Middle East/North African Lit discussion

Hello ,
I am from Egypt, I joined this group to enhance my readings about my region and explore how outsiders see it ..

Now I became a moderator with my friend Marieke , I hope you do not mind that :o and I am very excited about the knowledge's fields that this group can draw us in ..

:D
i am from the US...i first became really interested in the Middle East when i took a class on literature from the region. we read from all over. I had also begun studying arabic around that time. after college i continued being interested in the region but i stopped studying arabic; i took it up again a few years ago and as i get better and better at it, i want more and more to be able to read Arabic novels in the original--especially because so many do not get translated. i'm really excited that this group is becoming active; i've been a member here since i joined GoodReads in 2008. i also excited that members so far seem interested in the wider region like myself and i look forward to sharing thoughts and reactions to all the great literature we'll be reading together.

does anybody have any favorite books or authors?

Hi everyone!
I'm from Egypt and I'm a new member of the group..
Like Marieke I'm interested in the Wider MENA region.. It is suppose to be my region, but somehow I feel I don't know about as I should.. Well, maybe I know about the smaller MENA region, but not the extended one..

Looking forward to read good books and I know that I will enjoy having great conversations with you all.. :)

Hello everyone! I'm American, but a few years ago I moved to Cairo for work. When I got there I realized I understood absolutely nothing about the Middle East, Islam, and the place of the Middle East in the current world, so I started reading. Now that I'm back in the US I feel like I still have a lot to learn about the region. FYI, I read in Arabic at the level of a kindergartner - all the Arabic I know I learned while living in Egypt.

My name is Amanda and I am also American :)

I began to like thing Arabian and N. African when I converted to Islam.
I speak no Arabic but hope begin to learn it in the next few years.

My favorite countries to read about are Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan :-)

We have a really strong Egypt connection in this group! :D

Egypt is the only middle eastern country I have visited. I loved it and want to go back. :D

Tiffany, what do you miss now that you're back stateside?

Hi Everyone,
Looks like an interesting development here.
I'm from UK, living in Dubai.
I came here in 1984 but left during the 90's, which I spent in UK.
I love Dubai - boith the Dubai of the 80's and the very different Dubai that we see now.
I read widely throughout the area.
Two books that I've really enjoyed from the region are Gardens of Water by Alan Drew (set in the earthquake that devastated parts of Turkey) and Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa (set amongst the Palestinian/Israeli conflict).
I look forward to hearing more from you all.
DR

What do I miss from Egypt? ;) Metaphorically I miss the constant sense of adventure I had while in Egypt, I miss the warmth of the Egyptian people, and I miss the pervasive idea that one way or another, things are going to turn out generally ok. I miss seeing the Nile sparkling from my patio, I miss eating pigeon from a street cart, I miss haggling in the bazaar and drinking tea with my shopkeeper friends. While there are definitely things I *don't* miss about Egypt (pollution, traffic, military presence, sexual harassment), I'd be happy to jump on a plane any time!

Hi, I am Chrissie. I was born in the US, moved to sweden when I was 19. I have lived there most of my life, but currently I live in Belgium and am often in France. I adore learning about different cultures and the history that has shaped these cultures.

Hello everyone~
I, too, am happy to see this group become active!
I am American, but have called Egypt home for nearly half my life now. I've been here 11 years since I finished university, but was also here as a high school student. I was a teacher in Cairo for 8 years and am currently living in South Sinai.
I love to read books from all over the world, but particularly the MENA and SE Asia regions.
I only read Arabic at a KG level as well - so I really need to study more!!

I am so happy :D
Welcome all !!!
- Tiffany , I really enjotyed reading your lines anbout Egypt :)
- NG , Salam dear ..welcome again ;)
- Amanda : I hope you will find it interesting to read more about the Islamic and Arab world :)
- Dubaireader , welcome on board ..happy to have you with us , I will definatly check (Gardens of Water) , I heard a recently about (Mornings in Jenin) but have not read it myself .
- Sarah : welcome onboard dear , Isee we will have a Saudi expert now ;)
- Chrissie : I am so glad you joind us :)
- Bernadette :
Wow , 11 years in Egypt ! you are one of us now :p hmmm ; South Sinai ! very interesting , you love Sharm then ?

I guess it will be outr target to read in Arabic and English in this group !

**********
Marieke wrote: "We have a really strong Egypt connection in this group! :D

..."

Ohhhh yes !! :D

I love reading all of your entries....I am 64 years old, living in the a mountain town in Idaho....I'm interested in hearing "voices" (both yours and the authors) from the MENA area....Sounds like a vibrant group here...

Hi everybody! this is really wonderful to see people from all over! what a great combination. Amanda, i'll be your cheerleader when you start learning Arabic. :D Tiffany, you made me want to book a plane ticket to go visit Egypt pronto. When i was there in 2007, it was right around this time. i loved it. i only had problems with harassment once and that was when i was with another American...lol.
DubaiReader, thanks for the recommendations; i'm excited to read from the Gulf region...i am obsessed with Oman and my husband has been to Doha. i'd love to go there someday.
Sarah, i invited a Saudi friend and a Yemeni friend to join us so perhaps we'll have some more folks from that region. :D

Nile Daughter, thanks for inviting me.

Nile daughter wrote: "Bernadette :
Wow , 11 years in Egypt ! you are one of us now :p hmmm ; South Sinai ! very interesting , you love Sharm then ? "

I despise Sharm! Is that too strong of a word? Well, it's true. I live in Dahab. :-)

Laurie :
Nice to have you with us :)
Chrissie:
You are welcome , hope you like it in here ..
Bernadette:
despise!! ohh.. why ? I have not been to Dahab but I heard about its calmness and beauty , do you have huge schools there ?

Marieke:
we have strong American gathering here not only Egyptian ;)

Hello there! :D It's very nice meeting you all! ;)

I am from Romania [22 years old] and my first contact with the Arabic language was in 2004, thanks to my Arabic neighbors. I felt in love with this language from the first time I heard it and decided to learn it so that I can understand Arabs while talking and also being able myself to talk to them. I began learning Arabic in May 2005 and of course am still learning it and always will! :D It's in my blood, I am addicted to it and I can't stand even one day without hearing it! It's the best addiction ever though!

And from then on I started reading books from the Middle Eastern area! It's sad that I can't find here even half of the books I want to read... I know that I can order many of them on line, but the lack of money is my problem. Anyway I am always doing my best to find them at the library and borrow them! ;)

Layla....:D:D
I am very very happy to see you here , welcome on board sweetie ;)

Nile Daughter was kind enough to invite me to join your group. I'm a GR friend of her and we have enjoyed some of the same books. Living in the desert of Arizona I am excited to be part of an international group focusing on an area in which I am interested. Reading and discussing a book in a group certainly can enhance and enlarge the experience.

The latest book I've read which could pertain to this group is Palestinian Walks: Forays into a Vanishing Landscape by Raja Shehadeh. Another book we both liked was The Map of Love by Ahdaf Soueif.

An historical book I'd like to read soon is A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East by David Fromkin but I also would greatly enjoy regional fiction too, such as Swallows of Kabul by Yasmina Khadra, The Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk or متاهة مريمMaryam's Maze: A Modern Arabic Novel by Mansoura Ez Eldin by Mansoura Ez-Eldin.

I'm excited to read so many of these books!!!

Nile daughter wrote: "Bernadette:
despise!! ohh.. why ? I have not been to Dahab but I heard about its calmness and beaut..."

Sharm is just a tourist trap, with the place's natural beauty being destroyed more and more every day. Nothing authentically Egyptian or Bedouin about the place.
Dahab, well, it's changing every day, but you are right about the calm beauty! And I love the Bedouin culture here.

Catherine :
I am so so happy to have you with us here , thank you so much for your kind words and for joining us:D

I already added some of these books to our bookshelves , it will take us few more days to make a strategy , I hope it will suit us all ...


Bernadette
I see , you love pure nature :) that explains it , I have not been there for years , I guess things change !

Nile daughter wrote: "do you have huge schools there?

Bernadette
I see , you love pure nature :) that explains it , I have not been there for years , I guess things change ! "

In Dahab, there is a branch of Futures International School, a private language school, and several government schools.

In Sharm, there are more options...a British school, a French school, and a few private language schools. Many of our children in Dahab actually go to school in Sharm.

Hey everyone, it's a great discussion you have going on here. Like all of you I'm really interested to read about Egypt since there are so many great Egyptian authors! I'd love it if authors from other countries wrote more so that we could get to know more about other cultures in the Middle East.
Would loooove to visit Egypt one day. It'd be a dream come true!!!
I love reading, and lately I've been trying to read more in Arabic and I'm loving it so far. There are so many great Arabic novels once you get into them!

@ Marieke
I live in Oman!! :D Why are you obsessed with it? Have you ever been here?

Hi noor!

I have never been to Oman but want to go very badly. My husband has been to Yemen, Qatar, and Egypt, but I've "only" been to Egypt. :)

Oman was a featured country at the smithsonian folklife festival one year and I was immediately in love with the country. I loved seeing a group of Omani bagpipers! Bagpipes in Oman! Anyway, so I started paying attention to Oman. I watched a program on the television about a group of students from all over the middle east who had come to the US to get to know the region's issues better, meet students from other countries, etc etc. A moderator asked the group what surprised them the most during their time getting to know each other. An Omani girl spoke up and said "no one has ever heard of my country."
wow.
So Oman is/was little known even in it's own region! That was fascinating to me, especially because it has an interesting and long history that includes a lot of trade.

Noor:
You will be more than welcome in Egypt :D

Marieke:
Can you ask your Omani friend for book recommendations , we have non on our bookshelves :(

oh, nile daughter, i don't actually have an Omani friend! but i'm pretty sure i can find some books to recommend and maybe Noor has some ideas, too?

@ Marieke: Actually I've had that situation too when I tell people I live in Oman and they say they haven't heard of it, but now more people are getting to know it I think.
It's a really quiet country, in a good kinda way and the people are really nice. And you're right, the history is quite interesting.

I have a couple of books by Omani authors which I haven't read yet to be honest. And I'm not sure if they've been translated. However here are their titles:
الاشياء ليست في أماكنها - هدى الجهوري
أحمر و أصفر - أحمد العبري
I'll try to read at least one of them soon so that I can give you guys feedback.

Oman is a beautiful country with lots of history and culture.
It's still pretty much unspoilt (compared to Dubai) and we often cross the border for a w/e away from the hustle and bustle. Unfortunately the visa has just gone up to 35pounds or $55 (from 10pounds or $15), which is quite a jump.

I have a book from Oman on my shelves but I think it was written by an expat living in Oman - does that count?

Oman ....:D:D

Noor , were they translated into English ?

DubaiReader , can you let us know about it to check it , we do not have native books so far , BTW is the Emarati novel you mentioned before ; was written in English , I could not reach an Arabic edition?

Hi, everyone. I'm from the U.S.--NYC. I'm looking forward to reading books about the human/social side of life in the MidEast/N. Africa, a different view from the typical one of politics and borderline disputes. Can't wait for group reads.

Hello Alicatte , glad to have you with us . Can't wait for group reads myself :D

Hello Everyone :). I'm Mona. Aamir, a friend here on GR, invited me to join this group. I'm originally from India and emigrated here to the USA with my parents and younger brother when I was 4.

I have an interest in Middle Eastern Lit and have read some books in that genre, both fiction and non-fiction.

Welcome onboard Mona ,wow.. that is a very interesting background :D I hope you will enjoy it here with us :)

Thanks Nile daughter :)

gosh, i'm getting behind! welcome aboard the cruise, mona! and thank you Aamir for inviting her. :D

Thanks Marieke.

@Niledaughter sorry I couldn't find translated versions, perhaps they're not that familiar. I'll ask around and find out for you if there are translated books by Omani writers. :)

Mona, You are welcome :)
Noor , that will be great :) Thanks

Hi Catherine - have you read other works by Orhan Pamuk? He is absolutely one of my favorite authors.

I'm used_songs/Opal and I live in Texas, US. I'm looking forward to learning about authors from different parts of the Middle East and North Africa. I'm very interested in cultural intersections and the cultures that develop in border areas.

used_songs wrote: "I'm used_songs/Opal and I live in Texas, US. I'm looking forward to learning about authors from different parts of the Middle East and North Africa. I'm very interested in cultural intersections an..."

Welcome aboard! should we call you "used_songs" or "Opal"?

used_songs wrote: "Hi Catherine - have you read other works by Orhan Pamuk? He is absolutely one of my favorite authors."

Welcome to the group, Used_Songs. I have not read any books by Orhan Pamuk but I do have Snow and The Museum of Innocence on my to be read list. Which one would you recommend? One of those or a different one?

Welcome onboard used_songs :)
what is your favorite book for Orhan Pamuk?

Nile daughter wrote: "Welcome onboard used_songs :)
what is your favorite book for Orhan Pamuk?"

I love The New Life. I read it and, like the character in the book, it changed me.

Catherine, I liked Snow and The New Life a lot.

used_songs wrote: "Catherine, I liked Snow and The New Life a lot."

Thanks for the recommendations. I'll see which one I can get first. The New Life sounds good.

Marieke - It's probably easier to use used_songs as that's my user name (and a consistently used online name).

used_songs wrote: "Marieke - It's probably easier to use used_songs as that's my user name (and a consistently used online name)."

okay; then i'll do that! :D

Catherine--i just finished Museum of Innocence and LOVED it. however, i kind of wish i had read Snow first. It's not a sequel or anything, but it's just because of something said at the end of Museum...so now i want to read Snow ASAP.

Marieke
Snow is based on a true story (as I got it) , the only thing I remeber that Orhan told his friend about writting (Museum of Innocence)in it in a letter ,I can not remember any thing else .

used_songs
I only read (Snow) and I liked a lot , It seems I will add (the new life) to my collection too