Books by David Blow

David Blow's columns about trying to get a dying friend a baseball signed by his beloved Yankees for his 44th and final birthday brought tears, while his description of teaching his toddlers to ski elicited smiles. In "Blow by Blow," this small-town-journalist-turned-professor offers a collection of his best columns and newspaper stories written throughout his career. Blow writes about brushes with celebrities, including Robert Redford, Jerry Springer and Ted Turner, and murders, including the slaying of a man by his girlfriend, who then stashed his body in a chest freezer. Touching and thought-provoking, this compilation offers stories that share Blow's personal experiences, his perceptions and his deepest feelings. "David Blow's work, intimate and generous and so evocative of character and place, reminds me of why I went into writing: to try to capture the world in words, person by person, acre by acre, page by page." -Ron Powers Pulitzer Prize-winning author

Shah Abbas (1571-1629) was shah of Iran from 1588 (when he assumed power by deposing his father, whom he later murdered) until his death in 1629. He is of critical importance in the history of Iran, restoring the power of the Safavids through war and the strategic negotiation of peace. This is a biography of Shah Abbas.

The land of the Iranians, known to European travelers for centuries as Persia, is a land of mountains, deserts, plains, and forests. The author adds to our understanding with his selection of three thousand years of descriptive writing. He allows us to visit the courts of Cyrus and Xerxes, to ride out with the Parthians and Sassanians.