650 Idioms and Proverbial Phrases in Modern Standard Arabic is the ideal tool for learners of Arabic who wish to improve their knowledge and comprehension of Arabic language and culture and make their language more expressive and idiomatic.Including over 650 idiomatic expressions found in contemporary Arabic, this book is divided into two parts. Part I lists the idioms alphabetically for ease of use, providing English equivalents and a range of illustrative example sentenc...

The Happiness of Blond People by bestselling, multi-award-winning novelist Elif Shafak, author of The Bastard of Istanbul, is a powerful essay on immigration, multiculturalism and the experience of Muslims in Europe - available only as a Penguin Short."You know, I never understand. How come their children are so quiet and well disciplined?""Yeah," said the distressed father, his voice suddenly softer. "Blond children never cry, do they?"

People spend a fortune on their bodies, their faces, their hair, their clothes. Cosmetics, plastic surgery, diets, gym membership - everyone's trying to be more attractive. But there's an easier way to become a beautiful person. It doesn't have to be physical. No matter how you look, if you have a mind that's fascinating, creative, exciting - if you're a good thinker - you can be beautiful.And being attractive doesn't necessarily come from being intelligent or highly-educated. It i...

From the author of The Architecture of Happiness, a thought-provoking look at the manic and peculiar position that news has achieved in our lives.What does the news do to our brains, our souls and our views of one another? We spend an inordinate amount of time checking on it. It molds how we view reality, we're increasingly addicted to it on our luminous gadgets, we check it every morning when we wake up and every evening before we sleep-and yet the news h...

On 25th January this year 50,000 people descended on Tahrir Square in Cairo to protest against president Hosni Mubarak. What followed was an extraordinary 18 days when the square became the focal point for the hopes and fears of Egypt's people, in a situation often joyous but also intense, as the military moved in and Mubarak supporters began to infiltrate the area.Nariman Youssef was in Tahrir Square during this extraordinary gathering. This ebook for the Summer of Unrest series i...

'What a book.' Clive Aslet, Country Life 'Characteristically brilliant.' Dominic Lawson, Sunday Times 'A little oasis of sanity.' Daily Mail. Driving the four hundred miles from Glasgow to London, Theodore Dalrymple found practically every yard of roadside to be littered with rubbish flapping in the wind like Buddhist prayer flags. What does it say about a culture when a country tips its rubbish anywhere it likes? Ranging from the poorer areas where he used to work to chewing gum and the b...

Joumana Haddad is angry about the way Arab women are portrayed in the West. In I Killed Scheherazade she challenges prevalent notions of identity and womanhood in the Middle East and speaks of her own intellectual development and the liberating impact of literature on her life. Fiery and candid, this is a provocative exploration of what it means to be an Arab woman today.

This is not a manifesto against men in general. Nor is it a manifesto against Arab men in particular. It is, however, a howl in the face of a particular species of men: the macho species, Supermen, as they like to envision themselves. But Superman is a lie. In this explosive sequel to I Killed Scheherazade, Joumana Haddad examines the patriarchal system that continues to dominate in the Arab world and beyond. From monotheist religions and the concept of marriage to institutionalised machis...

Starting with the basic question "what is this place?", award-winning journalist and novelist Ece Temelkuran guides us through her "beloved country". In challenging the authoritarian AKP government – for which she lost her job as a journalist – Temelkuran draws strength and wisdom from people, places and artistic expression.The result is a beautifully rendered account of the struggles, hopes and tragedies which make Turkey what it is today. Lamenting the commercialisation ...

In May 2018, a book was published that set off a perfect storm in the intelligence circles in the subcontinent, and made people in the spy community sit up around the world. What made The Spy Chronicles unusual was that two of its authors, A.S. Dulat and Asad Durrani, co-writing with journalist Aditya Sinha, had headed their respective spy agencies -- Dulat had been chief of India's RAW, and Lt Gen. Durrani of Pakistan's ISI. The fallout of the book would result in Lt Gen. Durrani being pu...

A poetic coming-of-age memoir that probes the legacies and myths of family, race, and religion—from Nigeria to England to AmericaMary-Alice Daniel’s family moved from West Africa to England when she was a very young girl, leaving behind the vivid culture of her native land in the Nigerian savanna. They arrived to a blanched, cold world of prim suburbs and unfamiliar customs. So began her family’s series of travels across three continents in search of places of belonging.A C...

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.The veil can be an instrument of feminist empowerment, and veiled anonymity can confer power to women. Starting from her own marriage ceremony at which she first wore a full veil, Rafia Zakaria examines how veils do more than they get credit for.Part memoir and part philosophical investigation, Veil questions that what is seen is always good and free, and that ...