Palestinian American Archives

Mother of Strangers by Suad Amiry [in Booklist]

05 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Palestinian, Palestinian American, Repost

Egyptian American actor Amin El Gamal and Palestinian American actor/writer/director Lameece Issaq reunite here as hopeful lovers: 15-year-old Subhi, a prodigious mechanic, and 13-year-old village girl Shams. Palestinian writer/architect Suad Amiry, acclaimed for her memoirs and other nonfiction, debuts her first novel, inspired by the...

Booklist Backlist: Tales of Dementia [in Booklist]

02 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Chinese American, European, Fiction, French, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese American, Jewish, Lists, Malaysian American, Memoir, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Palestinian American, Repost, Spanish, Translation

Gerda Saunders, who wrote Memory’s Last Breath (2017), an exquisitely bittersweet record chronicling her experiences with dementia, is one of my most beloved friends. We have books in common, in that we find great solace and escape in the (well-)written word. Inspired by our last visit...

Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa [in Shelf Awareness]

04 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Palestinian, Palestinian American, Repost

Returning to the Palestinian multi-generational epic format that made her debut novel, Mornings in Jenin (2010), an international bestseller, Susan Abulhawa's haunting Against the Loveless World features another extended Palestinian clan enduring exile, surviving persecution, and (sometimes) cheating death. Abulhawa's compelling cipher is a woman with...

The Beauty of Your Face by Sahar Mustafah [in Booklist]

13 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Palestinian American, Repost

Afaf Rahman, the principal of suburban Chicago’s Nurrideen School for Girls, takes a few minutes alone for prayers, until gunshots shatter her peace. Palestinian American Sahar Mustafah’s first novel opens with the terror of a school shooter and concludes with Afaf’s eventual return to her...

The Parisian by Isabella Hammad [in Booklist]

08 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, European, Fiction, Palestinian, Palestinian American, Repost

Born to a Cairo-based merchant father, raised by his paternal grandmother in Nablus, educated in a Constantinople boarding school, Midhat Kamal is already a peripatetic polyglot when he arrives in France. While he studies medicine at the University of Montpellier, he lives with a doctor...

Now Hear This: Soneela Nankani [in Booklist]

31 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Arab American, Audio, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, Latina/o/x, Lists, Palestinian American, Repost, Young Adult Readers

She can sound like a frightened little girl on the run or a gruff old man who’s seen it all. She can talk financial crises, offer self-help guidance, embody fantasy worlds, and channel her inner Gisele Bündchen. She narrates in multiple tongues, donning accents and...

A Woman Is No Man by Etaf Rum [in Booklist]

20 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Palestinian, Palestinian American, Repost

“No matter how many books you’ve read, no one has ever told you a story like this one.” The prologue’s emphathic statement is not exactly accurate. Tara Westover’s Educated (2018) and Anouk Markovits’ I Am Forbidden (2012) feature women trapped by religion and culture who...

Sonora by Hannah Lillith Assadi [in Library Journal]

18 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Jewish, Middle Eastern, Palestinian American, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Debut novelist Hannah Lillith Assadi's protagonist, like the author herself, is the daughter of a Palestinian refugee father and Israeli Jewish mother. Ahlam comes of age in the Arizona desert, physically safe from war but damaged by the bitter fighting between her parents that too...

A Palestine Reader, Part II: Adult Books [in The Booklist Reader]

03 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Arab, Arab American, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Lists, Memoir, Middle Eastern, Nonfiction, Palestinian, Palestinian American, Repost, Short Stories, Translation

The unrelenting conflict between Palestine and Israel keeps the Middle East in the news. But for a fuller picture of the Palestinian and Palestinian-American experience than what the media can provide, here’s a starter reading list. For a list of recommended titles about Palestine for young, middle-grade,...

A Palestine Reader, Part I: Books for Youth [in The Booklist Reader]

28 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Arab, Arab American, British, Canadian, Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Lists, Memoir, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Palestinian, Palestinian American, Repost, Translation, Young Adult Readers

The unrelenting conflict between Palestine and Israel keeps the Middle East in the news. But for a fuller picture of the Palestinian and Palestinian American experience than what the media can provide, here's a starter reading list for young people. Stay tuned for our list of titles about...

Discover WeNeedDiverseBooks with Leila Abdelrazaq’s Baddawi

10 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Arab, Arab American, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Memoir, Nonfiction, Palestinian, Palestinian American, WeNeedDiverseBooks, WNDB.SummerReadingSeries2016, Young Adult Readers

Baddawi by Leila Abdelrazaq

18 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Arab, Arab American, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Palestinian, Palestinian American, Young Adult Readers

"I believe that art is an essential element of revolution," Leila Abdelrazaq begins her "Artist Statement" on her website. She's half Palestinian and half American activist based in Chicago with a 2015 DePaul University degree who has generations of stories to share. Her Baddawi began as a webcomic "...

Discover WeNeedDiverseBooks with Naomi Shihab Nye’s The Turtle of Oman

03 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Arab, Arab American, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Palestinian American, WeNeedDiverseBooks, WNDB.SummerReadingSeries2015, Young Adult Readers

The Turtle of Oman by Naomi Shihab Nye, illustrations by Betsy Peterschmidt

26 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Arab, Arab American, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Palestinian American, Young Adult Readers

Here's a narrative I haven't seen often: a not-yet-an-immigration story. Young Aref has one more week left to spend in his idyllic home in Muscat, the capital city of his native Oman. In too-few days, he and his mother will fly to the other side of the...

The Lives of Rain by Nathalie Handal, foreword by Carolyn Forché

02 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Palestinian American, Poetry

I am the first to admit I missed having the poetry function installed when my limited brain got assembled. So when I DO actually GET poetry, I feel a true sense of gratitude to the writer, not to mention a few outbursts of gleeful accomplishment. Nathalie...

Culture and Resistance: Conversations with Edward W. Said by Edward W. Said and David Barsamian [in AsianWeek]

29 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Middle Eastern, Nonfiction, Palestinian, Palestinian American, Repost

Culture and Resistance An intriguing collection of interviews with one of the most brilliant minds today. Originally broadcast on KGNU in Boulder, Colo., the interviews cover such topics as the so-called peace process, the 2000...

BookDragon Palestinian American