The third posting in my series of not-very-heavy things to read, Florence of Arabia was written by my favorite sarcastic writer Christopher Buckley (son of William F.). Among his other books are Thank You for Smoking (a must read!), Little Green Men, and No Way to Treat a First Lady. I think it probably goes without saying that these are all basically sarcastic polemics about current events — I’ll leave it as an exercise to the reader to figure out what each one’s about. 
Anyway, Florence of Arabia is a novel about a fictitious US Government ploy to destabilize the Middle East (oops, sorry. i meant "democratize the Middle East" — it so easy to get the two terms confused). Starts with a simple idea, then hilarity ensues, with all the requisite beheadings, burkas and well-meaning involvement from the French that you’d expect.
It’s a good book, pretty funny. But if you haven’t read Thank You For Smoking yet, you should hurry out and get it. It’s terrific.