April is National Arab American Heritage Month and Spokane Public Library is celebrating our Arab American library patrons! As the Arab American Institute states, “The story of Arab Americans is the story of America.”
“Arab Americans,” the AAI writes, “are a diverse community of immigrants and the descendants of immigrants, 3.7 million strong, who have come from throughout the Arab world. We are Syrians, Lebanese, Egyptians, Palestinians, Iraqis, Jordanians, and Yemenis—from North Africa to Southwest Asia. Our ethnic community is diverse in faith, race, sexual orientation, gender identity, and ability.”
To help us celebrate the month, here is a booklist of recently published books penned by Arab and Arab American writers, all available at Spokane Public Library.
Homeland: My Father Dreams of Palestine by Hannah Moushabeck
Arab Arab All Year Long! by Cathy Camper, illustrated by Sawsan Chalabi
The Magical Reality of Nadia by Bāsim Yūsuf and Catherine Daly-Weir; illustrated by Douglas Holgate
Huda F Are You? by Huda Fahmy
One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad
Starstruck: A Memoir of Astrophysics and Finding Light in the Dark by Sarafina El-Badry Nance
Dearborn: Stories by Ghassan Zeineddine
But You Don’t Look Arab and Other Tales of Unbelonging by Hala Gorani
The Dream Hotel: A Novel by Laila Lalami
The Cave—A Secret Underground Hospital and One Woman’s Story of Survival in Syria: A Memoir by Amani Balloue, MD, with Rania Abouzeid
Something about Living: Poems by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha
From Here: A Memoir by Luma Mufleh
Between Two Moons: A Novel by Aisha Abdel Gawad
