Desert Affair

While sitting in a London airport during a snowstorm, Lydia meets a Middle Eastern sheikh named Amir. She finds herself wanting him like she’s never wanted anyone before, and they end up spending a sultry, passionate night together. When they wake up the next morning, they’re informed that the airport will be closed for three days due to the bad weather. That’s when Amir offers Lydia three days and three nights with him. All she has to do is ask!

“A landmark work of lesbian fiction” and the basis for the acclaimed film Desert Hearts (The New York Times). Against the backdrop of Reno, Nevada, in the late 1950s, award-winning author Jane Rule chronicles a love affair between two women. When Desert of the Heart opens, Evelyn Hall is on a plane that will take her from her old life in Oakland, California, to Reno, where she plans to divorce her husband of sixteen years. A voluntary exile in a brave new world, she meets a woman who will change her life. Fifteen years younger, Ann Childs works as a change apron in a casino. Evelyn is instantly drawn to the fiercely independent Ann, and their friendship soon evolves into a romantic relationship. An English professor who had always led a conventional life, Evelyn suddenly finds all her beliefs about love, morality, and identity called into question. Peopled by a cast of unforgettable characters, this is a novel that dares to ask whether love between two women can last.

"Step into the untamed landscapes of the Wild West with 'The Ridin' Kid from Powder River' by Henry Herbert Knibbs. Knibbs's narrative prowess shines as he presents readers with a thrilling saga of adventure, courage, and moral choices. With rich descriptions and vivid characters, Knibbs captures the essence of a time when lawlessness and heroism were intertwined, creating a story that resonates with authenticity and captivates readers from start to finish."

On January 30, 1954 a great showman passed away. His name was John Murray Anderson. A few days before, he had submitted to his publishers the final version of his autobiography as told to his brother, Hugh Abercrombie Anderson. It is, therefore, with mixed emotions that we find ourselves privileged to present the full and complete story of “Uncle Broadway.” As Robert Coleman, distinguished drama editor and critic, has said: “John Murray Anderson pioneered a new form of revue. Revues, until his time, had been super burlesque shows. And, mind you, the great Florenz Ziegfeld was producing them successfully. But Murray brought heart, sophistication, brilliance and genuine artistry to them. He explored new paths and set new standards for the form.” We have all been saddened by Murray’s death; but we are thankful that he has left such wonderful memories behind—memories of twenty-nine major Broadway musicals beginning with his own Greenwich Village Follies and including Jumbo, New Faces of 1952 and the last, John Murray Anderson’s Almanac. Among the other works to his credit are seven circuses for Ringling Brothers and four aquacades for Billy Rose, not to mention the multitude of movie stage shows, night club shows, pageants and motion pictures. For the pleasure of many hours with a wonderful, stimulating and informative friend, read Out Without My Rubbers. It includes information and anecdotes concerning hundreds of familiar people and places. This book is not only for the theater-minded but for all those interested in meeting new and exciting people.

With rich photography, expert voice, and taste-making style, Martha Stewart Weddings—a brand-new volume, the first in nearly two decades—is at once a guide to and inspiration for planning a wedding. Since the debut of Martha Stewart Weddings in 1995, it has been the premier resource for couples looking to plan and personalize their big day. To coincide with the brand’s 20th anniversary, the magazine’s team of experts has compiled a comprehensive guide to their distinctive way of creating a customized celebration. It’s packed with the original ideas, real-wedding photographs, and tried-and-true advice for which the brand has become known. From the engagement to the day itself, every detail is covered. Readers will learn what goes into making a “Martha” wedding, which includes dreaming up a cohesive theme and color palette, as well as finding a dress and suit, registering for gifts, enjoying showers and bachelor(ette) parties, hiring vendors, choosing the flowers and cake, and orchestrating a sweet send-off for the evening. With 300 full-color photographs, Martha Stewart Weddings will be the most gorgeous and practical wedding book on the market and a keepsake for every bride.

Farid al-Din Attar (d. 1221) was the principal Muslim religious poet of the second half of the twelfth century. Best known for his masterpiece "Mantiq al-tayr", or "The Conference of Birds", his verse is still considered to be the finest example of Sufi love poetry in the Persian language after that of Rumi. Distinguished by their provocative and radical theology of love, many lines of Attar's epics and lyrics are cited independently of their poems as maxims in their own right. These pithy, paradoxical statements are still known by heart and sung by minstrels throughout Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and wherever Persian is spoken or understood, such as in the lands of the Indo-Pakistani Subcontinent. Designed to take its place alongside "The Ocean of the Soul", the classic study of Attar by Hellmut Ritter, this volume offers the most comprehensive survey of Attar's literary works to date, and situates his poetry and prose within the wider context of the Persian Sufi tradition. The essays in the volume are grouped in three sections, and feature contributions by sixteen scholars from North America, Europe and Iran, which illustrate, from a variety of critical prespectives, the full range of Attar's monumental achievement. They show how and why Attar's poetical work, as well as his mystical doctrines, came to wield such tremendous and formative influence over the whole of Persian Sufism.

When Bill Borthwick, Minister for Lands, delivered his welcoming speech to the newly formed Land Conservation Council in 1971, he advised them to make their recommendations on public land use for Victoria "is if for a thousand years". And with that, he left them to it. The Land Conservation Council was to provide a unique framework free from political intervention, where experts could debate public land use issues and recommend fair and balanced public land use, enshrining a representative reserve system for Victoria's remaining natural heritage. This is the story of the Land Conservation Council and how it developed into a leading model for community consultation, surviving dramatic changes to the political and environmental landscape but, despite name changes, remaining a stable and conciliatory force in the battle over public land in Victoria.