SJPL Picks: Reading Arab American Heritage MonthLike this list

30 items

• Dearborn

  Stories

  Zeineddine, Ghassan,

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  Spanning several decades, Ghassan Zeineddine's debut collection examines the diverse range and complexities of the Arab American community in Dearborn, Michigan. In ten tragicomic stories, Zeineddine explores themes of identity,…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Stardust Thief

  Abdullah, Chelsea,

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  "Loulie al-Nazari is the Midnight Merchant: a criminal who, with the help of her jinn bodyguard, hunts and sells illegal magic. When she saves the life of a cowardly prince, she draws the attention of his powerful father, the sultan, who…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Bride of the Sea

  a Novel

  Quotah, Eman,

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  "During a snowy Cleveland February, newlyweds Muneer and Saeedah are starting their lives in America and expecting their first child. But Muneer harbors a secret: the word divorce has begun whispering itself in his ear. Soon, their…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Wild Fox of Yemen

  Poems

  Almontaser, Threa,

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  "By turns aggressively reckless and fiercely protective, always guided by faith and ancestry, Threa Almontaser's incendiary debut asks how mistranslation can be a form of self-knowledge and survival. A love letter to the country and people…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Home I Worked to Make

  Voices From the New Syrian Diaspora

  Pearlman, Wendy,

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  War forced millions of Syrians from their homes. It also forced them to rethink the meaning of home itself. In 2011, Syrians took to the streets demanding freedom. Brutal government repression transformed peaceful protests into one of the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Learning America

  One Woman's Fight for Educational Justice for Refugee Children

  Mufleh, Luma,

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  "It was a wrong turn that changed everything. When Luma Mufleh--a Muslim, gay, refugee woman from hyper-conservative Jordan--stumbled upon a pick-up game of soccer in Clarkston, Georgia, something compelled her to join. The players, 11-…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Behind You Is the Sea

  a Novel

  Darraj, Susan Muaddi,

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  Their various fates and struggles cause their community dynamic to sizzle and sometimes explode: The wealthy Ammar family employs young Maysoon Baladi, whose family struggles financially, to clean up after their spoiled teenagers.…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Between Two Moons

  a Novel

  Abdel Gawad, Aisha,

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  A deeply moving family story about identity, faith, and belonging set in the Muslim immigrant enclave of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn following three siblings coming of age over the course of one Ramadan. It's the holy month of Ramadan, and twin…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Skin and Its Girl

  a Novel

  Cypher, Sarah,

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  A young, queer Palestinian American woman pieces together her great-aunt's secrets in this sweeping debut, a family saga confronting questions of sexual identity, exile, and lineage. In a Pacific Northwest hospital far from the Rummani…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Ghost Season

  a Novel

  Abbas, Fatin,

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  A mysterious burnt corpse appears one morning in Saraaya, a remote border town between northern and southern Sudan. For five strangers on an NGO compound, the discovery foreshadows trouble to come. South Sudanese translator William…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Traces of Enayat

  Mirsāl, Īmān,

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  Cairo, 1963: four years before her lone novel is finally published, the writer Enayat al-Zayyat takes her own life at age 27. For the next three decades, it's as if Enayat never existed at all. Years, later, when celebrated Egyptian poet…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Hijab Butch Blues

  a Memoir

  H, Lamya,

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  Fourteen years old and growing up in the Middle East, Lamya is an overachiever and a class clown, qualities that help her hide in plain sight when she realizes she has a crush on her teacher-her female teacher. She's also fourteen when she…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Evil Eye

  a Novel

  Rum, Etaf,

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  Raised in a conservative and emotionally volatile Palestinian family in Brooklyn, Yara thought she would finally feel free when she married a charming entrepreneur who took her to the suburbs. She’s gotten to follow her dreams, completing…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Call Me American

  a Memoir

  Iftin, Abdi Nor,

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  Abdi Nor Iftin was forced to flee his homeland when al-Shabaab rose to power, and won entrance to the US in a visa lottery. His memoir is a vivid reminder of why America still beckons to those still looking to make a better life.

• The Duke Gets Desperate

  Quincy, Diana,

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  ...a steamy affair between an Arab-American woman who inherits a run-down castle in the English countryside and the duke who asserts the castle is his, in the first book in a brand-new Victorian historical romance series. Anthony Cary,…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• If An Egyptian Cannot Speak English

  a Novel

  Naga, Noor,

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  In the aftermath of the Arab Spring, an Egyptian American woman and a man from the village of Shobrakheit meet at a café in Cairo. He was a photographer of the revolution, but now finds himself unemployed and addicted to cocaine, living in…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Arsonists' City

  Alyan, Hala, 1986-

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  The Nasr family is spread across the globe--Beirut, Brooklyn, Austin, the California desert. A Syrian mother, a Lebanese father, and three American children: all have lived a life of migration. Still, they've always had their ancestral…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• An Unlasting Home

  a Novel

  Al-Nakib, Mai, 1970-

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  In 2013, Sara is a philosophy professor at Kuwait University, having returned to Kuwait from Berkeley in the wake of her mother's sudden death eleven years earlier. Her main companions are her grandmother's talking parrot, Bebe Mitu; the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• No Land to Light on

  a Novel

  Zgheib, Yara,

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  A young Syrian couple awaiting the birth of their son, Hadi and Sama dream of their life together until Hadi’s father dies suddenly in Jordan, and Hadi, after attending the funeral, is detained for questioning and becomes trapped in a…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Fencing With the King

  a Novel

  Abu-Jaber, Diana,

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  Amani is hooked on a mystery—a poem on airmail paper that slips out of one of her father's books. It seems to have been written by her grandmother, a refugee who arrived in Jordan during the First World War. Soon the perfect occasion to…Read moreRead more of this annotation