Elsa Harik provides a concise history of the lebanese immigration to the U.S.A. beginning in Lebanon. She relates the background of life in Lebanon and those factors which led to emmigration abroad. Many if not all of these factors were commmon to immigration from European,Far Eastern, and other Mideastern countries.

An orphaned Egyptian servant boy, Bata travels to the Sacred City of Thebes with Hector, a Greek mercenary, to rescue the princess Meret and save Egypt from provoking a war with powerful Persia. In the process friendship crosses class and cultural barriers, Bata's faith in the traditional gods of Egypt is challenged by his Greek friend's commitment to reason, and all of them find that their lives will not be what they expected.

This lively adventure puts plaster and paint on those Egyptian ruins you have read about and brings to life the people who once lived there with their customs, beliefs, conflicts and concerns. Some elements of the story may be taken as fantasy or as an endorsement of ancient religion. They will certainly provoke discussion, which Ms Marston encourages with questions on her website. I enjoyed the story simply as a story, but it will no doubt be especially appreciated by upper-elementary teachers looking for historical fiction set in ancient Egypt.

This book presents a state-of-the-art comparative study of women's roles in the Middle East as of 1990. The author draws together a large number of statistics and research as she discusses how and why women's status varies across the region. The book can be succinctly summed up in the following quote: "Many studies on the Middle East and commentaries by Islamists themselves tend to understate the heterogeneity of the region; they project a uniform culture and exaggerate its importance, elevating culture or religion to the status of single explanatory variable. My alternative position is that there is an interactive relationship of economic processes, political dynamics, and cultural practices." In addition to describing the general situation throughout the region, the author presents two case studies: Iran and Afghanistan. The information in the case studies is highly illuminating and I have not seen such detailed discussion on these topics elsewhere. In places, the author goes a little off topic, such as when she describes the French Revolution or the Russian Revolution; although the information presented in these sections is somewhat interesting, it's not clear why it was necessary or appropriate to include them. The author also has the annoying habit of relying extensively on acronyms whose meanings can be hard to keep track of. Overall, though, the book is a valuable reference for those interested in women in the Middle East.