Books

‘Egyptian-American’: The Hyphenated Experience

By

Priscilla Wathington

Looking Both Ways

By Pauline Kaldas

Cune Press, 2017

Something about Pauline Kaldas’ new memoir makes you feel both adrift and at home – sensations normally at war with each other.

‘Traveling Scholar’ Ella Shohat: The Contradictions and Challenges of Being an Arab Jew

By

Pamela Nice

As a public intellectual, Ella Shohat has found that her personal history profoundly informs her scholarship. Born in Israel to Iraqi parents who had migrated to that country after 1948, Shohat grew up in an Israeli culture that discriminated against Mizrahi Jews.

Chronicling Syrians’ Personal Stories of Struggle to Reach Safe Refuge

By

Sarah Rogers

On Friday January 27, 2017, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that, for a 90-day period, suspended immigrant and nonimmigrant entry into the United States from Syria, Sudan, Iran, Somalia, Libya, and Yemen. It also, for a period of 120 days, suspended the Refugee Resettlement Program, placing an indefinite ban on Syrian refugees. “Leaving Syria: Seeking Refuge in Greece” makes clear the plight of Syrian refugees traces back to a much longer and tragic history.

Leaving Syria: Seeking Refuge in Greece

By Bill Dienst, MD and Madi Williamson

Cune Press, 2017

On Friday January 27, 2017, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that, for a 90-day period, suspended immigrant and nonimmigrant entry into the United States from Syria, Sudan, Iran, Somalia, Libya, and Yemen.

Standing in for the Dead: A Lebanese War Story

Lynne Rogers

'2084' Proves Less than Orwellian

By D.W. Aossey

If anyone can take brooding existentialism to a new level of divisiveness, Algerian author Boualem Sansal, with his novel “2084: The End of the World,” proves up to the task. A dark, droning fantasy, “2084” depicts a future where state-sponsored ignorance and mindless faith have created a zombie-like society run by a clergy of autocrats. In between idiosyncratic snippets of pseudo-wisdom, a moral of sorts unfolds; a moral that attaches itself to a popular narrative, but one that lends itself to predictability.

Books