MIDDLE EAST |
|
|
To read reviews about a book or order it, click on its title. To quickly reach one of the subtopics immediately below, click on it.
| | Egypt | Iran | Iraq | Israel | Jordan | Kuwait | Lebanon | Morocco | Saudi Arabia | |
Al Qaeda (See Vietnam, Iraq, etc.)
Afghanistan
Rodriguez, Deborah. Kabul Beauty School . Random House, 2007.
Egypt
Aciman, Andre. Out of Egypt: A Memoir. Picador, 2007. An eccentric Jewish family spanning three generations in Egypt.
Booth, Mary and El Saadawi, Nawala. Memoirs from the Womens Prison Literature of the Middle East. Univ. of California Press, 1994. An Egyptian feminist, doctor, activist on her 1981 imprisonment for "attack[ing] ruling system."
Laqnado, Lucette. The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: A Jewish Family's Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World. Harper Perennial, 2008. A story told by the youngest member of the family who went from riches to ruins.
Rossant, Colette. Memories of a Lost Egypt: A Memoir With Recipes. Diane Publishing Co., 1999. Born to Egyptian Sephardic Jew and French Catholic, author recalls painful childhood softened by nurturing grandparents and savory foods.
Ardalan, Davar. My Name is Iran: A Memoir. Holt, 2008. Senior producer of NPR's Morning Edition writes about her Iranian-American background and about the division of her life between two countries and cultures.
de Bellaigue, Christopher. In the Rose Garden of the Martyrs: A Memoir of Iran. HarperCollins, 2005. Western journalist married to an Iranian woman offers an insider's view of an extraordinary culture.
Ebadi, Shirin and Moaveni, Azadeh. Iran Awakening: One Woman's Journey to Reclaim Her Life and Country. Random House, 2007. The 2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner, lawyer, first Iranian female judge and advocate for the oppressed, and her fight against oppression.
Farmanfarmaian, Manucher and Farmanfarmaian, Roxane. Blood & Oil: A Prince's Memoir of Iran, from the Shab to the Ayatollah. Random House, 2005. Dramatic inside story of Caspian oil and the rich, tumultuous history of 20th-century Iran.
Ghani, Ghasem. A Man of Many Worlds: The Memoirs & Diaries of Dr. Ghasem Ghani. Mage Publishers, 2006. By an Iranian scholar, linguist and former diplomat who represented the Shahs government in Egypt and Turkey.
Goldin, Farideh. Wedding Song: Memoirs of an Iranian Jewish Woman. Brandeis, 2004. How a woman grew up female in mans world, and Jewish in a Muslim country.
Guppy, Shusha. The Blindfold Horse: Memories of a Persian Childhood. Beacon Press, 1988. Tauris Parke Paperbacks, 2004. A tale of growing up under Islamic traditions and the transforming forces of westernization.
Guppy, Shusha. A Girl in Paris: A Persian Encounter with the West. Tauris Parke Paperbacks, 2007. A young woman embraces Western culture as a student in Paris.
Hakakian, Roya. Journey from the Land of No: A Girlhood Caught in Revolutionary Iran. Three Rivers Press, 2005. How a Jewish woman adjusts to life in a changing Iran.
Moaveni, Azadeh. Honeymoon in Tehran: Two Years of Love and Danger In Iran. Random House, 2009. Iranian-American journalist who lived in Iran recounts the complexities of moving in with her boyfriend and becoming pregnant -- before getting married -- in a restrictive Islamic regime.
Moaveni, Azadeh. Lipstick Jihad: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America and American in Iran. PublicAffairs, 2006. While working in Tehran, an Iranian American journalist begins to feel more at home in the country her parents were exiled from than the one in which she was raised.
Nafisi, Azar. Reading Lolita in Tehran. Random House, 2003. A former university professor hosts a group of female students to study banned literature.
Nafisi, Azar. Things I've Been Silent About: Memories. Random House, 2008. The unhappy family life of the authors childhood and life in pre- and post-revolution Iran and a glimpse of a people struggling to find pockets of freedom within a repressive regime.
Nemat, Marina. Prisoner of Tehran: A Memoir. Free Press. 2007. After two decades of silence, author writes about having imprisoned and tortured in Iran, forced to convert to Islam and marry a man she didn't love, to escape execution.
Pahlavi, Empress Farah. An Enduring Love -- My Life with the Shah: A Memoir. Miramax, 2005. By the former widow of the Shah of Iran on her life as queen during unpopular world relations.
Rachlin, Nahid. Persian Girls. Tarcher, 2006. From childhood, the author, child of a mother who gave her away to the mothers sister until her father kidnapped her is determined to become a writer and emigrate to the US to escape Irans and her fathers oppression of women. Howard's Pick.
Satrapi, Marjane.The Complete Persepolis. Pantheon. 2007. A young woman from a liberal family on the trials she dealt with as a result of the revolution in Iran.
| | Egypt | Iran | Iraq | Israel | Jordan | Kuwait | Lebanon | Morocco | Saudi Arabia | |
Sabar, Ariel. My Father's Paradise: A Son's Search for His Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq. Algonquin Books, 2008. An American born Iraqi Jew discovers a very different image Iraq in learning about his fathers homeland.
Wile, Joan. Grandmothers Against the War: How We Got Off Our Fannies and Stood Up for Peace. Citadel, 2008. Memoir of the woman activist who founded Grandmothers Against the War [in Iraq] in 2003.
Chacour, Elias and Hazard, David. Blood Brothers . Chosen, 2003. Palestinian Christian relates childhood during birth of modern Israel.
Cohen, Aaron and Douglas Century. Brotherhood of Warriors . Harper Perennial, 2009. Canadian-born boy relocates with screenwriter mom to Beverly Hills, gets sent to military school, enrolls in Israeli army and offers inside perspective of Israeli counter-terrorism unit.
Muir, Sharona BenTov. The Book of Telling: Tracing the Secrets of My Father's Lives . Bison Books, 2008.
Delman, Carmit. Burnt Bread and Chutney: Growing Up Between Cultures - A Memoir of an Indian Jewish Childhood . One World/Ballantine, 2003. Born of mixed heritage, a woman explores her cultural identity.Freedman, Marcia. Exile in the Promised Land: A Memoir. Firebrand Books. 1990. Author describes her involvement in the Israeli womens movement, her election into Knesset, her support of autonomy for the Palestinians, and the realization of her orientation as a lesbian.
Garfinkel, Jonathan. Ambivalence: Adventures in Israel and Palestine . W.W. Norton & Co., 2008. Conservative Canadian Jewish playwright moves to Israel and experiences conflicting political sensibilities.
Kanafani, Deborah. Unveiled: How an American Woman Found Her Way Through Politics, Love, and Obedience in the Middle East . Free Press, 2008.
Peres, Shimon. Battling for Peace: A Memoir. Random House. 1995. Foreign Minister Peres reveals much about the history of Israel, from its formation as a nation which he witnessed firsthand to secret peace talks he held with King Hussein in Jordan in 1987.
Neufeld, Adolfo. To War in a Red Subaru: A Memoir. A Volunteer's Chronicle of Yom Kippur War Between Stories and Dreams. Jorge Pinto Books, Inc., 2009. By an American adventurer.
Abu-Jaber, Diana. The Language of Baklava: A Memoir. Pantheon, 2005. Jordanian-American writes of coming of age through foods of childhood.
Queen Noor. Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life. Miramax, 2003. Young American woman weds King of Jordan.
| | Egypt | Iran | Iraq | Israel | Jordan | Kuwait | Lebanon | Morocco | Saudi Arabia | |
Turnipseed, Joel. Baghdad Express: A Gulf War Memoir . Borealis Books, 2003. A college dropout with a love for philosophy is sent to Iraq in 1990, where he is forced to grow up.
Al-Shamlan, Saif Marzooq. Pearling in the Arabian Gulf: A Kuwaiti Memoir . Arabian Publishing, 2001. A description of the final generation of the pearling industry in the Gulf before the Japanese took over business.
Al-Shaykh, Hanan. The Locust and the Bird: My Mother's Story . Pantheon, 2009. Lebanese author tells her illiterate mothers story of poverty, marriage and divorce.
Bechara, Souha. Resistance: My Life for Lebanon . Soft Skull Press, 2003. Christian, communist Lebanese woman relates childhood experience of Israeli occupation.
Cortas, Wadad Markdisi. A World I Loved: The Story of an Arab Woman . Nation Book, 2009. Lebanese womans experiences of life under French mandate of 1917 up to civil war as lobbyist for womens education.
Gabriel, Brigitte. Because They Hate: A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America . St. Martins Griffin, 2008. Christian survivor of Lebanese civil war condemns Muslim world.
Kerr, Ann Zwicker. Come With Me from Lebanon: An American Family Odyssey . Syracuse University Press, 1994. Womans husband is assassinated in office at American University of Beirut in 1984 after family leaves America to return to war-torn Lebanon in 1981.
Maalouf, Amin. Origins: A Memoir . Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2008. Lebanese born author's family saga about his brother's mission to Cuba to rescue their uncle who had emigrated there but apparently gotten into some trouble.
Van De Ven, Susan Kerr. One Family's Response to Terrorism: A Daughter's Memoir . Syracuse University Press, 2008. Memoir of Ann Kerrs daughter of their familys fight for justice after fathers 1984 assassination in Beirut, going to trial 17 years later against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Saleem, Kamal. The Blood of Lambs: A Former Terrorist's Memoir of Death and Redemption . Howard Books, 2009. An inside look into the making and mind-set of a Muslim terrorist.
Young, Michael. The Ghosts of Martyr's Square: A Memoir of Lebanon Found and Lost . Simon & Schuster, 2010. A Lebanese-American journalist describes a country ruined by its own openness and tolerance.
Griswold, Lucille M. Life Lived in Reverse: A Memoir . Hamilton Books, 2009. A woman is finally able to achieve her goals in later life after years of hardships.
Pfarrer, Chuck. Warrior Soul: The Memoir of a Navy Seal . Presidio, 2004. Former SEAL commander turned Hollywood screenwriter recounts tours of duty in Central America and Lebanon during the 1980s and early 1990s.
MoroccoOufkir, Malika. Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail . Miramax Books, 2001. The daughter of a Moroccan general, adopted by the king, is held with six close relatives for ten years in a desert prison, after the king dies and the new king executes her father for staging a coup against the new regime. Howards Pick
Palestine/Palestinians
Salem, Salwa. The Wind in My Hair. Interlink Books. 2007. Author who was eight when her family and other Palestinians were exiled by the new Israeli state, describes her life in exile in various places in the Middle East and Europe.
Barakat, Ibtisam. Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007. Author lived through the Six-Day War as a child in Ramallah, bombs exploded near her home, she was separated from her family and she became a refugee. For juvenile readers.
Basrawi, Fadia. Arabias Hidden America: A Saudi Womans Memoir. Growing up in the Americanized oil town of Dharan, Basrawi chose to elope with a Lebanese journalist and therefore became involved in the civil war in
Lebanon.
Basrawi, Fadia. Brownies and Kalashnikovs: A Saudi Woman's Memoir of American Arabia and Wartime Beirut. Garnet, 2009. How a woman adapts to life in the midst of war after growing up in a protected environment.
| | Egypt | Iran | Israel | Jordan | Kuwait | Lebanon | Morocco | Saudi Arabia | |