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Accretion
By Irfan Ali. 2020
An extraordinary debut set in Toronto, unfurling against the backdrop of an ancient Persian love story. The story of Layla…
and Majnun, made immortal by the Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi in the 12th century, has been retold thousands of times, in thousands of different ways, throughout literature. Against the backdrop of this story, to the sound-track of modern hip-hop, and amid the struggle of an immigrant family to instill an old faith under new conditions, Irfan Ali's Accretion hurtles towards an unsustainable, "greater madness." Majnun, one of the foundational literary characters who haunt Accretion, is also an Arabic epithet for "possessed." In this tradition, Ali has written a book from the places where the self is no longer the self; places where, in order not to shut down forever, the debris must be cleared, and the soul must inch towards love and hope, "on memory's dusty beams." Accretion is written in a contemporary lyricism that honours ancient poetic traditions. It is a familiar story, imbued with a particularity and honesty that only Irfan Ali could bring to the table. "Irfan Ali delves fearlessly into the beauty and cruelty of a utilitarian city and the chasms between people. The struggle between head and heart binds these poems. In fact, Accretion might be considered a roadmap for finding love in everything--ourselves, family, soul mates, urban life, and faith." --Emily Pohl-Weary, author of Ghost SickMuhammad: prophet of peace amid the clash of empires
By Juan Cole, Juan Ricardo Cole. 2018
Historian presents an analysis of the Middle East in the seventh century, when the prophet Muhammad developed the religion of…
Islam. Discusses the region's warring empires and the emphasis of peace in Muhammad's teachings. 2018Shut out: The game that did not love me black
By Bernie Saunders. 2021
Shut Out is a hockey love story. But it's a love that was unrequited. Bernie Saunders had a passion for…
hockey. His prodigious talent was on display at all levels. But because he was Black, he was stymied at every turn and experienced nothing but taunting from opponents, spectators, coaches and even his own teammates. Despite this malevolence, Saunders continued to play, adopting a style akin to that of the historic house slave: serve but remain invisible. Signed by the Quebec Nordiques, he played with them for two years, but spent most of his career playing collegiately at Western Michigan University and in the minor leagues in Canada and the US. In the end, it was all too much for Saunders. Dogged and overwhelmed by racism, he finally left hockey to work in the corporate sector. This is a memoir about professional hockey by a player who had the potential to become a star but was blocked at almost every opportunity because of his race. In spite of this, Shut Out is a hopeful and uplifting book about facing adversity, overcoming it and moving ahead. Woven throughout the book is Saunders's love of his family, especially his brother, John, who died at age sixty-one. Now retired, Bernie Saunders is still sought out by the hockey community for his observations and adviceBefore the Lights Go Out: A Season Inside a Game on the Brink
By Sean Fitz-Gerald. 2019
A love letter to a sport that's losing itself, from one of Canada's best sports writers.Canadian hockey is approaching a…
state of crisis. It's become more expensive, more exclusive, and effectively off-limits to huge swaths of the potential sports-loving population. Youth registration numbers are stagnant; efforts to appeal to new Canadians are often grim at best; the game, increasingly, does not resemble the country of which it's for so long been an integral part. These signs worried Sean Fitz-Gerald. As a lifelong hockey fan and father of a young mixed-race son falling headlong in love with the game, he wanted to get to the roots of these issues. His entry point: a season with the Peterborough Petes, a storied OHL team far from its former glory in a once-emblematic Canadian city that is finding itself on the wrong side of the country's changing demographics. Fitz-Gerald profiles the players, coaches and front office staff, a mix of world-class talents with NHL aspirations and Peterborough natives happy with more modest dreams. Through their experiences, their widely varied motivations and expectations, we get a rich, colourful understanding of who ends up playing hockey in Canada and why. Fitz-Gerald interweaves the action of the season with portraits of public figures who've shaped and been shaped by the game: authors who captured its spirit, politicians who exploited it, and broadcasters who try to embody and sell it. He finds his way into community meetings full of angry season ticket holders, as well as into sterile boardrooms full of the sport's institutional brain trust, unable to break away from the inertia of tradition and hopelessly at war with itself. Before the Lights Go Out is a moving, funny, yet unsettling picture of a sport at a crossroads. Fitz-Gerald's warm but rigorous journalistic approach reads, in the end, like a letter to a troubled friend: it's not too late to save hockey in this country, but who has the will to do it?Sufism: a new history of Islamic mysticism
By Alexander D. Knysh. 2019
History of the Islamic sect that was defined in its early days by ascetic mysticism. Topics covered include why Sufism…
diverged from the main branch of Islam, divisions over definitions, discourses between major thought leaders, influences from other cultures, Sufism's practices, and its history in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. 2017The Islamic enlightenment: the struggle between faith and reason : 1798 to modern times
By Christopher De Bellaigue. 2017
A journalist examines the political and social reformations that overtook the Islamic world in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The…
author discusses the intellectual centers of Cairo, Istanbul, and Tehran, the clash of religion with secular culture, nation-building, and counter reformation. 2017One Islam, many Muslim worlds: spirituality, identity, and resistance across Islamic lands (Religion and global politics)
By Raymond William Baker. 2015
Examination of the varieties of Muslim experience in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Discusses religious, cultural, and political differences, focusing…
on mainstream Muslims. Analyzes the role of historical events in shaping the relationship of the Islamic and Western worlds. 2015A None's story: searching for meaning inside Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, & Islam
By Corinna Nicolaou. 2016
Nicolaou, who was raised without a religious tradition, discusses her experiences exploring Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism in the Pacific…
Northwest, California, Texas, and Washington, D. C. Discusses the people she meets, what she learns about various sects, and what it means for her to continue to identify as a "none."2016Magic in Islam
By Michael Muhammad Knight. 2016
An examination of the role of magic in the development and continued practice of Islam. Discusses magic as it is…
defined, practiced, condemned, and defended within various Muslim traditions. Also analyzes magic as a part of organized religion in general. 2016Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an: Islam and the founders
By Denise A. Spellberg. 2013
Recounts Thomas Jefferson's 1765 purchase of a Qur'an, beginning a lifelong interest in Islam despite his personal disdain for it.…
Examines Jefferson's thoughts on Muslims as future citizens of America and their potential role in a country with true religious pluralism. 2013Islamic history: a very short introduction (Very Short Introductions)
By Adam J. Silverstein. 2010
Explores Islam's rise and development from the seventh century to the present. Explains how camels, caravans, conquests, and colonialism helped…
spread the new religion; the ways it was shaped by Arabs, Persians, and Turks; and the institutions common to Muslim societies. 2010Islam: a very short introduction (Very Short Introductions)
By Malise Ruthven. 2012
Overview of Islam as a faith, political ideology, and cultural identity for one-fifth of the world's population. Topics include the…
Koran; the life of Muhammad; the differences between Sunni, Shia, and Sufi Muslims; Sharia law; the role of women in Islamic life; and jihad. 2012The Koran, a very short introduction (Very Short Introductions)
By Michael Cook. 2000
Examines Muslim scripture sacred to followers of Islam, nearly one-fifth of the world's population. Analyzes strain caused by global culture's…
secular and scientific orientation on commentators' interpretations regarding science, non-Muslims, and women's status. Discusses fundamentalism, translation variations, prayer and recitation rituals, and textual obscurities. Includes notes about Arabic language. 2000Prey: immigration, Islam, and the erosion of women's rights
By Ayaan Hirsi Ali. 2021
Ali analyzes the regressive gender politics inherent in Islamic extremism and explains the systemic causes of sexual violence in the…
Muslim world. Taking on the issue of immigration, she exposes the ways Europe is failing to successfully integrate refugees, particularly for gender issuesA journalist recounts the efforts of a small group of librarians and archivists in Mali to rescue thousands of rare…
manuscripts before they fell into the hands of the jihadists attacking the city of Timbuktu. Some strong language. 2016The forgotten queens of Islam
By Fatima Mernissi. 1997
Sociologist examines the history of female leaders of Islamic states, from the founding of Islam in AD 622 until 1988,…
when Benazir Bhutto (1953-2007) was elected president of Pakistan. Examines the role of religion in the political sphere. Translated from the original 1990 French edition. 1993The rose hotel: a memoir of secrets, loss, and love from Iran to America
By Rahimeh Andalibian. 2015
Clinical psychologist shares her family's story of leaving Iran after the 1979 revolution and eventually immigrating to America. Discusses her…
father being recruited into avenging a rape prior to their leaving, and her brother later standing trial for murder. Discusses the stresses of immigration and keeping secrets. Some violence. 2015Journalist relates her educational journey learning about the Quran. Sheikh Mohammad Akram Nadwi, a scholar of women in Islam, serves…
as her mentor. Power discusses her personal history in Arabic and Islamic countries, the Sheikh's educational journey, and the importance of cross-cultural education. 2015Heretic: why Islam needs a reformation now
By Ayaan Hirsi Ali. 2015
A Somali-born Dutch parliamentarian calls for a reformation of Islamic doctrine and proposes five amendments. She discusses her own experiences…
as a Muslim woman, the history of Islam, and the modern division of the religion into three distinct groups of practitioners, including extremists, peaceful observants, and religious dissidents. Bestseller. 2015Islamic scholar discusses the development of Islamic law, from the days of Muhammad to the twenty-first century. Examines source scripture,…
the influence of different traditions, and the impact of changing social mores due to interaction with western cultures. 2014