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Israel

READING AND TRAVEL GUIDE

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Order an essential package, and we'll ship any additional items for free. We offer a mix of guidebooks, maps, field guides, novels and books on art, architecture, history, nature and culture.

Item EXISR8. Buy these 5 items as a set for $83 including shipping, 15% off the retail price.
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Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths

by Karen Armstrong

• RELIGION
• 1997
• PAPER
• 472 PAGES

A popular history by the author of A History of God. Armstrong tackles big subjects -- and this book is no exception. It's a comprehensive, concise portrait of the city over the last 5,000 years. (ISR10, $18.00)

In the Land of Israel

by Amos Oz

• CULTURAL PORTRAIT
• 1993
• PAPER
• 275 PAGES

In this compelling volume, Israeli novelist Amos Oz interviewed dozens of his fellow countrymen from all walks of life. A passionate, candid and diverse portrait of a people and their hopes, fears and prejudices. (ISR03, $14.95)

The Israelis, Ordinary People in an Extraordinary Land

by Donna Rosenthal

• CULTURAL PORTRAIT
• 2005
• PAPER
• 480 PAGES

Colorful and compelling, this sharp-eyed portrait captures the diversity of modern Israel with humor and authority. 60th anniversary edition. (ISR53, $16.00)

Eyewitness Guide Jerusalem: Israel, Petra & Sinai

by Eyewitness Guides

• GUIDEBOOK
• 2010
• PAPER
• 336 PAGES

This compact, illustrated guide provides a thorough overview of Israel and western Jordan, including Petra, Wadi Rum and Amman. (ISR46, $25.00)

Israel, Palestine, Holy Land Map

by Freytag & Berndt

• GUIDEBOOK
• 2010
• MAP
• 1 PAGES

A double-sided, indexed map at a scale of 1:150,000. (ISR09, $14.95)

 

Also Recommended

Jerusalem Map

by Borch Maps

• 2006
• MAP

A fold-out street map with an inset of the old city in more detail. (ISR13, $8.95)

Tel Aviv Map

by MAPA Publishers

• GUIDEBOOK
• 2009
• MAP
• 1 PAGES

This frequently updated, detailed city map of Tel Aviv includes a guide to the sights on the reverse. (ISR40, $12.95)

Bradt Guide Israel

by Samantha Wilson

• GUIDEBOOK
• 2012
• PAPER
• 296 PAGES

A comprehensive guide in the excellent series, noteworthy for its focus on culture, nature and responsible travel. (ISR67, $25.99)

Hebrew, A Language Map

by Kristine K. Kershul

• LANGUAGE & PHRASEBOOKS
• 2001
• PLASTIC CARD

This durable, foldout card, featuring 1,000 words and phrases, works as a quick reference for travelers. (ISR48, $7.95)

Insight Guide Israel

by Insight Guides

• GUIDEBOOK
• 2011
• PAPER
• 368 PAGES

This lavishly illustrated guide includes maps and short essays on history, culture and attractions. (ISR01, $23.99)

The Holy Land, An Oxford Archaeological Guide

by Jerome Murphy O'Connor

• GUIDEBOOK
• 2008
• PAPER
• 450 PAGES

Half of this indispensable, authoritative guide is devoted to the Roman temples, Byzantine synagogues and other monuments -- Christian, Jewish and Muslim -- of Jerusalem itself. (ISR12, $37.95)

The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Bible Lands

by Jotischy, Andrew | Caroline Hull

• REFERENCE
• 2009
• PAPER
• 144 PAGES

From the earliest hunter-gatherers to modern Jerusalem, this concise pictorial atlas traces this most complex history in maps and essays. (MDE171, $20.00)

The Routledge Atlas of the Arab-Israeli Conflict

by Martin Gilbert

• REFERENCE
• 2008
• PAPER
• 244 PAGES

With chapters on the Jewish national home, the state of Israel, the Six Day and Yom Kippur wars and the struggle to reach a settlement since Camp David. With 204 maps. (MDE160, $29.95)

A History of Modern Israel

by Colin Shindler

• HISTORY
• 2008
• PAPER
• 320 PAGES

Shindler charts the tumultuous foundation and course of the modern state of Israel over the last 60 years in this balanced and lucid account. (ISR65, $25.99)

Aliya, Three Generations of American-Jewish Immigration to Israel

by Liel Leibovitz

• RELIGION
• 2007
• PAPER
• 288 PAGES

A well-researched and deeply personal examination of the spiritual and psychological motivations of American Jews who immigrate to Israel. (ISR55, $15.95)

From Beirut to Jerusalem

by Thomas Friedman

• HISTORY
• 1995
• PAPER
• 530 PAGES

An illuminating and heartfelt exploration of the complex Middle East. Pulitzer Prize winner Friedman provides a personal and a scholarly perspective on the roots of the conflict. (MDE03, $17.00)

In the Footsteps of Abraham, The Holy Land in Hand-painted Photographs

by Helen Speelman | Richard Hardiman

• CULTURAL PORTRAIT
• 2008
• HARD COVER
• 384 PAGES

These 174 hand-tinted lantern slides show the cities, monuments and landscapes of the Holy Land before the advent of modern tourism. (ISR71, $65.00)

Jerusalem, Caught in Time

by Colin Osman

• CULTURAL PORTRAIT
• 2008
• HARD COVER
• 160 PAGES

These well chosen photographs taken between the mid-nineteenth century and World War I, illuminate not just holy places but also archaeological digs, landscapes, architecture and life in the city. (ISR97, $34.95)

Jerusalem, City of Longing

by Simon Goldhill

• HISTORY
• 2009
• PAPER
• 368 PAGES

Goldhill shows the layered, multi-religious history of the city through its architecture, organizing his exhilarating guide into a series of seven walking tours (each with map). (ISR63, $19.95)

Judaism, A Very Short Introduction

by Norman Solomon

• RELIGION
• 2000
• PAPER
• 160 PAGES

Succinctly sketching the history, religious traditions and practice of Judaism. (REL38, $11.95)

Life in Year One, What the World Was Like in First-century Palestine

by Scott Korb

• HISTORY
• 2011
• PAPER
• 239 PAGES

With humor and chutzpah, Scott Korb conures daily life in the Holy Land in this short, wittily annotated history. With chapters in money, home, food, hygeine, religion, war and death, the book conludes with a piercing account of Korb's travels from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. (MDE182, $15.00)

O Jerusalem

by Dominique Lapierre | Larry Collins

• HISTORY
• 2007
• PAPER
• 635 PAGES

A new edition of the dramatic history of the siege of Jerusalem during the 1948 Israeli War of Independence, as told through the personal stories of Jews, Arabs and Brits. (ISR11, $18.00)

Raid On The Sun, Inside Israel's Secret Campaign that Denied Saddam the Bomb

by Rodger W. Claire

• HISTORY
• 2005
• PAPER
• 288 PAGES

Based on interviews with surviving pilots and planners, this is a fast-paced account of Operation Babylon, the 1981 Israeli air strike on an Iraqi nuclear reactor. (ISR54, $15.99)

Scars of War, Wounds of Peace, The Israeli-Arab Tragedy

by Shlomo Ben-Ami

• HISTORY
• 2007
• PAPER
• 432 PAGES

Ben-Ami, a former Israeli foreign minister, traces the twists and turns of the Middle East conflict from the founding of Israel to the present. (MDE145, $16.95)

The Access Bible, New Revised Standard Version

by Gail R. O'Day | David Peterson

• RELIGION
• 1999
• PAPER
• 2170 PAGES

For those who'd like to take a bible along on a trip to the Holy Land, this is an excellent choice. (ISR26, $42.99)

The Amos Oz Reader

by Amos Oz | Mitza Ben-Dov

• CULTURAL PORTRAIT
• 2009
• PAPER
• 392 PAGES

This choice anthology includes excerpts from Oz's celebrated novels and nonfiction. (ISR73, $15.95)

The Case for Israel

by Alan M. Dershowitz

• HISTORY
• 2004
• PAPER
• 288 PAGES

A prominent defense attorney, Dershowitz uses the form of a legal brief for this confrontational survey of the politics and policies of Israel. (ISR56, $12.95)

The Gifts of the Jews

by Thomas Cahill

• HISTORY
• 1999
• PAPER
• 304 PAGES

Cahill brings to life the ancient Hebrews and their contribution to modern life and thought in this second volume on The Making of the Ancient World. (MDE113, $16.00)

The Hebrew Republic, How Secular Democracy and Global Enterprise Will Bring Israel Peace at Last

by Bernard Avishai

• HISTORY
• 2008
• HARD COVER
• 290 PAGES

Avishai, a political economist and gifted writer who has spent many years in Israel, argues that secular democracy and new global enterprises hold the key to transforming the nation's future for the better. (ISR102, $26.00)

The Israel-Arab Reader

by Barry Rubin | Walter Laqueur

• HISTORY
• 2008
• PAPER
• 592 PAGES

Organized chronologically, this newly revised primer includes speeches, letters, articles, timelines and reports dealing with the continuing conflict in the Middle East. (ISR62, $18.00)

The Story of Israel

by Martin Gilbert

• CULTURAL PORTRAIT
• 2011
• HARD COVER
• 64 PAGES

Starting with the First Zionist Congress in Basel in 1897, Gilbert takes the story of Israel up to the first decade of the 21st Century. With 350 photographs, 14 color maps, and 40 facsimile documents (letter, posters, diaries), many of which pull out and unfold to their original size. (ISR66, $34.95)

Walking Israel

by Martin Fletcher

• CULTURAL PORTRAIT
• 2011
• PAPER
• 336 PAGES

NBC correspondent in Tel Aviv for three decades, Fletcher breaks from daily headlines for this joyful account of a two-week trek, capturing the cultural diversity, humanity, history and spirit of seaside communities from Lebanon to Gaza along what he calls "the most fascinating, action-packed 100 miles in the world." (ISR94, $15.99)

Walking the Bible, A Photographic Journey

by Bruce Feiler

• RELIGION
• 2005
• HARD COVER
• 160 PAGES

Color photographs and accompanying vignettes capture the people and places of Feiler's remarkable odyssey through the biblical lands of Egypt, Israel, Palestine and Turkey. (MDE94, $32.50)

What is a Palestine State Worth?

by Sari Nusseibeh

• HISTORY
• 2011
• HARD COVER
• 234 PAGES

The president of and a professor at Al-Quds University, the Arab University of Jerusalem, philosopher and former PLO representative in Jerusalem, Nusseibeh offers a tentative way out of the 60-year-old Arab-Israeli conflict. (MDE195, $19.95)

Israel, Past and Present

by D. Bahat

• ART & ARCHITECTURE
• 2002
• PAPER
• 76 PAGES

Ingenious overlaid illustrations on acetate show Holy Land sites and monuments as they look today and as they did when they were first constructed in antiquity. (ISR44, $25.00)

A Tale of Love and Darkness

by Amos Oz

• BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
• 2005
• PAPER
• 544 PAGES

A family saga and portrait, Oz writes of growing up in Jerusalem in the 1940s, his family's origins and his life as a novelist and commentator. Big in scope, A Tale of Love and Darkness is, in part, the story of Israel and its people. (ISR45, $16.00)

Abraham, A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths

by Bruce Feiler

• TRAVEL NARRATIVE
• 2005
• PAPER
• 256 PAGES

Feiler mixes travel, history and faith, focusing on the historical Abraham as the father of Judaism, Islam and Christianity. (MDE79, $12.99)

God, A Biography

by Jack Miles

• BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
• 1996
• PAPER
• 446 PAGES

The 1996 Pulitzer Prize winner in the category of biography -- and a biography it is: a marvelous, demanding and risky look at the development of God (the man and the idea). (ISR18, $16.95)

I Saw Ramallah

by Mourid Barghouti | Edward W. Said | Ahdaf Soueif

• BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
• 2003
• PAPER
• 184 PAGES

An evocative and powerful memoir, focused on the author's return to the West Bank after 30 years, a place utterly changed and still at the center of the devastating conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians. (MDE73, $14.00)

The Holocaust Is Over, We Must Rise from Its Ashes

by Avraham Burg

• BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
• 2009
• PAPER
• 253 PAGES

The son of Holocaust survivors, the former speaker of the Knesset draws on his own family history to inform his views on how the Jewish people can live in peace and security. (ISR78, $16.00)

Exodus

by Leon Uris

• LITERATURE
• 1989
• PAPER
• 608 PAGES

A blockbuster novel, this book is mandatory reading for its sweeping overview of Israel and Palestine. (ISR05, $7.99)

Israel, A Traveler's Literary Companion

by Michael Gluzman

• ANTHOLOGY
• 1996
• PAPER
• 236 PAGES

Organized geographically, these 16 stories by celebrated contemporary writers including Amos Oz, A.B. Yehoshua and David Grossman reflect the cultural diversity of modern Israel. (ISR06, $14.95)

Mornings in Jenin

by Susan Abulhawa

• LITERATURE
• 2010
• PAPER
• 331 PAGES

This family saga, drawing on the author's own experiences and history, follows four generations of a Palestinian family who lost their home in 1948 with the creation of Israel. (MDE186, $15.00)

Once Upon a Country, A Palestinian Life

by Sari Nusseibeh

• LITERATURE
• 2008
• PAPER
• 584 PAGES

The Palestinian leader and scholar offers a close-up and sympathetic account of the troubling recent history of the region. (MDE144, $17.00)

Only Yesterday

by Shmuel Yosef Agnon

• LITERATURE
• 2002
• PAPER
• 688 PAGES

Israeli Nobel Laureate Agnon's masterpiece here appears in English translation. First published in 1945, the novel tells of a man who immigrates to Palestine at the beginning of the century, when many Jewish idealists were returning to work the Hebrew soil as in Biblical times. (MDE139, $45.00)

To the End of the Land

by David Grossman

• LITERATURE
• 2011
• PAPER
• 592 PAGES

Grossman's haunting novel follows an Israeli mother as she walks across Israel to Galilee to avoid the "notifiers" who might arrive with news of her son's death in a military offensive against the Palestinians. (ISR95, $15.95)

In a Desert Land, Photographs of Israel, Egypt and Jordan

by Neil Folberg

• NATURAL HISTORY
• 1998
• HARD COVER
• 204 PAGES

A stunning collection of photographs of the desert Middle East, including the Sinai, Petra and Jerusalem. (JRD06, $49.95)

Birds of the Middle East

by Richard Porter | Simon Aspinall

• FIELD GUIDE
• 2010
• PAPER
• 384 PAGES

An outstanding guide to 700 species of the birds in the region from the Arabian peninsula to Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Cyprus. Second edition. (MDE17, $39.95)

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