Middle East Snapshots

Egyptian author and Nobel Prize winner for Literature, Naguib Mahfouz, wrote Miramar. The story is told over and over through different characters’ eyes and their interactions with Zohra, a runaway peasant girl. Many believe Zohra is a symbol of Egypt. The best part of this book for me were the complicated scenarios breathing life and [...]

Down the Nile: Alone in a Fisherman’s Skiff by Rosemary Mahoney. I really struggled through most of the 268 pages of this book for my Egypt Seminar although I know people who love it. It’s a book about Rosemary’s row in a boat down the Nile. Did I mention it was by herself, mostly. It’s [...]

John R. Bradley doesn’t hold back writing Inside Egypt: The Land of the Pharaohs on the Brink of a Revolution. He fiercely establishes his self proclaimed thesis that “Egypt is a social tinderbox”. He has personally touched many of the people and events through interviews of eye witnesses and in-depth reading of history. Basically he [...]

Written from the perspective of families, Adam LeBor humanizes the conflict between Arabs and Jews in Israel/Palestine. LeBor often relates instances of compasion and forgiveness between Palestinians and Israelis leaving the reader to believe that Palestinians and Israelis can get along and need each other. If you’re tired of the constant rankering of the two [...]

Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace…One School at a Time written by co-authors Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.  Read it in preparation for the forum speech he gave at Brigham Young University last week.  Got a chapter short of deadline but finally finished a week later. To me it’s a [...]