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Bestseller of the Month

Book of the month:
Jerusalem : One City, Three Faiths
By Karen Armestrong
Paperback - Ballantine Books, 1997

British religious scholar Armstrong (A History of God) has written a provocative, splendid historical portrait of Jerusalem that will reward those seeking to fathom a strife-torn city. Her overarching theme, that Jerusalem has been central to the experience and "sacred geography" of Jews, Muslims and Christians and thus has led to deadly struggles for dominance, is a familiar one, yet she brings to her sweeping, profusely illustrated narrative a grasp of sociopolitical conditions seldom found in other books. Armstrong spares none of the three monotheisms in her critique of intolerant policies as she ponders the supreme irony that the Holy City, revered by the faithful as symbol and site of harmony and integration, has been a contentious place where the faiths have fought constantly, not only with one another but within themselves, in bitter factions. Her condemnation of Israel's 1967 annexation of the Old City and East Jerusalem in the Six-Day War ("It was impossible for Israelis to see the matter objectively, since at the [Western Wall] they had encountered the Jewish soul"), however, pushes too far her theme of sacred geography as the physical embodiment of motivating myths and legends.-- they had encountered the Jewish soul"), however, pushes too far her theme of sacred geography as the physical embodiment of motivating myths and legends.

 

Sharon And My Mother in Law

By Suad Amiry

Paperback - Pantheon, 2005

 

Surprisingly funny, and refreshingly different from any other writings on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Sharon and My Mother-in-Law, describes Suad Amiry's experience of living on the West Bank from the early eighties to the present. Amiry tells us about the life and gossip of her neighbourhood in Ramallah, her moving family history and the struggle to live a normal life in an insane situation; from the impossibility of acquiring gas masks during the first Gulf War to her dog acquiring a Jerusalem Passport when thousands of Palestinians couldn't.

The book contains a diary Amiry kept during the Israeli invasion of Ramallah in March 2002, when her feisty 92-year-old mother-in-law came to live with them and we learn how daily chores such as buying food and visiting friends and relatives become Herculean tasks for anyone living in a state of siege. With a wickedly sharp ear for dialogue, and an eye for telling details of human behavior, Suad Amiry has written a wonderful and very funny book about the absurdity (and agony) of life in the Occupied Territories.

Suad Amiry

Suad Amiry is a Palestinian architect. She is the founder and director of the "Riwaq Center for Architectural Conservation" based in Ramallah. After growing up between Amman, Damascus, Beirut and Cairo, she went on to study architecture at the American University of Beirut, and the University of Michigan, completing her PhD studies at Edinburgh University. In 1981, she came to teach architecture at Birzeit University and subsequently married and gained a mother-in-law; she has lived in Ramallah ever since. She has written and co-authored a number of books on various aspects of Palestinian architecture including: "The Palestinian Village Home", "Traditional Floor Tiles in Palestine", "Earthquake in April", "Manatir: Agricultural Farmhouses in Rural Palestine", and most recently, "Throne Village Architecture".

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