You are asking me to find a syllabus from 1992? I did take a course, "Introduction to the History of the Middle East". I did poorly. The professor wanted us to memorize names and dates -- I got so confused with so many similar names (not to mention memorizing names and dates is not my thing -- I like patterns. Anyway, the professor shared many interesting stories with us...like how he was Muammar Abu Minyar al-Qadhafi's personal interpreter. He caught wind of an assassination attempt and was thought to be in on it. He fled to France (with hit men following). France would not grant him asylum. Luckily he knew people in the US State Dept and was granted asylum here. He said he was always looking behind his back until he became a naturalized US citizen. Anyway, since this was right after the first Gulf War, he told us a lot of the behind the scenes stories that you never heard in the US media. I do have the text we used for that class somewhere. I had Hicham read some of it to see if it was a pretty balanced perspective. He had told me it was. I'll have to find what I did with it.

avoid bernard lewis like the plague.

Although he is hard to ignore. Disagree with him no doubt, but reading the back and forth with his many critics can be interesting. I would say the same for Huntington.

Plus, we do have to understand some of the intellectual roots of our current foreign policy. Off topic, I realize, as it is recommended reading for understanding our policy in MENA, not for understanding MENA itself. (Sad statement that the two are so far from eachother.)

I think thats totally true. I am not a fan at all of Bernard Lewis but he is a voice for a whole school of thought....
Sometimes I think its good to read things you dont necessarily agree with at least to see what all sides are, same goes for gathering news from various sources, etc etc.

My favorite MENA books lately have been either fiction or memoirs...I always think I should read non-fiction, but they sit half-read on my bedside table (I prefer to devour a novel in a day or two).

Some winners already mentioned in this thread that I read this summer:
A Thousand Splendid Suns
The Caliph's House, A Year in Casablanca

Others:
Broken Verses by Kamila Shamsie. This book is a fiction/mystery set in Pakistan--I found this by chance on my mother's shelf--she picks up all kinds of books at used bookstores but doesn't seem to read half of them Very entertaining and a fascinating story about life in modern day Pakistan--I'm going to try to find her other 3 books at the library!

Stolen Lives by Malika Oufkir--A memoir of a very privileged family who was imprisoned in Morocco during the reign of Hassan II...her father was General Oufkir, who imprisoned, tortured and murdered thousands of Moroccans in the 70's-80's...my husband thinks this book is full of inaccuracies, but I thought it was an interesting inside look at the life of the Moroccan monarchy and also into the horrors of Moroccan prisons.

And a handful of Iranian women's stories, all of which I have loaned out to people (can't remember most of their names--one was Lipstick Jihad, which was great).

I love book suggestions (though I have little time now that school has started)--keep 'em coming!

Carolyn

That does it. By overwhelming response I have to my hands on a copy of the CALIPH'S HOUSE.

Olivia

Very interesting to read your husband's view on this book. Myhusband read it too when he got here and had a very different reaction. He was sure that what we saw as the horrors of prison life, were nothing compared to what the ordinary Moroccan would face in prison and that she was still be traeated in a privledge manner.

We were both disappointed that she did not tell teh story of what her father and the others did and why.

Of course my Husband's views are also colored by the fact that he sees her father asa great man and not a traitor.

I also came across her new book when shopping today online.

My husband was so surprised when he saw "Stolen Lives" on my bookshelf after he got here. I explained to him that it was my first real book about Morocco that I had read. (BTW did you guys know that one of Hassan's "henchmen" the name eludes me now died last week? My husband said that he talked to a lot of people in Morocco who sighed a big breathe of relief) Anyway although he wasn't a big fan of Hassan II (hubby's not real political and we were both pretty young - barely small children at the time) he said that they were probably treated better than most and that a lot of people would have just been killed (which I think I would have prefered honestly). He and I disagree about politics as I'm a big advocate for democracy and human rights and he hasn't studied (in my opinion) enough to understand the values, I think that the whole idea of monarchy and just doing whatever the king says hits him too hard. For example we were talking about the magazine that was shut down about a month back after there were some anti-king(apparently) comments made and I was saying well this is not good for the king, the rest of the world really thought he was changing things etc. and Youssef said "well that's the rules you can't talk bad about the king" so it spun into this whole democracy, freedom of thought, expression etc. Ok this was a tangent but the point was that book gets some very interesting commentary from the outside world vs. the world inside Morocco.

A Jinn! Yikes!

Currently reading 'Crescent' by Diana Abu-Jaber

Jackie

So I've been taking time out at the University Library to read these books that were mentioned.

I read the the CALIPH'S HOUSE. Took about 10 hours and was entirely pleasurable easy read. What a beautiful insight into Morocoo culture, people, tradition and personalities. I loved it!


The Lemon Tree is completely lost at my library and I am sad about that.

I looked for "The Great War for Civilization" by Robert Fisk but the Library curisously doesn't carry it.

I checked out L’Étranger by Albert Camus to read.

I did read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho in about four hours. It is going in my all time favorites forever and ever! It's so true to everything I know and believe to be true and hold dear to my heart.

I did look at the Political Science Syllubus but got overwhelmed for now with my own POLS classes and I did look up Joseph Lumbard to see if his books were at our library. lol. They aren't.

I did read TAJAR DJAOUT "The Last summer of Reason" and it took about four hours. It wasn't as easy a read as The Alchemist or Caliph's House because it used elaborate desciptions and big words that I had to look up often in the dictionary. I did however enjoy it.

I also checked out the Cresent and look forward to reading that soon.

I am intrigued by the popularity of The Kite Runner. It's checked out till May at my Library and I saw it for sale at Starbucks today. That is the first time I have seen Starbucks selling a book! It is certainly on my list to read now.

Thank you everyone for your recommendations! Keep them coming. This is so nurturing for my soul. ((Sigh))

Your local resident book worm college gal,

Olivia

Olivia, The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns are two of the most well written pieces of English prose in my opinion. Even if you aren't interested in Afghanistan or the material they are remarkably well written. I read The Kite Runner (the entire thing) on the train between Casablanca and Marrakech (3 1/2 hrs) and devoured A Thousand Splendid Suns in an afternoon. You won't be disapointed I promise. We had started a bookclub that kind of fell apart but were reading Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree by Tariq Ali -- it was good, and I'm looking for the other books in the 4 part series. Welcome back btw

I miss the book club---I never did finish the pomagranate book, and I regret it. Count me in if you want to revive the club for another book!

I just finished Once in a Promised Land by Laila Halaby. It is about a Jordanian couple living in America during the 9/11 attacks.

Jackie

Olivia if you send me your address in pm I ll send you a book I collaborated on with an Algerian publisher about the colonial period in Algeria

TAHAR DJAOUTs last summer of reason is particularly sad because he died shortly after writing it. He was shot in the head by islamists and drug through the streets and his limbs torn off. He was a Kabilye ( the people of Algeria who have a byzantine, vandal, berber and some think Jewish background as well as berber) and he was not an atheist but he was strongly against islamic rule in Algeria and was many of the intellectuals murdered by radical islamists.

The director of Oran's theater was killed by islamists as well for promoting music and theatre. So were 50 female reporters, nuns,teachers, intellectuals, psychologists, writers ,poets.

Tahar Djaout (1954-1993) was an Algerian journalist, poet, and fiction writer. He was assassinated by the rebel Armed Islamic Group because of his support of secularism and opposition to what he considered fanaticism. He was attacked on May 26, 1993, as he was leaving his home in Bainem, Algeria. He died on June 2, after lying in a coma for a week. One of his attackers professed that he was murdered because he "wielded a fearsome pen that could have an effect on Islamic sectors." He was born in Azeffoun, in the relatively secular Kabylie region. After his death the BBC made a documentary about him entitled 'Shooting the Writer', introduced by Salman Rushdie


about last summer of reason

The Last Summer of Reason
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
The Last Summer of Reason is a novel by Algerian writer Tahar Djaout. It was originally written and published in French. The English translation was produced by Marjolijn de Jagar, and published by Ruminator books, 2001. Foreword by Wole Soyinka. The novel was published posthumously.


[edit] Plot
Boualem Yekker is a bookseller in a country probably modelled on Algeria. His home is firmly in the grip of religious fundamentalists, but only recently: it was once a republic, but now it is a "Community in the Faith". Djaout presents readers with a terrifying world of religious fundamentalism comparable to Orwell's 1984, but substituting a religious ditatorship for a purely political one.

At first Yekker is only on the periphery of danger. He is "neither elegant nor talented", which puts him out of the spotlight: "what is persecuted above all, and more than people's opinions, is their ability to create and propagate beauty." Still, Yekker is a purveyor of these outrageous "idea- and beauty-filled objects" known as books, so he doesn't fit in too well in this new, retrograde society.

Business isn't exactly booming, of course. Touchingly Djaout describes Yekker's brief moments of hope when he sees people gazing in the shop window. But there is hardly a market for the sorts of books he has any longer. One acquaintance, Ali Elbouliga, still comes to while away time there. Otherwise, Yekker remains largely alone in his bookish world -- and the books ultimately prove almost as much a burden as a solace.

Family life also gets more complicated when his daughter turns on him. "The illness of fanaticism had attacked her." She is transformed, "covered with superior certainties".

Yekker tries to continue to live his life in the manner he is accustomed to, but there is no escape from the encroaching fanaticism. It crushes all opposition. Any semblance of rationality is done away with. Even weather forecasts are banned, as if these called some all-mighty's grand plan (and his power) into question. (What a pathetic god it must be they're protecting, if he can be threatened by mortals' barely educated guesses at tomorrow's weather; doesn't the fact that the meteorologists barely ever get it right instead reinforce the idea of divine omnipotence?)

Imagination is dulled, "the world has become aphasic, opaque, and sullen; it is wearing mourning clothes." Books "constitute the safest refuge against this world of horror" all around Yekker, but the books are also a danger to him. Eventually they must make place for "the one, the irremovable Book of resigned certainty."

The threats against Yekker mount. What is, at first, almost harmless child's play intensifies to very real danger. Might conquers right:

They have understood the danger in words, all the words they cannot manage to domesticate and anesthetize. For words, put end to end, bring doubt and change. Words above all must not conceive of the utopia of another form of truth, of unsuspected paths, of another place of thought.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Summer_of_Reason"

Yes there was an epilouge that explain he was killed before the book was finished and that it was left nearly in it's entirety with few revisions. However, it didn't give the details of his grizzly demise. While reading it I recall seeing parallel worlds from his book and from the book "Brave New World" or even George Orwell's "1984". They all seem to go to the extreme extent of how they picture goverment could be. It also made me think of Libya and the control the government has currently over their media and freedom of speech, and expression through music and art.

I would love to read your book!

Oh also I picked up a book that wasn't on the list. It's called, "Out of Egypt". The title got my attention because of that movie "Out of Africa" and you know the Egypt thing.

I just started on that book but am kinda bored by it plus the Holiday has provided many distractions. I also have about 60 pages left in Thomas Friedman's Book "From Beirut to Jerusalm". It's taken a long time to read. The text is smaller that your average book and it's pretty condensed details about the whose who and the whats what.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Olivia

I would be willing and interested in re-starting the book club if others are up for it (jackie that's you). PM me with your e-mails and i'll set it up. I'll make sure to add a list of all the books we've talked about in this thread so far.

I would be interested in joining a book club!!! I read the Caliphs house found it entertaining. Read The Kite Runner and A thousand splendid suns and cried and was totally moved by both. I bought The lemon tree and The alchemist yesterday...hopefully start reading tomorrow. So if the invite would be open to anyone Im in!!!

Anyone else interested?

Count me in as well.

I mentioned that I was reading Robert Fisk's book "Conquest of the Middle East", but I have hit the pause button on that to begin reading "Paris 1919". I forget now about how I stumbled on this book, but it talks about the 6 month period in Paris where many heads of state came together to essentially put the world on a chopping block. Supposedly this book chronicles the what began such conflict in MENA and also the rest of the world. I cannot verify this to be true as I have only just started reading. I will let you all know.

I did just finish reading "A Thousand Splendid Suns" over the holiday break. It was a quick read and enjoyable, but it did not move me as much as "Kite Runner" did. "Kite Runner" is undoubtedly in my top ten favorite books of all time. Forgetting the whole ME cultural references, it is the most incredible story.

I will have to add "Once in a Promised Land" to my list. Hicham and I were married and he was in the States when 9/11 happened. The day that it happened, a girl at Hicham's school spit at him as she was walking by. Several of my co-workers knew that I was married to an Arab and they didn't speak to me for several days. This first couple of days we just sat on the couch holding each other and crying because we knew that things would never be the same. For weeks, I had to hear such awful comments made about Arabs and how the ME should be turned to glass. It was awful. Hicham and I wouldn't leave home for weeks and weeks after 9/11 happened. We were really frightened by people's reactions. I am anxious to read this book to see how it compares with how we felt.

OMG....The Kite Runner and A Thousand Spendid Suns....I second that a thousand times. I LOVED both those books. Wondering if The Kite Runner movie will stand up to the book.

Both of those books are wonderful.

Olivia I sent you two. One is a pictorial history that I did with an Algerian publisher and I think you will really like the other one. They were published in 2006 in Algeria. I think you will really like them. You will get a kick out of the Algerian ISBN at the back. Its interesting looking.

Another writer that is amazing is FRANTZ or FRANZ FANON. He was a psychologist hired by the French that detailed the torture by the French of the Algerians.

I saw that you mentioned Albert Camus... I would recommend EXILE IN THE KINGDOM because its an easier read than THE STRANGER... He was from Oran, Algeria and was a pied noir or black foot... He was a character.

The Wretched of the Earth (French: Les Damnés de la Terre, first published 1961) is Frantz Fanon's most famous work, written during and regarding the Algerian struggle for independence from colonial rule. As a psychiatrist, Fanon explored the psychological effect of colonisation on the psyche of a nation as well as its broader implications for building a movement for decolonization.

A controversial introduction to the text by Jean-Paul Sartre presents the thesis as an advocacy of violence[1] (which Sartre has also examined in his then-recent Critique of Dialectical Reason). This focus derives from the book’s opening chapter ‘Concerning Violence’ which is a caustic indictment of colonialism and its legacy. It discusses violence as a means of liberation and a catharsis to subjugation. It also details the violence of colonialism as a process itself. The interpretation of the text as a promotion of violence is argued as a limited way of approaching the text fueled essentially by Sartre’s opening comments.[2]

Further reading can find a thorough critique of nationalism and imperialism while also developing to cover areas such as mental health and the role of intellectuals in revolutionary situations. Fanon goes into great detail explaining that revolutionary groups should look to the lumpenproletariat for the force needed to expel colonists. The lumpenproletariat in traditional Marxist theories are considered the lowest, most degraded stratum of the proletariat, especially criminals, vagrants, and the unemployed, who lacked class consciousness. Fanon uses the term to refer to those inhabitants of colonized countries who are not involved in industrial production, particularly peasants living outside the cities. He argues that only this group, unlike the industrial proletariat, has sufficient independence from the colonists to successfully make a revolution against them.

Also important is Fanon's view of the role of language and how it molds the position of "natives", or those victimized by colonization. Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth has become a handbook for any and all political leaders faced with any type of decolonization. It is still read in the Pentagon today as advice on dealing with the conflict in Iraq.[3] There are two different English translations in publication, the most recent, by Richard Philcox, being better accepted.

The original title of the book is an allusion to the opening words of The Internationale.

Well I have absolutely no respect for Thomas Freidman and his endless denigrations of Arab people in general, his repetition of outright lies and deliberate misinformation about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, or his shameless shilling for the Iraq War. He is a fabulously wealthy (thanks to his heiress wife) egotistical self-promoter, and he uses his prominent position as a so-called "journalist" for the New York Times to proselytize the neo-con agenda and a complete bias in favor of Israeli policies, even to go as far as to defend Israeli war crimes. This turd really believes his own hype as the self-styled "most important columnist in the world."

Here's more on what I'm talking about:

http://zmagsite.zmag.org/Nov2003/herman1103.html

Actually, there is a much better read with the same title "From Beirut to Jerusalem" -- this one by Swee Chai Ang, describing the massacres at Sabra and Shatila.

I'm nearly finished with the second half of his book "From Beirut to Jerusalem" and it's the part where he is in Jerusalem and I am starting to see what you mean. Even some parts I am offened at but none the less I will finish this book with 60 or less pages to go.

In other news there is a mena book club on yahoo if anyone else wants to join! We're just starting to read Baghdad Burning: Girl Blog From Iraq.

Olivia

This is a post to see whose intersted in participating in the MENA summer book club. So far Jackie, Amanda, and I are the ones that gave it a go for the summer. It would be nice to have more than three people so if youre interested in particitpating this summer please post here.

Also:
We have a list of books to chose from.

What books are you interested in reading?

Can anyone join in? I love to read; but usually have no one to discuss anything with.

Oh yes the more the merrier! We focus on books related to the Middle East North Africa.

A book is a book is a book...........in my opinion.

I am always reading books on the middle east so I would be up for the book club. It sounds like a nice idea!

Awesome! If that works for you then you're welcome to join. I'll have to get Ms. Amera to send out the invites once we get a list rolling.




Awesome that makes five!

Yea the book club is back!!!!!!

Let's get reading again!

Wooohoo!!!!!

How about starting with something light like ..by Diana Abu Jaber. I am up for anything! Let's throw out some titles and get a book picked

Good idea to start light! This gets the brain into reading again.

Wow, Can I join in? I think the last "decent" book I read was the Kite Runner. Count me in!

I read the kite runner and just watched the movie the other night. I also read the next book "A thousand splendid suns" which I liked even better.

Awesome sure!

woohoo! i love reading! please count me in.

You pick the books and I would love to join!!!!![size="3"][/size][color="#800080"][/color]

OOPS...you can see from my last post that I am new to this!!!

Yes I would also like to do this! I just saw the kite runner also!It was a very good movie!

Sorry olivia I used mohameds id!!! lol !!

Do we read the same book? How does this work? I am interested

Please count me in ! i need a good summer read for the beach

Wow the response is awesome! So last year a site was set up in Yahoo groups for the book club. It went well for awhile and then attendance dropped when I had to go back to school and life got busy for others. I think having a good run at it during the summers would be nice for a restart and then we can see from there. After the summer I'm going into my senior year at college so I won't be able to stay active then.

1st idea I have is utilizing the review section for existing members
and any new members to add their feedback on any of the books they've
read.

2nd idea is after reading the reviews on here and elsewhere is
utilizing the polling feature.

A. Poll the members on which books to cover this summer. Majority
will win with the most popular voted book being what we start with
and then follow in descending order based on poll.

B. Poll the members on what they think the length of time it will
take for them to get through each book. Then we take the average
length of time and make a schedule.

3rd idea utilize the calender feature and schedule what books we're
going to read over the summer and how long we're going to spend on
each book and each chapter(s).

4th idea schedule one day each week that all the members visit the
group to post their thoughts on the chapter we're covering that week.

5th idea is at the end of the period of weeks we have a final review discussion for the book. It may also be the
same day as the weekly check in chat day.


What do you think of this organization for the book club?

Ok I've contacted everyone that have said they are interested right now. I'll keep bumping this thread for a week to see if there is any other new members interested as we're going to keep organizing the book club for a week before we start our first book.

And mohamed is using yours cuz I sent the link to yours and he requested in. Its all good though men and women are welcome for book discussion if they're willing to participate. I'll send the link to this profile so you may join as well.

Great Ideas Olivia! i just did not realize it was a separate group ~ thought this thread was the book club. It may be useful to post reminders on here tho

I thought about that cuz VJ is user friendly and easier to read than Yahoo group threads in moi opinion. However, I didn't want the random public on VJ to come in and post their random thoughts derailing the group who are participating members of the book club. This way it stays on book topic as a sanctuary of study.

I have the ever so slight problem of tending to read the really good books within a day or two if I have the time (and sometimes I just don't sleep if it is a work night to finish a book). I suppose I could re-read the chapter so I could be ready for discusion. I am not sure how others read. I know some like to take it a little at a time and others are like me and just read through quickly.

Is it possible to pick a book we all agree on and set a time to review the book? Another idea is rather than chapters, we say at a certain point people can discuss the first half of the book and at another point discuss the last half. Just trying to throw out ideas, honestly I will work with anything. You really have some great ideas yourself, Olivia, on how to do this and more experience on what worked best last summer.

I'm the same way. I devour books at a phenomenal rate. Picking a book that the majority agree on is the idea and the review dates will be weekly to keep participation up. I like the idea about discussing the first half of the book and the second half of the book. However it depends on how quickly the women poll that they can read a book and we'll take the average of that to set the time lines.

Thanks for the suggestions!

yeahhhhhhhhhhhh i would like to join you guys but plz tell me how can i start ?
thank you so much