Don't Miss Lists and Other Reading Resources

Understanding the Middle East

See also Books for Children and Teens

Nonfiction

• Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate. Leila Ahmed. 1992.
  This survey examines the historical roots and contemporary condition of Islamic discourse on gender.
• The Battle for God. Karen Armstrong. 2000.
  Armstrong delves into the often violent histories of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, exploring the rise of fundamentalist enclaves in all three religions.
• Scars of War, Wounds of Peace: The Israeli-Arab Tragedy. Shlomo Ben-Ami. 2006.
  Former Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami offers an unflinching account of the Arab-Israeli conflict, informed by his firsthand knowledge of the major characters and events.
• What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam. John L. Esposito. 2002.
  Written in question-and-answer format, Esposito provides succinct, accessible, sensitive, and even-handed answers to questions general and specific about Islamic faith, customs, and political beliefs.
• Shattering the Stereotypes : Muslim Women Speak Out. Fawzial Afzal-Khan. 2005.
  Muslim women writers and scholars from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds offer their own representations of Muslim women in their essays, poems, journalism, religious discourses, fiction, and plays.
• A History of the Arab Peoples. Albert Habib Hourani and Malise Ruthven. 2002
  An updated edition of the bestseller, considered the definitive story of Arab civilization.
• Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope. Shirin 'Ibadi. 2006.
  A vivid memoir of the struggles of one woman against the system, by the winner of the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize.
• The Middle East: A Brief History of the Last 2,000 Years. Bernard Lewis. 1995.
  The most comprehensive single volume history of the region ever written from the world's foremost authority on the Middle East.
• Teta, Mother, and Me: Three Generations of Arab Women. Jean Said Makdisi. 2006.
  Makdisi highlights the lives and struggles of middle-class Arab women in the Middle East and the US throughout the 20th century.
• The One and the Many:  America's Struggle for the Common Good. Martin E. Marty. 1997.
  A judicious account of how our body politic has been torn between the imperative of one one nation undivided and the separate urgings of distinct identities.
• When Faiths Collide. Martin E. Marty. 2005.
  Tackling people's fears of religious pluralism, the author demonstrates that citizens, religions, and identities can in fact survive in radically pluralist settings.
• Seen and Heard: A Century of Arab Women in Literature and Culture. Mona Mikhail. 2004.
  Twelve essays written by Mikhail or translated by her from other Arabic writers consider images of Arab women in literature, film, and popular culture.
• A Thousand Barrels a Second: The Coming Oil Break Point and the Challenges Facing an Energy Dependent World. Peter Tertzakian. 2006.
  An informed and compelling look at how the world's dizzying consumption of oil is poised to forever change the world's economies and businesses.
• The Israel-Arab Reader: A Documentary History of the Middle East Conflict. Walter Laqueur and Barry Rubin. 2001.
  A thorough and up-to-date guide to the continuing crisis in the Middle East.

Memoirs

• Persepolis. Marjane Satrapi. 2003.
  A wise, funny, and heartbreaking memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution, presented in powerful black-and-white comic strip images. In Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return (2004), Satrapi continues her story into her teenage years.
• Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books. Azar Nafisi. 2003.
  Every Thursday morning for two years in the Islamic Republic of Iran, a bold and inspired teacher named Azar Nafisi secretly gathered seven of her most committed female students to read forbidden Western classics. In this extraordinary memoir, their stories become intertwined with the ones they are reading.
• Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil. Deborah Rodriguez. 2007.
  Chronicles the author's efforts to help establish Afghanistan's first modern beauty school and training salon; along with music and kite-flying, hairdressing had been banned under the previous regime.

Fiction

• Sweetness in the Belly. Camilla Gibb. 2006.
• Snow. Orhan Pamuk. 2004.
• The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf. Mohja Kahf. 2006.
• Children of the Alley. Najib Mahfuz. 1996.