Crossing The Sands

Wifred Thesiger describes his journeys in the Empty Quarter and the Arabian Peninula during the late forties. At that time few Europeans travelled in those areas and occasionally their presence was not welcome. From these journeys he emerged with a great respect for the Bedu who were his travelling companions. His writing style is masterly as he describes his journeys in a plain language which is at the same time eloquent. He shows a great understanding of and a fondness for the Bedu people and their now vanished way of life. Theiseger is also a photographer of exceptional ability and this volume contains a large number of the photographs he took on his expeditions. These and the text create a stunning picture of the land and its peoples. The author is considered the last of the great explorers and this book is an exquisite record charting his memorable adventures with travelling companions bin Kabina and bin Ghabaisha across the Arabian Empty Quarter. He was a skilled photographer and was unique among travel writers of the past in having had the opportunity to take photographs that complement his formidable writing.

How to stop thinking about life’s inevitable transitions as goals to reach and learn how to navigate through times of unpredictability and uncertainty. We live in a culture, Steve Donahue writes, which loves “climbing mountains.” We want to see the peak, map out a route, and follow it to the top. Sometimes this approach works, but not always, particularly when we are enduring a personal crisis—divorce, job loss, addiction, illness, or death. We may not know exactly where we are going, how to get there, or even how we’ll know we’ve arrived. And it’s not just in times of crisis. There are many deserts in our lives, situations with no clear paths or boundaries. Finding a job is usually a mountain, but changing careers can be a desert. Having a baby is a mountain, especially for the mom. But raising a child is a desert. Battling cancer is a mountain. Living with a chronic illness is a desert. In the desert, we need to follow different rules than we follow when conquering a mountain. We need to be more intuitive, more patient, more spontaneous. Donahue outlines six “rules of desert travel” that will help us discover our direction by wandering, find our own personal oases, and cross our self-imposed borders. Shifting Sands shows us how to slow down, reflect, and embrace the changes of life graciously, naturally, and courageously.

The Great Uighur Empire ruled Inner Asia in the 8th and 9th centuries and their descendants, the Taklamakanians, created a thousand years of unforgettable history. Crossing the Sands of Time provides the true story of Inner Asia and the Uyghur people and contrasts their history with depictions peddled by some authors and social media today.

The New York Times bestselling novel by the Goodreads Choice Awards Best Debut Author of 2016, published in 15 countries! Mortals rule the desert nation of Miraji, but mythical beasts still roam the wild and remote areas, and rumor has it that somewhere, djinn still perform their magic. For humans, it’s an unforgiving place, especially if you’re poor, orphaned, or female. Amani Al’Hiza is all three. She’s a gifted gunslinger with perfect aim, but she can’t shoot her way out of Dustwalk, the back-country town where she’s destined to wind up wed or dead. Then she meets Jin, a rakish foreigner, in a shooting contest, and sees him as the perfect escape route. But though she’s spent years dreaming of leaving Dustwalk, she never imagined she’d gallop away on mythical horse—or that it would take a foreign fugitive to show her the heart of the desert she thought she knew. This startlingly original Middle-East-meets-Wild-West fantasy reveals what happens when a dream deferred explodes—in the fires of rebellion, of romantic passion, and the all-consuming inferno of a girl finally embracing her power.

A unique collection of essays accompany Wilfred Thesiger’s own personal photographs of the Africa he experienced as one of the world’s most celebrated explorers.

A paradigm-shifting book in the vein of Sapiens that brings a crucial Indigenous perspective to historical and cultural issues of history, education, money, power, and sustainability—and offers a new template for living. As an indigenous person, Tyson Yunkaporta looks at global systems from a unique perspective, one tied to the natural and spiritual world. In considering how contemporary life diverges from the pattern of creation, he raises important questions. How does this affect us? How can we do things differently? In this thoughtful, culturally rich, mind-expanding book, he provides answers. Yunkaporta’s writing process begins with images. Honoring indigenous traditions, he makes carvings of what he wants to say, channeling his thoughts through symbols and diagrams rather than words. He yarns with people, looking for ways to connect images and stories with place and relationship to create a coherent world view, and he uses sand talk, the Aboriginal custom of drawing images on the ground to convey knowledge. In Sand Talk, he provides a new model for our everyday lives. Rich in ideas and inspiration, it explains how lines and symbols and shapes can help us make sense of the world. It’s about how we learn and how we remember. It’s about talking to everyone and listening carefully. It’s about finding different ways to look at things. Most of all it’s about a very special way of thinking, of learning to see from a native perspective, one that is spiritually and physically tied to the earth around us, and how it can save our world. Sand Talk include 22 black-and-white illustrations that add depth to the text.