Frank Carlson Library

After a chance meeting between a European DJ and an elite Arabic businessman at an airport, the narrative unfolds as we discover that all is not what it seems... The story transpires in the luxurious Arabian backdrop of Dubai. In the superficial, dazzling gold leafed, wealthy world of Dubai. The story challenges stereotypes of Arabic culture along with themes of the collision of opposite worlds, mistrust, mystery and curiosity.

A young French journalist's riveting and unprecedented look at how today's most ruthless terrorists use social media and technology to reach disaffected youth-witnessed through the undercover investigation that led to her deep involvement with a key member of ISIS. On Facebook, "Melodie"-a twenty-year-old-convert to Islam living with her mother and sister in Toulouse-meets Bilel, a French-born, high-ranking militant for the Islamic State in Syria....

An extraordinary account of survival in Syria's most notorious military prisons that is written. Jamal Saeed arrived as a refugee in Canada in 2016. In his native Syria, as a young man, his writing pushed both social and political norms. For this reason, as well as his opposition to the regimes of the al-Assads, he was imprisoned on three occasions for a total of 12 years. In each instance, he was held without formal charge and without judicial process. “My...

After September 11, Americans agonized over why nineteen men hated the United States enough to kill three thousand civilians in an unprovoked assault. Analysts have offered a wide variety of explanations for the attack, but the one voice missing is that of the terrorists themselves. This penetrating book is the first to present the inner logic of al-Qaeda and like-minded extremist groups by which they justify September 11 and other terrorist attacks. Mary...

An ancient Mesopotamian epic poem of adventure and the search for eternal life. The oldest surviving literary work in the world, The Epic of Gilgamesh details the journey of Gilgamesh, King of Uruk, and his companion Enkidu as they search for the secret to immortality . . . Dating back to the third millennium BC, this epic poem influenced religion as well as the tradition of heroic sagas like the Homeric epics. Some even regard Gilgamesh as the...

Farid ud-Din Attar was a Persian poet, druggist, and social theorist of Sufism, who wrote much of his poetry while treating hundreds of patients a day with his herbal remedies. As a young man he made a pilgrimage to Mecca, and sought wisdom during his travels in Egypt, Damascus, and India. His masterpiece, "The Conference of the Birds", has survived centuries because of its captivating poetic style and its symbolic exploration on the true nature of...

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 Reconciliation, Bhutto recounts in gripping...

The terror masters of ISIS are determined to get America's attention. They've humiliated the Iraqi Army we trained and seized territory in Iraq that we had secured at the cost of so many American lives. They've beheaded American journalists on camera in a direct challenge to the power and resolve of the United States. And now ISIS is calling for 'city wolves' across the United States to act on their dedication to the Islamic State's blood-drenched...

In this collection of essays, interviews, and speeches, the renowned activist examines today’s issues—from Black Lives Matter to prison abolition and more.
 
Activist and scholar Angela Y. Davis has been a tireless fighter against oppression for decades. Now, the iconic author of Women, Race, and Class offers her latest insights into the struggles against state violence and oppression throughout...

In You and Yours, Naomi Shihab Nye continues her conversation with ordinary people whose lives become, through her empathetic use of poetic language, extraordinary. Nye writes of local life in her inner-city Texas neighborhood, about rural schools and urban communities she's visited in this country, as well as the daily rituals of Jews and Palestinians who live in the war-torn Middle East. The DayI missed the day on which it was said others should...