Tag Archives: Cultural exploration

May 5, 2013 · 1:13 pm

What a Party! by Ana Maria Machado, illustrated by Hélène Moreau, translated by Elisa Amado

What a Party!In the same delightful, sequential fun of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie – if you do x, then y happens – Brazilian überauthor of more than a hundred books, Ana Maria Machado, puts on a party of epic proportions.

“If a few days before your birthday your mother should say, ‘I think I’m going to bake a cake and buy some juice. Why don’t you ask one of your friends to come over to play?’” You welcome your Mother’s suggestion, but ask for a little more: “‘Well, could Jack bring someone and maybe some food too?” When your distracted mother answers, “‘Of course. Invite anyone you’d like,’” well, then … there’s all the permission you ever needed! And you write the invitation just so: “Come to my party. It’s my BIRTHDAY. Bring along whoever you want and whatever you like to eat.”

Jack and his brother Larry bring cookies. Jack tells Beto and Antonieta who can’t bear to leave their parrot home, and arrives with pineapple, mangos, and passion fruit. Of course, Antonieta had to tell her best friend Fatima, who tells her brother Djamel, so their mother sends tajine with olives and pickled lemons. Tony will want to bring cousin Carlo, with pizzas and gelato to share. Which means Hannah and her little brother will come with their canary to meet Antonieta’s parrot, along with a Black Forest cake and springerle, too. Maria is their neighbor, so she shows up with her macaw, as well as flan and cod cakes. Carmen brings paella, and Tamio brings sushi. Along with so many friends and such festive eats, the backyard fills with salsa dancers and a reggae band … and suddenly, “your birthday party could turn out to be the craziest, wildest, funnest party ever!”

Author Machado, who won the 2000 Hans Christian Andersen Award – the world’s highest international recognition for kiddie book writers and illustrators – knows how to party, bringing together all the different friends, families, cuisines from around the world into one multi-culti celebration. Machado’s artistic comrade-in-colors, Hélène Moreau, gives delicious vibrance to every part of the party preparations, gathering friends, foods, animals, and eventually even the parents who just can’t stay away. Machado shows us just how easy every day could be party day … no excuses necessary to gather, laugh, and dance …!

Readers: Children

Published: 2013 (Canada, United States)

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Filed under ..Children/Picture Books, .Fiction, .Translation, South American

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April 30, 2013 · 9:33 am

Religion for Atheists: A Non-Believer’s Guide to the Uses of Religion by Alain de Botton

Religion for AtheistsI refer to myself as a ‘recovering Catholic,’ and yet I can’t stay out of churches for long. I enter as a tourist – admiration for architecture seems to be genetically coded into our extended family – but I linger to breathe deeply, clear the mind temporarily, and just be. While I may have discarded most of the religious tenets from youth, I still find precious moments of peace in these so-called holy spaces.

Here in his penultimate title, the ever-irreverent Alain de Botton recognizes that power of religious architecture, and suggests that even better would be to create secular temples with similar goals: “they would all be connected through the ancient aspiration of sacred architecture: to place us for at time in a thoroughly structured three-dimensional space, in order to educate and rebalance our souls.” Build and we will come, for sure!

Beyond holy architecture, in the vein of ‘don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater,’ de Botton wants to “reverse the process of religious colonization: … to separate ideas and rituals from the religious institutions which have laid claim to them but don’t truly own them.” While fundamentalists might be ready to issue a fatwa, de Botton’s message is hardly threatening: ignore the dogma and let’s find ways to be better people living better lives.

Divided into revealing one-word chapters – “Kindness,” “Tenderness,” “Perspective,” and so on – de Botton uses his usual charming erudition to reclaim the best of religion: “many of the problems of the modern soul can successfully be addressed by solutions put forward by religions … Religions are intermittently too useful, effective and intelligent to be abandoned to the religious alone.” Ready to learn? Choose the page; while Kris Dyer’s excellent narration can’t be faulted, you won’t want to miss the photos and illustrations – many of them are downright illuminating, ahem!

Of de Botton’s mutiplying shelf of philosophically questioning, cleverly revealing treatises, Religion is perhaps not among his strongest – it’s lighter in research and depth than many of his others. His choice to draw on just three religions (“primarily Christianity and to a lesser extent Judaism and Buddhism”) feels a bit as if he’s avoiding that other elephantine monotheistic faith (did I mention fatwa?); his explanation as to why he chose those three among the “world’s twenty-one largest religions” doesn’t quite convince. That said, if you want to tickle and expand your brain, you can never go wrong with de Botton. Trust me; have faith.

Tidbit: Make sure to check out de Botton’s “A Manifesto for Atheists: Ten Virtues for the Modern Age” in full. While you’re waiting for the page to load, here’s an abridged version to get you started …

  1. Resilience. Keeping going even when things are looking dark.
  2. Empathy. The capacity to connect imaginatively with the sufferings and unique experiences of another person.
  3. Patience. We should grow calmer and more forgiving by getting more realistic about how things actually tend to go.
  4. Sacrifice. We won’t ever manage to raise a family, love someone else or save the planet if we don’t keep up with the art of sacrifice.
  5. Politeness. Politeness is very linked to tolerance, the capacity to live alongside people whom one will never agree with, but at the same time, can’t avoid.
  6. Humour. Like anger, humour springs from disappointment, but it’s disappointment optimally channelled.
  7. Self-Awareness. To know oneself is to try not to blame others for one’s troubles and moods; to have a sense of what’s going on inside oneself, and what actually belongs to the world.
  8. Forgiveness. It’s recognising that living with others isn’t possible without excusing errors.
  9. Hope. Pessimism isn’t necessarily deep, nor optimism shallow.
  10. Confidence. Confidence isn’t arrogance, it’s based on a constant awareness of how short life is and how little we ultimately lose from risking everything.

Readers: Adult

Published: 2012

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Filed under ..Adult Readers, .Audio, .Nonfiction, British, Nonethnic-specific

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March 5, 2013 · 10:10 am

The Hakka Cookbook: Chinese Soul Food from Around the World by Linda Lau Anusasananan, art by Alan Lau, foreword by Martin Yan

Hakka CookbookHow come no one is out there cooking their way through all the recipes of an Asian cookbook and blogging about it, then making a movie with … say, Jackie Chan fighting the good fight with woks and chopsticks?

Really, if I had any talent in the kitchen (the only thing I can do well is eat!), this is the culinary challenge I’d pick. Learning about Hakka cuisine (previously knowing absolutely nothing) and doing so by going around the world, sounds like the perfect premise for a most appetizing peripatetic eats fest. Any media mavens out there getting hungry?

Longtime favorite chef Martin Yan fills his “Foreword” with his own memories of Hakka cooking (which date back to his childhood in Guangzhou), throws in that a formidable 80 million people around the world claim Hakka ancestors (a Chinese subgroup, the Hakka are believed to have originated in what is now central China), exclaims “‘It’s about time!’” for a Hakka cookbook, and ends with the heartfelt query: “Honoring our culture through delicious food: is there a better way?”

Author Linda Lau Anusasananan does just that, taking us on a culinary journey channeled by memories of her beloved Hakka grandmother, Popo, who reminded her and her brother Alan (who contributes his dreamy art throughout the book), “‘You should be proud to be Hakka.’” After spending over 35 years writing predominantly about Western food for renowned Sunset magazine, Anusasananan’s “knowledge of Chinese food was superficial,” she confesses. ”With this book, I’ve discovered my family history and how it merges into the Hakka diaspora,” she explains. “I’m recapturing the flavor and spirit of my Hakka culture through [my grandmother's] life and her food.”

Anusasananan begins her journey in “Popo’s Kitchen on Gold Mountain,” in California, where Au Shee arrived in 1921 via Angel Island as a new bride. When Anusasananan was born in 1947, as Au Shee’s first grandchild, Anusasananan’s birth transformed Au Shee into Popo. Decades after Popo’s death – as “reminders of my Hakka identity grew scarce” – Anusasananan returns to the family’s ancestral home in China, where the “taste of true Hakka food” gives her “a baseline for comparison.” She continues her culinary adventures – learning from home cooks and famous chefs – through Beijing, Luodai, and Hong Kong, and onto stops in Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, and Mauritius. She crosses the Pacific to Peru, Hawai’i, and Tahiti, and back to North America to Toronto and New York, before coming back home to Gold Mountain. “Finally, I have fulfilled Popo’s wishes. Yes, Popo, I’m proud to be Hakka.”

Distinctive cooking, little-known history, heartfelt family memoir, and quite the global movable feast. Might I just add: mmm mmm good!

Readers: Adult

Published: 2012

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Filed under ..Adult Readers, .Memoir, .Nonfiction, Chinese, Chinese American

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February 28, 2013 · 9:22 am

A Chinese Life by Li Kunwu and Philippe Ôtié, translated by Edward Gauvin

Chinese LifeNo other word than epic describes this almost 700-page tome. It’s epic in content: six decades of one ordinary man’s extraordinary life, told through detailed, rich depictions in swirling black-and-white pen and ink that never seem to still. It’s epic in context: 60 years of tumultuous history in a country still in the throes of unrecognizable change. It’s epic in heft: just carrying it around should add a few sinews of muscle (although once you start, you just might read it through in a single sitting).

In 2005 Beijing, a foreign publisher and writer present a Chinese artist with a plan. His response? “My life as a comic book? Nonsense! I’m just one Chinese person among millions of others! Who’d be interested in the story of someone as ordinary as me?” he questions. But the pair are insistent: “… that’s exactly where the appeal is. Through the life of an individual like yourself, foreign readers could come to understand China.” In a clever twist of the final panel of that short preface, the child who was Li Kunwu – known by his childhood nickname, Xiao Li, as in “Young Li” – looks up at a faceless voice calling out to him, “Someone wants to see you! Odd fellow. Says he wants to send you to the 21st century.” And so the journey begins …

In “Book I: The Time of the Father,” Xiao Li’s parents meet, marry, and bring two children into an uncertain world. The People’s Republic of China has just been birthed and the young country is struggling itself into existence under the leadership of Chairman Mao. Xiao Li is born in 1955, miraculously survives the Great Famine of 1958 which lasts three years, followed  in 1966 by the brutal sufferings during “The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.” Shockingly, Xiao Li’s devotion and loyalty to the Communist Party never wavers.

Mao’s death in 1976 – which ends Book I and begins “Book II: The Time of the Party” – brings forth sweeping changes of leadership .. and opens the country to a new ‘socialism’ depicted in the aptly named “Book III: The Time of the Money.” China is ready for reinvention, testing foreign ideas, welcoming foreign contact and exchange, and developing the seemingly unlimited potential of foreign investment.

As the contemporary Li looks back over the decades, he recognizes well that his China is “not the land of ‘Made in China,’ skyscrapers, the Olympic Games and the World Expo.” But of course, “we’re proud of what we’ve made, even if it’s not perfect yet. Especially since it doesn’t come from the profits of armed conquest, however legitimate. Or from the exploiting of rich subsoil or from inherited capital skillfully managed to bear fruit.

“You will find nothing but sweat here. From our brows and our children, to whom we bequeath lives that will also be made of hard work and sacrifice for we still have a long way to go down the road that will lead us from poverty, the road to development.”

Sharing Li’s journey proves unforgettably epic – that word once more! – because by the final page, you’ll feel like you, too, have borne witness to some of the greatest transformations of the 20th century … with the promise of more yet to come.

Readers: Young Adult, Adult

Published: 2012 (United States)

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Filed under ..Adult Readers, ..Young Adult Readers, .Graphic Novel/Manga/Manwha, .Memoir, .Nonfiction, .Translation, Chinese

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February 25, 2013 · 9:46 am

Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking by Fuchsia Dunlop

Every Grain of RiceHow’s this for a fabulous first line? “The Chinese know, perhaps better than anyone else, how to eat.” Think about any little small town in the U.S. alone … no matter where you are, the one type of food you can be guaranteed to find sooner than later, is … Chinese. Really. On these here home shores (and everywhere in between), you’ll find more Chinese restaurants than McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Pizza Hut, and Domino’s combined [check out this quick Yahoo! video on the all-American history of Chinese food]. That said, American Chinese food is not exactly authentic … so if you’re looking for some real cuisine, this gorgeous cookbook promises basic, fresh, healthy, delicious, and best of all … simple.

Meet Fuchsia Dunlop, who holds the distinction of being “the first Westerner to train as a chef at the Sichuan Institute of Higher Cuisine in central China.” She speaks fluent Mandarin (which always elevates any outsider’s status), and has spent two decades researching, crafting, creating Chinese culinary delights – she’s got two award-winning cookbooks and a memoir as proof.

Her latest is another feast, done simple: “I’m not talking here about [Chinese] exquisite haute cuisine, or their ancient tradition of gastronomy. I’m talking about the ability of ordinary Chinese home cooks to transform humble and largely vegetarian ingredients into wonderful delicacies, and to eat in a way that not only delights the senses, but also makes sense in terms of health, economy and the environment.” She reminds us (more than a few times, because we need it, ahem), “With all the fuss over the Mediterranean diet, people in the West tend to forget that the Chinese have a system of eating that is equally healthy, balanced, sustainable and pleasing. Perhaps it’s the dominance of Chinese restaurant food – with its emphasis on meat, seafood and deep-frying as a cooking method – that has made us overlook the fact that typical Chinese home cooking is centered on grains and vegetables.”

Instead of picking up the phone for that next delivery or take-out, Dunlop gives you the better, healthier, tastier option of staying in. She shows you how to stock your kitchen with easy essentials (including “magic ingredients”!) – sauces, spices, and equipment. She offers a basic primer on cutting (“the first basic skill of the Chinese kitchen”) and other how-to techniques. She helps you plan your table, from beginning to (healthy) dessert, even providing sample menus for two, four, and six. Then there are the recipes … with truly picture-perfect photography for almost every dish. Just leafing through a few pages will get you salivating. Please, do pass the bib!

Readers: Adult

Published: 2013 (United States)

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Filed under ..Adult Readers, .Nonfiction, British, Chinese

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February 12, 2013 · 9:59 am

A Kid’s Guide to Arab American History: More Than 50 Activities by Yvonne Wakim Dennis and Maha Addasi

Kid's Guide to Arab American HistoryHere’s a common occurrence at our house: I can’t go to bed without a book, which usually means I’m a constant barrage of ‘Did you know that …? Were you aware that …?’ to the ever-patient hubby who’s trying to read something of his own. This is one of those titles, filled with surprising facts, little-known tidbits, and plenty of information all of us need to know.

In the opening “Note to Readers,” co-author Yvonne Wakim Dennis – who is hapa of Native American and Syrian descent – explains how she’s used her writing to “set the record straight about Native peoples”; her previous titles include A Kid’s Guide to Native American History and Children of Native America Today. Now the other half of her heritage beckons: ”Over the years, I had become more angry and dismayed at the untruths and stereotypes aimed at Arabs and Arab American people.” The pen, as they say, is mightier than the sword! Together with her co-author Maha Addasi (White Nights of Ramadan, Time to Pray), Dennis definitely has a more accurate story to tell: “My very Syrian grandparents would be proud that I wrote a book that tells a bit about their history in America, and my very Cherokee/Sand Hill grandparents would be proud that I walk in balance and honor all of my ancestors.”

“Pick up any newspaper from a newsstand on any given day, and you are guaranteed to see news about the Arab world, most of which is negative,” the introduction soberly reminds us. “In spite of what the media portrays, Arab Americans are patriotic and loyal to the United States.” Here’s an even more sobering thought: without Arab inventions and discoveries, the world wouldn’t have “trigonometry, parachutes, coffee, cameras, universities, cotton …” and so much more. Here on U.S. soil, without Arab Americans, you wouldn’t have iNuthin’ because Steve Jobs (as well as his sister, the mesmerizing writer Mona Simpson) was Syrian American. Looking for other influential Arab Americans? Comedian Jerry Seinfeld, actor Danny Thomas, designer Norma Kamali, activist Ralph Nadar, and animal-specialist Jack Hanna too, all have Arab roots.

Arab Americans hail from 22 countries, from Algeria to Yemen, with Egypt, Mauritania, Qatar, and Tunisia in between. Almost 4 million Arab Americans live in all 50 states, with the largest Arab American populations in Detroit, LA, NYC, Chicago, and right here in D.C. Through a combination of history, storytelling, and 50-plus activities for your hands, feet, and brains, co-authors Addasi and Dennis celebrate and illuminate America’s own centuries-old Arab heritage – a vast mosaic of diversity and distinction. From dancing the Dabkeh, making your own oil soap, sewing a kaftan, designing your own Girgian candy bag, adults and children will find plenty to do together, all while gaining a better understanding of our Arab American neighbors, colleagues, and friends.

The delightful and informative ‘aha’-moments throughout are many … but (oh, there’s always that ‘but’!) one small change I might suggest for future editions is a layout modification. Each chapter has a narrative overview that is embellished with various stand-alone sections and boxes that provide additional information, including historic moments, an ancient tale, biographies, etc. All that is definitely helpful and not to be overlooked, but also rather disruptive when trying to read through any given chapter. Such interruptions should be relatively easy to fix … a bit of page-reshuffling and graphic adjustments to restore the narrative flow. That said, the inaugural edition has more than enough to learn from, appreciate, and plain old enjoy.

Readers: Children, Middle Grade

Published: 2013

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Filed under ..Children/Picture Books, ..Middle Grade Readers, .Nonfiction, Arab American

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January 25, 2013 · 2:40 pm

A Bride’s Story (vol. 4) by Kaoru Mori, translated by William Flannagan

Bride's Story 4Life along the Silk Road – 19th-century style, imagined by and translated from a 21st-century Japanese original – moves onward west, meticulously detailed in creator Kaoru Mori’s breathtaking manga. To catch up, make sure to read the first three installments; you definitely need the back story of young love, battling clansmen, and a seemingly anachronistic British linguist named Mr. Smith to appreciate future volumes in full.

In spite of the title, volume 4 offers only a fleeting glimpse of our eponymous bride – a few panels devoted to her post-bath, as-yet unrobed, resplendent state, and her laughing assurance to the fiery, marriage-desperate Pariya (whose name seems a bit too close to ‘pariah’) that not everyone “hates” her. The headstrong, say-whatever-comes-out-of-her-mouth young woman-in-waiting just might be smitten this time around, even as she’s convinced that her temper has driven away yet another suitor. Little does she know what her potential father-in-law shares with his son after the fateful meeting: “So a girl with a bit too much energy is best.” Wise advice indeed; why settle for the boring same-old, same-old?

Marriage remains quite the hot topic throughout the rest of this energetic volume. Mr. Smith continues his journey toward Ankara, but is waylaid once more when he dozes off mid-camel stride and falls into the Aral Sea. Two water nymphs – who turn out to be outspoken twin sisters with a penchant for frolicking mischief – save the waterlogged traveler, and then insist on taking him home to their ailing grandfather when they discover he is also a doctor.

When Mr. Smith manages for fix Grandpa’s dislocated shoulder, word travels quickly and he awakes the next morning to a waiting throng of needy patients. While Mr. Smith ministers, Laila and Leily go on a double man-hunt, determined to find their soulmates among the throngs gathered from afar … even if it means risking their father’s impatient wrath for their endless shenanigans. Of course, what they seek has been right in front of them all along …

While I admit the no-holds-barred obsessions with getting hitched caused my modern sensibilities to cringe just a wee bit, I was assuaged enough with the  realization that this is far from child marriage – that is, young girls sold off to skeezy old men. I fully realize that I’m two centuries removed from the social mores of 19th-century Central Asia (but then so are today’s skeezy old men who are still guilty of the evils of child marriage – some things never change, but desperately, demandingly need to and will).

In Mori’s manga world, the would-be lovers are thankfully not generations apart, but are well-matched in youthful vitality and interact as equals. And although beauty is proverbially only skin-deep, the entire series is just so stunningly presented, to not bask in Mori’s glorious panels would be overlooking quite a rollicking adventure indeed.

Readers: Young Adult, Adult

Published: 2013 (United States)

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Filed under ..Adult Readers, ..Young Adult Readers, .Fiction, .Graphic Novel/Manga/Manwha, .Translation, Japanese

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January 21, 2013 · 3:31 pm

The Year of the Snake: Tales from the Chinese Zodiac by Oliver Chin, illustrated by Jennifer Wood

Year of the SnakeThree weeks into the new year, and I’m already so behind I surely wouldn’t mind a do-over. I don’t think I’ve ever been this tardy before with the latest annual installment of Oliver Chin‘s energetic, entertaining Tales from the Chinese Zodiac series, but hopefully this is a case of ‘better late than never.’ I could take the glass-half-full approach and claim I’m early: the official Year of the Snake actually doesn’t start until the Lunar New Year which falls on Sunday, February 10. Yeah, I’m gonna go with that: I’m three weeks early!

From the same team that brought you last year’s roaring river adventure, The Year of the Dragon – especially notable as that was my year! – The Year of the Snake showcases the versatile talents of the Dragon’s cousin, the sensational, slithering Suzie. In spite of her mother’s warning to “stick to your own kind,” Suzie is too excited about the “dazzling and colorful world” to do much sleeping. So she sneaks out the snake pit and, with “HISS … hello!,” she instantly makes friends with a spunky little girl named Lily.

Lily takes Suzie to her grandparents’ house, where Yeh Yeh and Nin Nin aren’t exactly the most gracious hosts: rather than a warm welcome, Grandpa Yeh Yeh greets the pair with “Didn’t we tell you not to trust anyone with a forked tongue?” Disrespect aside, Suzie proves to be superbly helpful by catching a cheese-stealing mouse. The oldsters quickly recognize Suzie’s resourceful ingenuity and prod the new best buds to finish Lily’s chores.

Suzie plays leash for the family dog, tightrope for the height-challenged rooster, lifeline for the pig stuck in the mud, harness for the plowing ox, and more. As if the farm chores weren’t enough, Suzie snares a running tiger, who’s actually running from a fire-breathing dragon, who’s really just got a bad case of the hiccups. Suzie surely can do all the tough work, and even save the whole town. What a busy day for a little girl and her bravely slithering best friend: “They proved how true friends could be different but their hearts still beat as one.” Awwwww.

Snake is the eighth title in Chin’s rollicking Chinese Zodiac series. Each combines a sense of tenacious accomplishment with just plain rollicking fun. Illustrator Jennifer Wood makes sure to imbue every page with energy in motion – ”dazzling and colorful” as Suzie observes. And while Suzie is indubitably this story’s superstar, Wood makes sure every Zodiac animal gets pagetime so no one feels left out. Part cultural exploration, part goofy adventure, part morality tale, and just a wee bit of sort-of-hidden snark for parents to giggle over, Chin’s latest title is also an adorable reminder to get out in the world and enjoy this “sensational Year of the Snake.”

I’ve got another 49 weeks to make that come true!

Tidbit: So you wanna know why Suzie is such a good buddy? Here’s the official description of Snakes in the back of the book: “People born in the Year of the Snake [1917, 1929, 1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001, 2013, 2025] seen to warm slowly and savor their leisure. Though they appear slippery and secretive, they can be steely and decisive. But proving both sensitive and flexible, snakes emerge as truly charming and clever friends.”

Click here to check out some of the other Tales from the Chinese Zodiac on BookDragon.

Readers: Children

Published: 2013

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Filed under ..Children/Picture Books, .Fiction, Chinese American

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January 14, 2013 · 2:11 pm

House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East by Anthony Shadid

House of StoneThe late Anthony Shadid is back in the headlines today with happy news: the double-Pulitzer winner’s resonating memoir is one of the autobiography finalists for the National Book Circle Critics awards for the publishing year of 2012. House of Stone recounts Shadid’s restoration of his great-grandfather’s home in old Marjayoun “in what it is now Lebanon,” all the while recounting his family’s journey from a troubled ancestral country to a reinvented life based in Oklahoma, U.S.A. The memoir is even more poignant that it was published just after his sudden death on February 16, 2012, from an asthma attack while he was on assignment in Syria; the scheduled March 27 publication date was moved to February 28. That looming, tragic death becomes an unintended character throughout.

Generations ago, Isber Samara, born in 1872 – “a rich man born of a poor boy’s labors” – built a house of stone. He “left it for … his family, to join us with the past, to sustain us, to be the setting for stories.” On the other side of the world, his American great-grandson Shadid, well understood the importance of bayt: “Bayt translates literally as house, but its connotations resonate beyond rooms and walls, summoning longings gathered about family and home. In the Middle East, bayt is sacred. Empires fall. Nations topple. Borders may shift or be realigned. Old loyalties may dissolve, or, without warning, be altered. Home, whether it be structure or familiar ground, is, finally, the identity that does not fade.”

In July 2006, war brought Shadid to Marjayoun and left behind a half-exploded Israeli rocket in the second story of Isber’s house. What the original stonemasons had considered “impenetrable” a century earlier, “with new technologies and old antagonisms in play, there is nothing war cannot crumble in a heartbeat.” Shadid did not abandon the family bayt: he planted a splindly, hope-filled olive tree, determined that Isber’s house would remain “a house worth care.”

When Shadid’s own nuclear family falls apart – his marriage ends, he is separated from his only child – he returns to Marjayoun in August 2007 with “foolish and rash … not to mention reckless, dangerous, and altogether ‘American’” intentions: to rebuild Isber’s house. His odyssey is filled with a cast of encouraging, truculent, self-important, even comical characters, many distantly related, of course. Through reconstruction over the next nine months, Shadid, an internationally renowned journalist who escaped violent threats, survived bullet and kidnappings, who has “never been the type to stay home,” restores his own self, as well.

History – both personal and political – seems forever intertwined in the volatile Middle East. Shadid’s superb journalistic acuity, his determination to honor his ancestors by preserving the past for future generations, his longing for his young daughter Laila, all meld together to create a gorgeous patchwork of family and country, of leaving and return, and most of all, of stories worth preserving.

Tidbit: The ONE thing I really missed in the book were pictures, especially of the house. But, thanks to googlemagic, you can share Shadid’s renovations in a 10-part series, starting with Chapter 1: “Returning Home” by clicking here. How sadly surreal to have Shadid be your tour guide …

Readers: Adult

Published: 2012

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Filed under ..Adult Readers, .Memoir, .Nonfiction, Lebanese, Lebanese American, Middle Eastern

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December 22, 2012 · 10:33 am

The Perfect Flower Girl by Taghred Chandab, illustrated by Binny Talib

Perfect Flower GirlAwww … who doesn’t love a joyous wedding? In this delightful cross-cultural Muslim marital fest, Amani is determined to be the best flower girl ever for her Aunty Sarah. Even when her little sister Mariam won’t join her, Amani practices her flower girl walk diligently and regularly: “‘It’s a very important job, leading the bride and groom,’” she admonishes her distracted sister. “‘It must be perfect.’”

The preparations are many (and hunger inducing – I can practically smell that kibbeh!), and the excitement builds as the festive date gets closer. A special dinner, the glamorous dress fittings, and Aunty Sarah’s laylia (a no-men-allowed party complete with fabulous fashion show during which Amani and Mariam get to don “spectacular belly-dancing costumes”) make the time pass quickly. Soon enough, the katb il kitab – the marriage ceremony performed by a sheikh the night before the wedding party – is already here … with more of Tayta (grandmother)’s cooking, oh be still my belly! The next morning with tummies all aflutter, the celebrations are about to begin … will Amani be the perfect flower girl?

Australian author Taghred Chandab (currently living in the United Arab Emirates) continues her goal of “promoting better understanding between Anglo-Australian culture and Islamic culture in Australia” through her writing. Thanks to our global markets, that understanding doesn’t have to stay limited to Down Under … we certainly can always use more Stateside – glittering sequins, swirling henna patterns, rose petals, and all. Here’s to many, many love-filled celebrations across borders.

Readers: Children

Published: 2012 (United States)

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Filed under ..Children/Picture Books, .Fiction, Australian, Lebanese

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