Off the Radar – Cyrus M. Copeland Blue Rider Press, 2015
A father, an American living in Iran and working for an American company, is suddenly arrested, the charge espionage. In a split second and without notice a family’s life is changed, probably forever. This is the basis of this true story that happened during the 1979 hostage taking in Iran. A desperate family fought with all they had to keep Max Copeland from a firing squad. During the entire ordeal there remained one question, was Max Copeland guilty or not of the accusations claimed. Cyrus Copeland, his son, was just a boy at the time. Within these pages, however, he has brought a gut wrenching and emotional narration of his own personal quest to find the truth about his father. It is a past his mother longs to forget but finding the truth too important for a son to ignore.
Besides the interest you will have about his journey you will find the portrait he paints about Iran during this time and after the hostage situation enlightening, the turmoil he goes through regarding his father, heart breaking and the love for his family inspiring.
Distant Melodies, An Anthology of Poems
Shadab Vajdi, (Translated from
Persian by Lotfali Khonji)
Ibex 2011
While beautiful, Persian poetry especially after translation can be difficult to understand. This anthology of poems is unlike others I have had the opportunity to read. Their meanings are easy to grasp and the read smooth. Perhaps the birth place of this poet, Shiraz has given her the ability to write with beauty, depth and clarity.
Rumi Revealed,
Selected Poems from the Divan of Shams
Direct translations and mystical expressions by Rassouli
Blue Angel, 2014
One of the most beloved poets of Iran has yet been remembered in this collection of poems with the translation by Rassouli. Rassouli is a mystic artist who was raised as a Sufi. This allows him to find a unique beauty in translations. As noted in the book’s foreword, the collection of poems and the words of Rumi allows our hi-tech society to become lost, for at least a moment, in a calmer and more civil world. Rumi who is considered the master of love poetry is one of the most popular of western readers ,as his words and meaning are easy to understand as the reader is free to apply their own interpretation. To define one simple interpretation is opposite of what his poems command. This books takes the reader one more depth in getting closer to themselves and the poet.
In speaking to the Divan of Shams, Rassouli says translations are more difficult since much of the terminology used in the Divan of Shams is delivered through metaphors and the metaphors are not defined in an ordinary dictionary, BUT it is still worth the read.
Roseheart
Catherine Dehdashti
Causy Taylor Literary Publishing; May 1, 2015
Roseheart, by Catherine Dehdashti is a story about family, set in the 1990s, and told through the sardonic voice of Valerie Kjos. She’s a young Midwestern Gen X’er whose life is just barely coming together with her boyfriend when his Iranian mother, Goli, comes for a visit that seems to never end. Valerie will have to decide what’s more important to her—doing everything her own way, or her beloved Naveed with his live-in mother, who might not approve if she knew everything about her. But as she’s about to learn, Goli has secrets of her own.
The Garden of Amazement, Scatter Gems After Saeb
Robin Magowan
Longhouse 2015
Another wonderful Persian poet has had the opportunity to be translated and published in English. Saeb was considered to be an outstanding Islamic poet during his lifetime (1590-1676). As you read the poems you will notice the intriguing forms of his couplets. Each poem is so deep with emotion that you are convinced that each represents a moment in his life. Ms. Magowan has brilliantly chosen the best of his poetry.
HOLOGNOSIS, Beyond Relativity and Consciousness
Asha Amir-Jahed, M.D.
Xlibris.com2009
Very scientific! This book looks into the principles regulating physics and biology, as related to metaphysics, and points out to a ‘must to be’ principle of immortality that manifests its modalities in physics and biology with analogies in metaphysical meaning. Named bioforce, the principle serves all the manifestations of living organism, from paleognosis to neognosis, through the eventual exteriorization of the expressivity trait in languages.