So You Want to Read About the Middle East

CURRENT READS: Ten Myths about Israel by Ilan Pappé; Government and Politics of the Middle East and North Africa: Development, Democracy, and Dictatorship edited by Sean Yom

So much literature has been written about and set in the Middle East, and I think it would be remiss of me if I did not give a lengthy recommendation list. Many of the books below have been recommended to me by my professors or other scholars who study the Middle East. I do plan on reading every book I have listed, but it does take time. The titles with my reviews are the ones I have read. I will be updating this list frequently (hopefully), so be sure to check back every once in a while! Books are listed alphabetically by the original author or editor.

So You Want to Read About the Middle East & Islam

• Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes, by Tamim Ansary.

• No God but God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam, by Reza Aslan. 

• Islam: A Thousand Years of Faith and Power, by Jonathan M. Bloom & Sheila S. Blair. I read this book for my Intro to Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies minor. It’s an easy read but has a lot of information. If you want a good introductory overview of the Middle East, I recommend this book. It talks about the development of the Middle East as Islam spread in the 600s and beyond. 

• Culture and Imperialism, by Edward W. Said.

• Orientalism, by Edward W. Said.

• Government and Politics of the Middle East and North Africa: Development, Democracy, and Dictatorship, edited by Sean Yom (2019). This was my textbook for my Middle Eastern politics class. While we only read a handful of chapters, I plan on reading the others. The first two chapters cover a brief ancient history of the MENA region, but the rest of the chapters start their history in the late 1800s/early 1900s with the Mandate Period.

So You Want to Read About the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict

• Nonfiction

  • The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler-Colonial Conquest and Resistance, 1917-2017, by Rashid Khalidi. 

  • Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics, by Marc Lamont Hill & Mitchell Plitnick.

  • The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, by Ilan Pappé. 

  • Ten Myths about Israel, by Ilan Pappé. Written by an expatriate Israeli historian and socialist activist, this book is a good introduction to the Conflict. While this book is in favor of the Palestinian side, I think it does a good job of expelling many myths about Israel that Americans have come to believe. It’s also an easy read and not very dense.

• Memoirs

  • I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor's Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity, by Izzeldin Abuelaish. 

  • I Saw Ramallah, by Mourid Barghouti. 

  • Blood Brothers: The Dramatic Story of a Palestinian Christian Working for Peace in Israel, by Elias Chacour. If there is one book I could recommend that you read, it would be this one. I will never forget reading this in the library during my lunch bell, sobbing. This memoir grabbed me and still hasn’t let go to this day. If that isn’t a five star review, I don’t know what is. 

  • The Way to the Spring: Life and Death in Palestine, by Ben Ehrenreich. 

  • The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East, by Sandy Tolan. 

So You Want to Read About Feminism & the Middle East

• Do Muslim Women Need Saving? by Lila Abu-Lughod. 

• Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution, by Mona Eltahawy. 

• Modernizing Women: Gender and Social Change in the Middle East, by Valentine M. Moghadam (2013). This was my textbook for my Women and Politics in the Middle East class. While full of information, unfortunately, it is severely outdated, as the latest addition is from 2013. I hope the author releases a newer edition in the future with updated information.

• The Complete Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi. If you like graphic novels, you’ll love this memoir graphic novel. Written and illustrated by an Iranian woman, it recounts the early life of Satrapi during the Iranian Revolution and her life growing up into her early twenties. The first book is more focused on Iran than the second one, but I found both enjoyable. 

• Abortion Pills, Test Tube Babies, and Sex Toys: Emerging Sexual and Reproductive Technologies in the Middle East and North Africa, edited by L. L. Wynn & Angel M. Foster. 

So You Want to Read Novels Set in the Middle East

• Folklore

  • The Arabian Nights, translated by Husain Haddawy. 

  • The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1001 Nights, translated by Malcolm C. Lyons [3 volumes]. 

• Israel

  • The Red Tent, by Anita Diamant. 

  • The Source, by James A. Michener. A historical epic, this novel felt like a literal brick when I read it my senior year of high school. This book tells the story of the Jewish people (more or less), going back to a time before history was written down. If you pick this book up, it is a very long journey, but I’m so glad I pushed myself to read it. 

  • Sadness Is a White Bird, by Moriel Rothman-Zecher. 

• Palestine

  • Against the Loveless World, by Susan Abulhawa. 

  • Mornings in Jenin, by Susan Abulhawa. 

  • Salt Houses, by Hala Alyan. 

• Afghanistan

  • A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini. 

  • The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini. 

So You Want to Read Arab Poetry

• Adonis: Selected Poems, by Adonis, translated by Khaled Mattawa. 

• The Pages of Day and Night, by Adonis, translated by Samuel Hazo. 

• Barefoot Souls, by Maram Al-Masri, translated by Theo Dorgan. 

• A River Dies of Thirst: journals, by Mahmoud Darwish, translated by Catherine Cobham. 

• If I Were Another: Poems, by Mahmoud Darwish, translated by Fady Joudah. 

• Memory for Forgetfulness: August, Beirut, 1982, by Mahmoud Darwish, translated by Ibrahim Muhawi. 

• Mural, by Mahmoud Darwish, translated by John Berger & Rema Hammami. 

• The War Works Hard, by Dunya Mikhail, translated by Elizabeth Winslow. 

• Arabian Love Poems, by Nizar Qabbani, translated by Bassam K. Frangieh & Clementina R. Brown. 

• On Entering the Sea: The Erotic and Other Poetry of Nizar Qabbani, by Nizar Qabbani, translated by Sharif S. Elmusa & Lena Jayyusi. 

• Nostalgia, My Enemy, by Saadi Youssef, translated by Sinan Antoon & Peter Money. 

• Without an Alphabet, Without a Face: Selected Poems, by Saadi Youssef, translated by Khaled Mattawa.