Cannonball Read 14

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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And to think, when I was her age, I was learning to ride a bike

My Name is Bana by Bana Alabed

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My Name is Bana is not a memoir, but it is the story of Bana Alabed. She was a young girl who saw that things were not right in her war-torn homeland of Syria. And she stood up and did what modern kids did. She Tweeted. This is not that story. This is a story about Bana and how she is as strong as the tree she is named for. Bana’s mother tells her how the Bana tree grows strong. And how it is strong […]

Poetic Migrant Journey

A Map of Salt and Stars by Zeyn Joukhadar

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Joukhadar’s novel follows twin stories in alternate timelines, one set in recent Syria and North Africa during Islamic State and another set in the same are during the 1300s. Both stories feature girls who pose as boys, allowing them to do things that would otherwise be prohibited or unsafe for women. Nour is our present day heroine, and she has returned to Syria with her mother and two older sisters following her father’s death from cancer in New York City. Although Nour was born in […]

Let me tell you about a secret

Nasreen’s Secrete School by Jeanette Winter

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Jeanette Winter’s style comes alive in this 2009 picture book, Nasreen’s Secret School: A True Story from Afghanistan. The colors of the illustrations are rich, deep, and plentiful. I have always appreciated how things are fanciful and realistic at the same time. This story is based on the story of a girl of Afghanistan, who of course, has had her and her family names changed to protect everyone. This book has come back into our knowledge due to recent events in the country. Worries that […]

“It’s because I’m tired of being branded a terrorist; tired that a human life lost in my country is no loss at all.”

Our Women on the Ground: : Essays by Arab Women Reporting from the Arab World by Zahra Hankir

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Looking back, I can’t quite remember how this book ended up on my TBR back in February 2020. It did though and I’m glad to have read it, even if it took me longer than I hoped to actually complete it. There is something incredibly valuable about learning a story from the person experiencing it; of seeking out authentic voices and sources. In bringing Our Women on the Ground, Zahra Hankir puts the voice of women journalists from the Arab world front and center, where […]

A challenge to American foreign policy on every page

Babylon Burning: A Graphic History of the Making of the Modern Middle East by Toufic El Rassi

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Babylon Burning: A Graphic History of the Making of the Modern Middle East is a graphic novel that is not for the casual reader. It is not for anyone probably under 14 (in fact I would probably not recommend for anyone under 16-17 in some cases). It is not a book that you will find a happy, fluffy, Rah-Rah-America-is-Great mentality. Toufic El Rassi even comes out and says he never said he was not going to be biased. Arab in America (from 2008) started his […]

Sex, drugs and a little rock-n-roll in Iran

Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return by Marjane Satrapi

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Interestingly, in several ways I liked Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return better than the first book. And yet, I enjoyed the first book more. I put this towards Marjane Satrapi’s continuation of the first book by picking up where she left off but this time showing more growth. Literally (she has a growth spurt and puberty hits hard) and figuratively (learning about “new” authors, ideas, respect different cultures seem to have, values, drugs and more.). Though about the same amount of years go […]



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