I have an addiction to challenges. Hooray!Middle East Reading Challenge.
Starts August 1, 2010
Ends July 31, 2011
I'm starting this challenge because I want to learn more about people from the Middle East. At my school there are very few Asians/Middle Eastern people so I know very little about that culture. I'm eager to learn more. The books need to be by an author from the Middle East or set in the Middle East. There are no levels so I decided to give myself 10 books as a starting list. They are all YA and none of the titles cross post from my other challenges (makes things so much more difficult doesn't it? haha). Feel free to leave me any YA/MG recommendations.
1. Where the Streets Had A Name by Randa Abdel Fattah
2. Sunrise Over Fallujah by Walter Dean Myers
3. A Bottle in the Gaza Sea by Valerie Zenatti (also known as Message in a Bottle in the UK/France)
4. In the Name of God by Paula Jolin
5. Habibi by Naomi Shihab Nye
6. Beast by Donna Jo Napoli
7. Alphabet of Dreams by Susan Fletcher
8. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (this is actually non fiction)
9. The Red Pyramid (Kane Chronicles #1) by Rick Riordan
10. Rooftops of Tehran by Mahbod Seraji (turns out it's not YA, oh well)
11. A Stone in My Hand by Cathryn Clinton
Thank you to everyone who helped me via Twitter! I so appreciate it =)
I'm reading Where the Streets Had a Name right now. It's fantastic! Good luck on your challenge :)
ReplyDeleteOoo, great list! I really love stories set in the middle east, but I have never read any of these. Bookmarking this list right now. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteLiving in middle east i love reading middle east books. Here are few recommendations form my side :-
ReplyDeleteA Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
(my fav book by the author of 'The Kite Runner' read that too if you haven't read already)
The Cairo House by Samia Serageldin
Nadia's Song by Soher Khashoggi
Mirage by Soher Khashoggi
I am so glad you are joining us in this challenge! I am going to write down your list of YA books right now!
ReplyDeleteYour list is fantastic - I haven't heard of a few of those, but now they're on my wishlist!
ReplyDeleteA lot of interesting sounding books there; I'm looking forward to your reviews of them!
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting this challenge! I'm always looking for recommendations of good reads from/about the middle east and I feel like they're so hard to come by. I will be book-marking this post!
ReplyDeleteI'm not in this challenge, nor am I very familiar with YA Middle Eastern fiction/writers, but one resource you might want to check out is: http://arablit.wordpress.com/
ReplyDeleteThis is a site focusing exclusively on Arabic literature in translation, and she regularly features YA books. You can also follow it on Twitter at: @arablit.