Middle East/North African Lit discussion

Here are some ideas that were mentioned in the 2019 Plan that could potentially be used for a challenge:
-a book about or set in a MENA city with an ancient history
- a book based on a famous real life MENA historical figure
-a fantasy or science fiction book by a MENA author
-a non-fiction book
-a book of poetry ( or one long epic poem)

Should we include all the different MENA area like last year's challenge?
If so, that would be:
-A book by an author from Al Sham (Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Syria
-A book by an author from The Arabian Peninsula ( Yemen, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia , the United Arab Emirates, and Iraq)
-A book by an author from The Maghreb ( Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Mauritania. )
-A book by an author from Egypt
-A book by a Turkish author
- A book by an Iranian author


That would be 11 items already.
Any other ideas?

Two ideas: a debut, and/or written by a woman author.

I never caught up with any of my reading goals for 2018. Hopefully I will do better in this new year. These ideas look good.

Great job Jalila
If we are willing to extend the region we can add
- A book by an author from "the stans" countries / Central Asia

I have books by authors from Sudan and Somalia in my tbr pile. Is that too far? Which region would you link them to?

Fl wrote: "I have books by authors from Sudan and Somalia in my tbr pile. Is that too far? Which region would you link them to?"

Could be " Sudan and Horn of Africa"
which includes :the countries of Sudan , Somalia , Djibouti and Eritrea .

# south Sudan and Ethiopia are not as strongly related .

Niledaughter wrote: "Great job Jalila
If we are willing to extend the region we can add
- A book by an author from "the stans" countries / Central Asia"

Niledaughter wrote: "Fl wrote: "I have books by authors from Sudan and Somalia in my tbr pile. Is that too far? Which region would you link them to?"

Could be " Sudan and Horn of Africa"
which includes :the countries ..."


I like Carol's suggestions of a debut novel and one by a woman. Also like the ideas of adding the "Stan" countries as well as the Horn of Africa. In previous years I believe we combined Egypt and Sudan as countries of the Nile.
I don't know about everyone else, but for me realistically doing 12 books was already challenging, so I would not want to have more than that.
What could be eliminate or combine?

Jalilah wrote: "I don't know about everyone else, but for me realistically doing 12 books was already challenging, so I would not want to have more than that.
What could be eliminate or combine? .."

You might be able to combine by specifying fiction or non-fiction for some of the categories:

A fiction or non-fiction book about or set in a MENA city with an ancient history.

You could do the same for MENA historical figure.

Jalilah wrote: "Niledaughter wrote: "Great job Jalila
If we are willing to extend the region we can add
- A book by an author from "the stans" countries / Central Asia"

Niledaughter wrote: "Fl wrote: "I have bo..."

Jalilah, I agree that 12 or fewer is ideal. I’m one most likely to read an author from Turkey, Iran and Egypt but perhaps combining those three into a single task is an easy win? Also while many readers aspire to read poetry, I suspect that is the least likely task to be completed by participants, so if you eliminated it, the loss might be felt less than with some other tasks.

I agree with 12 books.
Instead of doing it by country of origin, we could do it by original language? (translated from or in Turkish/Farsi/Arabic...). I am a bit sorry that my 2018 challenge had 4 books originally written in English, and 2 in French... I know translations are rare and expensive, but the group might help me to find some authors still living in the region!

Fl wrote: "I agree with 12 books.
Instead of doing it by country of origin, we could do it by original language? (translated from or in Turkish/Farsi/Arabic...). I am a bit sorry that my 2018 challenge had 4 ..."

The only problem with this is there are way more authors from Arabic speaking countries.

How is this?


1. a novel or non-fiction book about or set in a MENA city with an ancient history
2. a novel book based on a famous real life MENA historical figure
3. a fantasy, dystopian or science fiction book by a MENA author
4. a book, fiction or non-fiction written by a female author
5. book, fiction or non-fiction, by an author from Al Sham (Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Syria
6.A book, fiction or non-fiction, by an author from The Arabian Peninsula
7.A book, fiction or non-fiction, by an author from The Maghreb ( North Africa)
8. a book, fiction or non-fiction, by an author from Egypt
9. a book, fiction or non-fiction, by a Turkish author
10. a book, fiction or non-fiction by an Iranian author
11. a book, fiction or non-fiction by an author from the Horn of Africa
12. a book, fiction or non-fiction by an author from a "Stan" country or Central Asia

That looks great!

Jalilah wrote: "How is this?


1. a novel or non-fiction book about or set in a MENA city with an ancient history
2. a novel book based on a famous real life MENA historical figure
3. a fantasy, dystopian or sc..."


Wow! That looks great! Thank you.

That’s great, Jalilah!

Tamara wrote: Wow! That looks great! Thank you.

Carol wrote: "That’s great, Jalilah!"

Melanie wrote: "That looks great!"

A pleasure! It's been several years now I've been doing the challenge and it gets me reading and a lot of books I'd never known about before!

One of the mods will have set up the challenge though.

Perfect, thank you! Let's start, then!

Good morning from Egypt :)
Thanks Jalila, it looks great !
I will set it once I am on my computer .

Done ! in here
https://www.goodreads.com/challenges/...

Would you like to have all your challenges in one thread like last year , or do you prefer a new discussion board where everyone can open his own thread with his own challenge ?

Niledaughter wrote: "Done ! in here
https://www.goodreads.com/challenges/...

Would you like to have all your challenges in one thread like last year , or do you prefer a new discussion b..."

However you and the other mods prefer!

Welcome!

Sarah wrote: "Jalilah wrote: "How is this?


1. a novel or non-fiction book about or set in a MENA city with an ancient history
2. a novel book based on a famous real life MENA historical figure
3. a fantasy,..."

Welcome!

Regarding no 12 - stan countries, I just wanted to mention that it might be great to think about two other South Asian countries. I know it doesn’t strike people immediately but India has a very significant Muslim population (second largest? in the world) and famous writers of Muslim origin. And of course Bangladesh, which is a Muslim-majority country.

I just think the -stan country narrative (which includes Pakistan) excludes Muslim writers and cultures in the rest of South Asia.

And if I may add: how about Malaysia and Indonesia? Or does this go beyond the scope of this group?

Okay everyone you can post your lists here
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

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Priyanka Sofia wrote: "Regarding no 12 - stan countries, I just wanted to mention that it might be great to think about two other South Asian countries. I know it doesn’t strike people immediately but India has a very si..."

As you wish , this item in particular is out of MENA region in general and we read from it as extension so I see no problem .

By the way ,I read The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie and I remember it linked so many civilizations :Mughal India , Safavid empire of Iran , the Ottoman Empire and Renaissance in Italy .