Middle East/North African Lit discussion

May & June 2011

This stop will include: Palestine, Lebanon , Jordan, Syria and Israel.

Our guest of honor is Palestine



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So let us start our book recommendations …

Two ways to go , one for the guest of honor (Palestine) and the other from the rest of the region , there will be two polls (or more- as you wish) , you can participate in all or one , read one or more books , also you can have your own reads in Cruise Salon..



Palestine Book recommendations :

Starting with Fiction ; From the classics we have the 2nd best Arabic novel among (The Best 100 Arabic Books -According to the Arab Writers Union) In Search of Walid Masoud , the 5th Men in the Sun and Other Palestinian Stories , and the 6th one The Secret Life of Saeed the Pessoptimist .



From the historical fiction ; Gate of the Sun , On the Hills of God , Mornings in Jenin

Now to Memoirs and nonfiction: Edward W. Said's memoirs Out of Place .and by one of the well-know international commentator on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict Ghada Karmi ; her memoirs In Search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story - 2nd edition and her analytical book Married to Another Man , we also have Sari Nusseibeh's memoirs Once Upon a Country: A Palestinian Life .
Other memoirs : Palestinian Walks: Forays into a Vanishing Landscape which is the winer Orwell Prize (2008) , I Saw Ramallah Winner of the prestigious Naguib Mahfouz Medal .

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Now for the rest of the region :
- from Lebanon : have the 10th best Arabic novel among (The Best 100 Arabic Books -According to the Arab Writers Union) Beirut Nightmares , also The Story of Zahra: A Novel and The Stone of Laughter


- From Syria ; we have Fragments of Memory: A Story of a Syrian Family , Sabriya Damascus Bitter Sweet and Damascus Nights



- From Jordan ; The Cry of the Dove: A Novel , Once in a Promised Land: A Novel and Murder in the Name of Honor


- From Israel , we have : A Tale of Love and Darkness , Drinking the Sea at Gaza: Days and Nights in a Land Under Siege and The Other Side of Israel: My Journey Across the Jewish/Arab Divide .

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** I know we had a lot of recommendations , and of course not all of them will take the journey to the final polls . still we can share here all our recommendations till we reach our shortlist .

* *Our choice of Palestine as guest of honor came while Palestine literature festival PalFest 2011 will be soon out , hopefully we can cover it , and make more special of our tour by it .

**Also we may have more activities during this stop according to the intense curiosity that our stop may lead to , in such case; Marieke will talk us about it in time.


For now , please join us with your thoughts so we can prepare the polls soon …thanks :)
Mods .

Literally minutes after you posted this, Nile Daughter, PalFest posted its final schedule and list of participants on Twitter. :D

Marieke wrote: "Literally minutes after you posted this, Nile Daughter, PalFest posted its final schedule and list of participants on Twitter. :D"

Great ...we are on :D

I would really like to read Cry of the Dove :)

Rabih Alameddine's I, The Divine (Lebanon) I have read and recommend.
The Stone of Laughter & The Cry of the Dove are on my to-be-read list so I'll vote for them :-)

Nile Daughter, I am quite surprised that you listed Mornings in Jenin, but skipped over The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East which is so much better. I do see that you are reading TLT now. Don't you like it? Isn't it much, much better?

Chrissie wrote: "Nile Daughter, I am quite surprised that you listed Mornings in Jenin, but skipped over The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East which is so muc..."

I posted Palestinian (native or Descended ) authors books because it is the group policy - they have the priority , I did not read (Morning in Jenin) to judge it myself but it was recommended before by other members in the group in several threads , so I got it included .

Sure , I like (TLT) , It is a balanced book and I did not skip it, it is only that Sandy Tolan is neither Palestinian nor Israeli , so it will be unfair to push the book ahead of their books in our primary recommendations (which is still open for all) .

We are still studying further activities by the group in this next stop , and I think there could be discussion including the Arabic-Israeli conflict and fair / non-biased books dealing with it , I think (TLT) will be one of them , we just did not finalize this part yet :).

Rebecca and Okyrhoe , we will keep that in mind :)

I understand! Thanks for explaining.

Hi Everyone, I am so excited by this subject! I have spent a lot of time in Palestine, as my husband is from there. I met him in Bethlehem in 1987 and we were married in Jerusalem. I have also travelled in Jordan, Lebanon & Israel & am interested in those countries, too (for different reasons).
I have read some of the books mentioned: Out of Place, In Seach of Fatima, I Saw Ramallah & The Lemon Tree. Would enjoy discussing them.
As far as new books to read. These are my choices:

Once Upon A Country
Mornings in Jenin
A Tale of Love and Darkness
Drinking at the Sea in Gaza
Men in the Sun & other Palestinian Stories
Once in a Promised land.

Looking forward to the discussion!
bye for now, Holly

I hhave read A Tale of Love and Darkness is an excellent book! I don't usually read other books by the same author, unless the author is eceptional. There are so many new authors I must read. I felt with Oz I had to read another. Unfortunately the second book felt repetitive of this one. If you are curious about this book and want to taste the author's prose style, here is my GR review: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

Chrissie , you are welcome and I am happy to see around here :)


Holly, woooow , that was verrrrry interesting !we will be looking forward having you with us dauring the discussion too !:)

Ooohhhh....excited about this stop!! Of course, I am still busy at our current port of call. ;-)

All my recommendations are for Young Adult books...anyone interested in those?!

Bernadette, do you know if it's possible for people in the U.S. to get your YA recommendations in Arabic? Marcia had recommended a few to me awhile ago but i have not managed to get my hands on any yet. i need to try again...i didn't have luck with amazon but i need to try harder with Neel wa Furat.

My recommendations are all for books written in English; I don't know if they've been translated into Arabic.

For this region, I would highly recommend anything by Naomi Shihab Nye, but especially Habibi.

There's also Ibtisam Barakat, author of Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood.

Bernadette wrote: "There's also Ibtisam Barakat, author of Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood.'

I agree. That is a good book--it illuminates the 1967 war through the eyes of a child. It's highly readable and short.

Rebecca wrote: "I would really like to read Cry of the Dove :)"

I read Cry of the Dove. The story was good, though I didn't love the way the narrative was structured.

i've read Once Upon a Country: A Palestinian Life and have really wanted to read it alongside A Tale of Love and Darkness.

thanks Bernadette :)

Sould we set the polls now ? any comments before moving on ?

Nile daughter wrote: Should we set the polls now ? any comments before moving on ?"

Sure, let's vote. Please explain the procedure, as I am new to the group. Thanks, Holly

Holly wrote: "Nile daughter wrote: Should we set the polls now ? any comments before moving on ?"

Sure, let's vote. Please explain the procedure, as I am new to the group. Thanks, Holly"

great ,I sent to all members 3 polls' notes , please vote on all or what you want from them :)

So many interesting books. I am looking forward to our next stop. Many of the listed books are available at my library, yippie.

Fantastic list.

I am in a Palestinian/Israeli history and lit reading group and we just finished Anton Shammas' Arabesques which is a gorgeous piece of fiction. Highly recommend!

Currently reading A Tale of Love and Darkness which we will contrast with Sari Nusseibeh's Once Upon a Country.

Nusseibeh has a new book (at least in the US) What is a Palestinian State Worth?

Has anybody read any Suad Amiry? She will be at Palfest.

I just read Nusseibeh's new book. it's interesting because he is in the process of changing his mind a bit about what he thinks can and should happen...but i suppose i should zip it until we have a thread for that! :D

that is excellent that you are going to read Oz's memoir alongside Nusseibeh's. i have wanted to do that myself.

The Oz book is really amazing - a true portrait of an artist and the devestating psychological effects of losing a parent to suicide.

Lauren wrote: "The Oz book is really amazing - a true portrait of an artist and the devestating psychological effects of losing a parent to suicide."

i started it a long time ago and was really enjoying it--but i felt like it deserved my undivided attention and i had too much going on, so i set it aside indefinitely. :(
BUT now here's a perfect opportunity to get back to it....

Natalie and Lauren , I am so glad to read your posts :D

Reminder for everyone
polls will be closed in couple of days , so please vote if you are interested :)

http://www.goodreads.com/poll/list/41...

I'd love to add another book; A Beirut Heart by Cathy Sultan - not an Arabic author though married to a Lebanese man - I enjoyed this book a lot.

Amanda wrote: "I'd love to add another book; A Beirut Heart by Cathy Sultan - not an Arabic author though married to a Lebanese man - I enjoyed this book a lot."

A Beirut Heart: One Woman's WarSounds good , thanks for sharing :)

So , Polls are over , here are the results ; we will be reading Mornings in Jenin , I Saw Ramallah and A Tale of Love and Darkness


As usual the salon will be open for any other books , I see we had voting on almost all books :D

i have all of these books but haven't read them yet! i am very excited about this! :D

I only read (I saw Ramallah) .The amount of books I want to read during this stop is more what I can count !! :p at least I will try to read some more from the poll Palestinian Walks, The Other Side of Israel: My Journey Across the Jewish/Arab Divide , The Story of Zahra: A Novel , and if I am lucky enough I would catch some of the short classics , this stop will drive me crazy !!

Great choices. I am almost done with Oz's book and look forward to the others. Both authors are new to me.

I am reading the Oz and the Nusseibeh for a RL book group - should be a great few months.

Great Lauren :D I see multiple members voted for Nusseibeh's book ,so feel free to discuss it in the Salon if you would like to :)

I might be reading Nusseibeh's book as well. As well as "The Other Side of Israel."

"I saw RamallaH' is not available at my library, but I'm looking forward to reading your comments about it.

Natalie wrote: "I might be reading Nusseibeh's book as well. As well as "The Other Side of Israel."

"I saw RamallaH' is not available at my library, but I'm looking forward to reading your comments about it."

well I own a copy of "The Other Side of Israel." so we can arrange reading it together in June ?

Nile daughter wrote: "Natalie wrote: "I might be reading Nusseibeh's book as well. As well as "The Other Side of Israel."

"I saw RamallaH' is not available at my library, but I'm looking forward to reading your comm..."

Great, I just picked it up at the library today. Looking forward to reading it with you! I'm also gonna get started with Amos Oz.

:) great .

I've only read 1/9th of I saw Ramallah and I'm in love already

VivaPalestina wrote: "I've only read 1/9th of I saw Ramallah and I'm in love already"

Great , I liked that book a lot too, it touched my heart deeply !

I finished the book :D where do we discuss it? :$

We will open a thread soon :)

Ok we started , I saw Ramallah in here and mornings in Jenin in here

And I've just set up the thread for the Amos Oz book.

Some books for consideration as additions to the group shelf.

Dancing Arabs (Israel)

The Cripple (Lebanon/Palestine)

The Year of the Revolutionary New Bread-making Machine (Lebanon)
The School of War (Lebanon)
Yalo (Lebanon)
Ring Around the Rose, a Female in the Middle Eastern Culture (Lebanon)
A Girl made of Dust (Lebanon)

And also the autobiographical graphic novels of Zeina Abirached, documenting her family's joys and troubles in Beirut during the Lebanese civil war. Her works are available in French, Dutch, Italian, but not yet (afaik) in English.

Thanks Okyrohe ! I will come back to add the books :)

Lauren wrote: "Fantastic list.

I am in a Palestinian/Israeli history and lit reading group and we just finished Anton Shammas' Arabesques which is a gorgeous piece of fiction. Highly recommend!

Currently r..."

I missed noticing Arabesques: A Novel, but we will add it the bookshelves, also Sharon and My Mother-in-Law: Ramallah Diaries

I thought this article might be interesting; the Hammas and Fatah have signed an agreement. http://www.economist.com/node/18651931

Natalie wrote: "I thought this article might be interesting; the Hammas and Fatah have signed an agreement. http://www.economist.com/node/18651931"

Let us hope for a better tommorrow :) who knows ...