GLLI March 2024 Curation Team here.

As we are winding down and coming to the end of a month celebrating books from the UAE, we thought we would re-introduce ourselves in a different way this time, through our personal list of favorite books, both past and current. Here’s the team!

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Dr. Mona Aljanahi

Favorite childhood book: The Berenstain Bears by Stan and Jan Berenstain 

Favorite book: Persuasion by Jane Austen and Regency Buck by Georgette Heyer

Favorite quote from a book:

“The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge.” The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe.

“Makes a diff’rence, havin’ a decent family.” Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling.

Book you always recommend: Lonely Castle in the Mirror by Mizuki Tsujimura and The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yōko Ogawa. 

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Dr. Mark Baildon

Favorite childhood book: The Hardy Boys (series) by Franklin W. Dickson

Favorite book (most influential): The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations by Christopher Lasch

Favorite picture book: Oh, the Places You’ll Go! by Dr Seuss 

Favorite quote from a book:

“And so it goes…” Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut.

Book you always recommend: The Art of Loving by Eric Fromm.

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Fajer M. Bin Rashed

Favorite childhood book: Red Riding Hood 

Favorite book: Babel by R. F. Kuang and The Woman from Tantoura by Radwa Ashour

Favorite quote from a book:

“The truth is that unread poetry will almost always be just that… doomed to join a vast, invisible river of waste that flows out of suburbia.” – Distant Rain, Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan.

Book you always recommend: Fredrik Backman’s Beartown trilogy and Sinan Antoon’s The Corpse Washer (I read Antoon’s book in Arabic, so I recommend the Arabic version).

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Najla Al Owais

Favorite childhood book: Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott and the Nancy Drew Series by Carolyn Keene.

Favorite picture book: Be Kind by Pat Zeitlow Miller & Uncle Khalfan’s Sheep by Maitha Al Khayat (Arabic)

Favorite book (in 2023): All Your Children, Scattered by Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse

Favorite quote from a book:

“You can’t write a script in your mind and then force yourself to follow it. You have to let yourself be.” ― Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie,

“Human lives were short and fragile. Time and illnesses consumed us, like flames burning away these pieces of wood. But it didn’t matter how long or short we lived. It mattered more how much light we were able to shed on those we loved and how many people we touched with our compassion.” — The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai,

Book you always recommend: Lyrics Alley by Leila Aboulela, Suitors for Sheikha by Nauf Alwan, & The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai.

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Dr. Meghry Nazarian

Favorite childhood book: Friendship Under the Ghaf Tree by Susan Brown & Dr. Ahmed Al Shoaibi, Lubna’s Pebble by Wendy Meddour, Dreamers by Yuyi Morales. 

Favorite book: Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa 

Favorite quote from a book: My favorite lines are from a poem by Alberto Rios:

We give because someone gave to us… 

We give because nobody gave to us… 

We give because giving has changed us… 

We give because giving could have changed us… 

Book you always recommend: The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak (see Meghry’s review of the book here).

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Mariam Aljaberi

Favorite childhood book: Magic Tree House series and the Rainbow Magic series

Favorite book: Normal People by Sally Rooney and Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Favorite quote from a book:

“الصبر لا يعني التحمّل سلبيَّا، بل يعني أن يكون المرء متحلّيًا ببُعد نظر يكفي لأن يثق بالنتيجة النهائيّة التي ستصل إليها عمليّة ما. ماذا يعني الصبر؟ يعني أن تنظر إلى الشوكة وترى وردة، أن تنظر إلى الليل وترى فيه الفجر.”

“Patience is not about passively enduring hardship. It is about having the foresight to trust in the ultimate outcome of a process. What does patience mean? It means looking at a thorn and seeing a rose. It means looking at night and seeing the dawn within it.” 

“حاول ألا تقاوم المتغيّرات التي تصادفك في طريقك، بل اترك الحياة تنتعشْ في داخلك، ولا تقلقْ إذا انقلبت حياتك رأسًا على عقب، إذ من أين لك أن تعرف أنّ الجهة التي تألفها أفضلُ من الجهة الأخرى؟”

Try not to resist the changes that you encounter on your path but let life blossom within you. Don’t worry if your life turns upside down, for how do you know that the side you are familiar with is better than the other side? 

– The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak translated to Arabic by Mohammad Darwish

Book you always recommend: The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See.

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Noora Anwahi

Favorite childhood book: Matilda by Roald Dahl

Favorite picture book: Cloud Bread by Baek Hee-Na and The Missing Piece Meets the Big O by Shel Silverstein. 

Favorite book: The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Favorite quote from a book:

We were sufficiently similar to understand each other easily, and sufficiently different to surprise each other. – Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman.

Book you always recommend: How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish.

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Reem Alshamsi

Favorite book: As Long As The Lemon Trees Grow by Zoulfa Katouh

Favorite quote from a book:

“We don’t have to stop living because we might die.”

كلُّ ليمونة ستنجب طفلاً ومحال أن ينتهي الليمون

and “Every lemon will bring forth a child, and the lemons will never die out”.  – As Long As The Lemon Trees Grow by Zoulfa Katouh.

Book you always recommend: Tom Gates Series by Liz Pichon.

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Wdad Ali

Favorite book: The Bamboo Stalk by Saud Al Sanousi ساق البامبو

Favorite quote from a book:

“نحن لا نكافئ الأخرين بغفراننا ذنوبهم، نحن نكافئ أنفسنا، و ننتطهر من الداخل”.

“We do not reward others by forgiving their sins; we reward ourselves and cleanse from within.” – The Bamboo Stalk by Saud Alsanousi

Book you always recommend: It Didn’t Start with You by Mark Wolynn.

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Noor Al Owais

Favorite book: Land Of Stories series by Chris Colfer, Anne Of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery

Favorite picture book: The Boring Book by Shinsuke Yoshitake

Favorite quote from a book:

“A bosom friend–an intimate friend, you know–a really kindred spirit to whom I can confide my innermost soul. I’ve dreamed of meeting her all my life. I never really supposed I would, but so many of my loveliest dreams have come true all at once that perhaps this one will, too.” – Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery.

“After you go forward, you can’t step backwards.” – Soumayya Jabarti (from Amazing Women Of The Middle East by Wafa Tarnowska) 

Book you always recommend: Plumdog by Emma Chichester Clark, Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling.

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Abdulla Al Owais

Favorite book: Sad Ghost Club Series by Lize Meddings and Investigators Series by John Patrick Green

Favorite picture book: The Incredible Book Eating Boy by Oliver Jeffers 

Favorite quote from a book:

“Things are always happening to me. I’m that sort of bear.” – A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond and Peggy Fortnum. 

Book you always recommend: Wimpy Kid Series by Jeff Kinney and Dogman series by Dav Pilkey

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About the Guest Editor/Curator for March 2024 [#UAEReads]:

Myra Garces-Bacsal

Except for the first question (favorite childhood book), my answers below only apply to books read in 2023 and 2024:

Favorite childhood book: Niknok in Funny Comics and Mga Kwento Ni Lola Basyang by Severino Reyes.

Favorite picture book read in 2023: Salat in Secret by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow and Remember by Jo Harjo and Michaela Goade

Favorite book read in 2023: Salt Houses by Hala Alyan

Favorite quote from a book read in 2023: I wanted to share just an extract from the Foreword written by Ross Gay for How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope edited by James Crews, but decided to just share everything here instead, because it’s just too good:

Books read in 2023/2024 you always recommend: How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope edited by James Crews; Some People Need Killing: A Memoir of Murder in My Country by Patricia Evangelista; and How to Stand Up To A Dictator by Maria Ressa.