Download or read book The Blue Between Sky and Water written by Susan Abulhawa and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2015-09-01 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Een Palestijnse jongen die lijdt aan het locked-in-syndroom, groeit op in de Gazastrook waar zijn familie al generaties lang belaagd wordt.
Download or read book From Here written by Luma Mufleh and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2024-05-21 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In her coming-of-age memoir, refugee advocate Luma Mufleh writes of her tumultuous journey to reconcile her identity as a gay Muslim woman and a proud Arab-turned-American refugee. Now in paperback. With no word for “gay” in Arabic, Luma may not have known what to call the feelings she had growing up in Jordan during the 1980s, but she knew well enough to keep them secret. It was clear that not only would her family have trouble accepting her, but trapped in a conservative religious society, she could’ve also been killed if anyone discovered her sexuality. Luma spent her teenage years increasingly desperate to find a way out, and finally found one when she was accepted into college in the United States. Once there, Luma begins the agonizing process of applying for political asylum, which ensures her safety—but causes her family to break ties with her. Becoming a refugee in America is a rude awakening, and Luma must rely on the grace of friends and strangers alike as she builds a new life and finally embraces her full self. Slowly, she’s able to forge a new path forward with both her biological and chosen families, eventually founding Fugees Family, a nonprofit dedicated to the education and support of refugee children in the United States. As hopeful as it is heartrending, From Here is a coming-of-age memoir about one young woman’s search for belonging and the many meanings of home for those who must leave theirs.
Download or read book Daily Fare written by Kathleen Aguero and published by University of Georgia Press. This book was released on 1993 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Daily Fare presents seventeen artfully crafted essays in which writers representing a broad spectrum of the American experience ponder the meaning of living in a nation of diverse and competing cultures. Consistently thought-provoking and often intensely personal, these pieces confront such themes as the question of identity, the individual's relation to culture, problems of communication, and the need to strike a balance between preserving traditions and merging them. Memories both tender and painful fill these pages. Toi Derricotte, recalling her experiences as the only black person at an artist colony, often found her sense of isolation almost unbearable: "No one can help. Only I, myself. But how can I let go? My face is a mask, like Uncle Tom's, my heart twisted in rage and fear." In "The Death of Fred Astaire," Leslie Lawrence reflects on the difficult decisions that led to her becoming a lesbian mother and the mix of emotions--apprehension, maternal longing, and, finally, joyous fulfillment--that accompanied her choices. In "Kubota," Garrett Hongo describes how his grandfather enjoined him to learn and to give witness to the injustices committed against Japanese Americans by their own government during World War II; Hongo accepts this responsibility as "a ritual payment the young owe their elders who have survived." Several bilingual essayists contemplate their relationship to the English language--a language that can empower its users or deny them access to the dominant culture. For Judith Ortiz Cofer, reading books from the public library as a child gave her a sense of freedom as well as her first intimations of the writing career she would later pursue. Alberto Alvaro Rios, however, reminds us that learning English in the first grade also meant being punished for using Spanish: "Spanish was bad. Okay. We, then, must be bad kids." Still other essays explore what it means to confront the confusions of a plural family heritage or to be a black artist from a Catholic background when so much of black culture is tied to the Protestant tradition. "Despite the current interest in multiculturalism," Kathleen Aguero observes, "the notion of culture in the United States today is too often synonymous with predominantly white, male, heterosexual, upper-class, Eurocentric interests." In bringing together writers from beyond this tradition, Daily Fare provides a valuable perspective on our current moment in history. As Jack Agueros, summing up both the dilemma and the pleasure of our society's diversity, writes, "It's hard and wasteful to be purely ethnic in America--definitely wasteful to be totally assimilated."
Download or read book Palestine written by George Baramki Azar and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1991-01-01 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An unforgettable photographic journal of the "shadows" of the Arab world--at turns invisible, unknown, and threatening to some--this work gathers images of the Palestinians during the first few months of 1988 when the intifada was beginning to gain momentum. We have come to visually associate the terms "intifada" and "Palestinian" solely with images of young men wrapped in kafiyyehs hurling rocks at Israeli soldiers. The photos gathered here are different. They grant us the rare opportunity to see facets of the Palestinians not portrayed in the popular media: the beauty of the land, the life of the sheepherders, the joy of the children, the quiet defiance of the elders, the dignity they all salvage. From 1981 to 1987 George Azar chronicled the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the destruction of the U.S. Marine compound, the civil insurrection in West Beirut, the Iran-Iraq War and the interfactional war among the Palestinians in North Lebanon. He saw gun battles and deaths so numerous that his memory of them has become a blur. Leaving the horror of Beirut, Damour, and Tripoli behind, he resisted the thought of going back. But in early January 1988, news reports showed the people of the refugee camps, the villages, and the towns in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip taking to the streets. He returned to the occupied territories later that month and began taking these pictures. This book bears witness to Palestinian lives and by doing so gives the Other a human face. The texts that accompany the photographs are taken from eyewitness testimonies, open letters, news clippings, interviews, and Arabic poetry. An introductory essay by Ann M. Lesch describes the genesis of the intifada movement and its interactions with the Israeli government. Despite death, deportation, and the destruction of their homes, the Palestinians remain steadfast, convinced that one day the horror of military occupation will end and they will be able to live once again. This work is a testament to that conviction.
Download or read book The Buried and the Bound written by Rochelle Hassan and published by Roaring Brook Press. This book was released on 2023-01-24 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A contemporary fantasy YA debut from Rochelle Hassan about monsters, magic, and wicked fae, perfect for fans of The Darkest Part of the Forest and The Hazel Wood. As the only hedgewitch in Blackthorn, Massachusetts—an uncommonly magical place—Aziza El-Amin has bargained with wood nymphs, rescued palm-sized fairies from house cats, banished flesh-eating shadows from the local park. But when a dark entity awakens in the forest outside of town, eroding the invisible boundary between the human world and fairyland, run-of-the-mill fae mischief turns into outright aggression, and the danger—to herself and others—becomes too great for her to handle alone. Leo Merritt is no stranger to magical catastrophes. On his sixteenth birthday, a dormant curse kicked in and ripped away all his memories of his true love. A miserable year has passed since then. He's road-tripped up and down the East Coast looking for a way to get his memories back and hit one dead end after another. He doesn't even know his true love's name, but he feels the absence in his life, and it's haunting. Desperate for answers, he makes a pact with Aziza: he’ll provide much-needed backup on her nightly patrols, and in exchange, she’ll help him break the curse. When the creature in the woods sets its sights on them, their survival depends on the aid of a mysterious young necromancer they’re not certain they can trust. But they’ll have to work together to eradicate the new threat and take back their hometown... even if it forces them to uncover deeply buried secrets and make devastating sacrifices.
Download or read book Lifted by the Great Nothing written by Karim Dimechkie and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2015-05-19 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Max doesn't remember his mother, who was murdered by burglars before they emigrated from Beirut to New Jersey. He lives with his father, Rasheed, who is enamored of his concept of American culture--baseball and barbeques--and tries to shed his Lebanese heritage completely. "When we are in America," Reed (for he goes by Reed in America, not Rasheed) tells Max, "we are Americans." Rasheed has a single purpose in life: to provide Max with a joyful childhood. He showers his son with gifts out of a belief that he deserves all and is capable of anything. Max wants nothing more than to convince his father that he is a successful single parent. The only thing that can disrupt their peaceful universe is the truth--which it does, with force. When Max turns seventeen, he learns from Rasheed's ex-girlfriend that his father has been lying to him. Max's understanding of the world is so rocked that he is subsequently launched on an uncertain mission to Beirut and then Paris. Lifted by the Great Nothing is a startlingly graceful, and often hilarious, coming-of-age story about the lengths we go to preserve the untruths we live by. With its poignant relationships, unsettling misadventures, and surprising love stories, it is a touching and devastating portrait of a young man coming to terms with his country's--and his own--violent past.
Download or read book A Train to Timbuktu written by Said Alsalah and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2010-02-05 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The saffron-colored sky, laden with biting grains of sand, was beginning to yield to a more hospitable blue. Silence prevailed in the harsh desert surroundings the stranded railway coach. The dusty and the violent north wind, which had been lashing the sides of the coach was abating gradually into a fresh breeze playing with the branches of a few date trees, several meters far from the coach. Manira opened the window of the toilet and looked outside at the empty silent desert. She felt herself as an outcast, in the middle of uncharted location, with nothing to see except rugged masses of marble rocks jetting out of the sands here and there, among gigantic sand dunes that extend till the edge of the towering mountains far in the horizon. The conductor stepped down from the car followed by Baron. Both scanned the desert surrounding to explore if there is a sign of life around. But there was absolutely nothing except few rocky hills with the empty railway line coiling its way around the rocky hills till the horizon. Luckily the separated coach stopped few meters away from an area with scattered date trees, which broke the monotony of the one yellow color of sands and rocks. “We are in deep, deep trouble. The conductor said looking at Baron, then he added with a tone of anger: “It’s your fault that we are stranded here in the middle of nowhere. Had you listened to me, we would be in that traveling train. Not in this abandoned coach. Infuriated by the conductor’s belligerent redundancy, Baron shouted: “You have the audacity to twist facts? Why did you call us out of this coach? Admit it. You are part of it. Everything was preplanned, and you knew that this rear coach would be detached from the train. The plan is to get rid of the mentally ill children!.. Am I right? What kind of a brutal scheme to abandon those illusioned and indisposed children to perish in the desert? Was it because there is a deficit in the budget of the institution of the mentally ill? Is it devilish plan invented to waste and bury them in the desert and then to be declared as a train freak accident. A good pretext to get rid of them? You thought you fooled me? You think I believe your innocence?.. It is an obvious premeditated
Download or read book Looking for Palestine written by Najla Said and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2014-09-02 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A frank and entertaining memoir—from the daughter of Edward Said—now in paperback. The daughter of the famous intellectual and outspoken Palestinian advocate Edward Said and a sophisticated Lebanese mother, Najla Said grew up in New York City, confused and conflicted about her cultural background and identity. Said knew that her parents identified deeply with their homelands, but growing up in a Manhattan world that was defined largely by class and conformity, she felt unsure about who she was supposed to be, and was often in denial of the differences she sensed between her family and those around her. She may have been born a Palestinian Lebanese American, but Said denied her true roots, even to herself—until, ultimately, the psychological toll of her self-hatred began to threaten her health. As she grew older, she eventually came to see herself, her passions, and her identity more clearly. Today she is a voice for second-generation Arab Americans nationwide.
Download or read book How I Achieved My Dream 2nd Edition written by Karim Wade Nasser and published by University of Saskatchewan. This book was released on 2014-05-01 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the story of a boy growing into manhood and also into the realization of the fundamental importance of individual freedom. It is set in the beautiful country of Lebanon before and during the Depression and World War II and presents a detailed and fascinating account of life in a time and place which no longer exists. We first meet Karim at his school recital, singing about the beauty of a meadowlark’s life in the forest, despite its danger, as opposed to the deadliness of a secure life in a gilded cage. We follow Karim through his daily life, meet his family and come to understand the constraints against which he must struggle to find his own freedom.
Download or read book Driven by Destiny written by Desi Daasi and published by Desi Daasi. This book was released on 2013-09-18 with total page 87 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two civilizations confront each other on the banks of the River Indus in 7th century India. Their world views could not be more different. One is an ancient civilization with many esoteric rituals and beliefs that have evolved over thousands of years. The other is less than hundred years old with a singular belief in the supremacy of its one true God. One has a glorious past but an uncertain future. The other's future is filled with promise and opportunities. One is polytheistic, and extols pluralism. The other is ardently monotheistic and insists on submission to the one true faith. These world views are irreconcilable and in the 7th century there is only one way to harmonize such disparate viewpoints. War. War is ugly. It is costly. It destroys people's humanity and wrecks vengeance on the innocent. Yet it is also a crucible for change and provides an opportunity for a fresh start. Under its intense pressure a piece of coal can turn into a diamond. The result of this war, will forever alter the history of this subcontinent and inexorably change the lives of two people. On one side of this conflict is a beautiful princess. Her grace, charm, beauty and kindness make her the darling of her kingdom. Her innocent demeanor and spirit of service bring warmth to her subjects hearts. Every prince in the surrounding kingdoms has dreamed of winning her hand in marriage. Yet she has a dark past and pursues an improbable dream. She yearns for a certain kind of soul mate, one who has been foretold to complete her spiritually, a strong dominant stranger who will release her dormant submissiveness so she may fulfill her destiny. She has waited patiently for four years and prayed everyday for him. Riding on the wings of this calamitous war a stranger approaches. Will he fulfill the princess's destiny? Or will he be an usurper who rapes and pillages his way into the forgotten pages of history. Can he temper his dominance with justice and compassion or will power corrupt him completely? Will he see the humanity of "the other" or are they just pawns in his game of domination. Will history recognize him as "The Protector" or despise him as "The Annihilator"?
Download or read book The Arsonists City written by Hala Alyan and published by Houghton Mifflin. This book was released on 2021 with total page 467 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Arsonists' City delivers all the pleasures of a good old-fashioned saga, but in Alyan's hands, one family's tale becomes the story of a nation--Lebanon and Syria, yes, but also the United States. It's the kind of book we are lucky to have."--Rumaan Alam A rich family story, a personal look at the legacy of war in the Middle East, and an indelible rendering of how we hold on to the people and places we call home 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 home in Beirut--a constant touchstone--and the complicated, messy family love that binds them. But following his father's recent death, Idris, the family's new patriarch, has decided to sell. The decision brings the family to Beirut, where everyone unites against Idris in a fight to save the house. They all have secrets--lost loves, bitter jealousies, abandoned passions, deep-set shame--that distance has helped smother. But in a city smoldering with the legacy of war, an ongoing flow of refugees, religious tension, and political protest, those secrets ignite, imperiling the fragile ties that hold this family together. In a novel teeming with wisdom, warmth, and characters born of remarkable human insight, award-winning author Hala Alyan shows us again that "fiction is often the best filter for the real world around us" (NPR).
Download or read book Darfur written by Julie Flint and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2008-10-15 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written by two authors with unparalleled first-hand experience of Darfur, this is the definitive guide. Newly updated and hugely expanded, this edition details Darfur's history in Sudan. It traces the origins, organization and ideology of the infamous Janjawiid and rebel groups, including the Sudan Liberation Army and the Justice and Equality Movement. It also analyses the brutal response of the Sudanese government. The authors investigate the responses by the African Union and the international community, including the halting peace talks and the attempts at peacekeeping. Flint and de Waal provide an authoritative and compelling account of contemporary Africa's most controversial conflict.
Download or read book Escape from Aleppo written by N. H. Senzai and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2020-06-09 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After Nadia is separated from her family while fleeing the civil war, she spends the next four days with a mysterious old man who helps her navigate the checkpoints and snipers of the rebel, ISIS, and Syrian armies that are littering Aleppo on her way to meeting her father at the Turkish border.
Download or read book Kill Alex Cross written by James Patterson and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2011-11-14 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With relentless danger around every corner, Detective Alex Cross is hunting down a kidnapper . . . but only if someone powerful doesn't kill him first. The President's son and daughter are abducted, and Detective Alex Cross is one of the first on the scene. But someone very high-up is using the FBI, Secret Service, and CIA to keep him off the case and in the dark. A deadly contagion in the water supply cripples half of the capital, and Alex discovers that someone may be about to unleash the most devastating attack the United States has ever experienced. As his window for solving both crimes narrows, Alex makes a desperate decision that goes against everything he believes-one that may alter the fate of the entire country. Kill Alex Cross is fast, exciting, and tightly wound, full of "fast-and-furious action" (Washington Post).
Download or read book The Summer Queen written by Rochelle Hassan and published by Roaring Brook Press. This book was released on 2024-01-23 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This captivating sequel to The Buried and the Bound draws readers into the twisted and irresistible world of the Fair Folk—perfect for fans of The Cruel Prince and The Hazel Wood. As a new coven, Aziza, Leo, and Tristan faced evil and triumphed. All that’s left is to put their lives back together, a process complicated by the fallout from painful secrets, the emotional and physical scars they now carry, and the mysteries that still haunt them. But with the approach of the solstice comes the arrival of strange new visitors to Blackthorn: the Summer Court, a nomadic community of Fair Folk from deep in Elphame. They’ve journeyed to the border between the human world and fairyland, far from their usual caravan route, to take back something that belongs to them—something Leo’s not willing to lose. Refusing to give up without a fight, he makes a risky deal with the Summer Court’s princess and regent. The challenge she proposes sends Coven Blackthorn into the farthest, wildest reaches of Elphame. But when you play games with the Fair Folk, even winning has a cost.
Download or read book Enter Ghost written by Isabella Hammad and published by Grove Press. This book was released on 2023-04-04 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Isabella Hammad is a master of subtle nuance.” — New York Times After years away from her family’s homeland, and reeling from a disastrous love affair, actress Sonia Nasir returns to Haifa to visit her older sister Haneen. This is her first trip back since the second intifada and the deaths of their grandparents: while Haneen made a life here commuting to Tel Aviv to teach at the university, Sonia remained in London to focus on her acting career and now dissolute marriage. On her return, she finds her relationship to Palestine is fragile, both bone-deep and new. At Haneen’s, Sonia meets the charismatic and candid Mariam, a local director, and finds herself roped into a production of Hamlet in the West Bank. Sonia is soon rehearsing Gertude’s lines in Classical Arabic and spending more time in Ramallah than Haifa, along with a dedicated group of men from all over historic Palestine who, in spite of competing egos and priorities, each want to bring Shakespeare to that side of the wall. As opening night draws closer it becomes clear just how many violent obstacles stand before a troupe of Palestinian actors. Amidst it all, the life Sonia once knew starts to give way to the daunting, exhilarating possibility of finding a new self in her ancestral home. A stunning rendering of present-day Palestine, Enter Ghost is a story of diaspora, displacement, and the connection to be found in family and shared resistance. Timely, thoughtful, and passionate, Isabella Hammad’s highly anticipated second novel is an exquisite feat, an unforgettable story of artistry under occupation.
Download or read book Through and Through written by Joseph Geha and published by Syracuse University Press. This book was released on 2009-09-16 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Treasured in the Arab-American literary community, Through and Through is a collection of ten broadly interrelated stories originally published in 1990. One of the first books of modern Arab American fiction, Geha’s stories offer a warm, inspired portrait of an extended Arab family in a Lebanese and Syrian community in Toledo, Ohio, spanning the decades between the 1930s and the present. In a series of vignettes, Geha follows three generations of an Arab-American family as they create a new community and way of life, struggling to keep their Arab roots vital while adapting their culture to new conditions. In "Holy Toledo," Nadia, "a tomboy in her dungarees," watches American women come into her town to shop. Although she calls them silly, she "wished that she were one of them, returning with them into that huge strangeness, America, luring her despite the threat it seemed to hold of loss and vicious sickness." Portraying both the anguish and the humor of negotiating between the old world and the new, these stories offer a passionate, unvarnished glimpse into the lives of an immigrant community.
