An “outstandingly dramatic and moving” memoir of fleeing a brutal girlhood in Somalia—and becoming a supermodel and UN special ambassador (Kirkus Reviews). To escape an arranged marriage to a sixty-year-old man, Waris Dirie ran away from her oppressive life in the African desert when she was barely in her teens, illiterate and impoverished, with nothing to her name but a tattered shawl. She traveled alone across the dangerous Somali desert to Mogadishu—the first leg of a remarkable journey that would take her to London, where she worked as a house servant; then to nearly every corner of the globe as an internationally renowned fashion model; and ultimately to New York City, where she became a human rights ambassador for the U.N. Poignant and powerfully told, Desert Flower is Waris’s extraordinary story. “Affecting and at times very entertaining . . . it is Dirie’s remarkable lack of narcissism or entitlement that makes her so captivating a raconteur.” —Publishers Weekly “Written with innocence and warmth, this book shows how one woman’s tragedy can help others.” —The New York Times Book Review “Waris’s story is one of remarkable courage. From the deserts of Somalia to the world of high fashion, she battles against oppression and emerges a real champion. She is the most beautiful inspiration to anyone.” —Elton John

Deserts pose a particularly difficult challenge to gardeners. Surprising toany desert newcomers, it is possible to have a beautifully invitingandscape in the desert and minimize the use of precious water resources. TheArizona Flowerscaper" offers the key to successful desert gardening and is aeneral understanding of the extreme climate, seasons, and soil conditions.hrough wise plant choices, gardens emerge that intrigue and delight, oftenith little maintenance involved. The illustrated plants can be viewedogether through a unique tri-cut format, showing the plant at maturity andith appropriate details of foliage or flora. Offering plant selections fromround the world, the "Arizona Flowerscaper" is an essential resource foresert gardeners everywhere.

Fashion model, UN ambassador and courageous spirit, Waris Dirie was born into a family of tribal desert nomads in Somalia. She told her story - enduring female circumcision at five years old; running away through the desert; being discovered by Terence Donovan and becoming a top fashion model - in her book, the worldwide bestseller, DESERT FLOWER. In DESERT DAWN she wrote about becoming a UN Special Ambassador against FGM (female genital mutilation) and returning to her family in Somalia. DESERT CHILDREN tells us how she and the journalist Corinna Milborn have investigated the practice of FGM in Europe - they estimate that up to 500,000 women and girls have undergone or are at risk of FGM. At the moment, France is the only European country in which offenders are convicted and no European country officially recognises the threat of genital mutilation as a reason for asylum. Here are the voices of women who have felt encouraged and emboldened by Waris Dirie's courage. They speak out for the first time and move us to action.

Rose and Elmer have created an idyllic sanctuary for themselves and their five daughters in Mexico's Baja California desert. Out there in the middle of nowhere, blissfully cut off from the burdens of modern society, they're free to raise their beautiful family...and preserve its secret. And they're never giving it up. Then a young hiker named Rick comes looking for a place to stay. It's just for the night, he says--but long enough for Rose and Elmer to fear they've made a horrible mistake. As the stranger grows more intrusive and more suspicious, the couple know they must do what they can to protect themselves. What they don't know is that Rick has a secret, too. Soon, home and family will prove to be as cold and dark as the desert nights. And even with so many places to run, there's still no escape from the past that binds them.

Antonio Negri, one of Italy's most influential and controversial contemporary philosophers, offers in this book a radical new interpretation of the nineteenth-century Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi. For Negri, Leopardi is not the bitter, idealistic individualist of conventional literary history, but rather a profoundly materialist thinker who sees human solidarity as the only possible solution to the catastrophes of history and politics. Negri traces Leopardi's resistance to the transcendental idealism of Kant and Hegel, with its emphasis on reason's power to resolve real antagonisms into abstract syntheses, and his gradual development of a sophisticated poetic materialism focused on the constructive power of the imagination and its "true illusions." Like Nietzsche (who admired him), Leopardi provides an alternative to modernity within modernity, expressing a force of rupture and recomposition—a uniquely Italian one—that is as relevant now as it was in the nineteenth century, and which connects to the theory of Empire as the political constitution of the present that Negri has elaborated in collaboration with Michael Hardt.

* Inspirational, dramatic and extraordinary - the autobiography of a Somalian nomad circumcised at 5, sold in marriage at 13, who became an American model and is now at the young age of 30, the UN spokeswoman against circumcision

Hawthorne delivers an exquisitely illustrated picture book about the Saguaro cactus which grows in the Sonoran desert in Arizona and its flower, which blooms only one night a year. Full color.

Publisher Description

The power of love and the strength of women working together are proved once again. When Rose Macklin is asked to help Alec Thurston, the one man she’s ever truly loved, by coming to Palm Desert, California, she doesn’t hesitate. He’s dying of cancer and needs her help overseeing the sale of his hotel, the Desert Sage Inn, to another hotel group. With her marketing skill and as the owner of a very successful blog, she’s his perfect choice to make the sale a smooth transition while ensuring the new owners will maintain the reputation and image of the upscale property after the sale. She arrives to find Alec has summoned two other women to help with the project. Lily Weaver was once Alec’s assistant, and Willow Sanchez was like a daughter to him. They join forces to help him, lovingly accepting his nickname for them—the Desert Flowers, similar to the well-known Charlie’s Angels of TV fame. When Rose is assigned to work alongside Hank Bowers, an independent consultant to the hotel company’s team, she shudders at his reputation as an outgoing guy who always uses sports analogies and is certain they won’t get along. But Alec counsels her to give Hank a chance and, later, as they work together as a team, Rose is left to wonder if falling for one another is part of Alec’s secret plan even if one of Hank’s grown daughters fights the idea. A series for those who love stories about strong women facing challenges and finding love and happiness along the way. Be sure to read the other upcoming books in the Desert Sage Inn series: Lily, Willow, and Mistletoe and Holly Other series written by Judith Keim are receiving a lot of love: the Hartwell Women Series, The Beach House Hotel Series, the Fat Fridays series, the Salty Key Inn Series, the Chandler Hill Inn series, and the books in the Seashell Cottage Collection.

At seventeen, following the directions of the philosopher and mystic Douglas Harding, David Lang pointed his finger at his own face and discovered he didn't have one. Instead, he found himself staring at nothing. But it was a very special nothing-a nothing filled with everything. Taking this revelation as his starting point, Lang shows how the vision of nothingness—the Desert—turned his life upside down. In image-rich language, he draws the reader into the Alice-in-Wonderland world of “the given.” You will see buildings and trees that move, a man who expands and shrinks like a balloon, and a room built around a black hole. You will witness scenes of joy, wonder, confusion, and despair. And you will find the Flower, that mysterious and profound destination which adds everything—and nothing—to the vision of the Desert. In the appendix, Lang gives explicit directions so that you can experience the book's key insights yourself.