Middle East/North African Lit discussion

Update in March 2015 ,This is what is happening in the group in 2015 :


**For the regional tour , we are reading from Egypt, Sudan and Horn of Africa, Central Asia (-stan Countries) Stay tuned for updates !
2015 Cruise (Regional tour 3\3 )

**The Prizes Project

This is where we read prize-winning books of the Middle East . We started this project in 2013 , in 2015 we revived this section with More and more from Egypt and Sudan :) challenge .

**Al-Andalus challenge 2015 , in this section we are reading from/about Al-Andalus . This section serves the Al-Andalus challenge 2015





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Hello everyone :)

It is time to discuss our plan for the next year , and of course we would like to hear your feedback about 2014 !

please share your thoughts with us that we are still in the planning phase . As a beginning we still have our MENA Regional tour in progress , after we covered Iran , Iraq and Turkey this year , we will be probably covering :

*Egypt
* Sudan / south Sudan and horn of Africa ( Somalia and Djibouti in particular)
* Some areas included in the definition of the Greater Middle East or sometimes associated with the Greater Middle East .

We can still refresh our different sections :
*Medieval Texts.
*References reads.
*Prizes project .

** Waiting for your replies ! :)

I look forward very much to being introduced to some authors from the Horn of Africa.

Same here, Egypt has a lot, and Soudan, Somalia and Djibouti sounds very interesting.

i agree

thanks for the replies ...
By the way , the countries that could be included after Egypt and horn of Africa- ( if we decide to cover it this year ) -are some of -stan countries like Afghanistan .

I hope to be a bit more active next year, no matter which countries are selected.

Perfect! I'd like to know better Egypt and especially -stan contries literature. Looking forward to joining your team.

I agree, would love to read some books by Egyptian authors

I would be eager to read some more recent Egyptian authors because I've read most of Naguib Mahfouz and a number of non fiction books by Egyptian authors, but nothing more recent.
Never read anything by an author from the Horn of Africa either!
"Stan" countries sounds interesting too.
I read for pleasure these days, so I'd rather read fiction rather than something academic or from the Middle Ages.

If anyone is interested in reading in Arabic , please share your thoughts with us in here :
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
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Sue wrote: "I hope to be a bit more active next year, no matter which countries are selected."

I hope that too :)

Cheshire , Martina and Jalilah ...I am so glad to see enthusiasm for reading from Egypt :D

I hope we will be lucky and find some books from Somalia or Djibouti , it will a difficult task ...

Nile daughter, one of my friends is married to an Egyptian guy from Saidi region, so we often go eat Egyptian food all together and listen to Egyptian music. I think it's the right time to start trying Egyptian litterature too. :)

Wow ...where in Upper Egypt ?

From a little village, I don't remember its name

any book which is available for free download on kindle by any Egyptian author then do let us know. Thanks in advance.

Nile daughter wrote: "thanks for the replies ...
By the way , the countries that could be included after Egypt and horn of Africa- ( if we decide to cover it this year ) -are some of -stan countries like Afghanistan ."

Yup, I'd say start with Afghanistan/Pakistan. Usually the stories coming from any of these countries are related to terrorism and cover both countries. Although I'd like to read any story from this region which is pre- 9/11 and not on terrorism/espionage.

Majority of the books from Afghanistan-Pakistan region are related to terrorism, directly or indirectly. I would also like to read some books that talk about something completely different but are on this region. Do share if anyone knows about any such book.

Nawab wrote: "Majority of the books from Afghanistan-Pakistan region are related to terrorism, directly or indirectly. I would also like to read some books that talk about something completely different but are ..."

Are you sure? It seems hard to believe there are not novels that are anything but terrorism related!

As I said, my preference would be newer Egyptian writers since I am kind if out of the loop as far as the current literary scene goes.

Martina wrote: "From a little village, I don't remember its name"

It is Okay , I hope we can read about Upper Egypt this time

Kamran and Nawab , this is an interesting point , I hope we can dig more for books that are not related to terrorism specially when it comes to Afghanistan , because for Pakistan I think it is easier to find books related to the The Partition of India or before maybe ? (I hope that Nawab can recommend some for us :)

You know since both countries are not part of the Middle east and they were associated with the Middle East as a part of a political term .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_...

I am not sure how easy it would be to find different books .

We wanted to ask , anyone is interested in continuing the challenge idea ? to apply it in the new year ?

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We made a new section for 2015 , here is the first thread , recommendations from Egypt

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Nile daughter wrote: "We wanted to ask , anyone is interested in continuing the challenge idea ? to apply it in the new year ?

*********
We made a new section for 2015 , here is the first thread , recommendations from ..."

I am very interessted. Love to read about anything related to Egypt and also Sudan, Somalia and the stan-countries.

Nile daughter wrote: "We wanted to ask , anyone is interested in continuing the challenge idea ? to apply it in the new year ?

*********
We made a new section for 2015 , here is the first thread , recommendations from ..."

Sure!

i totally failed the challenge this year, but my reading life got profoundly interrupted by that pesky thing called Life! lol.

i'm very curious to explore Pakistan and Afghanistan.

I failed in my challenge too , not only the one related to our geoup ...lol !
it was a very strange year for me :)

I did it! I must admit I only chose books I thought I'd like!

I'm still working on it... :)

congratulations ...here are our winners :)

Have you guys read anything for Alaa el Aswany or Amira Awaad?

Very different types of fiction, but I find both quite talented.

Hi! Not sure if I'm just not looking in right spot but I'm not seeing the 2015 winners. Can someone point me in right direction? Thank you!

Yes, I've read The Yacoubian Building by علاء الأسواني. I've also heard him speak!

Melanie wrote: "Yes, I've read The Yacoubian Building by علاء الأسواني. I've also heard him speak!"

I really enjoyed The Yacoubian Building. The sexual overtones and undertones were very powerful, but I felt they were overdone in parts.

Like, the book would have been just as brilliant if it was toned down just a tad.

We read and discussed The Yacoubian Building in 2011 in here :
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

We haven't read for Amira Awaad but we can have a thread for her books in the authors' corner .

As everyone noticed we had a lot of ideas and recommendations for Egypt ( yay :D) ...., so there will be different reads following polls to come - we started with Naguib Mahfouz as our first read . we will spend long time reading from Egypt and our plan for 2015 will be solidified and announced soon .

Please check for any updates in here :2015 cruise summary

We made a new challenge for this year , in here :
https://www.goodreads.com/challenges/...

Can we include Sudan and the Horn of Africa in the challenges this year also?

Susan wrote: "Can we include Sudan and the Horn of Africa in the challenges this year also?"

Well I am not sure we can reach multiple options (winning literature ) , but we will study the idea .

Sorry for being late to respond , we added Sudan to the challenge .

I would like to suggest The Age of Shiva by Mani Suri - I'm reading it along with an online friend. I'm about 100 pages in.

ENjoying the story. It takes place in India after paritition.