Being a teenager isn't easy. All Sara wants to do is experiment with make-up and hang out with friends. It doesn't help when you have a super-strict Egyptian dad who tells you that everything is "e;haram"e; a.k.a. forbidden. But when her family move to the Arabian Gulf, it feels like every door is being closed on Sara's future. Can Sara find her voice again? Will she ever be free?
Set in 1996 southern California, high school senior Rana Joon wants to honor her deceased best friend by entering a rap contest and living authentically as a lesbian, but feels conflicted by her Iranian family's expectations.
For fans of Nina LaCour's We Are Okay and Adam Silvera's History Is All You Left Me, this heartfelt and ultimately uplifting novel follows one sixteen-year-old girl's friend breakup through two concurrent timelines--ultimately proving that even endings can lead to new beginnings. "Stunning." --Nic Stone, bestselling author of Dear Martin and Odd One Out You can't rewrite the past, but you can always choose to start again. It's been twenty-seven days since Cleo and Layla's friendship imploded. Nearly a month since Cleo realized they'll never be besties again. Now Cleo wants to erase every memory, good or bad, that tethers her to her ex-best friend. But pretending Layla doesn't exist isn't as easy as Cleo hoped, especially after she's assigned to be Layla's tutor. Despite budding friendships with other classmates--and a raging crush on a gorgeous boy named Dom--Cleo's turbulent past with Layla comes back to haunt them both. Alternating between time lines of Then and Now, When You Were Everything blends past and present into an emotional story about the beauty of self-forgiveness, the promise of new beginnings, and the courage it takes to remain open to love. "Breathtakingly beautiful....Woodfolk has a way of making words sing and burst with light." --Tiffany D. Jackson, award-winning author of Monday's Not Coming and Let Me Hear A Rhyme
It's been three years since Mustafa Bahdoon, one-time leader of the Southside Killaz, saved his fugitive son Adem from the clutches of pirates in Somalia. But when Mustafa is asked to rescue a young girl from the gang's sex trafficking empire, he returns from retirement to seize control once again. But his coup ignites a vicious gang war on the streets of Minneapolis.Meanwhile, still haunted by guilt over the girl he left behind in Somalia, Adem reprises the role of Mr Mohammed, legendary pirate negotiator. But the CIA is on his tail and he soon finds himself unwillingly enmeshed in a deadly campaign against organised crime.Half a world apart, survival for both father and son depends upon telling friend from enemy, truth from lie, and their own true selves from the roles they must play.Once A Warrior is the highly anticipated follow-up to the award-winning All The Young Warriors. Praise for All The Young Warriors"a brilliant book, possibly the best novel of the year." - Les Edgerton"written with a sureness of hand and a depth of character that are impressive. A highly accomplished crime novel exposing an often unseen world." - The Big Issue"All The Young Warriors will grip readers who enjoy the chance to slip into a foreign culture and also those who want a page-turning thriller" - Spinetingler Magazine"a powerful story that is both riveting and meaningful" - Crime Fiction Lover"this book is a classic in the making" - I Meant To Read That"All The Young Warriors is a pretty rare beast, a clever page-turner. It deserves to be a bestseller and has film adaptation stamped all over it." - Loitering With Intent"a courageous novel that raises a lot of pertinent questions" - Dead End Follies"Smith writes with force and clarity" - The Chicago Tribune"Smith's version of Minnesota is no Lake Wobegon; the inhabitants are refreshingly made up entirely of the deranged, the damaged, and the doomed. If you can picture the intellectual and physical mayhem that might have resulted from a Jim Thompson and Harry Crews collaboration, you'd be on the right track. But Anthony Neil Smith is his own writer — and a very fine one, indeed." - Booklist
A timely defense of religious diversity and its centrality to American identity America is the most religiously diverse nation on the planet. In today’s volatile climate of religious conflict and distrust, how do we affirm that the American promise is deeply intertwined with how each of us engages with people of different beliefs? Eboo Patel, former faith adviser to Barack Obama, provides answers to this timely question. In this thought-provoking book, Patel draws on his personal experience as a Muslim in America to examine the importance of religious diversity in the nation’s cultural, political, and economic life. He explores how religious language has given the United States some of its most enduring symbols and inspired its most vital civic institutions—and demonstrates how the genius of the American experiment lies in its empowerment of all people.
Introducing innovative new research from international scholars working on Islamic fashion and its critics, Islamic Fashion and Anti-Fashion provides a global perspective on muslim dress practices. The book takes a broad geographic sweep, bringing together the sartorial experiences of Muslims in locations as diverse as Paris, the Canadian Prairie, Swedish and Italian bath houses and former socialist countries of Eastern Europe. What new Islamic dress practices and anxieties are emerging in these different locations? How far are they shaped by local circumstances, migration histories, particular religious traditions, multicultural interfaces and transnational links? To what extent do developments in and debates about Islamic dress cut across such local specificities, encouraging new channels of communication and exchange? With original contributions from the fields of anthropology, fashion studies, media studies, religious studies, history, geography and cultural studies, Islamic Fashion and Anti-Fashion will be of interest to students and scholars working in these fields as well as to general readers interested in the public presence of Islam in Europe and America.
An incisive exploration of women and work, showing how globalization’s promise of liberation instead set the stage for repression—from the acclaimed author of Factory Girls “Exhaustively reported and researched, Egyptian Made takes us halfway across the world and inside the intimate lives of women caught between tradition and independence.”—Monica Potts, New York Times bestselling author of The Forgotten Girls What happens to the women who choose to work in a country struggling to reconcile a traditional culture with the demands of globalization? In this sharply drawn portrait of Egyptian society—deepened by two years of immersive reporting—Leslie T. Chang follows three women as they persevere in a country that throws up obstacles to their progress at every step, from dramatic swings in economic policy to conservative marriage expectations and a failing education system. Working in Egypt’s centuries-old textile industry, Riham is a shrewd businesswoman who nevertheless struggles to attract workers to her garment factory and to compete in the global marketplace. Rania, who works on a factory assembly line, attempts to climb to a management rank but is held back by conflicts with co-workers and the humiliation of an unhappy marriage. Her colleague Doaa, meanwhile, pursues an education and independence but sacrifices access to her own children in order to get a divorce. Alongside these stories, Chang shares her own experiences living and working in Egypt for five years, seeing through her own eyes the risks and prejudices that working women continue to face. She also weaves in the history of Egypt’s vaunted textile industry, its colonization and independence, a century of political upheaval, and the history of Islam in Egypt, all of which shaped the country as it is today and the choices available to Riham, Rania, and Doaa. Following each woman’s story from home and work, Chang powerfully observes the near-impossible balancing act that Egyptian women strike every day.
Told from two viewpoints, high school seniors Haley, who had a public breakdown, and shy Lewis, long-time member of the TV Production class, find that filming documentaries about their classmates' hidden talents reveals their own aspirations.
Cyrus King and his family has a perfectly routined life. Until one day, it is interrupted by unforeseen events that turned the Kings' world upside down. Faced with many different trials and obstacles, they had to overcome and persevere. They had to adjust with living with family, moving out of the country, and living with strangers. They had to adjust to new customs and rules. While on this journey, both Cyrus and his wife, Esther, are introduced to God and the whole idea of having a relationship with him. The people that introduced the couple to God also encouraged them to increase their faith while going through the different trials. These people also gave them strength to keep going even though the odds of life were up against them. After a while, Cyrus got very uncomfortable with his and his family's living situation. He decides to do the unthinkable. Travel from Canada to New York City...on foot. He claims that he has purpose there. He feels the need to leave and provide a better future for his family. Leaving behind a wife, a four-year-old daughter, and a newborn son, he attempts his journey to NYC. The question is: Will Cyrus make it to New York City and become successful, or will he get stuck in the midst of his journey and not make it to New York City at all?
These days, society tells women they can buy self-care in a store or cross it off a to-do list. In this 40-day devotional, Tiffany Bluhm invites women into a deeper, more meaningful understanding of self-care that includes faith, rest, joy, lament, collaboration, and empowerment. Bluhm shows how self-care is critical to women's spiritual growth and empowerment to make a difference in the world. The Women We've Been Waiting For weaves together Scripture, liturgies, and stories of historical figures to show women that caring for themselves is the first step toward renewing their own souls and tackling the social problems they care most about. Bluhm draws from her own writing as well as guest contributions from a diverse group of ministers, authors, and activists. Each devotion invites readers to learn from women who have managed tension, survived the seemingly impossible, and embodied a resilient faith. Readers will emerge from their 40-day journey with a more vibrant spirituality to fuel them in their everyday lives.
