The list author says: "This part of the world has complex trade, tribal and linguistic history hard to deduce from mainstream fiction, popular history, textbooks or even travel books. Here is what little I have found so far as preparation for my own travels begins. Suggestions welcome. Space is limited so many books have been read - and excluded."
"Central Asia's peoples, art, trade, religion and politics are closely connected with the Ottoman Empire and modern Turkey. Stunning color plates of artworks are the best part."
"A brilliant, lyric novel by an Algerian military officer who used a feminine pseudonym, this story follows the lives of four people whose relationships are sorely tested by the war-torn Kabul during the time of the Taliban. A parable more than a story, beautifully analytical."
"Detective Yashim is the rare eunuch who lives in Istanbul at the end of the Ottoman Empire. Amazing story woven into Byzantine history, Ottoman geography and Roman architecture."
"The tale of a young rugmaker at the height of Shah Abbas' age of fine arts in Persia provides a history or perhaps an ethnography of rural and urban, wealthy and poor."
"The legacy of the Ottoman Empire is still with us. Its borders were vast, its rule incomplete yet it functioned as the rule of law. A political analysis contrasts its initial three centuries with its decline over its last three hundred years. A compelling read, esp. for nonfiction. A must for those who read the Detective Yashim stories."
""A modern explanation of Turkey's internal struggle" and indeed, it is. Fear prevails in the world of artists and illustrators during the Ottoman Empire. Graceful prose, wit and brevity - even a bit of humor - bring this cautionary tale into sharp focus for the modern student of Middle East geopolitics. I found Roixburgh's book (above) helpful."
"An Iranian professor of English literature teaches in Tehran where she refuses to take the veil. Instead she teaches her young female students in her home, providing a rare glimpse of how life has changed beneath the veil."
"Enchanting, spellbinding example of the ancient storytelling form long used in Syria, Turkey, and Asia. Every word is perfectly placed before its surprise ending."
"To understand this finely drawn novel is to gain insights into modern Turkey. The plot parallels the coming of age for Ataturk's legacy complete with intrigue, unattainable beauty, turmoil..Amazing work that could be read along with "Birds Without Wings""
"Exquisite writing, this is nonfiction that engages from start to finish. Four Islamic countries, none of which are Arabic are the subject of this writer's travels back to places visited two decades before."
"This prize-winning book is offbase in the geographical sense but it does provide a stark contrast to Central Asia: here we have India's own Horatio Alger story which could only happen with globalized trade."
"I enjoy this unusual book because it is a good example of the "nested fable" so often found in Middle East literature. Each of the story's elements are drawn finely and separately then their orbits gradually converge until the whole story snaps into unexpected focus. An artful and strange tale, this one."
"Excellent history of this enigmatic region and one of the best features is the maps across centuries showing how the geographic boundaries of the countries around the Black Sea have changed."
"Lovely, timeless and enduring. Especially memorable for me is the Mongolian Long Song. I've worn through two CDs and given many others for gifts. A favorite."
"So subtle, the plot starts with the unlikely pairing of a South African investment banker's only child and an illegal immigrant from a North African country. Cultural assumptions are finely drawn for Western-Arab relations."
"A painful coming-of-age story told during Iran's days under the rule of the Shah. Offers glimpses of humor, cultural tradition, food and gestures that richly describe the families of Iran's urban professionals through 1967."
"Delightful gift of a story. Borders on an ethnography, adding hundreds of cultural insights about Arabic language, Islam society and how this both bear on family life."
"Oddly, this fast-paced biography offer an occasional parallel to "Rooftops of Tehran" and thus deserves a place on this eclectic list. This read to be insightful for oil barons, professional American women as well as those who came of age during the 20th century's rise of Middle Eastern nationalism, OPEC and Big Oil."
"Venice! Its decay is beautifully described as the plot moves through its tangled political intrigues with the Ottoman empire and the Hapsburgs while providing a glimpse at the socioeconomic strata within the former principality."
"Good description of Saladin. Engaging read, this book is reminder of the Crusades' long shadow cast from England, Italy and the Baltic Sea to the Levant, Acre, Jerussalem and beyond."
"A translation, this book has awkward English laden with adjectives. Even so, this little book sketches out family and cultural norms for Kazakh people once upon a time. Big Love on the steppes..."
"First kin to "The Pickup" this novel explores the interface between a displaced immigrant who has lost his dignity and more and the previous American owner of a house he buys."
"Disliked the blousy fat American caricature whose "gourmet" 4000-calorie menu is vile mockery. Book's other half is sublime poetry. Too bad the modern part is beneath the standards set in Elif Shafak's other books. I would not read this one for free."
"A child's view of Libyan society during the reign of Qaddafi. Visceral, it fills the senses. Not for the light-hearted romantic, it describes a child's view of a tortured parent at close range."
"This is a book about a romantic throwaway that sticks forever. Chatty and inane (sometimes insane!) my take is that this book probes the schizophrenic disconnect between love and marriage in modern Turkey and modern Islam culture as a whole. Gossipy but engaging, even witty, this book is thoroughly worthwhile."
