnie, the dancer who couldn’t seem to miss.Together the world was theirs for the asking.In the exhilarating world of show biz,from the neon glamour of New York to the starry glitter of Hollywood,it was love and glory – pure, intense, and perfect – all the way.Together they soared on wings of joy and laughter – until it all came flying apart.Could an enchanted love like theirs end, become mere memory, when it deserved minstrels and bold knights on white chargers and pennants flapping gaily from tall towers?

The Dylanist: A Novel


Brian Morton - 1991
    Scott Fitzgerald described (L.A. Weekly).

Midnight at the Pera Palace: The Birth of Modern Istanbul


Charles King - 2014
    I loved this book.”—Simon WinchesterAt midnight, December 31, 1925, citizens of the newly proclaimed Turkish Republic celebrated the New Year. For the first time ever, they had agreed to use a nationally unified calendar and clock.Yet in Istanbul—an ancient crossroads and Turkey's largest city—people were looking toward an uncertain future. Never purely Turkish, Istanbul was home to generations of Greeks, Armenians, and Jews, as well as Muslims. It welcomed White Russian nobles ousted by the Russian Revolution, Bolshevik assassins on the trail of the exiled Leon Trotsky, German professors, British diplomats, and American entrepreneurs—a multicultural panoply of performers and poets, do-gooders and ne’er-do-wells. During the Second World War, thousands of Jews fleeing occupied Europe found passage through Istanbul, some with the help of the future Pope John XXIII. At the Pera Palace, Istanbul's most luxurious hotel, so many spies mingled in the lobby that the manager posted a sign asking them to relinquish their seats to paying guests.In beguiling prose and rich character portraits, Charles King brings to life a remarkable era when a storied city stumbled into the modern world and reshaped the meaning of cosmopolitanism.

Swastika Night


Katharine Burdekin - 1937
    Women are breeders, kept as cattle, while men in this post-Hitlerian world are embittered automatons, fearful of all feelings, having abolished all history, education, creativity, books, and art. The plot centers on a “misfit” who asks, “How could this have happened?”

The Sunrise


Victoria Hislop - 2014
    An ambitious couple are about to open the island's most spectacular hotel, where Greek and Turkish Cypriots work in harmony. Two neighbouring families, the Georgious and the Özkans, are among many who moved to Famagusta to escape the years of unrest and ethnic violence elsewhere on the island. But beneath the city's façade of glamour and success, tension is building. When a Greek coup plunges the island into chaos, Cyprus faces a disastrous conflict. Turkey invades to protect the Turkish Cypriot minority, and Famagusta is shelled. Forty thousand people seize their most precious possessions and flee from the advancing soldiers. In the deserted city, just two families remain. This is their story.

Being Mrs. Alcott


Nancy Geary - 2005
    Alcott, an ambitious mainstream novel that beautifully captures the manners and mores of the American upper class, will appeal to the same audience who reads the works of Louis Begley and Susan Minot. - Nancy Geary's previous novels, Regrets Only, Redemption, and Misfortune were all published to rave reviews from notable authors and national publications.

Gone with the Wind and Scarlett-2 Vol. Boxed Set


Margaret Mitchell - 1993
    

Bulaklak ng Maynila


Domingo G. Landicho - 1995
    Written with extraordinary insight, honesty, and a master writer's creative sensibility.

Kutadgu Bilig


Yusuf Has Hacib
    Translated, the title means something like "The Wisdom which brings Happiness" or "The Wisdom that Conduces to Royal Glory or Fortune", but has been translated more concisely as "Wisdom Which Brings Good Fortune". The text reflects the author's and his society's beliefs, feelings, and practices with regard to quite a few topics, and depicts interesting facets of various aspects of life in the Karakhanid empire. While not produced in Turkey, and more accurately referred to as Turkic literature, the Kutadgu Bilig is often considered to belong to the body of Turkish literature.