Lebanese Archives - BookDragon

Booklist Backlist: Fictional Worlds, Real Meals [in Booklist]

16 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, African, Arab, Arab American, Black/African American, Canadian, Cuban, Cuban American, Fiction, Filipina/o American, Iranian, Iranian American, Japanese, Korean, Latina/o/x, Lebanese, Lebanese American, Lists, Nonethnic-specific, Persian, Persian American, Repost, Southeast Asian American, Translation, Vietnamese, Vietnamese American

Yeah, sure: Proust and his madeleine-dipped-in-tea set the barometer for toothsome leitmotifs. I admit to the possibility that my academic indoctrination in his long, long musings made me quite the hungry reader. Or maybe I’m just always greedy for nourishment, with preferences in the belly...

House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East by Anthony Shadid [in Booklist]

02 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Lebanese, Lebanese American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW When Anthony Shadid’s own nuclear family falls apart – his marriage ends, he’s separated from his only child – he returns to Marjayoun, Lebanon in August, 2007 with “foolish and rash ...

Beirut Hellfire Society by Rawi Hage [in Booklist]

24 Jun, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Canadian, Fiction, Lebanese, Lebanese American, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW “Although the characters in this novel are fictitious,” the final sentence of Hage’s (Carnival, 2013) spectacular novel acknowledges, “this is a book of mourning for the many who witnessed senseless wars, and for those who perished in those wars.” For the Lebanon-born, Canadian-domiciled, International...

Printed in Beirut by Jabbour Douaihy, translated by Paula Haydar [in Booklist]

15 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Lebanese, Middle Eastern, Repost, Translation

Farid Abu Shaar, a young man earnestly convinced of his own (unproven) literary genius, seeks a publisher for his red-notebook manuscript, The Book to Come. His publication attempts with Beirut’s publishing houses prove futile: “No one reads,” one publisher insists. Although his Karam Brothers Press...

Where Will I Live by Rosemary McCarney

27 Dec, by SIBookDragon in African, Arab, Children/Picture Books, European, Lebanese, Middle Eastern, Myanmarese (Burmese), Nonfiction

Those eyes. Those piercing, don't-turn-away-from-me eyes. In horrific times of conflict and war, turning children into collateral damage seems to be the worst crime of all. Rosemary McCarney, Canada's Ambassador to the United Nations, gathers the faces of children made into refugees in too many countries...

The Olive Tree by Elsa Marston, illustrated by Claire Ewart

18 Feb, by SIBookDragon in Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Lebanese, Middle Eastern, Nonethnic-specific

"For many years the house next to Sameer's had stood empty ...

I Remember Beirut by Zeina Abirached, translated by Edward Gauvin

29 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Lebanese, Memoir, Middle Eastern, Nonfiction, Translation, Young Adult Readers

As in my post for Beirut’s preceding, award-winning companion title, A Game for Swallows, I find I need to start at book's end. "I remember Georges Perec!" the final image announces. Initially seeming to be unrelated to the rest of the book, the unexpected homage to the experimental...

Beirut 1990: Snapshots of a Civil War by Sylvain Ricard, Bruno Ricard, illustrated by Christophe Gaultier, translated by Anna Provitola, edited by Alex Donoghue

27 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, European, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Lebanese, Memoir, Nonfiction, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Almost a quarter century has passed since two French brothers – in their early 20s at the time – decided to visit their Aunt Thérèse in Lebanon. In September 1990, the country is a 15-year-old war zone, but the brothers plan to deliver supplies, medicine, and a...

The Servant by Fatima Sharafeddine, translated by Fatima Sharafeddine

24 Jul, by SIBookDragon in Arab, Fiction, Lebanese, Middle Grade Readers, Translation, Young Adult Readers

At 15, Faten is uprooted from her village life to become a live-in servant to a wealthy family in Beirut, where violence from the ongoing Lebanese Civil War seems neverending. Her father's decision to pull her out of school, to indenture her away from all...

House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East by Anthony Shadid

14 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Lebanese, Lebanese American, Memoir, Middle Eastern, Nonfiction

The late Anthony Shadid is back in the headlines today with happy news: the double-Pulitzer winner's resonating memoir is one of the autobiography finalists for the National Book Circle Critics awards for the publishing year of 2012. House of Stone recounts Shadid's restoration of his great-grandfather's home...

The Perfect Flower Girl by Taghred Chandab, illustrated by Binny Talib

22 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Australian, Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Lebanese

Awww ...

A Game for Swallows: To Die, To Leave, To Return by Zeina Abirached, translated by Edward Gauvin

04 Oct, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Lebanese, Memoir, Middle Eastern, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Once again, I start from book's end, with the "About the Author" page which introduces war-child Zeina Abirached, whose first 10 years of life were spent surviving Beirut's civil war (1975-1990). As an adult, she happened upon a 1984 documentary that included "[a] woman whose...

Waltz with Bashir: A Lebanon War Story by Ari Folman and David Polonsky

10 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Israeli, Jewish, Lebanese, Memoir, Palestinian, Young Adult Readers

No, I have not seen the film version of this title. The book is brutal enough on flat pages. I think moving pictures just might send me over the edge. That said, this riveting, nightmarish title should be required reading for anyone contemplating going to...

Santa Claus in Baghdad and Other Stories about Teens in the Arab World by Elsa Marston

28 Apr, by SIBookDragon in Arab, Fiction, Iranian, Iraqi, Lebanese, Middle Eastern, Middle Grade Readers, Palestinian, Short Stories, Young Adult Readers

Eight stories feature eight teens from eight different countries coming of age during a time of uncertainty and tumult in their native Middle East countries. In the title story, young Amal of Baghdad, Iraq, must find the very best gift for her departing literature teacher even...

The Boy by Naeem Murr

29 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, British, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Lebanese, Lebanese American

Boy.Murr You can't believe how scary this book can be, especially if you have children of your own. The eponymous boy of many names in Naeem Murr's disturbingly effective debut novel is a complicated, unpredictable,...

The Perfect Man by Naeem Murr

19 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, British, British Asian, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Lebanese, Lebanese American, Young Adult Readers

Perfect Man Naeem Murr’s latest novel is a near-perfect coming-of-age story about an Indian-born, London-raised young man, dropped into the American Midwest virtually without support, and was last year’s Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Europe...

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