Book Reviews

Book Review: The Perfect Gentleman: A Muslim Boy Meets the West

April 17, 2012

When I think “West”, I think of the United States. It’s all about us! But then there’s the UK – the initial West. There are quite a few Muslims from a host of countries that have settled there and, I believe, before a lot of immigrants from “Muslim” countries even started coming to the United [...]

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On Reading Love, InshAllah

February 12, 2012

The book Love, InshAllah recently came out. It’s a collection of 25 narratives from American Muslim women about love, romance, and relationships. I had a chance to interview Ayesha Mattu, one of the co-editors, for Illume Magazine last week (which I’ll reprint at the end of this post) and wanted to write a bit more [...]

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Culture & Religion – Scattered Thoughts on the Book American Dervish

January 27, 2012

I went to a lecture last week on what Muslims think of evolution and the lecturer, a Muslim well versed on the subject, went on to say that what Muslims believe on that topic is dependent on the country and culture in which they grew up in. I thought it was a total cop-out. Aren’t [...]

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Book Review: Patriot Acts: Narratives of Post-9/11 Injustice

September 11, 2011

The last time I was at the airport, I went through security and was told that a female agent was going to come by and pat down my hijab. Passenger after passenger passed me by, picked up their stuff from the conveyer belt, and stared at me. I’m sure they were wondering what was up [...]

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Book Review: The Butterfly Mosque

May 26, 2010

Meet G. Willow Wilson. She’s an American. She lived in Egypt for a while. She converted to Islam. She fell in love with a local. She wrote a book about all of this called The Butterfly Mosque. You should read it. After graduating from college in the summer of 2003, Wilson leaves for Cairo to [...]

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Review: Footnotes in Gaza

March 21, 2010

Comics books are mostly associated with superheroes and fantastical stories. Yet, some use comic books, or graphic novels, as a medium to tell a compelling narrative. Journalist Joe Sacco is one of those people. He had previously documented and illustrated his time in Palestine and Bosnia with his books Palestine and Safe Area Gorazde. With [...]

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Five Books for American (Amreekan) Muslims

January 4, 2010

Over on Al Mihrab, Irfan Rydhan, who I have volunteered with before on a couple of organizations, posted 5 Good Books for American Muslims (and everyone else). Apologies for yet another list but his post inspired me to come up with my own ‘five books’ and so I’ve done that below. Just like Irfan’s list, [...]

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Book Review: Children of Dust

January 1, 2010

Children of Dust is about the evolution of the author from Abir, Amir, and then finally, into reformist blogger Ali Eteraz. In his first book, this former blogger takes the reader through his childhood from a village in Pakistan to his life in the United States. His father had promised Allah (swt) a servant in [...]

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Book Review – Zeitoun by Dave Eggers

August 13, 2009

I remember back when Hurricane Katrina happened in 2005 in New Orleans. I heard about the lawlessness that took over New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina hit and I saw the images of destruction on TV, but in no way was I prepared for Dave Eggers’ new book Zeitoun. Syrian born Abdulrahman Zeitoun, or ‘Zeitoun’ as [...]

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Three Cups of Tea

January 29, 2008

A few months ago, a friend gave me a copy of Three Cups of Tea. I always saw it at Borders and wanted to read it, but never got around to it. However, it joined the growing pile of ‘Books I have but have not yet read pile’ on my shelf. A few weeks ago, [...]

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