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Bloggers love to write and blog readers love to read so chances are that if you are here at Morocco Blogs whether you are a blogger or a blog reader you are also a book lover.

If you’d like to share your reading list of Morocco Books with us, we’d love to share them with our readers (and we’ll gladly link back to your blog too!) Send your book lists to reviews@moroccoblogs.com

Our second list comes from Vagobond.com. It’s a very different sort of list from the first one with lots of anthropology, history, and beat references.

The Private World of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge by Robert Murphy

As he did with fashion, Yves seized at one moment in time, a taste that was in the air, only to show his mastery. During the 1970s exoticism and Marrakech were currents in the air and St. Laurent became the authority. He was interested in Art Deco before it became fashionable, even before Andy Warhol and Karl Lagerfeld . . . St Laurent’s and Bergé’s taste is an expression of a culture and is always a story. When they decorated a house it was no longer an ordinary house: it became a story to tell.

Morocco Eyewitness Travel Guide from DK Publishing

With over 900 full-color photographs, tips on public transportation, and detailed lists of hotels and restaurants, Eyewitness Travel Guides: Morrocco provides a wealth of informaton on this North African treasure.

A House in Fez: Building a Life in the Ancient Heart of Morocco by Suzanna Clark.

While vacationing in Morocco, Suzanna Clarke and her husband, Sandy, are inspired to buy a dilapidated, centuries-old riad in Fez with the aim of restoring it to its original splendor, using only traditional craftsmen and handmade materials. So begins a remarkable adventure that is bewildering, at times hilarious, and ultimately immensely rewarding.

A House in Fez chronicles their meticulous restoration, but it is also a journey into Moroccan customs and lore and a window into the lives of its people as friendships blossom. When the riad is finally returned to its former glory, Suzanna finds she has not just restored an old house, but also her soul.

Islam Observed: Religious Development in Morocco and Indonesia by Clifford Geertz.

“In four brief chapters,” writes Clifford Geertz in his preface, “I have attempted both to lay out a general framework for the comparative analysis of religion and to apply it to a study of the development of a supposedly single creed, Islam, in two quite contrasting civilizations, the Indonesian and the Moroccan.”

Mr. Geertz begins his argument by outlining the problem conceptually and providing an overview of the two countries. He then traces the evolution of their classical religious styles which, with disparate settings and unique histories, produced strikingly different spiritual climates. So in Morocco, the Islamic conception of life came to mean activism, moralism, and intense individuality, while in Indonesia the same concept emphasized aestheticism, inwardness, and the radical dissolution of personality. In order to assess the significance of these interesting developments, Mr. Geertz sets forth a series of theoretical observations concerning the social role of religion.

Tuhami: Portrait of a Moroccan by Vincent Crapanzano

Tuhami is an illiterate Moroccan tilemaker who believes himself married to a camel-footed she-demon. A master of magic and a superb story-teller, Tuhami lives in a dank, windowless hovel near the kiln where he works. Nightly he suffers visitations from the demons and saints who haunt his life, and he seeks, with crippling ambivalence, liberation from ‘A’isha Qandisha, the she-demon.

In a sensitive and bold experiment in interpretive ethnography, Crapanzano presents Tuhami’s bizarre account of himself and his world. In so doing, Crapanzano draws on phenomenology, psychoanalysis, and symbolism to reflect upon the nature of reality and truth and to probe the limits of anthropology itself. Tuhami has become one of the most important and widely cited representatives of a new understanding of the whole discipline of anthropology.

Heavy Metal Islam: Rock, Resistance, and the Struggle for the Soul of Islam by Mark LeVine

With a jolting arrangement of images and voices, LeVine powerfully upends received notions about the Middle East by exploring one of the area’s least-known subcultures. Interviewing and jamming with musicians from Morocco to Pakistan—including rappers and trip-hop artists as well as metalheads—LeVine (Why They Don’t Hate Us) presents Muslims, Christians and Jews who, in the face of corruption, repression and violence, use their music to speak truth to power and carve out a space for individual expression and a new form of community. The degree of independence the musicians enjoy varies widely—from Israeli band Orphaned Land who are free of restrictions (and widely admired in the Arab metal world) to Egyptian metalheads who fear arrest and possible torture for sporting long hair. Each artist in this book struggles, on some level, for cultural and political reform, and LeVine argues that if these musicians could find a way to cooperate with progressive religious activists and the working class, they could trigger a revolution. This is a tall order, but the author’s warm and intelligent examination of a reality few in the West have experienced suggests it may yet be possible.

Living in Morocco by Barbara Stoeltie

More a book on Moroccan luxury style than on life in Morocco, still this book is filled with beautiful pictures and some surprising insights.

Disorienting Encounters: Travels of a Moroccan Scholar in France in 1845-1846. The Voyage of Muhammad As-Saffar by Muhammad As-Saffar

In December of 1845, Muhammad as-Saffar was sent by the reigning Moroccan sultan on a special diplomatic mission to Paris. During the journey, as-Saffar took careful notes and upon his return he hurriedly wrote this travel account.
Why was the sultan, descendent of the Prophet Muhammad, and head of a dynasty that had ruled Morocco for more than two hundred years, so eager to read this account? Perhaps he thought it would illuminate some troubling matters: how the French acquired their power and their mastery over nature; how they led their daily lives, educated their children, treated their women and servants. In short, the sultan wanted to know the condition of French civilization and why it differed from his. As-Saffar provided the answers.
Moreover, as we read the account, Muhammad as-Saffar comes alive for us. We see him reflecting on the beauty of women, contorting during his ritual ablutions, and suffering from boredom at endless dinners. His opinions and ideas infuse every page. For him the journey was more than a catalog of curiosities; it was a transforming experience. Given our very limited knowledge of the time and the absence of other voices that speak with equal clarity, this travel account enlarges our understanding of the relationship between nineteenth-century Morocco and France.

Traveling Spirit Masters: Moroccan Gnawa Trance and Music in the Global Marketplace by Deborah Kapchan

A group of ritual musicians and former slaves brought from sub-Saharan Africa to Morocco, the Gnawa heal those they believe to be possessed, using incense, music, and trance. But their practice is hardly of only local interest: the Gnawa have long participated in the world music market through collaborations with African-American jazz musicians and French recording artists. In this first book in English on Gnawa music and its global reach, author Deborah Kapchan explores how these collaborations transfigure racial and musical identities on both sides of the Atlantic. She also addresses how aesthetic styles associated with the sacred come to inhabit non-sacred contexts, and what new amalgams they produce. Her narrative details the fascinating intrinsic properties of trance, including details of enactment, the role of gesture and the body, and the use of the senses, and how they both construct authentic Gnawa identity and reconstruct historically determined relations of power. Traveling Spirit Masters is a captivating and elucidating demonstration of how and why trance–and indeed all sacred music–is fast becoming a transnational sensation.

We Share Walls: Language, Land, and Gender in Berber Morocco by Katherine E. Huffman

An excellent in-depth study of the gender and language dynamics in Berber communities. A highly readable and timely addition to the emerging and promising scholarship on language, gender and women in Morocco.

In and Out of Morocco: Smuggling and Migration in a Frontier Boomtown by David McMurray.

Every summer for almost forty years, tens of thousands of Moroccan emigrants from as far away as Norway and Germany have descended on the duty-free smugglers’ cove/migrant frontier boomtown of Nador, Morocco. David McMurray investigates the local effects of the multiple linkages between Nador and international commodity circuits, and analyzes the profound effect on everyday life of the free flow of bodies, ideas, and commodities into and out of the region.

Combining immigration and population statistics with street-level ethnography, In and Out of Morocco covers a wide range of topics, including the origin and nature of immigrant nostalgia, the historical evolution of the music of migration in the region, and the influence of migrant wealth on social distinctions in Nador. Groundbreaking in its attention to the performative aspects of life in a smuggling border zone, the book also analyzes the way in which both migration and smuggling have affected local structures of feeling by contributing to the spread of hyperconsumption. The result is a rare and revealing inquiry into how the global culture is lived locally.

David A. McMurray is assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Oregon in Corvallis.

Searching for a Different Future: The Rise of a Global Middle Class in Morocco by Shana Cohen

By examining how neoliberal economic reform policies have affected educated young adults in contemporary Morocco, Searching for a Different Future posits a new socioeconomic formation: the global middle class. During Morocco’s postcolonial period, from the 1950s through the 1970s, development policy and nationalist ideology supported the formation of a middle class based on the pursuit of education, employment, and material security. Neoliberal reforms adopted by Morocco since the early 1980s have significantly eroded the capacity of the state to nurture the middle class, and unemployment and temporary employment among educated adults has grown. There is no longer an obvious correlation between the best interests of the state and those of the middle-class worker. As Shana Cohen demonstrates, educated young adults in Morocco do not look toward the state for economic security and fulfillment but toward the diffuse, amorphous global market.

Cohen delves into the rupture that has occurred between the middle class, the individual, and the nation in Morocco and elsewhere around the world. Combining institutional economic analysis with cultural theory and ethnographic observation including interviews with seventy young adults in Casablanca and Rabat, she reveals how young, urban, educated Moroccans conceive of their material, social, and political conditions. She finds that, for the most part, they perceive improvement in their economic and social welfare apart from the types of civic participation commonly connected with nationalism and national identity. In answering classic sociological questions about how the evolution of capitalism influences identity, Cohen sheds new light on the measurable social and economic consequences of globalization and on its less tangible effects on individuals’ perception of their place in society and prospects in life.

Morocco since 1830: A History by C.R. Pennell

The first general history in English of Morocco in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Morocco since 1830: A History explores the profound changes that have affected social relations in Morocco over the last 150 years, especially those between the sexes, and between linguistic identities and cultures.

Although the country has returned to roughly its pre-colonial boundaries, Morocco still suffers from the effects of colonization by France and Spain. Its current king, like the sultans of the nineteenth century, claims legitimacy through his leadership of the Islamic community, but there is a long tradition of dissent based on Islamic ideals. Morocco’s history is also marked by the enduring presence of a large Jewish community.

This comprehensive portrait examines the tactics used by Moroccan rulers to cope with European penetration in the nineteenth century and colonialism in the twentieth, and, since the 1950s, to retain control of the independent state. As Pennell points out, however, the ruling dynasty is not sufficiently representative of modern Morocco, nor are political events the only influence on change. Most Moroccans are still poor, and their lives are shaped by their economic circumstances. The influence of harvests, access to land and water, and external trade have always determined the fate of the majority.

Nothing Is True – Everything Is Permitted: The Life of Brion Gysin by John Geiger

The multimedia artist, poet and novelist Brion Gysin may be the most influential cultural figure of the twentieth century that most people have never heard of.

Gysin (1916–1986) was an English-born, Canadian-raised, naturalized American of Swiss descent, who lived most of his life in Morocco and France. He went everywhere when the going was good. He dabbled with surrealism in Paris in the 1930s, lived in the “interzone” of Tangier in the 1950s and traveled the Algerian Sahara with Sheltering Sky author Paul Bowles before moving into the legendary Beat Hotel in Paris.

Gysin’s ideas influenced generations of artists, musicians and writers, among them David Bowie, Keith Haring, Patti Smith, Michael Stipe, Genesis P-Orridge, John Giorno and Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones. None was touched more profoundly than William S. Burroughs, who said admiringly of Gysin: “There was something dangerous about what he was doing.”

It was Gysin who introduced the Rolling Stones to the exotica of Morocco and took Stones’ guitarist Brian Jones to Jajouka where he recorded the tribal musicians performing the Pipes of Pan. It was Gysin who provided the hashish fudge recipe published in Alice B. Toklas’ cookbook, promising “ecstatic reveries and extensions of one’s personality on several simultaneous planes.” It was Gysin who introduced Burroughs to an automatic writing method called the cut-up, a literary progenitor to sampling. And it was Gysin who developed—with Ian Sommerville, the Dream Machine—a device that allowed people, with the flick of a switch, to access altered states of consciousness without drugs.

Working with the authorization of Gysin’s literary executor, William S. Burroughs, John Geiger has produced the first-ever biography of the painter, poet, piper Brion Gysin.

Colonial Affairs: Bowles, Burroughs, and Chester Write Tangier by Greg Mullins

A North African port city that was home to as many Europeans as Moroccans, postwar Tangier was truly an international zone, a place where the familiar boundaries of language, culture, nationality, and sexuality blurred, and anything seemed possible. In the 1950s and 1960s three leading American writers settled in Tangier, where they were able to find critical new ways of living and writing on the margins of society. A subtle literary portrait of Paul Bowles, William S. Burroughs, and Alfred Chester, Colonial Affairs is also a complex and perceptive account of the ways colonialism and sexuality structure each other, particularly as reflected in the literature written in postwar Tangier.

Sexual commerce and culture flourished in Tangier during these years, as gay expatriates fled repressive sexual norms at home. Greg Mullins explores the covert and overt representations of sex, fantasy, desire, and sexual identity in the literature of Bowles, Burroughs, Chester, and Moroccan authors who collaborated with Bowles. He argues that expatriate writing in Tangier articulates the desire to exceed national and other forms of identity through representations of sex, especially marginalized forms of sex and sexuality. The literature that emerges variously celebrates, critiques, and attempts to evade the double bind of colonial sexuality.

Framed in relation to queer and postcolonial theory, Mullins’s work is grounded in contemporary debates about sex, race, and desire. His sophisticated yet nimble analysis establishes beyond any doubt the central importance of colonialism and sexuality in the fiction of these writers working at once at the center and the margins of tradition-and reveals to contemporary readers the queer angles of their distinctly original work.

Our first list forms an excellent starting point for exploring the world of Morocco Books! The original list appeared as the final post at 760 Days in Morocco and was written by the author of Essouaria Walking.

Books by non-Moroccan Authors
Fiction

* The Road to Fez, by Ruth Knafo Setton – A book of love and self-discovery, The Road to Fez is a collection of fragments of memory, desire, and loss. Knafo Setton manages to convey the story with precision and a fantastic language. She introduces the reader to a vibrant Sephardic family in Morocco, and through this family, the reader feels the longing and pain of a forbidden love; plunges into the mysteries of the brief, tragic life of a young girl; and explores issues of identity, exile, and home. The questions the author raises about love and identity resonate, as she creates and successfully sustains an abstract atmosphere of tension and mystique throughout the story, and her descriptions of the land and its characters are so vivid and concrete they are almost tangible. This book will make you want to go to Fez!

* The Tangier Script, by Victor Barker – The most impressive aspect of this book is the way it evokes Tangier, one of the most portrayed Moroccan cities. The Tangier Script creates a series of interesting and colorful characters that lived in Tangier and contributed to the essence of the place. It is a wonderful, interesting drama that takes you right into the alleys of the city and makes you feel like you are there as well. The first chapter can be read here, and you can also check reviews here.

Other Suggested Reading

* The Torch of Tangier, Aileen G. Baron

* Desert, J. M. G. Le Clézio

* Larabi’s Ox: Stories of Morocco
, Tony Ardizzone

Non-fiction

* Women of Fes: Ambiguities of Urban Life in Morocco, by Rachel Newcomb – This book is considered a textbook of contemporary ethnography, but it is an engaging and very well-written study of women and gender change in contemporary Morocco. Employing the narratives of several Fassi women, the reader is led into a world where women consciously try to create and then embrace their own forms of modernity, while dealing with the social challenges of a traditional society. Women of Fes is a very good read for anyone interested in contemporary Morocco.

* Allah’s Garden: A True Story of a Forgotten War in the Sahara Desert of Morocco, by Thomas Hollowell – Allah’s Garden takes you in an unforgettable and intriguing journey. From the author’s introduction to Morocco through the Peace Corps through the tortured story and eventual release of the main character (Azzedine Benmansour), Allah’s Garden will keep you involved with a moving account until the end. A must read for anyone interested in this fascinating country, its culture, its people, its religion and the tumultuous history they have overcome. And as an added plus, if you are not a big fan of nonfiction reading, Allah’s Garden is a nonfiction book that reads just like a novel.

* Casablanca Notebook: A Collection of Tales from Morocco, by Louise Roberts Sheldon – Casablanca Notebook takes place between 1975 and 1996, a period that was one of critical importance in the history of Morocco, and of the Arab world: King Hassan II’s pro-Western stance encouraged all manner of contacts with Americans. This book is the fruit of that policy. The author, a seasoned reporter and illustrator, traveled from the circles of wealth and power to the far corners of the country and even into the Western Sahara to witness the fighting between Moroccan forces and the Algerian-backed Polisario. Her eyes saw the big picture, as well as the small one, with fair clarity and sympathy, and her portraits of the ordinary people, Arab and Berber, ring true. From the hazards of inter-cultural city marriages to the intricate rituals of a Berber wedding in the High Atlas, she takes the reader on a voyage of discovery. This is a fascinating look into a land that can sometimes feel very foreign.

* Morocco: The Traveller’s Companion, by Margaret Bidwell and Robin Bidwell – This book is a collection of the writings of well-known travelers about their travels to Morocco—it offers a fascinating picture of Moroccan culture through their eyes and impressions of the place. In addition, to sketches of sumptuous entertainment, colorful festivals, and the infamous Barbary corsairs, this book contains descriptions of childhood, marriage and the practice of medicine in old Morocco. As a treat, it also includes some favorite Moroccan folk-tales and recipes.

* A Year in Marrakesh, by Peter Mayne – This book was originally published in 1953, but it is still in publication after all these years because it’s simply a classic! A Year in Marrakesh offers light and a compassionate view of life in Marrakesh. Mayne relocated to Marrakesh and became a part of the city, he came to know it in a way that very few foreigners do. There are many lively characters here, painted with a comprehensive brush that shows them to be real and interesting people. It’s a fun and enlightening read.

* A Street in Marrakech: A Personal View of Urban Women in Morocco, by Elizabeth Warnock Fernea – If you don’t get a chance to move to Marrakesh and live in the old medina, this book will give you the most accurate portrayal of what that feels like. The author is an anthropologist who speaks fluent Arabic, from having previously lived in Iraq and Egypt. This enables her to converse with people daily and understand them accurately, which helps her to give a very detailed look at an aspect of life which is nearly impossible for most outsiders to penetrate: the hidden life of Medina women and of what takes place behind the high, closed walls. It should be noted though that this book is not intended as an anthropologic study. Instead, it is the detailed, personal history of one family’s year-long experience of living and immersing itself in the life of Marrakesh. It’s told from a woman’s perspective, and focuses on domestic life, the sharp difference between public and home behavior in Islamic societies, the pervasiveness of religion, and male-female roles.

Other Suggested Reading

* In Morocco, by Edith Wharton

* The Voices of Marrakesh, by Elias Canetti

* Humor and Moroccan Culture, by Matthew Helmke

* Tangier: City of the Dream
, by Iain Finlayson

* See Ouarzazate and Die: Travels Through Morocco
, by Sylvia Kennedy

Books by Moroccan Authors
Fiction

* The Last Friend, by Tahar Ben Jelloun – Written in chapters of 2 or 3 pages, The Last Friend is a captivating novel about the trials and tribulations of a life-long friendship in a country torn apart by colonialism, it is a tale of friendship and betrayal set in twentieth century Tangier. Written in Ben Jelloun’s inimitable and powerfully direct style, the novel explores the twists and turns of an intense friendship of 30 years between two young men struggling to find their identities and sexual fulfillment in Morocco during the late 1950s, a complex and contradictory society both modern and archaic. The book is an exploration of the mystery of friendship itself.

* This Blinding Absence of Light, by Tahar Ben Jelloun – Told in a very straightforward manner, it generally lets the events speak for themselves. There are times when it is so grim and relentless that it is hard to keep reading, but a great reward awaits the reader who persists, as this is not a story about the depths of human suffering and cruelty, but about the depths of human resilience and compassion, which are deeper still. The book will make you enter a world where untold cruelty and human suffering were a daily part of life.

* Leaving Tangier, by Tahar Ben Jelloun – Leaving Tangier is a sad book—it is a portrait of immigrants and would-be immigrants, who reluctantly leave, or are forced to leave their homes and families for what is often the false promise of a new and more rewarding life in a different country and culture. These unwanted departures are necessary because Morocco cannot provide them with any reasonable opportunity for a decent future, and these are people who are unwilling to accept that fate so early in life. The stories are heartbreakingly sad and accurately reflect the experiences of thousands of immigrants who struggle to build new lives in countries where they are not really welcomed; where their cultural background, physical looks and limited education keep most of them outside the new culture and at a permanent disadvantage economically and socially.

* Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, by Laila Lalami – Dealing with illegal immigration, Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits tells the stories of four people who try to cross the Strait of Gibraltar to Spain in an inflatable boat. Laila Lalami paints a vivid picture of life in contemporary Morocco, and the poverty, political repression and desperation driving these people to risk their lives in search of a better one. Some fail, some succeed, and Lalami does a “before and after” comparison of their lives. Despite dire circumstances, Lalami tries to show that these people still dare to hope, or perhaps, that they have no choice but to hope, as the alternative is despair. The story is well-written and told, and gives a great introduction into the culture of Morocco and the struggles that some audiences may not be aware of.

* Secret Son, by Laila Lalami – Secret Son is a wonderful literary tale of a very “real” story. This book helps readers to understand not only Arab culture, but a common situation in modern Morocco. Secret Son is the story of one young Moroccan’s struggle for self identity in the midst of a society that is undergoing economic, political and cultural changes, albeit changes that are not enough to keep up with the country’s population growth and aspirations. The book can be poignant and uncomfortable at time, but it is an engaging story that depicts Morocco and its modern society.

* The Last Chapter, by Leila Abouzeid – The Last Chapter is a realistic novel about a Moroccan woman’s struggle in her own community. It depicts her struggles as she tries to be both modern and religious. Abouzeid attempts to argue for the misconceptions that have circumscribed Islam, as religion is a major part in the Muslim lives and can’t simply be denied. She explains how religion is sometimes manipulated for personal or political ends, but how in reality, Islam dictates that “Seeking knowledge is the religious duty of every Muslim man and woman”. The book highlights the misinterpretations of Islam and its position towards women.

* Year of the Elephant, by Leila Abouzeid – Year of the Elephant proved to be a pretty enlightening novel, it is told from the point of view of Zahra, the protagonist who finds herself in a constant struggle for independence. Year of the Elephant is the first novel by a Moroccan woman to be translated from Arabic to English, and it provides readers with a different vantage point from which to view North African life. Many of the events of Abouzeid’s narrative (divorce, the struggle against poverty, interfamilial conflict, etc.) are common themes in contemporary Moroccan literature, but are presented here in a new perspective—that of a woman.

* Abu Musa’s Women Neighbors: A Historical Novel from Morocco by Ahmed Taufiq – This book is a passionate tale, and the most beautiful invitation to Moroccan, and Arabic, literature and Islamic culture. As Taufiq’s first literary work, Abu Musa’s Women Neighbors reinvents the genre of hagiographic and mystical tales into the contemporary form of an Arabic novel. At the threshold of history and fiction, it pushes the limits of both towards an artistic creation. which is at once a vivid restitution of life, and a journey into the intricacies of the human soul, the passions and abuses of power and government, and the enigma of destiny. One special characteristic of this book is that, unlike other contemporary reinvestments of vernacular and mystical themes in Maghribi literature, it is not addressed to a European or American audience, and it does not cast a nostalgic gaze. Instead, Taufiq writes for his fellow citizens, for Moroccans, and yet his way of telling the story, and his exploration of the turns of history and the meanders of the human soul, make this work accessible and involving for an international reader.

Other Suggested Reading

* Flutes of Death

, by Driss Chraibi
* The Simple Past
, by Driss Chraibi

* Mon Maroc, by Abdellah Taia (In French)

* A Life Full of Holes, by Driss Ben Hamed Charhadi

* Love in Two Languages (Emergent Literatures)
, by Aldelkebir Khatibi

* The Lemon, by Mohammed Mrabet

* The Polymath, by Bensalem Himmich

Non-fiction

* For Bread Alone, by Mohamed Choukri – For Bread Alone is the autobiography of Mohamed Choukri. The definite must-read of Moroccan literature, a book that Tennessee Williams herself described as “A true document of human desperation, shattering in its impact.” This book is one of the first works by Choukri, a chronicle of his life as he moved himself from illiteracy to become a renowned writer and professor in his homeland. It is a frank narrative into the customs and often hidden behavior of Moroccan life, in earlier times. It will make you think.

* Islam and Democracy: Fear of the Modern World, by Fatima Mernissi- In this book, Mernissi provides an interesting social perspective of Islam and its fear of democracy; while providing a solid argument for the need for Islam to embrace democracy. Islam and Democracy argues that the positive aspects and practice of Islam would flourish if the Muslims were to choose their faith freely, rather than choosing out of ignorance or fear. The positive aspects of the religion would provide no threat to other cultures and religions, as that is true Islam. The book is provocative and offers profound insights about Islam.

* Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood, by Fatima Mernissi- This book offers an insight into what life used to be like for Moroccan women, and an understanding of the traditional culture. This is the collection of stories of a group of women who spent their growing up years behind high walls and closed doors, hidden from the outside world. But it is much more than simply a memoir of a childhood lived within a secluded harem, Dreams of Trespass is also a story of a process of change that took place decades ago as the country of Morocco was becoming an independent nation state. The stories are told with sympathy and compassion, as well as a deep respect for, and understanding of, Islam.

* Scheherazade Goes West , by Fatima Mernissi- This book can be a challenging read for Western women, but it is really magnificent and truthful. The advice is to read it with an open mind, and use the author’s observations to confront and question what you already “know”. As a Muslim scholar, Mernissi gives us a fresh perspective on women’s positions in both the Islamic and the Western world. This book is about claiming freedom—the freedom for women to think about who they are, about the courage it takes to push through the unexamined female prisons of both Western and Islamic insularity, to view themselves in a wider place, and choose who they will be and who their daughters will be.

Other Suggested Reading

* Streetwise, by Mohamed Choukri

Cookbooks

* Made in Morocco, by Julie Le Clerc

* Traditional Moroccan Cooking: Recipes from Fez, by Z. Guinaudeau

* Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco, by Paula Wolfert

* Cooking at the Kasbah: Recipes from My Moroccan Kitchen , by Kitty Morse

* Tagine: Spicy Stews from Morocco, by Ghillie Basan

* Make it Moroccan, by Hassan M’souli

Photography Books

* Morocco: Timeless Places, by Annette Soloyst

* Medinas: Morocco’s Hidden Cities, by Tahar Ben Jelloun and Jean Marc Tingaud

* My Morocco, by Bruno Barbey

* Splendours of Morocco, by Izza Genini, Jacques Bravo, and Xavier Richer

* Morocco: 5000 Years of Culture, by Vincent Boele

* Haut Atlas: L’exil de pierres (French Edition)
, by Tahar Ben Jelloun and Philippe Lafond