Strange Rebels: 1979 and the Birth of the 21st Century
I’m probably not alone in assuming when people rebel against the establishment they’re usually thought of as progressives or modernizers. These individuals see the old order as being, well, old. Sick...
View ArticleAbout Time I Read It: The J Curve by Ian Bremmer
Back in 2010 while TV channel surfing I happened to land on PBS in the middle of Charlie Rose interviewing a geopolitical thinker/writer named Ian Bremmer. Bremmer had just written a book called The...
View Article1946: The Making of the Modern World by Victor Sebestyen
I’m a huge sucker for books about a single year in history. Some of my favorites have been 1959, 1968 and 1973. Last year I read 1945 in addition to not one but two books titled 1913. Over the last...
View ArticleNonfiction November: Be the Expert/Ask the Expert/Become the Expert
I can’t believe it’s already the third week of Nonfiction November. This week it’s hosted by Kim at Sophisticated Dorkiness, one of my long-time favorite book bloggers. Our theme is Be the Expert/Ask...
View ArticleThe Girl from the Garden by Parnaz Foroutan
You can probably tell from one of my earlier posts, I have weakness for Iranian writers. The crazy thing is even though I’ve read lots of Iranian writers, I’ve read few who write fiction. Clearly, if...
View ArticleAbout Time I Read It: Devil’s Game by Robert Dreyfuss
It might be hard to believe there was a time, not long ago when radical Islam, political Islam, Jihadism or call it what you will wasn’t seen as the enemy of Western civilization. During the last half...
View ArticleAbout Time I Read It: Strange Days Indeed by Francis Wheen
The President of the United States is an uncouth, unhinged bigot prone to late night diatribes against the media, minorities and political rivals. In the wake of his recent electoral victory, rumors...
View ArticleAbout Time I Read It: How to Win a Cosmic War by Reza Aslan
For years I’ve a had soft spot for Reza Aslan, ever since I read his 2005 book No God but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam. Five years ago I read another of his books Zealot: The Life...
View Article20 Books of Summer: Laughing Without an Accent by Firoozeh Dumas
Leave it to me to lead off the 20 Books of Summer with an alternate. Laughing Without an Accent: Adventures of an Iranian American, at Home and Abroad ranked dead last on my list, weighing it at 24 out...
View Article20 Books of Summer: War on Peace by Ronan Farrow
When chosing a book to read I usually take backcover praise with a grain of salt. But when Ian Bremmer says it’s a “must-read” I take notice. That’s all it took for me to grab a copy of Ronan Farrow...
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About Time I Read It: Prisoner of Tehran by Marina Nemat
Frustrated your state-appointed math teacher refuses to teach math and instead spends the entire time dispensing propaganda you walk out of class. Afterwards security forces, fearing your’re a...
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About Time I Read It: War and Peace in the Middle East by Avi Shlaim
About four years ago I stopped at a neighborhood garage sale to see if there was anything for sale I couldn’t live without and before I knew it I found myself rummaging through a big box of books....
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Black Wave by Kim Ghattas
I’m going to make a bold prediction and say Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Forty-Year Rivalry That Unraveled Culture, Religion, and Collective Memory in the Middle East by Kim Ghattas will be...
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Middle Eastern Memoirs: A Mirror Garden by Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian
I’m a sucker for memoirs by Iranians. Firoozeh Dumas’s, Funny in Farsi and Laughing without an Accent made me chuckle while first hand accounts of imprisonment like Marina Nemat’s Prisoner of Tehran...
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About Time I Read It: The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan
I love books that make me fundamentally rethink how I understand the world, specifically how we got here and even where we’re going. The first of these kind of books I read was probably Europe: A...
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20 Books of Summer: Iranian Rappers and Persian Porn by Jamie Maslin
I’ve mentioned before of all the countries in the Middle East the two that intrigue me the most are probably the region’s biggest outliers: Iran and Israel. Modern heirs to ancient kingdoms, unlike the...
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About Time I Read It: Strange Days Indeed by Francis Wheen
The President of the United States is an uncouth, unhinged bigot prone to late night diatribes against the media, minorities and political rivals. In the wake of his recent electoral victory, rumors...
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About Time I Read It: How to Win a Cosmic War by Reza Aslan
For years I’ve a had soft spot for Reza Aslan, ever since I read his 2005 book No God but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam. Five years ago I read another of his books Zealot: The Life...
View ArticleClik here to view.
20 Books of Summer: Laughing Without an Accent by Firoozeh Dumas
Leave it to me to lead off the 20 Books of Summer with an alternate. Laughing Without an Accent: Adventures of an Iranian American, at Home and Abroad ranked dead last on my list, weighing it at 24 out...
View ArticleClik here to view.
20 Books of Summer: War on Peace by Ronan Farrow
When chosing a book to read I usually take backcover praise with a grain of salt. But when Ian Bremmer says it’s a “must-read” I take notice. That’s all it took for me to grab a copy of Ronan Farrow...
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