A United States Foreign Service couple renews an official presence in Yemen. Set only eight years after the Republican Revolution had ousted a thousand-year-old dynasty of Shiite (Zaydi) Muslim imams, the memoir describes with both humor and respect the country's struggles in the early throes of becoming a modern, viable state.

The Nobel Prize-winning Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz refashions the classic tales of Scheherazade into a novel written in his own imaginative, spellbinding style. Here are genies and flying carpets, Aladdin and Sinbad, Ali Baba, and many other familiar stories from the tradition of The One Thousand and One Nights, made new by the magical pen of the acknowledged dean of Arabic letters, who plumbs their depths for timeless truths.

Spanning five decades and as many continents, Hippy Days, Arabian Nights is a funny, moving, and compelling story of a woman whose extraordinary life will never be summarised by the words ‘could have’, ‘might have’, or ‘should have’. Whether it’s following her dreams pursuing what she believes in, or chasing matters of the heart, from the outset Australian artist Katherine Boland has grabbed life by the throat and jumped in feet first. Part One: Hippy Days. One woman’s experience of life in a hippy community that sprang up in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales as part of the counterculture movement––an overlooked and relatively untapped period in Australian modern history. In 1976, Katherine and her boyfriend John, like many idealistic young students of the time, abandon their university studies and leave Melbourne to pursue a sustainable and independent life in the bush. Their earnest quest for a Utopian life in harmony with nature is both hilarious and serious: John finds himself reviving their dying goat with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation in the back of a ute while on the way to the vet; and, under the stars, alone in the bush, a pregnant and groaning Katherine goes into labour to the accompaniment of New Year’s Eve fireworks and the sympathetic mooing of a neighbour’s cow. However, as Katherine reveals, even the strongest woman is vulnerable and the noblest of dreams can perish, observing as she does that in many families ‘peace, harmony and mung beans’ can founder on the back of drug addiction with its many consequences including family violence and child neglect. Part Two: Arabian Nights. Prior to the Egyptian revolution in 2010, Katherine receives an invitation from the Egyptian Ministry of Culture to participate in an International Artists’ Symposium. And so begins her next fateful and totally unplanned foray into the unknown: falling head over heels in love (or is it lust!) for an Egyptian journalist 27 years her junior – at first sight. Her ideas and preconceptions about Islam and the Middle East are challenged as her relationship evolves and deepens over the next 6 years.

Welcome to Exoticaa Leave your inhibitions at the door Lilli DeForrest is hoping for a week of pampering and relaxation, but when the beautiful Rajan steps into her suite, the attraction is immediate. Rajan is her ideal lover: tender, commanding and intensely erotic. But, as Lilli is about to discover, his masterful touch is just the beginninga An utterly delicious erotic romance perfect for fans of E.L. James and Sylvia Day

Notorious for the delight he took in tweaking the sexual taboos of the Victorian age-as well as the delight he took in the resulting shock of his bashful peers-British adventurer, linguist, and author CAPTAIN SIR RICHARD FRANCIS BURTON (1821-1890) is perhaps best remembered for his unexpurgated translation of the Eastern classic The One Thousand and One Nights, more famously known today as The Arabian Nights. Originating in Persian, Indian, and Arabic sources as far back as the ninth century AD, this collection of bawdy tales-which Burton was the first to bring to English readers in uncensored form-has exerted incalculable influence on modern literature. It represents one of the earliest examples of a framing story, as young Shahrazad, under threat of execution by the King, postpones her death by regaling him with these wildly entertaining stories over the course of 1,001 nights. The stories themselves feature early instances of sexual humor, satire and parody, murder mystery, horror, and even science fiction. Burton's annotated 16-volume collection, as infamous as it is important, was first published between 1885 and 1888, and remains an entertainingly naughty read. Volume VIII includes: [ "King Mohammed Bin Sabaik and the Merchant Hasan" [ "Hassan of Bassorah" [ "Khalifah the Fisherman of Baghdad" [ "Masrur and Zayn Al-Mawasif" [ "Ali Nur Al-Din and Miriam the Girdle-Girl" [ and others.