In this often moving, sometimes wry account of life in Baghdadduring the first war on Iraq and in exile in the years following,Iraqi-born, British-educated artist Nuha al-Radi shows us theeffects of war on ordinary people. She recounts the day-to-dayrealities of living in a city under siege, where food has to beconsumed or thrown out because there is no way to preserve it,where eventually people cannot sleep until the nightly bombingcommences, where packs of stray dogs roam the streets (and provideher own dog Salvi with a harem) and rats invade homes. Through itall, al-Radi works at her art and gathers with neighbors and familyfor meals and other occasions, happy and sad. In the wake of the war, al-Radi lives in semi-exile, shuttlingbetween Beirut and Amman, travelling to New York, London, Mexicoand Yemen. As she suffers the indignities of being an Iraqi inexile, al-Radi immerses us in a way of life constricted by thestress and effects of war and embargoes, giving texture to areality we have only been able
People know Bill Moyers from his many years of path-breakingjournalism on television. But he is also one of America's mostsought-after public speakers. In this collection of speeches,Moyers celebrates the promise of American democracy and offers apassionate defense of its principles of fairness and justice. Moyers on Democracy takes on crucial issues such as economicinequality, our broken electoral process, our weakened independentpress, and the despoiling of the earth we share as our commongift.
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLEBOOK In this exquisite book of personalreflections on a woman’s life as a child, wife, and mother, KathrynHarrison, “a writer of extraordinary gifts” (Tobias Wolff), recallsepisodes in her life, exploring how the experiences of childhoodrecur in memory, to be transformed and sometimes healed through thelives we lead as adults. At the heart of Seeking Rapture isthe notion that a woman’s journey is a continuous process oftransformation, an ongoing transcendence and re-creation ofself.
