Arab American Heritage Month - Books for Adults

National Arab American Heritage Month is a month-long celebration of Arab culture and the contributions of Arab Americans in the United States.

Arab Americans are people who came from or whose ancestors came from one of twenty-two Arab nations in northern Africa or the Middle East. An Arab nation is one where people speak the Arabic language. There are twenty-two Arab nations, and the largest by population include Egypt, Algeria, Sudan, Iraq, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia. Other Arab nations include Bahrain, the Comoro Islands, Djibouti, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Somalia, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.

In 2021, the world’s Arab population was estimated to be about 436 million. Oregon’s Arab American community is one of the fastest growing in the U.S. with more than 31,000 Arab Americans living in Oregon.

To celebrate Arab American Heritage Month, check out one of these recommended books or movies below!

Updated April 24, 2024
LINCC (Libraries in Clackamas County)Milwaukie Ledding Library
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Dear world : a Syrian girl's story of war and plea for peace
Al Abed, Bana
Paper Book
"A story of love and courage amid brutality and terror, this is the testimony of a child who has endured the unthinkable." --J.K. Rowling "I'm very afraid I will die tonight." --Bana Alabed, Twitter, October 2, 2016 "Stop killing us." --Bana Alabed, Twitter,...
Paradise now [DVD]
Abu-Assad, Hany
DVD
The story of what may be the last 48 hours in the lives of two Palestinian men who have been recruited as suicide bombers. When they are intercepted at the Israeli border, a young woman who discovers their plan causes them to reconsider their actions.
Crescent
Abu-Jaber, Diana.
Paper Book
Praised by critics for her first novel, "Arabian Jazz, " Diana Abu-Jaber now weaves with spellbinding magic a multidimensional love story set in the Arab-American community of Los Angeles.
The language of Baklava
Abu-Jaber, Diana.
Paper Book
"From the acclaimed author of Crescent, here is a vibrant, humorous memoir of growing up with a gregarious Jordanian father who loved to cook. Diana Abu-Jaber weaves the story of her life in upstate New York and in Jordan around vividly remembered meals: everything from Lake Ontario shish kabob...
Life without a recipe : a memoir
Abu-Jaber, Diana.
Paper Book
Hilarious, gorgeously written, poignant, and wise, Life Without a Recipe is Diana Abu-Jaber's celebration of journeying without a map, of learning to ignore the script and improvise, of escaping family and making family on one's own terms.
Against the loveless world : a novel
Abulhawa, Susan
Paper Book
2020 Palestine Book Awards Winner 2021 Aspen Words Literary Prize Finalist "Susan Abulhawa possesses the heart of a warrior; she looks into the darkest crevices of lives, conflicts, horrendous injustices, and dares to shine light that can illuminate hidden worlds...
The house of wisdom : how Arabic science saved ancient knowledge and gave us the Renaissance
Al-Khalili, Jim
Paper Book
A myth-shattering view of the medieval Islamic world's myriad scientific innovations, which preceded-and enabled-the European Renaissance. The Arabic legacy of science and philosophy has long been hidden from the West. British-Iraqi physicist Jim Al-Khalili unveils that legacy to...
Salt houses
Alyan, Hala
Paper Book
Indie Next PickReceived two starred reviewsSMLOn the eve of her daughter's wedding, Salma reads Alia's future in a cup of coffee dregs. She sees an unsettled life for Alia and her children, which will come to pass when the family is uprooted in the wake of the Six-Day War of 1967. Lyrical and...
You Exist Too Much A Novel
Arafat, Zaina.
Paper Book
A "provocative and seductive debut" of desire and doubleness that follows the life of a young Palestinian American woman caught between cultural, religious, and sexual identities as she endeavors to lead an authentic life (O, The Oprah Magazine). On a hot day in Bethlehem,...
Bikur ha-Tizmoret The band's visit
Bleiberg, Ehud.
DVD
An Egyptian orchestra arrives in Israel to play an important cultural event only to find themselves in the wrong town, where they learn about themselves and each other as they spend the night interacting with the locals.
Behind you is the sea : a novel
Darraj, Susan Muaddi
Paper Book
"Behind You Is the Sea fearlessly confronts stereotypes about Palestinian culture, weaving a remarkable portrait of life's intricate moments, from joyous weddings to heart-wrenching funerals, from shattered hearts to hidden truths--I wept and grew alongside this family. This is a story that...
It won't always be like this : a graphic memoir
Gharib, Malaka
Paper Book
An intimate graphic memoir about an American girl growing up with her Egyptian father's new family, forging unexpected bonds and navigating adolescence in an unfamiliar country-from the award-winning author of I Was Their American Dream. "What a joy it is to read Malaka...
Our women on the ground : essays by Arab women reporting from the Arab world
Hankir, Zahra
Paper Book
Nineteen Arab women journalists speak out about what it's like to report on their changing homelands in this first-of-its-kind essay collection, with a foreword by CNN chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour "A stirring, provocative and well-made new anthology . ....
Love is an ex-country : a memoir
Jarrar, Randa
Paper Book
Queer. Muslim. Arab American. A proudly Fat femme. Randa Jarrar is all of these things. In this "exuberant, defiant and introspective" memoir of a cross-country road trip, she explores how to claim joy in an unraveling and hostile America (The New York Times Book Review).  ...
The thirty names of night : a novel
Joukhadar, Zeyn
Paper Book
Winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Fiction Winner of the ALA Stonewall Book Award--Barbara Gittings Literature Award Named Best Book of the Year by Bustle Named Most Anticipated Book of the Year by The Millions, Electric...
Palestine on a plate : memories from my mother's kitchen
Kalla, Joudie
Paper Book
Palestinian food is not just found on the streets of the Old City of Jerusalem with the ka'ak (sesame) bread sellers and stalls selling za'atar chicken and mana'eesh (za'atar and sesame bread), but in the home too; in the kitchens all across the country, where families cook and eat...
The hundred years' war on Palestine : a history of settler colonialism and resistance, 1917-2017
Khalidi, Rashid
Paper Book
A landmark history of one hundred years of war waged against the Palestinians from the foremost US historian of the Middle East, told through pivotal events and family history In 1899, Yusuf Diya al-Khalidi, mayor of Jerusalem, alarmed by the Zionist call to create a Jewish...
Conditional citizens : on belonging in America
Lalami, Laila
Paper Book
A New York Times Editors' Choice * Best Book of the Year: Time, NPR, Bookpage, L.A. Times What does it mean to be American? In this starkly illuminating and impassioned book, Pulitzer Prize­­-finalist Laila Lalami recounts her unlikely...
The other Americans
Lalami, Laila
Paper Book
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST * ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE'S 100 BEST MYSTERY AND THRILLER BOOKS OF ALL TIME * Timely, riveting, and unforgettable, The Other Americans is at once a family saga, a murder mystery, and a love story informed by the treacherous fault lines of...
The return : fathers, sons, and the land in between
Matar, Hisham
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE * The acclaimed memoir about fathers and sons, a legacy of loss, and, ultimately, healing--one of The New York Times Book Review's ten best books of the year, winner of the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award, and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle...
The Cairo trilogy
Maḥfūẓ, Najīb
Paper Book
Nobel Prize-winner Naguib Mahfouz's magnificent epic trilogy of colonial Egypt--Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, and Sugar Street--together for the first time in one beautiful hardcover volume. The masterwork of the Nobel Prize-winning author, the three novels...
Man o' war
McCarthy, Cory
Paper Book
A Stonewall Honor Book An achingly honest and frequently hilarious coming-of-age novel about an Arab American trans teen fighting to keep their head above water in a landlocked Midwestern town. Man o' wars are not jellyfish, and River McIntyre is not happy....
The silence and the roar
S?r?s, Nih?d.
Paper Book
Available in English for the first time, The Silence and the Roar is a funny, sexy, dystopian novel about the struggle of an individual over tyranny.    The Silence and the Roar follows a day in the life of Fathi Sheen, an author banned from publishing...
Palestine
Sacco, Joe.
Paper Book
A single volume collection of the landmark novel by Joe Sacco, author of Safe In Goradze. Palestine was his first major comic work of political and historical non-fiction, and was based on several months research and an extended visit to the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the early 1990s, where he...
The insult
Sehnaoui, Antoun
Paper Book
In Beirut, a Christian auto mechanic (Adel Karam) and a Palestinian refugee working as a construction foreman (Kamel El Basha) get into an argument that turns violent. Their feud leads to a court case that soon threatens to open up fissures within Lebanon. Directed by Ziad Doueiri. ~ Jack Rodgers,...
The map of love
Soueif, Ahdaf.
Paper Book
A story of two love affairs separated by 100 years. It tells of a widow from colonialist Britain who travels to the Middle East in 1900 where she meets and falls in love with an Egyptian nationalist, and how two of their descendants meet in America in 1997 and try to investigate their past.
Hakim's odyssey. Book 1, From Syria to Turkey
Toulme?, Fabien
Paper Book
What does it mean to be a "refugee"? It is easy for those who live in relative freedom to ignore or even to villainize people who have been forced to flee their homes. After all, it can be hard to identify with others' experiences when you haven't been in their shoes. In Hakim's Odyssey...
The food of Morocco
Wolfert, Paula.
Paper Book
Winner of the James Beard Foundation's Lifetime Achievement Award "A cookbook by Paula Wolfert is cause for celebration. Ms. Wolfert may be America's most knowledgeable food person and her books are full of insight, passion and brilliance." --Anthony Dias Blue, CBS Radio, NY<...
Dearborn : stories
Zeineddine, Ghassan
Paper Book
Spanning several decades, Ghassan Zeineddine's debut collection examines the diverse range and complexities of the Arab American community in Dearborn, Michigan. In ten tragicomic stories, Zeineddine explores themes of identity, generational conflicts, war trauma, migration, sexuality, queerness,...

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