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West of Kabul, East of New York: An Afghan American Story
Tamim Ansary, Mir Tamim Ansary · back to the book
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24 books with the same feel
Include books by the same authorInfidel
Ayaan Hirsi Ali · 353 pages
"Ultimately a celebration of triumph over adversity, Hirsi Ali's story tells how a bright little girl evolved out of dutiful obedience to become an outspoken, pioneering freedom fighter. As Western governments struggle to balance democratic ideals with religious pressures, no story could be timelier or more significant.--From publisher description."--From source other than the Library of Congress
'Tis A Memoir
Frank McCourt · 512 pages
The Complete Persepolis
Marjane Satrapi · 352 pages
From inside front cover: The story of Satrapi's unforgettable childhood and coming of age within a ... loving family in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution; of the contradictions between private and public life in a coutnry plagued by political upheaval; of her high school years in Vienna facing the trails of adolescence far from her family; of her homecoming -- both sweet and terrible; and, fina
Laughing Without an Accent: Adventures of an Iranian American, at Home and Abroad
Firoozeh Dumas · 240 pages
In the bestselling memoir Funny in Farsi, Firoozeh Dumas recounted her adventures growing up Iranian American in Southern California. Now she again mines her rich Persian heritage in Laughing Without an Accent, sharing stories both tender and humorous on being a citizen of the world, on her well-meaning family, and on amusing cultural conundrums, all told with insights into the universality of the
Do They Hear You When You Cry?
Fauziya Kassindja, Layli Miller Bashir, Fauziya Kasinga · 518 pages
American Gypsy
Oksana Marafioti · 370 pages
Unpolished Gem
Alice Pung · 286 pages
Stealing Buddha's Dinner
Bich Minh Nguyen · 272 pages
As a Vietnamese girl coming of age in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Nguyen is filled with a rapacious hunger for American identity, and in the pre-PC-era Midwest (where the Jennifers and Tiffanys reign supreme), the desire to belong transmutes into a passion for American food. More exotic- seeming than her Buddhist grandmother's traditional specialties, the campy, preservative-filled "delicacies" of mai
Paper Daughter: A Memoir
M. Elaine Mar · 292 pages
When she was five years old, M. Elaine Mar and mother emigrated from Hong Kong to Denver to join her father in a community more Chinese than American, more hungry than hopeful. While working with her family in the kitchen of a Chinese restaurant and living in the basement of her aunt's house, Mar quickly masters English and begins to excel in school. But as her home and school life - Chinese trad
Reaching Out
Francisco Jimenez · 196 pages
Leaving his home in a migrant community, Francisco sets off for college, carrying memories of years of poverty and prejudice.
Intolerable: A Memoir of Extremes
Kamal Al-Solaylee · 204 pages
A true story of life in the modern Middle-East spanning the nearly six decades from the nationalism of the 1960s to the Arab Spring of 2011, by a prominent Canadian journalist. In the '60s, Al-Solayee's father was one of the wealthiest property owners in Aden, south of Yemen, but when the country shrugged off its colonial roots, his properties were confiscated. As a gay man living in an intolerant
The Woman Warrior
Maxine Hong Kingston · 209 pages
The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts is Kingston's disturbing and fiercely beautiful account of growing up Chinese-American in California. The young Kingston lives in two worlds: the America to which her parents have immigrated and the China of her mother's "talk stories." Her mother tells her traditional tales of strong, wily women warriors - tales that clash puzzlingly with the
Almost French: A New Life In Paris
Sarah Turnbull · 320 pages
A delightful, fresh twist on the travel memoir, Almost French takes us on a tour that is fraught with culture clashes but rife with deadpan humor. Sarah Turnbull's stint in Paris was only supposed to last a week. Chance had brought Sarah and Frederic together in Bucharest, and on impulse she decides to take him up on his offer to visit him in the world's most romantic city. Sacrificing Vegemite f
Falling Leaves: The Memoir of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter
Adeline Yen Mah · 278 pages
Adeline Yen Mah was born in 1937 in Tianjin, a port city one thousand miles north of Shanghai. She was the fifth and youngest child of an affluent family. Her grand aunt - in an unprecedented achievement - had founded the Shanghai Women's Bank in 1924, and her father was a revered businessman whose reputation for turning iron into gold began when he started his own firm at the age of nineteen. Ye
The Perfect Gentleman: A Muslim Boy Meets the West
Imran Ahmad · 400 pages
"Imran Ahmad shares his story of life as a Pakistani Muslim growing up in England in this coming-of-age memoir"--Provided by the publisher.
Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez
Richard Rodriguez · 197 pages
Hunger of Memory is the story of Mexican-American Richard Rodriguez, who begins his schooling in Sacramento, California, knowing just 50 words of English, and concludes his university studies in the stately quiet of the reading room of the British Museum. Here is the poignant journey of a "minority student" who pays the cost of his social assimilation and academic success with a painful alienation
The Butterfly Mosque: A Young American Woman's Journey to Love and Islam
G. Willow Wilson · 304 pages
Documents the author's conversion from all-American atheist to Islam, a journey marked by her decision to relocate to Cairo, romance with a passionate young Egyptian, and her efforts to balance the virtues of both cultures.
Out of Egypt: A Memoir
Andre Aciman · 339 pages
Set in luxuriant cosmopolitan Alexandria, this richly colored memoir chronicles the exploits of a flamboyant Jewish family from its bold arrival in Egypt at the turn of the century to its defeated exodus three generations later. In elegant and witty prose, Andre Aciman introduces us to the Olympian figures who shaped his life: Uncle Vili, the strutting daredevil, by turns soldier, salesman, Itali
God Grew Tired of Us: A Memoir
John Bul Dau, Michael S. Sweeney · 295 pages
"Lost Boy" John Bul Dau's harrowing experience surviving the brutal horrors of Sudanese civil war and his adjustment to life in modern America is chronicled in this inspiring memoir and featured in an award-winning documentary film of the same name. Movingly written, the book traces Dau's journey through hunger, exhaustion, terror, and violence as he fled his homeland, dodging ambushes, massacres
A Good Country
Laleh Khadivi · 256 pages
"Laguna Beach, California, 2009. Alireza Courdee, a fourteen-year-old straight-A student and chemistry whiz, takes his first hit of pot. In as long as it takes to inhale and exhale, he is transformed from the high-achieving son of Iranian immigrants into a happy-go-lucky stoner. He loses his virginity, takes up surfing, and sneaks away to all-night raves. For the first time, Reza--now Rez--feels l
Barefoot Heart: Stories of a Migrant Child
Elva Trevino Hart · 236 pages
Autobiography. Latino/a Studies. BAREFOOT HEART is a vividly told autobiographical account of the life of a child growing up in a family of migrant farm workers. Elva Trevino Hart was born in south Texas to Mexican immigrants and spent her childhood moving back and forth between Texas and Minnesota, eventually leaving that world to earn a master's degree in computer science/engineering. This is a
The Rugmaker of Mazar-e-Sharif
Najaf Mazari, Robert Hillman · 262 pages
The Rug-maker of Mazar-e-Sharif is a memoir of Najaf Mazari, an Afghani refugee who travelled to Australia, was detained in Woomera detention centre, went through various trials to gain permanent residency in Australia and eventually opened a rug shop in Prahran, Melbourne, which he still operates today. Najafs story is written by Robert Hillman.
Yes, Chef
Marcus Samuelsson · 327 pages
"It begins with a simple ritual: Every Saturday afternoon, a boy who loves to cook walks to his grandmother's house and helps her prepare a roast chicken for dinner. The grandmother is Swedish, a retired domestic. The boy is Ethiopian and adopted, and he will grow up to become the world-renowned chef Marcus Samuelsson. This book is his love letter to food and family in all its manifestations. Mar