Western Asia

The Vickey Joins the Military Series is a story of how a call to serve went from two to twenty years. The books depict the journey from the initial decision to join the military through the many stops along the way. In this series of books, you will get a front row seat to how a 30-year-old journalist made a U-turn onto a vastly different career path. The tours of duty would not be a straight path of European tours back-to-back or back-to-back stateside tours. The reader will zigzag across countries and continents with the author, getting a first-hand look at a very interesting and dynamic ...

This fantasy and science fiction teen anthology edited by Samira Ahmed and Sona Charaipotra contains a wide range of stories from fourteen bestselling, award-winning, and emerging writers from the South Asian diaspora that will surprise, delight, and move you. So listen on, for after all, magic has no borders.

Muse is a Modern Class/Divide AMBW Interracial Short Romance Tiara: I was just a cam girl doing my usual set on OnlySpice when a DM from my top-tier admirer popped up—short, direct, and nothing like the flirty fan messages I usually got. It felt like the start of a fairy tale, the kind that made you wonder if happily-ever-after could really begin in your inbox. Sian: I stumbled across her stream by accident, expecting nothing more than another pretty face chasing attention—but there was something in her eyes, in the way she moved, that made my chest ache with the kind of inspiration I ...

In How Asia Works, Joe Studwell distills extensive research into the economics of nine countries - Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, and China - into an accessible narrative that debunks Western misconceptions, shows what really happened in Asia and why, and for once makes clear why some countries have boomed while others have languished.

Stephen R. Platt is widely respected for his incisive nonfiction, particularly in regard to his knowledge and understanding of China. With Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom, Platt details the absorbing narrative of the Taiping Rebellion, which resulted in the loss of 20 million lives. Occurring in the 1850s, this is the story of a cultural movement characterized by intriguing personages such as influential military strategist Zeng Guofan and brilliant Taiping leader Hong Rengan.

A little more than a century ago, as the Japanese navy annihilated the giant Russian one at the Battle of Tsushima, original thinkers across Asia, working independently, sought to frame a distinctly Asian intellectual tradition that would inform and inspire the continent's anticipated rise to dominance.

According to even the most conservative estimates, China will overtake the United States as the world's largest economy by 2027 and will ascend to the position of world economic leader by 2050. But the full repercussions of China's ascendancy-for itself and the rest of the globe-have been surprisingly little explained or understood.

The path of the gunslinger Van awakens to find that he is a clone of the infamous Gun Sage, a powerful essence user who has mastered every firearm and achieved an incredible amount of power, and an incredible number of enemies. The edges of human territory are filled with mining worlds where the only sort of peace one might find is brought about by a sheriff, they are hard places to survive where everyone is running from something. On the run Van meets up with a woman who is also a clone, and has as many secrets chasing her as she does. A powerful user of essence she begins to teach ...

Filled with unforgettable stories of emperors, generals, and religious patriarchs, as well as fascinating glimpses into the life of the ordinary citizen, Lost to the West reveals how much we owe to the Byzantine Empire that was the equal of any in its achievements, appetites, and enduring legacy. For more than a millennium, Byzantium reigned as the glittering seat of Christian civilization.

An alien cat turned me into a superweapon. I was homeless on the streets of Third York when it happened. Then the military arrived and gave me a choice. Enlist or die. The next thing I knew, I was fighting giant robots at the Xenoforce Academy's boot camp. Figuring out superpowers and energy levels was hard enough, but I had to deal with a mind-reading alien princess, a team of gorgeous women, and a femme fatale in charge of the whole operation. Oh, and a galactic conspiracy is threatening all of humanity. It's up to me and my new feline friend to set things right. A civil war's brewing on ...

Easy jobs don't exist. Jerold should have remembered that. Jerold thought guiding some desperate foreigners around the city would be quick coin. Find one missing relative, collect his fee, done. But his clients are hunting a man who left behind furious creditors, dangerous enemies, and what appears to be a truly impressive talent for bad decisions. Now Jerold's caught between rain-soaked ambushes and mounting threats, wondering if any amount of coin is worth babysitting people who somehow make every situation worse. And as the trail grows colder, one thing becomes clear: some people stay ...

Written by Gabriel Walker Land and Al Khemis, a grand introduction to Thailand! Thailand is known as the 'Land of Smiles' -- however it's not always an easy place to land as a long-term expat. In this memoir and self-help story, a digital nomad, expatriate and economic refugee finds himself in a foreign land where he is forced to unlock the endless mysteries of Asia. Along the way, our wayward traveler begins to smile with genuine happiness for the first time in his life, and he soon realizes that if he had never journeyed to the ASEAN region, he might not still be alive to write these ...

“Journey to the West” is probably the most famous and best-loved novel in China and is considered one of the four great classical novels of Chinese literature. Its place in Chinese literature is roughly comparable to Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey in Western literature. Wikipedia sums up the book’s role perfectly, saying, “Enduringly popular, the tale is at once a comic adventure story, a humorous satire of Chinese bureaucracy, a spring of spiritual insight, and an extended allegory in which the group of pilgrims journeys towards enlightenment by the power and virtue of cooperation.”

Shanghai, 2007: Fourteen-year-old Alva has always longed for more. Raised by her American expat mother, she’s never known her Chinese father, and is certain a better life awaits them in America. But when her mother announces her engagement to their wealthy Chinese landlord, Lu Fang, Alva’s hopes are dashed, and so she plots for the next best thing: the American School in Shanghai.

China's foreign policy initiatives, even the vaunted "Belt and Road", will be shaped and redefined as they confront the ground realities of local and regional politics outside China. In China's Western Horizon, Daniel S. Markey, a scholar of international relations and former member of the US State Department's policy planning staff, previews how China's efforts are likely to play out across the swath of Eurasia that includes South Asia, Central Asia, and the Middle East. Drawing from extensive interviews and historical research, Markey describes how perceptions of China vary.

The yerar 1914: Ram Singh arrives in the Imperial Valley on the Mexican border, reluctantly accepting his friend Karak’s offer of work and partnership in a small cantaloupe farm. Ram is unmoored; fleeing violence in Oregon, he desperately longs to return to his wife and newborn son in Punjab - but he is duty bound to make his fortune first. In the Valley, American settlement is still new and the rules are ever shifting.

Daiyu never wanted to be like the tragic heroine for whom she was named, revered for her beauty and cursed with heartbreak. But when she is kidnapped and forced across an ocean from China to America, Daiyu must relinquish the home and future she imagined for herself. Over the years that follow, she is forced to keep reinventing herself to survive. From a calligraphy school, to a San Francisco brothel, to a shop tucked into the Idaho mountains, we follow Daiyu on a desperate quest to outrun the tragedy that chases her.

Jerold’s guiding job was supposed to be straightforward: keep the caravan alive, tolerate Jin’s theatrics, and reach Pemberton in one piece. But when the group is forced to cut through the infamous Fernwood, things start to unravel. The forest is dense, the air is too quiet, and something—or someone—is watching. Rumors say the People of the Ferns don’t take kindly to outsiders. Jerold’s not sure if he believes in forest spirits or hidden tribes, but he does believe in getting paid. Now, with tensions rising and odd things stirring in the trees, he’s beginning to suspect this ...

Orphaned young, Ming Tsu, the son of Chinese immigrants, is raised by the notorious leader of a California crime syndicate, who trains him to be his deadly enforcer. But when Ming falls in love with Ada, the daughter of a powerful railroad magnate, and the two elope, he seizes the opportunity to escape to a different life. Soon after, in a violent raid, the tycoon's henchmen kidnap Ada and conscript Ming into service for the Central Pacific Railroad. Battered and yet defiant, Ming partners with a blind clairvoyant. Together the two set out to rescue his wife and to exact revenge.

North Korea is isolated and hungry, bankrupt and belligerent. It is also armed with nuclear weapons. Between 150,000 and 200,000 people are being held in its political prison camps, which have existed twice as long as Stalin's Soviet gulags and twelve times as long as the Nazi concentration camps. Very few born and raised in these camps have escaped. But Shin Donghyuk did. In Escape from Camp 14, acclaimed journalist Blaine Harden tells the story of Shin Dong-hyuk and through the lens of Shin's life unlocks the secrets of the world's most repressive totalitarian state.