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 7, 2025
LINCC (Libraries in Clackamas County) Milwaukie Ledding Library
Drag items up and down to your preferred order then select the "Save Order" button.
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...
Aladdin : a new translation
Seale, Yasmine
Paper Book
Long defined by popular film adaptations that have reductively portrayed Aladdin as a simplistic rags-to-riches story for children, this work of dazzling imagination--and occasionally dark themes--finally comes to vibrant new life. "In the capital of one of China's vast and wealthy kingdoms,"...
All-American Muslim girl
Courtney, Nadine Jolie
Paper Book
A Kirkus Best Book of 2019 A 2021 YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults Book Nadine Jolie Courtney's All-American Muslim Girl is a relevant, relatable story of being caught between two worlds, and the struggles and hard-won joys of finding your...
Almond Blossoms and Beyond
Darwish, Mahmoud
Almond Blossoms and Beyond is one of the last collections of poetry that Mahmoud Darwish left to the world. Composed of brief lyric poems and the magnificent sustained Exile cycle, Almond Blossoms holds an important place in Darwish's unparalleled oeuvre. It distills his late style, in which, though...
The American Granddaughter
Kachachi, Inaam
Paper Book
"We let ourselves be won over by this novel that describes with such faithfulness and emotion the tearing apart of a country and a woman forever caught between two shores." ,ÄîLe Monde "Full of poetry and freshness,Ķ" ,ÄîGuide de la rentree litteraire, Lire/Virgin WINNER OF...
Behind you is the sea : a novel
Darraj, Susan Muaddi
Paper Book
2025 PEN/FAULKNER AWARD FINALIST * ANISFIELD-WOLF BOOK AWARD FINALIST "A beautiful portrait of a family reaching for their dreams while holding on to their roots."--Publishers Weekly "Each chapter reads like a small masterpiece."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review) An exciting...
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.
Bitter orange tree : a novel
Alharthi, Jokha
Paper Book
Longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award A TIME Best Book of the Year A New Yorker Best Book of the Year An extraordinary novel from a Man Booker International Prize-winning author that follows one young Omani woman as she builds a life for herself in...
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...
Chronicle of a last summer : a novel of Egypt
El Rashidi, Yasmine
Paper Book
A young Egyptian woman recounts her personal and political coming of age in this brilliant debut novel. Cairo, 1984. A blisteringly hot summer. A young girl in a sprawling family house. Her days pass quietly: listening to a mother's phone conversations, looking at the Nile...
Cities of salt
Munīf, ʻAbd al-Raḥmān.
Paper Book
Banned in Saudia Arabia, this is a blistering look at Arab and American hypocrisy following the discovery of oil in a poor oasis community.
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...
Courting Samira : a novel
Awad, Amal
Paper Book
Set in Sydney, Australia, Courting Samira is a charming, big-hearted rom-com about a twenty-seven-year-old Palestinian woman who finds herself in an unexpected love triangle--a sparkling ode to meddling best friends, traditional courtship, The Princess Bride, and, of course, the possibility of...
Crescent
Abu-Jaber, Diana.
Audiobook
An Arab-American Chocolat-a sensual blend of food, love and longing.
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,...
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,...
Determined to stay : Palestinian youth fight for their village
Sokolower, Jody
Paper Book
Silwan is a Palestinian village located just outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem. Determined to Stay is a moving story of a village and its people. As Silwani youth and community members share their lives with us, their village becomes an easily accessible way to understand Palestinian...
The ethnic cleansing of Palestine
Pappé, Ilan.
Paper Book
Renowned Israeli historian, Ilan Pappe's groundbreaking work on the formation of the State of Israel. 'Along with the late Edward Said, Ilan Pappe is the most eloquent writer of Palestinian history.' NEW STATESMAN Between 1947 and 1949, over 400 Palestinian villages were ...
Excellent daughters : the secret lives of young women who are transforming the Arab world
Zoepf, Katherine
Paper Book
For more than a decade, Katherine Zoepf has lived in or travelled throughout the Arab world, reporting on the lives of women, whose role in the region has never been more in flux. Today, Arab women outnumber men in universities, and a few are beginning to face down religious and social tradition in...
Fatima [DVD]
Noël, Serge, 1965-
The Fetishists
al-Koni, Ibrahim
Paper Book
The Fetishists, originally published in Arabic as Al Majus, is considered the masterpiece of Ibrahim al-Koni, one of the most prolific and important writers in Arabic today. In The Fetishists, Al-Koni explores what happens when a writer asks the novel to speak of and for the...
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<...
Gate of the Sun
Khoury, Elias
Paper Book
ANew York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year One ofKansas City Star's 100 Noteworthy Books of the Year ABoldtypeNotable Book of the Year AChristian Science Monitor Best Book of the Year ASan...
Guns and Almond Milk: A Novel
Marwan, Mustafa
Paper Book
Luke Larson, a British Egyptian doctor, runs from his problematic past in the UK and becomes a war surgeon. When he is taken hostage by Western security contractors in a besieged hospital in Yemen, he realizes that after spending years saving the lives of others, he needs to face the demons of his...
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...
Huda F are you
Fahmy, Huda
Paper Book
From the creator of Yes, I'm Hot In This, this cheeky, hilarious, and honest graphic novel asks the question everyone has to figure out for themselves: Who are you? A Kirkus Reviews Best Young Adult Book of the Century Huda and her family just moved to...
Huddud's House
Azzam, Fadi/ Alatrash, Ghada (TRN)
Paper Book
How far is love willing to travel in search of its own lost voice? When tyranny unleashes destructive forces that threaten to overwhelm a country, what are the effects on the lives and choices of ordinary humans? When citizens become inhabitants of a land of extremes, what do they do, to whom do...
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...
If an Egyptian cannot speak English : a novel
Naga, Noor
Paper Book
Winner of the 2022 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize Winner of the 2023 Arab American Book Award for FictionShortlisted for the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize Shortlisted for the 2023 PEN/Jean Stein Book Award Shortlisted for the 2022 VCU Cabell First Novelist...
In Syria [DVD] = Fī Sūriyā
Van Leeuw, Philippe
DVD
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,...
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...
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.
A long walk from Gaza : a novel
Alatawna, Asmaa
Paper Book
In the tradition of Palestinian women writers, Asma Al-Atawna has gifted us a novel that is both personal and political, that exposes both the occupation and the patriarchy. A Long Walk from Gaza is a coming-of-age story that follows its teenage protagonist through her battles with a strict and...
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).  ...
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 map of love
Soueif, Ahdaf.
Paper Book
Booker Prize Finalist Here is an extraordinary cross-cultural love story that unfurls across Egypt, England, and the United States over the course of a century. Isabel Parkman, a divorced American journalist, has fallen in love with a gifted and difficult Egyptian-American...
The map of salt and stars
Joukhadar, Jennifer Zeynab
Paper Book
"This imaginative but very real look into war-torn Syria is a must." -Booklist (starred review) This rich, moving, and lyrical debut novel is to Syria what The Kite Runner was to Afghanistan; the story of two girls living eight hundred years apart--a modern-day...
Master of the Eclipse
Adnan, Etel
Paper Book
The stories in Master of the Eclipse are populated by filmmakers, poets, girls, professors, and prostitutes who live in Beirut, Paris, Sicily, California, Saddam's Iraq, and New York. The world of these stories is ours, with the same occupations and wars - a 'world that would be a cemetery' were it...
Medieval Islamic medicine
Pormann, Peter E.
Paper Book
The medical tradition that developed in the lands of Islam during the medieval period (c. 650-1500) has, like few others, influenced the fates and fortunes of countless human beings. It is a story of contact and cultural exchange across countries and creeds, affecting many people from kings to...
A month in Siena
Matar, Hisham
Paper Book
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Return comes a profoundly moving contemplation of the relationship between art and life.   NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST AND EVENING STANDARD After finishing...
Namesake: Reflections on a Warrior Woman
Nuseibeh, N. S.
Paper Book
A Palestinian Woman's dazzling exploration of heritage, gender and the idea of home. I may not be brave enough, but somewhere deep inside of me there is, perhaps, the kernel of someone who is. That brave someone was the legendary Nusayba bint Ka'ab al...
No One Will Know You Tomorrow : Selected Poems, 2014-2024
Darwish, Najwan/ Abu-zeid, Kareem James (TRN)
Paper Book
A selection of the exquisite, passionate verse of the Palestinian poet Najwan Darwish, superbly translated into English   Finalist for the 2025 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation   "An unvarnished view of war and its...
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...
Our riches
Adimi, Kaouther, 1986- author.
Paper Book
In this quiet and devastating novel about the rise of fascism, Siggi Jepsen, incarcerated as a juvenile delinquent, is assigned to write a routine German lesson on the "The Joys of Duty." Overfamiliar with these joys, Siggi sets down his life since 1943, a decade earlier, when as a boy he watched...
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 . ....
Palestine
Sacco, Joe.
Paper Book
Joe Sacco's breakthrough work of graphic journalism -- a now-established genre almost single handedly invented by Sacco -- won the American Book Award upon its initial release in 1996, and has remained a perennial, essential work for understanding the Palestinian Israeli conflict in the Middle East....
Palestine on a plate : memories from my mother's kitchen
Kalla, Joudie
Paper Book
Palestine On A Plate is a tribute to family, cooking, and home - old recipes created with love that brings people together in appreciation of the beauty of this rich heritage. This is a celebration of real Palestinian food, cooked with the ingredients that Joudie's mother and grandmother use, and...
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.
The Penguin book of migration literature : departures, arrivals, generations, returns
Ahmad, Dohra
Paper Book
Ahmad's "introduction is fiery and charismatic... This book encompasses the diversity of experience, with beautiful variations and stories that bicker back and forth." --Parul Sehgal, The New York Times The first global anthology of migration literature featuring works by...
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...
Salt houses
Alyan, Hala
Paper Book
 Lyrical and heartbreaking, Salt Houses follows three generations of a Palestinian family and asks us to confront that most devastating of all truths: you can't go home again. Winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the Arab American Book Award On the eve...
The Secret Life of Saeed: The Pessoptimist
Habiby, Emile
Paper Book
Saeed is the comic hero, the luckless fool, whose tale tells of aggression and resistance, terror and heroism, reason and loyalty that typify the hardships and struggles of Arabs in Israel. An informer for the Zionist state, his stupidity, candour, and cowardice make him more of a victim than a...
Shubeik lubeik
Muh?ammad, Di?na?
Paper Book
* Winner of the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation *Eisner Award Nominee * Hugo Award Nominee A brilliantly original debut graphic novel that imagines a fantastical alternate Cairo where wishes really do come true. Shubeik Lubeik--a fairy tale rhyme that means...
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...
Stealth
Ibra?hi?m, S?un? Alla?h.
Paper Book
Set in the turbulent years before the 1952 revolution that would overthrow King Farouk and bring Gamal Abdel Nasser to power, Stealth -- by Sonallah Ibrahim, one of Egypt's most respected and uncompromising novelists -- is a gripping story seen through the eyes of an eleven-year-old boy. A young...
Tatreez and Tea: Embroidery and Storytelling in the Palestinian Diaspora
Ghnaim, Wafa
Paper Book
- Dozens of embroidery patterns preserved in the Palestinian diaspora, including six complete sets of patterns to create a full traditional dress (chest, sleeve and panel);- Family tea, coffee and quince preserves recipes, passed on through generations of Palestinian women from Safad;- Detailed...
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...
THOBNA : Reclaiming Palestinian Dresses in the Diaspora
Ghnaim, Wafa
Paper Book
Throne of the Crescent Moon
Ahmed, Saladin.
Paper Book
From Saladin Ahmed, finalist for the Nebula and Campbell Awards, comes one of the year's most anticipated fantasy debuts: THRONE OF THE CRESCENT MOON, a fantasy adventure with all the magic of The Arabian Nights. The Crescent Moon Kingdoms, home to djenn and ghuls, holy warriors and...
Time of White Horses: A Novel
Nasrallah, Ibrahim
Paper Book
Shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction Spanning the collapse of Ottoman rule and the British Mandate in Palestine, this is the story of three generations of a defiant family from the Palestinian village of Hadiya before 1948. Through the lives...
The time that remains [DVD] = Alezmen alebaqey
Gentile, Michael
DVD
Actor, screenwriter, and director Elia Suleiman presents a handful of autobiographical short stories that offer a witty but thoughtful perspective on the place of Palestinians in Israel (and his own role in the nation) in this comedy drama. Inspired by the journals kept by Suleiman's father, the...
Writings on the Wall: Palestinian Oral Histories
Suarez, Thomas
Paper Book
A book that truly 'sees through walls,' Thomas Suarez has organized a remarkable collection of Palestinian oral histories, most of which hang on Israel's apartheid Wall. Following his forthright introduction deconstructing the so-called 'conflict,' the author's annotations and photographs provide...
The wrong end of the telescope
Alameddine, Rabih
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE 2022 PEN/FAULKNER AWARD FOR FICTION By National Book Award and the National Book Critics' Circle Award finalist for An Unnecessary Woman, Rabih Alameddine, comes a transporting new novel about an Arab American trans woman's journey among Syrian refugees on Lesbos...
You Exist Too Much A Novel
Arafat, Zaina.
Ebook
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,...
Zaha Hadid. Complete Works 1979-Today. 2020 Edition
Jodidio, Philip
Paper Book
Zaha Hadid (1950 - 2016) was a revolutionary architect. For years, she was widely acclaimed and won numerous prizes despite building practically nothing. Some even said her work was simply impossible to build. Yet, during the latter years of her life, Hadid's daring visions became a...

Library staff! You can create and contribute to lists. Contact your catalog administrator or log in here.