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, 2 October 2016 'Stop killing us.' - Bana...
Against the loveless world : a novel
Abulhawa, Susan
Paper Book
'A thrilling, defiant novel' FATIMA BHUTTO'A masterpiece' MARC LAMONT HILL'Wonderful ... Shines a ray of hope into some very dark places' MICHAEL PALIN'A fearless work of imagination' AHDAF SOUEIFWinner of the Palestine Book AwardNahr has been confined to the Cube: nine...
The house of wisdom : how Arabic science saved ancient knowledge and gave us the Renaissance
Al-Khalili, Jim
Paper Book
For over 700 years the international language of science was Arabic. In Pathfinders, Jim al-Khalili celebrates the forgotten, inspiring pioneers who helped shape our understanding of the world during the golden age of Arabic science, including Iraqi physicist Ibn al-Haytham, who practised the...
The wrong end of the telescope
Alameddine, Rabih
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE PEN/FAULKNER AWARD FOR FICTION 2022 'A beautiful, well paced, enraging, funny and heartbreaking book' the Guardian 'Spectacular . . . Alameddine's irreverent prose evokes the old master storytellers from my own Middle Eastern...
Salt houses
Alyan, Hala
Paper Book
'A piercingly elegant novel . . . with the power to both break and mend your heart.' Ru Freeman, author of On Sal Mal Lane 'Epic in scope and uniquely relevant in its concern for displacement. Particularly well-suited for our times, then.' Red ...
The hundred years' war on Palestine : a history of settler colonialism and resistance, 1917-2017
Khalidi, Rashid
Paper Book
THE SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER'Riveting and original ... a work enriched by solid scholarship, vivid personal experience, and acute appreciation of the concerns and aspirations of the contending parties in this deeply unequal conflict ' Noam ChomskyThe twentieth century for Palestine...
Gate of the Sun
Khoury, Elias
Paper Book
In a makeshift hospital in a refugee camp on the outskirts of Beirut, Yunis, an aging Palestinian freedom fighter, lies in a coma. His spiritual son Dr Khaleel ­­- who has no real medical qualifications - nurses the older man, refusing to admit that his hero may never regain consciousness. ...
The other Americans
Lalami, Laila
Paper Book
FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD 2019'A provocative and gripping novel by a gifted writer' JOHN BOYNE'Remarkable, timely ... Impeccably written' ROXANE GAY'A deftly constructed account of a crime and its consequences' J.M. COETZEE'A writer of uncommon conviction...
The return : fathers, sons, and the land in between
Matar, Hisham
Paper Book
"Hisham Matar was nineteen when his father was kidnapped and taken to prison in Libya. He would never see him again. Twenty-two years later, the fall of Gaddafi meant he was finally able to return to his homeland. In this moving memoir, the author takes us on an illuminating journey, both physical...
The ethnic cleansing of Palestine
Pappé, Ilan.
Paper Book
Since the Holocaust, it has been almost impossible to hide large-scale crimes against humanity. In our communicative world, few modern catastrophes are concealed from the public eye. And yet, Ilan Pappe unveils, one such crime has been erased from the global public memory: the ethnic cleansing...
Palestine
Sacco, Joe.
Paper Book
A powerful graphic novel, capturing the heart of day-to-day life in occupied Palestine. In late 1991 and early 1992, at the time of the first Intifada, Joe Sacco spent two months with the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, travelling and taking notes.
The map of love
Soueif, Ahdaf.
Paper Book
The Map of Love is the story of two stories- two stories separated by a hundred years of history, two stories intricately intertwined. There is the story of Lady Anna Winterbourne who, recently widowed, travels to the Middle East in 1900. In Egypt Anna meet Sharif al-Barudi, an Egyptian Nationalist,...

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