Alice Walker praises Peled's "The General's Son"
Posted by Helena Cobban on January 25, 2012
Alice Walker, whose complex and beautiful novel The Color Purple earned the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, has contributed a fabulous Foreword to Miko Peled's upcoming book The General's Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine. In recent years, Ms. Walker has taken several courageous and risky stands in favor of Palestinian, as well as Israeli, rights. In the Foreword to Peled's book she writes, "There are few books on the Palestine/Israel issue that seem as hopeful to me as this one... " (You can read a longer excerpt, below.) Readers from the U.K., Australia, and the U.S. who are eager to see The General's Son can place their advance orders for it at our new, secure webstore.
We have already put some additional-- and already existing!-- JWB titles into the webstore for purchasers from those countries. Check them out. Tell your friends. And check back frequently to see the other titles we'll be putting there!
Please note, too, that the price we are offering for Peled's book with the advance-purchase offer is below the list price it will have once we get it published-- which should be in late February or early March... Plus, people placing advance orders for the book get free shipping... Plus, for every five copies your order we will send you a sixth one free. But hurry! This offer ends on February 14. After that, if you want the book you'll have to pay the full cost, and pay for the shipping-- though we will still have the Buy-5-get-1-free deal for you.
(Also, with this title as with all of our books, we have priced it low to make it available to as wide a public a possible... Please support Just World Books and our new webstore! End of commercial interlude here...)
Meanwhile, back in the world of literature... Here is some more of what Alice Walker has written about The General's Son:
- What is the prevailing feeling, having read this moving book, given how determined our testosterone driven world seems to be to make continuous, endless war, and, perhaps, to blow all of us up in one? ... I feel immense relief, and gratitude. Someone(s) must take responsibility for being the grown-ups of our human Universe. There must be people, in all walks of life, who decide: Enough's enough; there are children here...
Miko Peled, at first terrified of reaching out to Palestinians because of the false reports he was, since childhood, given of them, realizes the insanity of remaining enemies of a people he has had no opportunity to truly know. What he discovers energizes and encourages him. He begins to understand the danger inherent in living in ignorance of the so-called "other" and begins to realize he would be a far different, a far less open and loving person, had he not, despite his fears, freed himself in this way. His freedom to be at ease with the very people he was taught to hate is, of course, a bonus for his own children and for the next generation of Israelis and Palestinians...
Other News
2012
Nakba Day: Remembering Through Palestinian Stories
Every May 15th, Palestinians and their allies around the world commemorate Nakba Day, the Catastrophe, the displacement and dispossession that Palestinians suffered as a result of the 1948 war and the establishment of the state of Israel. This is a time not only to reflect on what was lost as families fled their homes becoming stateless refugees, but also a time to remember the Palestinian culture and to anticipate a resolution to the 64 year old crisis that has cost so many so much. Here at Just World Books, we have a number of titles that poignantly address these issues; Miko Peled's new book The General's Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine, Jon Randal's reissued classic The Tragedy of Lebanon: Christian Warlords, Israeli Adventurers, and American Bunglers, and of course, Laila El-Haddad's always popular Gaza Mom: Palestine, Politics, Parenting, and Everything in Between.
2012
"Gaza Mom": An inspired gift for Moms, Dads, or Grads!
What could make a better gift for a Mom, a Dad, or a new Graduate in your life than a copy of Laila El-Haddad's engaging, informative, and often wryly funny Gaza Mom: Palestine, Politics, Parenting, and Everything In Between? You can order your gift copy of copies of El-Haddad's fine book here. El-Haddad has been a busy woman lately! Recently she was seen speaking around the state of Colorado under the auspices of the friends of Sabeel... and last month she was discussing the fate of Palestinian refugees on Al Jazeera's "The Stream" program... Meanwhile, anticipation of her upcoming book with fellow writer and photographer Maggie Schmitt, The Gaza Kitchen cookbook, has been on the rise as well. The National recently wrote a glowing preview of their cookbook, where El-Haddad explained the motivation behind this much-awaited JWB publication:
2012
Fabulous JWB author events, coming up!
Two of our great Spring 2012 authors, Miko Peled and Jon Randal, have some great book events coming up! If you live in Southern California, Washington DC, or New York, then you'll have a chance to see one of them soon. Peled is speaking to a hometown audience in Coronado, CA, this Thursday, at 6:30 pm, about his fabulous book The General's Son. Randal, who nowadays calls Paris, will be speaking about The Tragedy of Lebanon (and of the Palestinians who got caught up in Lebanon's punishing civil war) at two public events in Washington, DC: an evening event on Tuesday, May 8, and a noon-time event on Wednesday, May 9. Check back for details... Then on Friday, May 11, he'll be speaking at this excellent 10:30 am event in New York, right next to the U.N. building.
2012
At the webstore: Special Lebanon package-- and many price reductions!
Tell your friends about the two great new deals we're offering customers at the JWB webstore. Firstly, we're offering a new 'Witness to War in Lebanon' package that brings you two great titles for only $25 (a saving of $7 over buying them separately.) More details, below... Secondly, we've instituted longterm price reductions on a number of paperback titles for customers residing in all areas other than the United States or United Kingdom. For example, check out the prices we're now offering these customers for Laila El-Haddad's Gaza Mom (now $26), or Rami Zurayk's Food Farming and Freedom (now $25.) Prices for customers in the U.S. and U.K. remain at their previously existing low (bargain!) levels.
2012
Helena Cobban speaks, brings JWB books to North Carolina, April 15-18
Just World Books owner Helena Cobban will be speaking on current Middle East developments-- and also, bringing some of JWB's most relevant and topical books-- to community gatherings in North Carolina, April 15-18. Mark your calendars if you live in Asheville, Raleigh, or Durham-- and of course, be sure to tell your friends, too! The schedule is below.
2012
Six JWB ebook titles now on sale at webstore!
Avid readers-on-the-go can now load up their ebook readers with JWB titles-- from our webstore! We just put six of our titles up onto the new "Ebook department" in the webstore, where they are available for download from anywhere in the world. More will be coming soon. Indeed, it is our plan to have all our existing books published in ebook versions by the end of April-- and to have our new titles out as ebooks very soon after their formal publication date.
2012
Taking orders now for Matt Zeller's 'Watches Without Time'
Just World Books is very proud to be publishing Matt Zeller's very important and timely book, Watches Without Time: An American Soldier in Afghanistan-- and we are now taking advance orders for it on this page at our webstore. Zeller is a highly decorated U.S. Army veteran who in 2010, when he was just 28 years old ran for the U.S Congress in NY's 29th District. (Sadly, he lost.) Watches Without Time is a collection of the vividly written and very carefully observed accounts he sent home to family and friends during the large portion of 2008 that he spent, as a U.S. Army first lieutenant, training Afghan security forces in Ghazni Province.
2012
Miko Peled's "The General's Son": Shipping now, and excerpts at Mondoweiss!
We are pleased to announce that Miko Peled's memoir The General's Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine is in print and orders are being fulfilled. If you placed an advance order, then your copy is being shipped. If you haven't placed an order yet, you can go to the JWB webstore and buy your copy now. Also, the renowned blog on Middle East affairs, Mondoweiss, has published an exclusive and extensive excerpt from the book. We are so proud of how The General's Son has turned out and we are excited to help Peled share his arresting story with the world.
2012
Soli Özel of 'Troubled Triangle' talks about Turkey's regional role
In a recent interview in the Just World Books podcast series, Turkish political scientist Soli Özel said he thought the decision Turkey made last August to side with the Syrian opposition against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad was taken a bit hurriedly, putting Turkey onto a somewhat awkward “single-track path.” He also talked about the importance of the Turkish model of a Muslim-led democracy to the newly elected Islamist parties in Egypt and Tunisia. Özel was one of two Turkish contributors to JWB's recent title Troubled Triangle: The United States, Turkey, and Israel in the New Middle East.
2012
Jon Randal's 'Tragedy of Lebanon': A timely re-issue amid regional turmoil
Amid daily reports that now link the rising violence in Syria with networks and groups in Lebanon, Just World Books is delighted to be publishing a timely re-issue of Jon Randal's acclaimed 1983 study of the rise and activities of the extreme rightwing Christian in Lebanon. The new volume is titled The Tragedy of Lebanon: Christian Warlords, Israeli Adventurers, and American Bunglers. (The earlier edition was published in the United States under the slightly unfortunate title "Going All the Way"-- a moniker that, Randal now tells us in the thoughtful, all-new Preface to the current volume, was first suggested to him by John Le Carré.) Randal's poignant and still fresh recounting of the devastation wrought during the Lebanese Civil War is now available online for purchase in advance of publication, with free shipping offered until February 29.
