The Middle East, Yesterday and Today -- Edited by David W Miller and Clark D Moore, Bantam Pathfinder, 1970 -- This book gives a concise history of how the Arabs evolved first from a proud people running a large empire then (skipping many steps) to servants of the Ottomans/Turks, then to subjects of the Infidel (British and French) empires, and then finally to the modern states in the region.
The Showa Anthology -- Modern Japanese Short Storiees -- Edited by Van C Gessel & Tomone Matsumoto -- Kodansha 1985, 1992 -- Showa is the era of Hirohito's reign. These stories therefore were written in this era, and otherwise have little to do with the Emperor.
Hunters of Dune -- Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson - 2006 -- The original Dune novels by Frank Hubert -- written 30 years ago -- spoke of "gholas", meaning what we would now call cloned people, but spoke only in indirect terms of how hideously barbaric the actual cloning process -- axlotl tanks as the books called them -- is, but the new books, allegedly written from Frank's outlines sealed in safety deposit boxes ages ago, give a degree of "realism" approaching that of the horror novel surrounding cloning. This by itself gives a purpose of a sort to the "new" Dune tag-along novels by the next generation, but also imposes the bloodthirstiness of our own era on it. And the Great Enemy only hinted at in the last Frank Herbert Dune novel: robots.
Dreams of Leaving -- Rupert Thomson -- Bloomsbury -- 1987 -- paperback 1996 -- This book, about the escape of a baby named Moses from the reclusive English town of New Egypt, has its moments but its casual depiction of cocaine addiction is disappointing in an otherwise interesting book.
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