Welcome to Litsy!

Solid read. This was a tour of Syria's history via her family and it was interesting and informative. I learned a lot- specifically around Syrian culture and Pakistan. The author lived in Syria throughout the Arab Spring and learning about the collapse of Syria through her friends and family was well done. I think the book needed one more edit to condense some places, however.

Malek's memoir of her family's life in Syria is well done. She brings a personal look to the Syrian Civil War. While it's a personal story, there is plenty of history and politics for those with an interest in in-depth historical insight.

After dinner hammock time 😊

I had put this book down over the weekend and am ready to get back to it.

This is the story of Malek's family from her great grandparents (1890s) up to ~2013 when the Syrian regime began the violence toward their own people. She uses her family history to introduce the bigger history of Syria and surrounding countries. And you can feel her love of country. And her frustration that the global community has ignored the violence in Syria. Highly recommend if wanting an intro to Middle East history/current event. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The discussion of the regime starting to ramp up its violence toward the Syrian people keeps reminding me more and more of a book I finished earlier this year called The Queue (tagged in comments). It would make for an interesting companion read

Their presence, and our imaginings of what unspeakable things were being committed inside, kept us actively threatened, and in line. But most insidiously, no matter how much we averted our gaze, the fact that we knew what was happening inside and yet went about our lives made us complicit.

The arbitrariness was one of the myriad ways of controlling the society and exacting its submission.

Loving this story of Syria as told through the timeline of the author's family. Makes me realize I know very little about the fall of the Ottoman Empire and all the resulting trauma to Arab countries. Does anyone have additional recommendations for nonfiction on the topic?

#Syrian #nonfiction

#currentread - starting this next! It is long overdue for me to educate myself about Syria in detail. This author did an interview on the podcast Politically Reactive a few weeks ago and I finally tracked down her book. It is a unique perspective of modern Syria conflict from a Syrian American and not an outsider (non Arab). And her interview was great 😍

#shelfie #junereaders

It's been taking me forever to read this, but that's a reflection on my life right now, not the book, which is very good.

I like this paragraph.

Enjoying my lunch break outside...in the parking lot. 🌳🌳🌳🚗🚙🐦🐦🐦📖📖📖

To help me make sense of the chaos there