Islam without Extremes presents a provocative manifesto for an interpretation of Islam that synthesises liberal ideas & respect for the Islamic tradition. With an eye sympathetic to Western liberalism & Islamic theology Mustafa Akyol traces the roots of political Islam. The years following the death of Muhammad saw an intellectual war of ideas" rage between rationalist flexible schools of Islam & the more dogmatic rigid ones. The traditionalists won fostering perceptions of Islam as antithetical to modernity. However Akyol traces a flourishing of liberalism in the nineteenth-century Ottoman Empire & explores the unique " Islamo-liberal synthesis" of present-day Turkey. Only by accepting a secular state he asserts can Islamic societies thrive. Persuasive & inspiring Islam without Extremes offers an intellectual basis for the reconcilability of Islam & religious political economic & social freedoms." ...

The acclaimed million-copy number one bestseller & winner of Richard & Judy's Summer Read 2006 from Victoria Hislop is a dramatic tale of four generations rent by war illicit love violence & leprosy from the thirties through the war to the present day. On the brink of a life-changing decision Alexis Fielding longs to find out about her mother's past. But Sofia has never spoken of it. All she admits to is growing up in a small Cretan village before moving to London. When Alexis decides to visit Crete however Sofia gives her daughter a letter to take to an old friend & promises that through her she will learn more. Arriving in Plaka Alexis is astonished to see that it lies a stone's throw from the tiny deserted island of Spinalonga
- Greece's former leper colony. Then she finds Fotini & at last hears the story that Sofia has buried all her life: the tale of her great-grandmother Eleni & her daughters & a family rent by tragedy war & passion. She discovers how intimately she is connected with the island & how secrecy holds them all in its powerful grip...
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WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY DAVID BRADSHAW For over a hundred years the Pacific island of Pala has been the scene of a unique experiment in civilisation. Its inhabitants live in a society where western science has been brought together with eastern philosophy & humanism to create a paradise on earth. When cynical journalist Will Farnaby arrives to search for information about potential oil reserves on Pala he quickly falls in love with the way of life on the isl&. Soon the need to complete his mission becomes an intolerable burden. In counterpoint to Brave New World & Ape & Essence in Island Huxley gives us his vision of utopia. ...

When the people of the Island discover a man & a tattered raft on their beach they are reluctant to take him in. He doesnt look like them. But they cannot send him back to the sea where he will surely perish. Instead they put him aside but even that doesnt solve their problem. The Island is an astonishing & powerful picture book about refugees xenophobia multiculturalism social politics & human rights. It tackles big themes in subtle ways with a fable-like text & stunning artwork that will provoke discussion for upper primary & secondary school levels about issues that remain so much a part of our national discourse. ...

When eight people go on a cruise in the Bahamas they plan to swim sunbathe & relax. Getting shipwrecked is definitely not in the script. But after the yacht blows up theyre stranded on a deserted island & theres a maniac on the loose. ...

Life on the remote island of Papavray in the 1970s was a world away from Mary J. Mac Leod's urban existence in the south of Engl&. & this peaceful environment was just what she was looking for. While indoor toilets were still something of a luxury & 'teleeffissions' could produce terror in some of the older residents the glory of the mountains & the sea combined with the warmth of the island people meant she had found a haven for her family. Mary's post as district nurse gave her a unique insight into island life & her stories of the troubles joys drama & comedies endured by her patients make this a charming & humorous account of community life on a small island in a bygone era. ...

Something very sinister is happening on the mysterious Isle of Gloom & the children are determined to uncover the truth! But Philip Dinah Lucy-Ann & Jack are not prepared for the dangerous adventure that awaits them in the abandoned copper mines & secret tunnels beneath the sea. ...

This is the Penguin English Library Edition" of " The Island of Doctor Moreau" by H. G. Wells. That black figure with its eyes of fire struck down through all my adult thoughts & feelings & for a moment the forgotten horrors of childhood came back to my mind. Adrift in a dinghy Edward Prendick the single survivor from the good ship Lady Vain is rescued by a vessel carrying a profoundly unusual cargo
- a menagerie of savage animals. Tended to recovery by their keeper Montgomery who gives him dark medicine that tastes of blood Prendick soon finds himself stranded upon an uncharted island in the Pacific with his rescuer & the beasts. Here he meets Montgomerys master the sinister Dr. Moreau
- a brilliant scientist whose notorious experiments in vivisection have caused him to abandon the civilised world. It soon becomes clear he has been developing these experiments
- with truly horrific results. " The Penguin English Library"
- 100 editions of the best fiction in English from the eighteenth century & the very first novels to the beginning of the First World War."



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A temptation too far The only way Luc Mac Allister can get his hands on his inheritance is to spend six months on a Pacific island with his stepfathers alleged mistress. Joanna Forman could tempt a saint but if Luc wants to keep his sanity
- & his secrets
- he should keep her at arms length. Taking her inheritance would confirm Lucs belief that shes a gold-digger but turning it down would cost Joanna everything. So she must stand toe-to-toe with the powerful tycoon & hope that she can fight the attraction that burns between them until the end of the long hot summer...I have been a fan of Robyns for years! She writes so beautifully & never fails to deliver a big smile on my face at the end of each book.
- Uzma Copywriter Monmouth


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Jack & Jessica find an old rocking chair in the shed of their new house. Suddenly a pixie called Wishler appears & says he was trapped in the chair. He wants to go home so soon theyre off to the Island of Surprises on the magical wishing-chair. But there they meet a rather naughty wizard named Flick & they discover that surprises arent always nice. ...