this novel by moroccan american, laila lalami, follows the story of four moroccans attempting to emigrate from morocco. i loved this book.
lalami used to live in portland and we were lucky enough to get her to do a reading and signing here at olympia a few years ago. she now lives in l.a., a professor at the u.c.l.a., and before that she was in morocco for a year, as a fullbright scholar, working on her second novel.
she also writes one of my favorite lit (and culture and politics) blogs:
http://www.lailalalami.com/blog/
lalami also wrote an important article/review of Ayaan Hirsi Ali's book "Infidel" and Irshad Manji's "The Trouble with Islam Today".
excerpt:
"These days, being a Muslim woman means being saddled with what can only be referred to as the "burden of pity." The feelings of compassion that we Muslim women seem to inspire emanate from very distinct and radically opposed currents: religious extremists of our own faith, and evangelical and secular supporters of empire in the West." full article here
what are your favorite lit blogs?
2 comments:
hi sara, this is the first novel you recommended that i read. i liked it quite a bit. i often read novels and have very little to say about them. i like lalami's blog but i don't read many blogs about books. i read book reviews in magazines and check the library newsletters quite a bit. are there any library events coming up we bumpidee readers should know about?
yes! joshua ploeg, vegan chef and zinester, is going to do a vegan cooking demo (limited i'm sure since we don't have a kitchen) and some local zinesters are going to read from their work as well. it's going to be on saturday, september 6 at 2 p.m. i'll put up a post maybe at the beginning of next week?
my fabulous co-worker kelsey put this program together. she also put together the library's zine collection.
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