What we are reading for October

The October book is Map of Home by Randa Jarrar. What I really like about choosing books for the book group, is finding books that people may never hear about, that are contemporary, and which deal with issues of our time. Randa Jarrar is a novelist and translater who grew up in Kuwait and Egypt. Her novel Map of Home won the Arab American Book Award in 2009.

Some of the books I have chosen lately are by authors who have their own web sites. In most cases these are very young authors, but not always. I find this ability for artists to promote themselves and their work exciting and very interesting; it provides a view into the author that we might not have had before. For instance Ms. Jarrar's web site includes a link to a review of her book. The reviewing source is a blog called Electronic Intefada which "is a not-for-profit, independent publication committed to comprehensive public education on the question of Palestine, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the economic, political, legal, and human dimensions of Israel's 40-year occupation of Palestinian territories."