Muslim Reads

jessicahassan Adult

The Secret Lives of the Amir Sisters

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⭐⭐⭐

The Secret Lives of the Amir Sisters is an adult contemporary novel by Nadiya Hussain, who won the Great British Bake Off. It’s a story about a Bangladeshi family living in the English countryside told from the alternating points of view of the four daughters.

This book was just okay for me.

The characters were almost caricaturish in the way they fit into neat little boxes, each fulfilling a role: the rebellious sister, the nurturing sister, the trendy sister, and the insecure sister.
There was way too much going on in the plot.
And it tied up too neatly at the end with a really unrealistic resolution to one of the biggest conflicts.

There is another installment about the Amir sisters coming out in the US in January. I might pick it up just to see what happens to these characters next. I might not.

jessicahassan Children's Fiction

A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi

It’s 2002, a year after 9/11. It’s an extremely turbulent time politically, but especially so for someone like Shirin, a sixteen-year-old Muslim girl who’s tired of being stereotyped.

Shirin is never surprised by how horrible people can be. She’s tired of the rude stares, the degrading comments—even the physical violence—she endures as a result of her race, her religion, and the hijab she wears every day. So she’s built up protective walls and refuses to let anyone close enough to hurt her. Instead, she drowns her frustrations in music and spends her afternoons breakdancing with her brother.

But then she meets Ocean James. He’s the first person in forever who really seems to want to get to know Shirin. It terrifies her—they seem to come from two irreconcilable worlds—and Shirin has had her guard up for so long that she’s not sure she’ll ever be able to let it down. [Taken from the publisher’s blurb.]

I really enjoyed this YA contemporary about a Muslim high school student who is the victim of constant microaggressions.

The main character, Shirin, is the best part of this book for me. She is such a complex and fantastic character. So used to being disappointed, she has given up on her fellow human beings, and even stops looking at the people around her, out of fear. But she’s so smart, beautiful, and badass that she intimidates everyone. So the irony of the shell she’s built up around herself is that she’s put it up for her own protection, but everyone else thinks they need protection from her. View Post

jessicahassan Picture Books

Zaid and the Gigantic Cloud by Helal Musleh and illustrated by Sabrina Pichardo

Zaid has been looking forward to his uncle’s annual camping trip and is really disappointed when it gets cancelled. He spends the night feeling bad about missing out, and when he wakes up the next morning, he finds a gray cloud above his head. At school, his bad day keeps getting worse and worse: winter is coming, he has to sit at the back of the bus, and on and on. And the gray cloud grows bigger and bigger.

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jessicahassan Adult

Sea Prayer by Khaled Hosseini

No words to describe this stunning new book from Khaled Hosseini. Inspired by the Syrian refugee crisis, this book is a prayer from a father for his son as they wait to board a boat. The writing is as heartbreakingly beautiful as the illustrations are evocative.

It begins with the father’s memories of the Syria before: “the creek where your uncles and I built a thousand boyhood dams.”

. . . moves into the reality of this generation’s Syria: “You know a bomb crater can be made into a swimming hole.”

. . . and ends with the sea: “how vast, how indifferent. How powerless I am to protect you from it.”

It’s a book that’s not easy to classify. Perhaps “an illustrated poem inspired by true events and intended for adults” is the closest I can get. In any case, it’s one of my favorite books of the year.

Part of the proceeds go to UNHCR, so go get your copy now.

jessicahassan Across Ages

Malcolm X for the Whole Family

Today I have Malcolm X for the whole family: a picture book for children, a YA novel for teens, and, of course, Malcolm X’s autobiography for the rest of us. View Post