Quote Originally Posted by margo49
Make that triplets

Anyone read her new one The Great Transformation?
Ooooh! Ooooh! A new one! Thanks for the info! What a remarkable writer (and person) she is, that people get so excited when she publishes a new book on the history of religion.

Edit: I just went to Amazon and read reviews. This book looks amazing: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/037...e=UTF8&s=books
Amazon's selling the hardcover for $18.90. I like to get her books in hardcover--sort of a sign of respect!

Her two volumes of autobiography were so moving, especially The Spiral Staircase. I first read Jerusalem in '97. My sister had just come back from living in Tel Aviv for 15 years. I'd been to visit her three times. Karen Armstrong makes the historical record read like a novel. It took me 9 months to finish Holy Wars, which is about the Crusades. I usually only have time to read before going to bed, and that book is slow going. It gave me good historical back ground on the relation between the Arab and European/Western worlds.

Holy Wars and The Battle for God, by KA, and Thomas Friedman's From Beirut to Jerusalem helped me have a wider perspective on the Middle East's conflicts.