Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

This is a reflexive account of an American woman and her family's unpredictable journey through the private and public worlds of a traditional Muslim city in the process of change. As a Western stranger in Marrakech, Fernea was met with suspicion and hostility. The story of the slow growth of trust and acceptance between the author and her Moroccan neighbors involves the reader in everyday activities,... (more)

The Tangier Diaries: 1962-1979

by John Hopkins

John Hopkins spent almost two decades in Tangier from the age of 18. He mixed with a range of characters including Rudolf Nureyev, Joe Orton, Barbara Hutton and Malcolm Forbes. He also taught in the American School from 1962-1965, before moving to Marrakesh to live in a mud farm house.

A quoi rêvent les loups: Roman

by Yasmina Khadra

Text: French

In Arabian Nights: A Caravan of Moroccan Dreams

In Arabian Nights: A Caravan of Moroccan Dreams

by Tahir Shah

Tahir Shah’s The Caliph’s House , describing his first year in Casablanca, was hailed by critics and compared to such travel classics as A Year in Provence and Under the Tuscan Sun . Now Shah takes us deeper into the heart of this exotic and magical land to uncover mysteries that have been hidden from Western eyes for centuries.… In this entertaining and penetrating book, Tahir sets out on a bold new... (more)

Almond, The

by Nedjma

'My ambition is to give back to the women of my blood the power of speech confiscated by their men.' Badra is a young girl from a traditional North African Berber village fascinated with the sensuous mystery of her own body. Grim reality intervenes when she ismarried off to a much older man, andbrutally raped on her wedding night. It is enough to convince her that sexual pleasure exists only for men and, by... (more)

In Touch : The Letters of Paul Bowles

by Paul Bowles

This extraordinary collection of correspondence by Paul Bowles spans eight decades and provides an evolving portrait of an artist renowned for his privacy. From his earliest extant letter, written at the age of four, to his precocious effusions to Aaron Copeland and to Gertrude Stein; from his meditations on mescaline as relayed to Ned Rorem, to his intensely moving letters to Jane Bowles during her illness, In... (more)

Morocco: Past and Present

by Guido Barosio

The Pirate Coast: Thomas Jefferson, the First Marines, and the Secret Mission of 1805

The Pirate Coast: Thomas Jefferson, the First Marines, and the Secret Mission of 1805

by Richard Zacks

A real-life thriller, now in paperback -- the true story of the unheralded American who brought the Barbary Pirates to their knees In an attempt to stop the legendary Barbary Pirates of North Africa from hijacking American ships, William Eaton set out on a secret mission to overthrow the government of Tripoli. The operation was sanctioned by President Thomas Jefferson, who at the last moment grew wary of... (more)

Women of Marrakech: Record of a Secret Sharer 1930-1970Leonora Peets

Women of Marrakech: Record of a Secret Sharer 1930-1970

by Leonora Peets

Text: English, Estonian (translation)

Doing Daily Battle: Interviews With Moroccan WomenFatima Mernissi

Doing Daily Battle: Interviews With Moroccan Women

by Fatima Marnissi

Text: English, French (translation)

Their Heads Are Green and Their Hands Are Blue: Scenes from the Non-Christian World

Their Heads Are Green and Their Hands Are Blue: Scenes from the Non-Christian World

by Paul Bowles

Their Heads are Green and their Hands are Blue is an engaging collection of eight travel essays. Except for one essay on Central America, all of these pieces are concerned with locations in the Hindu, Buddhist, or Islamic worlds. A superb and observant traveler, Paul Bowles was a born wanderer who found pleasure in the inaccessible and who cheerfully endures the concomitant hardships with a matter-of-fact humor. ... (more)

Paul Bowles, Magic and Morocco

by Allen Hibbard

Paul Bowles (1910-1999) was one of the most paradoxical literary talents of his century, a sophisticated New York writer and composer who lived a half-century in Morocco, a man who fled the western world that acclaimed him. Paul Bowles, Magic and Morocco is an extended homage, a memoir of a friendship, and an examination of more than a half-century's influence of North African magic on Bowles's sensibilities and... (more)

The Dream at the End of the World: Paul Bowles and the Literary Renegades in Tangier

The Dream at the End of the World: Paul Bowles and the Literary Renegades in Tangier

by Michelle Green

Without Stopping: An Autobiography

by Paul Bowles

Paul Bowles was born in 1910 and studied music with composer Aaron Copland before moving toTangier, Morocco, with his wife, Jane. He remained in Morocco, and- it served as the inspiration for The Sheltering Sky , which waspublished in 1949. It was followed by The Delicate Prey, Let It Come Down, The Spider'sHouse and Without Stopping , a memoir thatdescribes his legendary associations with members of the Beat... (more)

La Civilisation, ma Mere!...

by Chraibi Driss

Lonely Planet Morocco (Morocco, 5th ed)

by Damien Simonis

This guide is the ideal companion for your trip through exotic Morocco where you can meander through medieval medinas, cool down on the coast, bask in Berber hospitality or chase the dramatic Sahara sands. Covers architecture, arts and crafts, trekking in Morocco's unique mountains and the cheapest to the most luxurious.

Lonely Planet Morocco

by Anthony Ham

Visit the Djemaa el-Fna late at night when most of the crowd is local p297. Join the locals in a public hammam and try not to flinch as layers of skin are sloughed off p443. Learn to cook from women who prepare wedding feasts in the city of romance, Marrakesh p306. Find a cure for baldness, impotence or camel sickness in markets all over the country. Five authors, two rented mules, 210 days of in-country... (more)

Imazighen: The Vanishing Traditions of Berber Women

Imazighen: The Vanishing Traditions of Berber Women

by Margaret Courtney-Clarke

This is a record of the Berber women whose way of life is being eroded as modern times and warfare encroaches. The Berber people can be found around the Atlas Mountains area of North Africa. This book documents their difficult lives - from long mule journeys to sell their handmade clay pots in crowded souks, to stoically carrying water and firewood across miles of rocky terrain - and records the beauty they create... (more)

White Gold: The Extraordinary Story of Thomas Pellow and Islam's One Million White Slaves

White Gold: The Extraordinary Story of Thomas Pellow and Islam's One Million White Slaves

by Giles Milton

This is the forgotten story of the million white Europeans, snatched from their homes and taken in chains to the great slave markets of North Africa to be sold to the highest bidder. Ignored by their own governments, and forced to endure the harshest of conditions, very few lived to tell the tale. Using the firsthand testimony of a Cornish cabin boy named Thomas Pellow, Giles Milton vividly reconstructs a... (more)

Wolf Dreams

by Yasmina Khadra

How does a handsome young man who keeps company with poets and dreams of fame and fortune in the movie business become a brutal killer who massacres women and children without turning a hair? "Wolf Dreams" reveals this transformation in a novel of unflinching detail and commanding prose. The story follows Nafa Walid, heart-throb of the Casbah, as he gradually loses control of his destiny and becomes drawn into the... (more)

Shelfari Book Activity

Tags: maghreb

by Elizabeth Warnock Fernea

by John Hopkins

by Yasmina Khadra

by Tahir Shah

by Nedjma

by Paul Bowles

by Guido Barosio

by Richard Zacks

by Leonora Peets

by Fatima Marnissi

by Paul Bowles

by Allen Hibbard

by Michelle Green

by Paul Bowles

by Chraibi Driss

by Damien Simonis

by Anthony Ham

by Margaret Courtney-Clarke

by Giles Milton

by Yasmina Khadra