( Chicken With Plums by Marjane Satrapi )

40. Reza Aslan, How to Win a Cosmic War: God, Globalization, and the End of the War on TerrorA non-fiction pop book dealing with a wide range of subjects, from the history of the state of Israel, to the difference between Islamist groups like Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood and Jihadist groups like al-Qa'ida (as well as the inaccuracy of referring ( Read more... )

30. Reza Aslan, No God But God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam

I adored this book. It's a non-fiction book detailing Islam as a religion; about half of it is devoted to an incredibly detailed description of life and culture in the Arabian peninsula immediately before and during Mohammad's life. The second half of the book lays out ( Read more... )

The Seven Wise Princesses is a retelling of a Persian epic by Nizami Ganjavi; this version is told by Wafa Tarnowska, with illustrations by Nilesh Mistry. It reads to me a bit like an ancient self-help book - the shah in the framing story learns about love through the princesses' stories, which are heavy with symbolism. Luckily there is an ( Read more... )