March TIOLI: Middle East

This is the dedicated thread for the read a book about the Middle East TIOLI challenge. The main TIOLI thread for March is here.

Some questions to begin with: Have you read a lot about the Middle East before? (and if so, please give recommendations!) What made you decide to read about it now? What book are you planning to read, and why?

I personally haven't read much about the modern Middle East, and with everything that's going on right now I'm feeling very uninformed.

Plus my January ER book, I Shall Not Hate, is about Palestine :)

Clarification: There has been some question about what counts as "Middle East". My working definition for the purposes of this challenge is any country on the wikipedia list of traditionally-defined Middle Eastern countries, plus any Arabic-speaking countries from the extended list. But you're welcome to make a case for why a book based around a different country should be included.

So this is nonfiction only?

No, fiction is welcome too.

I'll be reading Amos Oz's How to cure a fanatic which is two essays on the Israeli-Palestinian issue.
Some nonfiction about Israel that I've read - Linda Grant's The People on the Street: a writer's view of Israel, The Man who fell into a puddle: Israeli lives and Operation Babylon by Shlomo Hillel.

I just finished I Shall Not Hate and very highly recommend it. Please join Zoe on this read!

I really want to read I Shall Not Hate. I'm going to try and grab a copy from somewhere and join in with this one. I do have many copies of books about the Middle East, so I'm sure I'll get to at least a few. I'm going to be reading Infidel this month for sure for book club, and while I'm not sure that counts as strictly Middle East material, she certainly addresses a lot of relevant issues in it...

ETA: Oop, I just saw your definition in message 61 on the main thread... Ali is from Somalia and I assume she starts her story from there, and Wikipedia lists that as part of the Greater Middle East, so... yep, counting it.

I don't know how to add a poll; however, according to the definition of Middle East that Zoe just defined in the main March TIOLI thread, the book that myself and another person listed for this challenge are now ineligible (unless a poll is conducted for its inclusion) because Afghanistan is in the "extended" area of the Middle East and is not listed as Arabic-speaking only. The languages listed for Afghanistan are Persian and Pashto. If someone wants to add a poll to include Afghanistan, please feel free to do so. Otherwise, I'll delete my book from the challenge in a day or two if it's not deleted by the "patrol" first.

I decided to just move A Cup of Friendship to challenge number 9. It's easier than doing polls.

I have not read very much about the middle east. The Sand Fish, the book I have chosen to read it written by a women from the United Arab Emirates. The book is set mostly in the city of Dubai. The author states that she chose to set this book in the 1950's as her country has undergone great cultural and political changes in the years since then, and she wanted to show how it used to be. I believe it deals with the issue of arranged and forced marriage.

I just checked my library and it has I Shall Not Hate so I am going to also try and fit that in this month as well.

A new discussion question: what does the term "Middle East" mean to you? Which countries do you associate with it, and which not?

(I've edited the first post to specify which countries count for this challenge, but I think it's still an interesting question in its own right.)

I tend to think of "Middle East" as fairly synonymous with "Arab world + Israel". I'm never quite sure about the partially Arabic-speaking countries farther south in Africa. I don't tend to think of the former Soviet states as part of the Middle East. Pakistan seems more South Asian than Middle Eastern to me (i.e., culturally closer to India), but I'm really pretty ignorant about that. Afghanistan is the trickiest, as we've already seen here. I really don't know that much about it. What are your thoughts?

When I hear "Middle East" I tend to immediately think of Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and countries in that area. But I also think of Libya, Morocco and Tunisia as being part of the Middle East as well and I was surprised that they were not on the traditionally defined list. I guess like Zoe above, I see it as the Arab world + Israel as well.

When I took a history class on the Middle East in college, Afghanistan was not included, which always surprised me. Neither were Libya, Tunisia, or Algeria. Egypt was the only one in North Africa. The others, according to my Pakistani professor, were: Israel (and occupied territories), Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Turkey, and Cyprus. For what it's worth.

I've never done any TIOLI challenges, but current events are making me think I should do this one ... I haven't read anything about the Middle East since that class three years ago!

Does it need to be solely about the Middle East? I'd like to read Windows of the Soul: My Journeys in the Muslim World, but it includes places not in the Middle East.

> 13

Mere, it's definitely time to do a TIOLI challenge!

I think in recent history (at least since 9/11) almost everyone has included Afghanistan in the Middle East because we say we are sending our troops to the Middle East. That includes both the soldiers going to Iraq/Kuwait, etc. and those going to Afghanistan. As I said, it's no big deal. The book in question fits nicely in category #9, and I've moved mine there. The person who created that challenge can get the points. I actually looked at a map of the Middle East before I added my name below the other person who had added that book to make sure Afghanistan was part of the Middle East. It was on the map I checked.

Where was this challenge in Febuary?

This little debate regarding Afghanistan has really opened my eyes to the fact that I've read nothing about the area, at least nothing that comes to mind quickly. I have read The Kite Runner, The Bookseller of Kabul and Under the Persimmon Tree to name a few but they are all centered around Afghanistan........Oh! I just remembered, I did read Reading Lolita in Tehran and another about the 1991 bombing of Tehran, but the name escapes me. I'll have to take notice of the books listed in the challenge and get cracking on them :}

>14 Tanglewood: I'm not inclined to be too picky; just use your judgement.

>16 thornton37814: That's an interesting point; I wonder how much different countries define the Middle East differently, and how much the definition changes through time. I'm also curious about how these general cultural definitions are formed in the first place. Was there a significant change in American attitudes about what constituted the "Middle East" after 9/11? Did the focus become more about Islam than any other factors?

I'm not concerned about who "gets the points".

I very much recommend Teta, Mother and Me by Jean Said Makdisi, a family memoir going back over three generations in what is now Lebanon. It's particularly relevant at the moment because a key theme is about how major historical upheavals are experienced by people (especially women) living through them.

I second the recommendation of Linda Grant's books on Israel, eg When I Lived In Modern Times.

On the subject of what we include in the Middle East... looking for other recommendations I found that none of my books set in Israel are tagged "Middle East", only "Israel". Not a deliberate choice I've made, but interesting to realise that.

Thanks, wandering star. I added both recommended books to my wishlist.

I have a very tight image of "the Middle East" which includes only Israel, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan.

I never think of Egypt in this context because it has so much unique history in its own right that I don't connect it to its neighbors.

It's been ages since I read anything set in these countries. In college (early '70's) I went through an Elie Wiesel phase and read everything I could find by him -- my favorite was A Beggar in Jerusalem because it was so fast-moving and passionate.

I read tons of children's and YA books for my job, and have a pleasant recollection of One More River by Lynne Reid Banks. The plot involves a Canadian family emigrating to Israel and getting caught up in the Six Days' War. The daughter strikes up a secret friendship with a Palestinian boy.

I'd forgotten until composing this post, but I read Habibi by Naomi Shihab Nye (for kids) and Leap of Faith by Queen Noor. I don't recommend either -- the writing styles were disappointing and they were extremely one-sided.

ETA: The daughter in Habibi fell for a Jewish boy but their relationship seemed unrealistic (i.e. perfect). Noor's book reads like it had at least three separate ghostwriters.

Answers to the last few questions from Zoe: I decided to read about this topic now because I had a March TIOLI goal to read a book that I wouldn't have chosen except that it fit into a challenge. I'm a bit burned out on politics and controversies, so I wouldn't have picked what I did (The Jester and the Kings by Marek Halter) otherwise.

Why did I choose it over another book on the same topic? Because I saw it at Maxway yesterday for fifty cents! (And it is an attractive hardcover, in contrast with most of their books which are mmps with tiny fonts).

Thanks for creating this timely challenge, Zoe.

I've read a fair number of books about the Middle East, and I have many more books on my shelves, but I'm sure that other 75ers have read far more than I have. Some of my favorite books are:

Once Upon a Country: A Palestinian Life by Sari Nusseibeh: A recent autobiography by a Palestinian intellectual, who is both an activist and a pacifist.

How to Cure a Fanatic by Amos Oz (Israel): A short work about fanaticism on both sides of the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Palace Walk and Palace of Desire by Naguib Mahfouz (Egypt): The first two novels in his famed Cairo Trilogy; I haven't read the last book, Sugar Street, but it's high on my TBR list.

Gate of the Sun and White Masks by Elias Khoury (Lebanon): Two superb novels about the Lebanese civil war and its aftermath. BTW, I'm planning to read two of Khoury's shorter works for my own challenge, Little Mountain and The Journey of Little Gandhi, and I'll cross post a link to my reviews here.

This Blinding Absence of Light by Tahar Ben Jelloun (Morocco): A powerful and disturbing novel based on a true story about several soldiers who participated in a failed coup d'état against the Moroccan government, and later imprisoned and brutally tortured. It won the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 2004.

Egypt on the Brink: From Nasser to Mubarak by Tarek Osman: A very timely, well written and accessible book about post-independence Egypt, including the origins of the current crisis, which was just published this past December. Amazon is currently selling the e-book for $3.99. I read this a few weeks ago, but haven't reviewed it yet.

At the moment I'm planning to read three books for this challenge:

In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar (Libya): A novel about a boy living in 1979 Tripoli under the Gaddafi regime, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2006.

I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor's Journey by Izzeldin Abuelaish: I received this as an early birthday present (thanks, Linda!)

To the End of the Land by David Grossman (Israel): This is a finalist for the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, which will be announced next month.

If I have time, I'd also like to read The Tongue's Blood Does Not Run Dry: Algerian Stories by Assia Djebar, but I won't add it to the wiki until I finish the first three books.

> 22

Leap of Faith by Queen Noor. I don't recommend either -- the writing styles were disappointing and they were extremely one-sided.

Sorry to hear this. I have a personally autographed copy of Leap of Faith (which I've still never read). It had been a birthday present from my late sister-in-law who had been nanny to the children of Queen Noor's sister.

I'm planning to read Eden, an Early Reviewer book by an Israeli author hedayayael::Yael Hedaya for this challenge, simply because it's chunkster and I've pushed it aside for far too long.

I've lived in Israel and hence have read far too many Israeli novels to come up with a list of all my recommendations, but some of my personal favorites follow:

Beaufort - Ron Leshem - an Israel Defense Force battalion is staioned in Lebonon

Apples From the Desert: Selected Stories - Savyon Liebrecht - short stories about the different kinds of people who are, in fact, Israelis

The Blue Mountain - Meir Shalev - focuses on the pioneer kibbutz settlers

Black Box - Amos Oz - a family story told through letters

Adjusting Sights - Haim Sabato - nonpolitical look at the Yom Kippur War

The Zigzag Kid - David Grossman - a fun story of a boy who is taken on a mysterious train trip for his Bar Mitzvah

Here's another idea for Middle Eastern reads:

If you've never read a graphic novel before, start
with any of Marjane Satrapi's graphic novels about Iran or with Palestine by Joe Sacco.

Thank you all for the recommendations! So many good choices here....

I rarely read books about the Middle East but Turkey has always been fascinating to me so I am reading Tales from the Expat Harem: Foreign Women in Modern Turkey by Anastasia M. Ashman.

I may add an Orhan Pamuk novel but haven't decided about which one. His nonfiction book, Istanbul: Memories of a City is excellent.

> 29

I loved Orhan Pamuk's Snow which takes place in Turkey and is a novel about secularism verus fundamentalism.

I've just finished two books that should qualify.

Gentlemen of the Road is a pretty short book and features two men, an African and a Jew, traveling around the area of Turkey. It takes place during the 10th century.

The Ring of Solomon is a rollicking YA fantasy which features djinnis and other mystical creatures. It takes place in the region between Sheba and Israel.

> 31

If you finished them, they don't qualify. The books in this challenge need to be finished in the month of March.

I am currently reading Kabul Beauty School and I am thinking this could be included in this challenge. What do you guys think?

Aaah, and I just finished How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less yesterday! If I'd known this was coming I would have held off on finishing it so I could count it. I do have one TBR book that would qualify; I hadn't been planning to read it just yet but maybe I should bump it up the queue.

(What counts as "Middle East" to me -- the Arabian peninsula, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Saharan Africa except Morocco. So Afghanistan doesn't count, nor would Sudan or Somalia despite being largely or partly Arabic-speaking. Pakistan is definitely not Middle Eastern. On the Wikipedia list, this maps to the "core" set plus Libya, Algeria, and Tunisia.)

I'm going to add Mornings in Jenin to the wiki as soon as I can get the laptop to myself for more than 2 minutes. And I've just found a whole thread on it in the Arab, North African and Middle Eastern Literature group with other good ideas for books:

http://www.librarything.com/groups/arabicnorthafricanan

Some other good books I've read in the region include A Wall in Palestine by Rene Backmann, The Pigeon and his Boy by Meir Shalev, and Sharon and My Mother-in-Law: A Ramallah Diary by Suad Amiry. I also loved Tom Friedman's From Beirut to Jerusalem for a great primer in the recent history of the region.

Urg, touchstones not working, will come back to fix them up later.

I also go for a more compact definition of the Middle East such as that noted in #34.
I second the recommendations that Madeline gave for Israeli fiction especially Beaufort and Haim Sabato's book. Another writer whose work I've enjoyed is Shifra Horn.
Here are a few YA titles set in the region:
A Little Piece of Ground by Elizabeth Laird (Israel/Palestine)
Kiss the Dust by Elizabeth Laird (Kurds)
A Bottle in the Gaza Sea by Valerie Zenatti (Israel/Palestine)
When I Was a Soldier by Valerie Zenatti (Israel memoir)
Real Time by Pnina Moed-Kass (Israel)
Before we say goodbye by Gabriella Ambrosio (Israel/Palestine)

Oh, yeah! Shifra Horn. I recommend Four Mothers by that author.

>32 SqueakyChu: I was just recommending them to TIOLIers. Sorry to have stepped on toes.

> 38

Oops! Sorry. I thought you were posting them for March. My mistake.

As recommendations (not my TIOLI entries), I'd second Darryl's recommendations of White Masks and This Blinding Absence of Light.

If you're more of a novel than short story person, Children of the New World was my favorite Djebar (though I really liked The Tongue's Blood Does Not Run Dry, also). I also liked Boualem Sansal's The German Mujahid (UK title An Unfinished Business) from Algeria.

Men in the Sun by Palestinian Ghassān Kanafānī was good.

If your definition includes Turkey in the Middle East instead of Europe, and if you like lighter fare, Jason Goodwin's The Janissary Tree is enjoyable.

>15 SqueakyChu: Okay, Madeleine, you twisted my arm. I decided to try In the Country of Men (along with Chatterbox and kidzdoc), despite Libya being technically outside what I think of as the Middle East. I know next to nothing about Libya, and since it's in the news I figure now is a good time to change that!

> 41

Hope you enjoy the book!

I just finished I Shall Not Hate by Izzeldin Abuelaish, quite a powerful little book. I found myself very moved by this man's situation, and filled with admiration for Dr. Abuelaish.

not sure if we're still looking at how to define the Middle East but thought I would throw in that for the U.S. State Dept, the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs (NEA) deals with U.S. foreign policy and U.S. diplomatic relations with Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestinian Territories, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.

I have some recommendations (both fiction and non-fiction):

Finding Nouf - fiction about Jeddah that I thought gave a good flavor of life here in Saudi Arabia
City of Veils - sequel to above that is on my reading list
Florence of Arabia - humorous and yet has a core of truth
The Desert and the Sown - fascinating look at early exploration in the region
Looking for Dilmun - if you like archaeology
Arabian Sands - old-school British traveler in the region
Women in Islam - interesting read
Caravan - recommended by an area studies prof
Siege of Mecca - excellent history

oops- forgot to say I'm reading about the region because I'm currently living in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia which makes it rather personal...

I also just finished I Shall Not Hate and liked it very much.

Other books I have read and liked:

Mornings in Jenin
A Woman of Egypt
anything by Elie Wiesel, although I suppose not all would count as being about the Middle East, specifically.
Come From the Four Winds
Girl From the Golden Horn

On my list is The Orientalist, perhaps I will get to it this month.

In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar (4 stars)

This debut novel begins in the Libyan capital of Tripoli in 1979, during the early years of Muammar el-Qaddafi's reign of terror, and is narrated by Suleiman, a 9 year old boy whose father is forced into hiding from Qaddafi's henchmen due to his pro-democratic beliefs after his best friend is beaten, arrested and charged with being an enemy of the state. As an only child whose mother provides little comfort due to her own illness, Suleiman struggles to understand and cope with the disappearance of his father and his good friend's father, as the adults around him attempt to shield him from the brutal reality that takes place in the streets and is displayed on television. The stress takes its toll on Suleiman, whose behaviors become more erratic and inscrutable to his mother and uncle, particularly when he spends more time with a strange man who keeps track of the neighborhood's activities.

I enjoyed this insightful glimpse into the mind and psyche of a young child who is forced to grow up far too quickly, without reliable or completely trustworthy parents and other role models to guide him.

Since I usually read a high volume of books about Israel or by Israeli authors, I'm taking Zoe's middle eastern challenge as a personal challenge to read books specifically about other countries in the middle east.

I just finished The Reluctant Fundamentalist*, a book which deals with the way Pakistanis and Americans want to trust each other but often don't. My review is now posted. This is a quick, engaging read so I hope others join me for a shared read (and TIOLI points!) with this particular book.

Yesterday I started The Story of Zahra by Hanan Al-Shaykh. This book is by a female Lebanese author and is set in Lebanon (and Egypt). It begins with the story of the life of a young girl who is fearful of her father and uncle. I'll have to seee where it goes from here...

I hope to move quickly (Yeah! Right!!) through some of these (greater) middle eastern countries before this month is over. Nice challenge, Zoe!

*You'll have to forgive me for reading the book about Pakistan because their language is Urdu, not Arabic. May I include it in this challenge anyway as it is defined in wikipedia as the "greater middle east" (even though I personally don't think of Pakistan as the middle east)? Pretty please with sugar on top? :)

(Veiled threat follows. No pun intended!)
ETA: If not, I might just take this book to challenge #1 with "Athens" on page 17. :D

I'd like to second the recommendation for the book In the Country of Men that Darryl just reviewed for you in message #46. It's a good choice as not only an interesting, well-written story, but it's also timely reading as Libya finds itself in headlines of newspapers throughout the world now.

>47 SqueakyChu: You can include it in the challenge, but I'd like to see some better justification than that! How is Pakistan similar to the tradition Middle Eastern countries? How is it different? The whole point of this thread is to generate discussion ;)

Pakistan is so much tied into Afghanistan (also not in the traditional middle east) because they border each other. However, and this was the point of the novel that I just read, Americans (not all of us!!), in post 9-11 times tended to look with suspician at anyone who smacked of looking "middle eastern". In this case, Changez (the protagonist) was Pakistani, dark skinned, a Princeton student, employed later by a prestigious valuation firm, and yet...he was still viewed with distrust just because of his appearance.

In the part of Pakistan that borders Afghanistan, Islam is a dominant religion*. Again, we stereotype places by population and their religions so it's really good to read more about these places to discover the inaccuracies we tend to believe.

*According to wikipedia:
1. "Pakistan is a democratic parliamentary federal republic with Islam as the state religion."
2. "Pakistan has the second largest Muslim population after Indonesia."

More later...I'm off to work now...

I haven't actually started reading In the Country of Men, but its author, Hisham Matar, had this op-ed in the New York Times yesterday about getting in touch with his family in Libya and what the international community should be doing to help the revolution.

Mere, thanks for posting the link to the article by Hisham Matar.

...and, TIOLI folks, if you've still not read In the Country of Men, now is the time to do so.

I liked the line of the uncle, “So what’s this I hear about you being short-listed for the Booker Prize?”

Another article about Hisham Matar and Libya, this article from The New Yorker.

I have just read Basrayatha, a collection of essays about Basra, Iraq, which is a sort of poetic, fantastic psychogeography, with essays about different sites or different aspects of life in Basra - the cemetery, the river, the cinema, the baths. As such, many of them are quite timeless, although there was one tale of a haunted bicycle race which had to be more modern, and a collection of short essays about Basra in wartime.

If anyone else is interested in reading this I'm happy to send it to you - leave a message on my profile page.

I finished Mornings in Jenin last week and thought it was really good. I've reposted what I said over in my thread below in case anyone here is thinking of reading it.

Mornings in Jenin is the story of one family that is forced out of their village, Ein Hod, in 1948, during what the Palestinians call "El Nakba" - the catastrophe. They settle in the Jenin refugee camp. Abulhewa tells the family's story over the next 50 years, with parts in Jenin, Jerusalem, Beirut and the US. It is a very sad and moving book, and it has made me even more pessimistic about the Israel/Palestine mess. It's also very controversial (google and you'll find lots of nastiness flung around on both sides).

Abulhawa is not trying to write a neutral kind of story here - if that can be done. She wants the world to see what's happened in Palestine. Lots of Israelis would disagree vehemently with her interpretation, from how much settlement there was before 1948, to where the boundaries were, to how much military brutality there has been, but it fitted pretty well with the little that I've read. Some individual Israeli characters are presented as really thoughtful, decent people, but mostly the Israelis in the book are soldiers intent on killing and torturing Palestinians. It's kind of like reading Leon Uris' Exodus, only much better written, less of a soap opera, and the other way round (and I *loved* that book when I read it a long time ago).

I see that antqueen is reading the book of short stories called Apples from the Desert by Israeli author Savyon Liebrecht. I loved that book!! It definitely deserves to be a shared read!

*sends out a not so subtle hint to others*

Ijust finished reading The Story of Zahra by the Lebanese author Hanan al-Shaykh. I was surprised to read a novel about a Lebanese woman that dealt so much with female sexuality. I did post a review of that book here. Oddly, there was no other review of that book here on LT previous to my posting.

I'm now reading a book called Wedding Song by the Nobel prize winning Egyptian author Naguib Mahfouz. I'm not new to his novels. I'd definitely recommend the first two books of his Cairo trilogy. I never read the third book of the triology, though.

I read and really enjoyed I Shall Not Hate. It's amazing how optimistic the author remains about the future of Palestine (I don't think I'd want to read a pessimistic book like Mornings in Jenin is said to be). I was left feeling more optimistic just after finishing this book, but already the newspapers have started to pull me back towards a sense of hopelessness. I found it discouraging reading just today that the Palestinian elections may not actually take place this year, and I'm left even more impressed that Abuelaish can maintain such a positive attitude.

I finished In the Country of Men, which Darryl gave a good summary of in her review (#46). Quote for thought:

"Nationalism is as thin as a thread, perhaps that's why many feel it must be anxiously guarded" (p. 231 in my edition).

The professor of my Middle Eastern history class thought nationalism was a major cause of strife in the Middle East, because it assumes that a certain group of people belong together in their own cocooned nation-state, and, thus, that another group of people does not belong there. Which I guess is the heart of the entire Israeli-Palestinian conflict: that these two groups who are historically distrustful of one another have to adjust to the idea of somehow sharing the same land.

What a great challenge! I have completed I Shall Not Hate and found it moving and powerful. But I have also been moved (by others' comments) to pick up In the Country of Men, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, and The Last Summer of Reason, which will probably put on hold my previous plans to re-read Palace Walk (I still plan to re-read the Mahfouz trilogy sometime during the year but not in March) or crack open From Beirut to Jerusalem, which has been languishing on a shelf probably since its year of publication.

>60 AnneDC:

I've loved this challenge myself, Anne.

I finished Wedding Song by Naguib Mahfouz and found it to be quite an enjoyable read. It's a smallish book so you all have plenty of time to match my book yet! My comments about this book can be found on my review.

> 58

In light of Dr. Abuelaish's experiences, it's hard to imagine him persuing peace so avidly. It almost breaks my heart. Years ago (in the 1970's), I was so optimistic about the chances for Arab-Israeli peace. Later, I felt sure there could be israeli-Palestinian peace. Years have gone by...and even more years. Nothing seems to break the vicious cycles of anger and hatred. It will take individuals, one at at time, who say "No" to hating. It's not an easy path. I'm not sure it will even succeed. I don't want the attempts at peace to ever stop, though. *sigh*

I finished I Shall Not Hate a couple of days ago, and reviewed it here earlier this morning. I gave it 5 stars, and it's probably my second favorite book of the year, after Tony Judt's The Memory Chalet.

I also read Little Mountain by Elias Khoury; it was for my own challenge, but I'll mention it here, since it is set during the Lebanese civil war. My review is (here); I didn't enjoy it anywhere near as much as his two later novels Gate of the Sun (5 stars) and White Masks (4-1/2 stars).

> 62

I finished I Shall Not Hate a couple of days ago, and reviewed it here earlier this morning. I gave it 5 stars, and it's probably my second favorite book of the year

Hooray! It's definitely a five star read, although I gave it 4.5 stars for parts of it being a bite repetitive. That is an editorial issue, though. I so wish everyone who knows very little about the "situation" in Israel could read this book. I think Dr. Abuelaish tries to look at the situation from both sides, although I'm always amazed that he can continue to not feel hatred for Israelis due to the misfortunes he and his family have suffered.

I'm now reading Shake hands with the devil : the failure of humanity in Rwanda by Roméo Dallaire. Let me preface this by saying that this book is *not* about the middle east. It's the autobiography of the author who was the commander of the UN forces in Rwanda in the 1990's during the genocide. What I want to share in this thread is a line from the preface of that book. The quote, also applicable to the middle east, is as follows:

"May this book help inspire people around the globe to rise above national interest and self-interest to recognize humanity for what it really is: a panoply of human beings who, in their essence, are the same."

#63: I originally gave I Shall Not Hate 4-1/2 stars, for reasons similar to yours, but I bumped it up to 5 stars while I was writing my review. It has its minor flaws, but its message and impact on me outweigh them, IMO.

I probably won't get to David Grossman's latest novel, To the End of the Land, but it's near the top of my TBR list and I'll definitely read it this spring for the Reading Globally second quarter challenge (Wars and Regions in Conflict) that Deborah (arubabookwoman) and I are co-hosting.

>56 SqueakyChu: I read the 3rd story from Apples from the Desert this morning... all of them have been excellent so far :)

I read the 3rd story from Apples from the Desert this morning... all of them have been excellent so far

...and they'll continue to be wonderful. That's a great book!

I'll second that too, I read the book last year.

Morning and Evening Talk by Naguib Mahfouz

This is an experimental novel written toward the end of the Nobel Laureate's career, which consists of brief stories about 67 people in three Cairo families spanning five generations over two centuries, from the years preceding Napoleon's invasion of Egypt to the aftermath of Anwar Sadat's assassination and the ascension of Hosni Mubarak to power. The short biographies are arranged in Arabic alphabetical order; as a result, the stories do not have a linear or historical flow. Apparently Mahfouz expects the reader to link these disjointed stories together, in order to weave a tapestry that would represent the complexity of Cairinese society over two centuries. I viewed this as a homework assignment from hell, and sped my way through the stories, which seemed to consist mainly of people in miserable marriages, tormented by their relatives and children and frustrated by societal limitations. Mahfouz is one of my favorite writers, but I would avoid this book like a plague of locusts.

> 68

I viewed this as a homework assignment from hell

LOL!!

I would avoid this book like a plague of locusts.


I'll remember that for Passover. :)

Too bad, Darryl. I just read kind of an experimental novel by Naguib Mahfouz that I much enjoyed. It was called Wedding Song. It had four chapters, each told from the point of view of a different person, although covering the same time span. It was a short novel and, I think, worthwhile reading.

I just finished The Sand Fish by Maha Gargash. Set in the 1950's United Arab Emirates, it tells the story of a young women sent into an arranged marriage as the third wife to an older, richer man. I liked the book but ultimately found it to be a little light, I would have enjoyed a much deeper look into this culture.

I read How to Cure a Fanatic by Amos Oz a few days ago. It is almost not a book, just the text of 2 speeches he gave in Europe and a short interview with the Princeton University Publisher. There was a bit of discussion on my thread about his The Order of the Teaspoon that he mentions in the interview.

I like the idea of the Order of the Teaspoon. Things can change if each person takes it upn himself to act rather than watch. Although I'm suspicious of the ultimate outcome of the current upheaval in the middle east, I realize that it takes individuals to ultimately confront what they conceive as a great evil. No counter movement can start if no one is willing to take a stand.

In Dr. Izzeldin Abeualaish's (author of I Shall Not Hate and 2010 Nobel Peace Prize nominee) address to an audience here in DC (which I saw televised yesterday tthanks to Joyce's heads up notice on the main thread), he advocates each person to act, no matter what the action is. It's the being silent that hurts the most.

On another note, I want to comment on the role of women in middle east literature.

What I've seen from my recent reads for this challenge is that the roles of women in middle eastern novels are still pretty much confined to their usual ones as daughter, wife, widow, divorcee, spinster, housekeeper, or mother. What changed in more recent novels is only their expression of their own sexuality. However, I did not see them moving into more unusual roles.

Was this reflected in anyone else's reading choices for this challenge?

For those of you interested in reading about what sparked the turmoil taking place in the middle east now, please read this excellent Washington Post article, written by Marc Fisher (with photos by Nikki Kahn) and situated on the front page of today's newspaper.

There are a couple of more explicitly feminist Egyptian writers although I've not fitted their work into this month's challenge, sadly.

I loved Ahdaf Soueif's The Map of Love when I read it a few years ago, and would like to reread and read the other novel by her I own.

Last year I had a Nawaal El Sadaawi reader as one of my ER books. I also have several of her novels (which are generally quite short books) and hope to get to them soon.

An online friend won several books by Raja Shehadeh, a Palestinian writer, from the publisher in a Twitter competition recently, and has passed on her copy of A Rift in Time: Travels with My Ottoman Uncle to me recently. I already have Palestinian Walks which was highly recommended by one of the Bookbag website founders.