It's Ramadan... I'm eating food when the sun goes down, but during the day I'm devouring books. Yesterday I read 'Water for Elephants'. It was interesting but not something that I'd read again. Today I started 'Eat, pray, love'. I'm on the first part... eat... maybe this one's not a good idea for Ramadan - the author eats her way through Italy in the beginning of the book. I'm going to suggest to the girls that we have pizza and pasta for our fast-breaking meal.
It is a spiritual month after all, so of course I'm reading Islamic things too - Quran being number one on the list.
And while I was poking around on the internet, looking for books to download, I came across a whole bunch of books about the miserable life of women in Islamic countries. The other day I read 'I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced' about a Yemeni girl from an impoverished family who had been forced to marry at age 9 or 10 (there is no real record of her birth). If you look on Amazon at the page for the I am Nujood book and scroll down the page to where you find Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought you'll see a line-up of books about poor, abused women in Arab/Islamic countries. I was quite surprised to see so many of them.
So, now I have a question for you ...... Have you read anything good lately?
Saturday, August 14, 2010
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After living in Libya for twenty-six years you would think my Arabic would be perfect, but it is far, far, far from that. I do get my point ... -
In my last post I wrote about how I felt on the first day of my arrival back to Libya after a month's absence. I said it was dirtier and...
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The rains have finally come, accompanied by lightening and thunder. The weather is cooler and the dust has settled. We'll see how treac...
Ramadan kareem Khadija.
ReplyDeleteI am not a fan of reading, but I have read amazing books by Daniel Tammet earlier this year (really loved them):
-Born On A Blue Day (maybe my favorite book ever)
- Embracing the Wide Sky (his first one, quite touching and not a bad first book)
I am currently finishing "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind" by William Kamkwamba, which is really inspiring considering this boy's accomplishment in such rudimentary and harsh living conditions (reminds me not to find excuses not to be able to do things or come up with ideas...).
For books about Islamic women I love the whole Princess trilogy about life as a Saudi princess by Jean Sasson. I would never have read it on my own because the cover was so melodramatic but a friend convinced me to read it and I loved it. The rest of my friends still make fun of me for reading it though. Author Jean Sasson specializes in writing about Islamic women's lives.
ReplyDeleteFor a real life Islamic woman's life perspective, I recommend all the books by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. My goodness, that lady has solid brass ovaries. She isn't scared of anything! Time Magazine chose her as one of the 100 most influential people on the planet.
Loving biographies and autobiographies, and this book has been out awhile, but I can't recommend "The Glass Castle" enough. The author grew up to be a functional adult, but it's hard to see how - so dysfunctional and neglectful were her parents. An amazing read about people who weren't really into parenting all that much.
"Nine Parts of Desire" by Geraldine Brooks is a pretty good book, too. It does deal with Arab and Muslim women, and is a relatively positive book about her "struggle" to understand the women of the region. She's also written several other books, both fiction and non-fiction. http://www.geraldinebrooks.com/index.html -- that's a link to her website.
ReplyDeleteShe's married to Tony Horwitz, the author of the book, "Baghdad Without a Map," a pretty humorous look at his travels around the region. I believe this is the one that briefly mentions Libya though perhaps not in the best of light.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI know this is a bit late, but if you're reading Eat, Pray, Love; I might suggest "The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake" about a girl who can sense the feeling of the person who cooked what she ate. I haven't read it yet, but I think it's really good.
For a more darker read, I just finished reading Her Fearful Symmetry. The book is about sisters, life, death, and after death...
Hope that helps! Ramadan Kareem!
Ramadan Mubarek!
ReplyDeleteHave you read any book by the Algerian writer Yasmina Khadra?
My favorites are "The sirens of Baghdad" and "The attack".