Middle East/North African Lit discussion

Welcome, June! How many times have you been able to visit Algeria? I'd love to go there someday.

Marieke wrote: "Welcome, June! How many times have you been able to visit Algeria? I'd love to go there someday."
I have been to Algeria twice, but only to Algiers..I'd love to get out into the wider country someday insha'Allah.The people were so welcoming and even though Algiers has a very european feel left over from the days of french rule I still found it exotic and fascinating. My husband jokes I am far more interested in his culture than he is..

Chelsea wrote: "Yay!! Welcome, Tanya. Glad you joined."

Thanks Chelsea (assuming you are talking to me :-) - you are on the ball aren't you!

Hi all, I'm Australian and have enjoyed travelling through parts of the the middle east, and am in love with the cuisine - I've been doing cooking lessons with an Egyption chef in a 'tastes of the middle east' course. Most of the fiction I've read in the region is spy /thriller orientated, but I'm currently enjoying Mornings in Jenin. Looking forward to exploring the region further through literature!

Welcome Tania :D glad you joined us and I hope you will like it here with us ...

BTW , we already discussed Mornings in Jenin in Here , feel free to add any comment , our threads are open for ever :)

Salam Sharifah ,

Glad you joined us and said hi , I hope you will like it here and find discussions that would encourage to read with us .

Did you visit Egypt or Saudi Arabia ?

Sharifah wrote: "Thank you for the welcome, Nile Daughter. I hope to starting reading soon. I used to read all the time but unfortunaely life tends to get in the way :-p

I look forward to seeing everyone's thought..."

Feel free to join any discussion and I hope you will find what you like .

For coming to Egypt last year , I totally understand :(

Welcome Tania and Sharifah! i hope you both find the group fun and interesting. :D

Greetings everyone :)

My name is Saleha. Part of the reason why I was attracted to this group is because I'm half Algerian. It's really nice to see North African literature being explored alongside Middle Eastern. That being said, I have a deep interest in all Middle Eastern and North African culture. They're each so beautiful and unique, with much to learn from.

I'm a new member on Good Reads, but I look forward to checking out the book recommendations being listed and discussed in this group.

Welcome Saleha ,

I hope you will like it here with us . I love Algeria , actually I lived there the first ten years of my life , so I guess I have an Algerian part myself ! :D

BTW, Algeria was the first country we visited in 2011 , you can check the books we discussed if you like , and feel free to join any discussion in the group .

Nile daughter wrote: "Welcome Saleha ,

I hope you will like it here with us . I love Algeria , actually I lived there the first ten years of my life , so I guess I have an Algerian part myself ! :D

BTW, Algeria w..."

Thanks so much Nile Daughter! I definitely look forwards to :) Your travel history sounds very interesting btw :)

Saleha wrote: "Thanks so much Nile Daughter! I definitely look forwards to :) Your travel history sounds very interesting btw :) :..."

You are welcome :) and thanks ; I didn't travel that much at all but that is where my parents were living when I was born :D

Hello everyone. I am a Zartoshti in the US, I quite enjoy reading about the history of my religion along with the cultures that were in contact with us. I am also a linguist, focusing on Iranian language group (Persian, Pashto, Kurdish, Ossetian.) I am currently teaching myself the Avestan language. I am considering Akkadian next, because I love a nice puzzle.

Welcome Clint :) hope you will like it in here :D

Wow, so much discussion over here. I thought I should introduce myself here.

I am Paras, I live in Pakistan and all my interaction with Middle East and Africa has been because of my interest in history. Other than that, I have not read much of literature but I am curious to read and know, which is why I find this group very interesting.

I got introduced to this group on another group by Nile_daughter and Sue. I am very glad that I did and hope to be able to read books with the group. Though, I am finding it hard to obtain many books. lets see how it goes. :)

Welcome Paras :)

I am glad you joined us and I hope you will be able to join and enjoy discussions. History is our target this year , so I hope we will gain rich knowledge :)

Yes I was going through it. I have a question though, are the months divided in to categories of history that is to be read like 1a and 1b in starting 3 months or something like that?

Paras wrote: "Yes I was going through it. I have a question though, are the months divided in to categories of history that is to be read like 1a and 1b in starting 3 months or something like that?"

MENA historical cruise in 12 months:

1- Islamic Empires (The Middle Ages & Early modern period ) (4 months)

1-a - Islamic Empires (7th to 11th century ) / The Middle Ages (2 months)

1-b- Islamic Empires (11th to 19th century )/ Early modern period (2 months)


2- Late Modern history (until mid 20th century ) (4 months)


2-a - ww1 , fall of The Ottoman Empire. (2 months)

2-b- Colonialism , ww2 and independence movements . (2 months)


3- Contemporary history (Post-1945 World) (4 months)


3-a - Arabic -Israeli conflict . (2 months)

3-b – Arab spring (2 months)


In 4 months we read a non-fiction book , and a fiction book for each 2 months .
we only finished (1)

Thanx a lot :)

You are welcome :)

Welcome Saleha, Clint, and Paras! I really love how international our group has become. I hope you all enjoy it here. :D

Hello all!
I'm brand new as well. I'm an American expat currently living in Spain. I took a few years of Arabic back in university as well as few classes on Arab lit and also Arab feminism. I'm a huge Fatima Mernissi fan in particular so I'm excited to see that there is a group read going on right now for one of her books! This an area of the world that has always fascinated me and I'm excited to find this community!

Rebecca wrote: "Hello all!
I'm brand new as well. I'm an American expat currently living in Spain. I took a few years of Arabic back in university as well as few classes on Arab lit and also Arab feminism. I'm a ..."

Welcome, Rebecca ! I'm just a little bit jealous that you live in Spain. :)

Rebecca

أهلاً و سهلاً

I hope you will like it here with us , wow ...it is so great to have a Fatima Mernissi fan in the mean time and I hope you will share your thoughts about her with , I wanted to read for her for a long time , hope it will work this time !!

Hello, everyone. I have always been interested in other cultures other than just my own, being an American. I really love Middle Eastern and North African literature, especially Naguib Mahfouz, Ahdaf Soueif, and Shahriar Mandanipour.

Welcome Julie , I hope you will like it in here :)

Wow , you read for Naguib Mahfouz and Ahdaf Soueif , what did you read ?

Based on Julie's and Nile daughter's comments I looked up Ahdaf Soueif and want to read some of hers. I started "I saw Ramallah" (which she translated) but put it down without finishing, just because I do that so often. I'm definitely going to look into her writing. Thanks to both of you.

Julie, I'm an American living in the Middle East and have also always been interested in other cultures. For a long time it was Latin American cultures, now, being here, it's Arab cultures I want to know more about.

Rebecca I am just about to read Merniss's Scheherazade. I hope you'll chime in.

Kate , I hope we will be able to have one of Ahdaf Soueif's books as a group read this year , we had a side discussion for The Map of Love in the salon (individual reads) last year .

I second Lauren and I wish to see more interaction in Merniss's Scheherazade discussion .

That would be great (Ahdaf Soueif). I'm seeing her name everywhere now that I've looked her up. Definitely want to read something by her, but I definitely want to read so many things and never seem to get to finish or even start them.

I feel a little like I'm in a candy shop and I want to taste everything but can't. Sorry about the Scheherazade discussion! I can't find many of the books I want here in Abu Dhabi. Am actually going to Beirut tomorrow with the intention of buying myself a thousand and one books.

Kate wrote: "That would be great (Ahdaf Soueif). I'm seeing her name everywhere now that I've looked her up. Definitely want to read something by her, but I definitely want to read so many things and never seem..."

:) Good luck , tell us about what you get when you are back .

Hey everyone! I've recently come across this site, and I wish I had found it sooner. Now that I've graduated from college, I have a lot more time for reading what I want :)
I majored in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures; so, like many of you, I'm hoping to discover more books in this group to supplement my familiarity with the Middle East and North Africa. I spent 3 months in Amman, Jordan to study Arabic (and from there, spent a weekend in Cairo and Beirut, and a week in Turkey). This summer I'm traveling to Morocco for a government language program, and then off to Marseille, France, to study North African immigration (as well as to get better in French!). Needless to say, these cultures are constantly on my mind, so having a great resource like this group is wonderful!

Welcome Suzie ...

Wow ! what an introduction :D I hope you will like it here with us .

Nile daughter wrote:
:) Good luck , tell us about what you get when you are back .

Well, I'm back and had a great time visiting bookstores and publishers in Beirut. I bought about 18 books, but did not find everything I hoped to find. I did more reading while there than I usually have time for. Okay, some titles I came home with:

Always Coca Cola (which I read in Beirut)
Lebanon Through Writers' Eyes
Leaving Beirut / Mai Ghoussoub
Another Gulmohar Tree / Aamer Hussein
Qissat: short stories by Palestinian Women / ed. by Jo Glanville
Hikayat: short stories by Lebanese Women / ed by Roseanne Saad Khalaf
Shumasi / Turki Al-Hamad (I have read Adama)
The Hakawati / Rabih Alameddine
As Though She Were Sleeping / Elias Khoury, trans by Humphrey Davies
Arabic Literature: Postmodern Perspectives
I Think of You / Ahdaf Soueif (I found something by her!)
The Myrtle Tree / Jad El Hage
Food, Farming, and Freedom: Sowing the Arab Spring / Rami Zurayk (this was a surprise find, I'm interested food and agriculture as a political statement)

Hmmm, how do I cause these to be listed? I will edit it when I know.

Not jealous, not jealous at all. :)

Kate , wow !

I will come back and see what I can add to the bookshelves , what do you mean by list them ?

Btw , I hope you spent nice time there ;)

Lauren wrote: "Not jealous, not jealous at all. :)"

lol :D :D

Kate wrote: "Nile daughter wrote:
:) Good luck , tell us about what you get when you are back .

Well, I'm back and had a great time visiting bookstores and publishers in Beirut. I bought about 18 books, but d..."

I finished adding your books , you made our Lebanon shelf richer :D

When you finish Food, Farming, and Freedom , tell me about it . BTW , I read I Think of You: Storiesand I hope you will like Ahdaf .

Hi Nile daughter, I read most of I Think of You and am liking it except for the very first story which was reminiscing about her childhood.

I've been enjoying Hikayat: short stories by Lebanese Women. I like the way the editor introduced the authors and have really liked most of the stories, REALLY liked. I want to look up other works by the authors. This is exactly why I like good collections of short stories.

I'll write a review or blurb of some kind when I get to the Food, Farming, and Freedom book.

Kate wrote: "Hi Nile daughter, I read most of I Think of You and am liking it except for the very first story which was reminiscing about her childhood.

I've been enjoying Hikayat: short stories by Lebanese W..."

Good to hear that you are enjoying your reading .

for I Think of You: Stories it is a mixed collection of Aisha and Sandpiper , taht what annoyed me about it . some short stories in it (with Asya as heroine) are detailed parts of In the Eye of the Sun, I enjoyed reading them .

Hello,
We are Halban Publishers, an independent, London-based publishing company, established in 1986.
We publish fiction, memoirs, history, biography, books on the Middle East and of Jewish interest. We published Sagheer Afzal's The Reluctant Mullah, and hope that you will take time to explore our other books and come back regularly for the latest reviews and upcoming events.
http://www.halbanpublishers.com/index...

Hi, I'm Ardene, living in the US. I'm joining in on the [Napthalene] read. I bought the book a few years ago, but didn't finish it and don't remember a lot about it. I'm hoping with a group of people to discuss it with that I'll finish it this time.

I seem to be on a Middle Eastern/North African kick this month, since I recently finished [The map of love] by [Ahdaf Soueif] (loved her writing). I'm also checking out [Segu] by [Maryse Conde] and browsing [One thousand roads to Mecca], edited by [Michael Wolfe]. (As you can see, I can't seem to just pick up one book at a time to read.)

I love Conde. A favorite book of hers is I Tituba, Black Witch of Salem.

Hi Ardene! I looooved Segu. I am anxious to read more Conde but haven't managed it yet.

Welcome Ardene :) I love your enthusiasm !

By the way , I loved "The map of love" , one of my favorites .

Hi All,

I am Ahmad Ardalan, author of the novel The Clout Of Gen, My 1st fictional Novel.

For more info visit my blog:

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...

Thanks
Ahmad

Welcome Ahmed :) I hope you will like it here with us .

Nile daughter wrote: "Welcome Julie , I hope you will like it in here :)

Wow , you read for Naguib Mahfouz and Ahdaf Soueif , what did you read ?"

Sorry, I missed this. I love the Cairo Trilogy by Mahfouz. His characater development is unrivalled. His characters will haunt me all my life.
Ahdaf Soueif: I wish I had found her before. I am a regular reader of the Guardian, and she's regularly featured there, so I decided to read one of her books. Map of Love won Booker, so I started there. I picked it up and couldn't put it down. I've read it so many times. It's hard to believe that she's not more well known. She's divine, and she has her 'gods' or larger than life men that I adore.

Kate wrote: "Based on Julie's and Nile daughter's comments I looked up Ahdaf Soueif and want to read some of hers. I started "I saw Ramallah" (which she translated) but put it down without finishing, just becau..."

Hi, Kate. I love Map of Love the best. But I do like In the Eye of the Sun, too.

Welcome again Nuuuuur :) I love your comment and I hope you will be around for "the map of love " discussion next month .

Nile daughter wrote: "Welcome again Nuuuuur :) I love your comment and I hope you will be around for "the map of love " discussion next month ."

I'll make sure to stay tuned. :)

Hello Goodreads ME/NA Lit,
My name is Angela, I have not had the time till up to now to formally introduce myself. I have 3 children and 4 Grandaughters, also work at a Bookstore here in the States. One of my favorite subjects is the Middle East. I have been able to go to Jordan 2x's and Israel 5xs. I would love to go to Iran someday if it were all possible. My son's best friend it Persian they have a band, my son Peter plays Drums, Tofun plays Guitar. Thanks for having me.