In the Unlikely Event
Judy Blume
Knopf (paperback), 2015
PRs 2495
In her highly anticipated new novel, Judy Blume, the New York Times # 1 best-selling author of Summer Sisters and of young adult classics such as Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, creates a richly textured and moving story of three generations of families, friends and strangers, whose lives are profoundly changed by unexpected events.
In 1987, Miri Ammerman returns to her hometown of Elizabeth, New Jersey, to attend a commemoration of the worst year of her life. Thirty-five years earlier, when Miri was fifteen, and in love for the first time, a succession of airplanes fell from the sky, leaving a community reeling. Against this backdrop of actual events that Blume experienced in the early 1950s, when airline travel was new and exciting and everyone dreamed of going somewhere, she paints a vivid portrait of a particular time and place—Nat King Cole singing “Unforgettable,” Elizabeth Taylor haircuts, young (and not-so-young) love, explosive friendships, A-bomb hysteria, rumors of Communist threat. And a young journalist who makes his name reporting tragedy. Through it all, one generation reminds another that life goes on.
In the Unlikely Event is vintage Judy Blume, with all the hallmarks of Judy Blume’s unparalleled storytelling, and full of memorable characters who cope with loss, remember the good times and, finally, wonder at the joy that keeps them going.
Early reviewers have already weighed in: “Like many family stories, this one is not without its life-changing secrets and surprises. There is no surprise that the book is smoothly written, and its story compelling. The setting—the early 1950s—is especially well realized through period references and incidents.” —Booklist (starred review) and “In Blume’s latest adult novel . . . young and old alike must learn to come to terms with technological disaster and social change. Her novel is characteristically accessible, frequently charming and always deeply human.” —Publishers Weekly
Defeating Jihad: The Winnable War
Dr Sebastian Gorka
Regnery (hardcover), 2016
PRs 2495
Since September 11, 2001, America has been at war. And that’s about all anyone can say with certainty about a conflict that has cost 7,000 American lives and almost $2 trillion. As long as the most basic strategic questions—Who is the enemy? Why are we fighting?—remain unanswered, victory is impossible.
Yet this war is eminently winnable if we remove our ideological blinders, accurately name our enemy, and draw up a strategy to defeat him. So says Dr. Sebastian Gorka, one of the most experienced and sought-after authorities on counterterrorism. Our enemy is not “terror” or “violent extremism.” Our enemy is the global jihadi movement, a modern totalitarian ideology rooted in the doctrines and martial history of Islam. Taking his cue from the formerly top-secret analyses that shaped the U.S. response to the communist threat, Dr. Gorka has produced a compelling profile of the jihadi movement—its mind and motivation—and a plan to defeat it.
Reviews
“Concise, clear, and constructively combative, Dr. Gorka’s book stands apart in its depth of understanding of Islamist terrorists and what their ultimate defeat demands of us. Above all, his defiance of political correctness makes this well- written, finely argued work of immediate practical value. The author has presented us with an inspiring defense not merely of intellectual integrity—so lacking among today’s intelligentsia—but of our civilization.”
—RALPH PETERS, Fox News strategic analyst and author of Valley of the Shadow
“Dr. Sebastian Gorka is one of the world’s leading experts in asymmetric warfare. In Defeating Jihad you get a glimpse of why his opinion matters in councils of war and in academia. He combines the perceptive with the analytic, the piercing intellect with the grit of real-world experience.”
—STEPHEN K. BANNON, executive chairman of Breitbart News
My Journey into the Heart of Terror: Ten Days in the Islamic State
Jurgen Todenhofer
Greystone (hardcover), 2016
PRs 2395
ISIS, IS, the Islamic State. It’s an organization that has taken on chilling associations due to the horrific deeds committed in its name. ISIS beheads journalists—and yet one, Jürgen Todenhöfer, was invited to visit its fighters in Mosul, after months of negotiations. Accompanied by his son, Frederic Todenhöfer, who photographed the journey, he asked them to explain their beliefs, motivations, and goals. This book, the most in-depth research conducted on the terror group so far, is the result of those conversations. My Journey into the Heart of Terror shows how the organization grew from its al-Qaeda roots and the role the West has played, both past and present. Along the way, Todenhöfer offers startling insights into what ISIS thinks, what it wants—and how it can be defeated. Only by understanding our enemies, Todenhöfer believes, can we combat ISIS’s radical, un-Islamic vision and the terror and destruction it brings.
Scapegoats: How Islamophobia Helps Our Enemies and Threatens Our Freedoms
Arslan Iftikhar
Hot Books (hardcover), 2016
PRs 2095
President Jimmy Carter called Scapegoats “an important book that shows Islamophobia must be addressed urgently”. Because when a murderous psychopath goes on a killing spree, law enforcement officials and the media never make his religion the central issue—unless he happens to be a Muslim. Then it sets off another frenzied wave of commentary about the inherent evils that lurk within the Muslim faith. From Fox News talking heads, who regularly smear Muslim leaders as secret terrorists, to Bill Maher, who has made Islam a routine target, it has become widely acceptable to libel a religion with a following of over 1.5 billion people—nearly one-quarter of the world’s population. Now popular commentator Arsalan Iftikhar—better known as “The Muslim Guy”—offers a spirited defense of his faith that is certain to win him wide acclaim—and yes, another round of overheated scolding from the usual media quarters.
Arsalan Iftikhar’s spirited defense of his faith is certain to hit a chord during the 2016 campaign season, as politicians and pundits vie to be the toughest on the block when it comes to escalating the hostilities in the Middle East, often demonizing Islam in the process. With his witty and levelheaded demeanor, the author will cut through all the sound and fury as a voice of sanity and reason.
Trading Worlds: Afghan Merchants Across Modern Frontiers
Magnus Marsden
Hurst (paperback), 2016
PRs 5227
Trading Worlds is an anthropological study of a little understood yet rapidly expanding global trading diaspora, namely the Afghan merchants of Afghanistan, Central Asia and Europe. It contests one-sided images that depict traders from this and other conflict regions as immoral profiteers, the cronies of warlords or international drug smugglers. It shows, rather, the active role these merchants play in an ever-more globalized political economy. Afghan merchants, the author demonstrates, forge and occupy critical economic niches, both at home and abroad: from the Persian Gulf to Central Asia, to the ports of the Black Sea; and in global cities such as Istanbul, Moscow and London, the traders’ activities are shaping the material and cultural lives of the diverse populations among whom they live.
Through an exploration of the life histories, trading activities and everyday experiences of these mobile merchants, Magnus Marsden shows that traders’ worlds are informed by complex forms of knowledge, skill, ethical sensibility, and long-lasting human relationships that often cut across and dissolve boundaries of nation, ethnicity, religion and ideology.