But You Don't Look Arab by Hala Gorani

BUT YOU DON'T LOOK ARAB by Hala Gorani includes a Timeline of Key Events (stretching from 1909 to 2023) and a Select Bibliography. Gorani, an Emmy Award–winning international news anchor who was raised mostly in France, shares her family’s story and provides significant background about the twentieth century history of Syria and surrounding regions. Her text is both informative and emotive and I know specific students who would readily relate to her situation of being the blond-haired, blue-eyed daughter of Syrian immigrants. Gorani makes the choice to group events geographically (with sections labelled for major cities Aleppo, Cairo, Paris, Istanbul, Baghdad, Beirut, for example) rather than chronologically. In some ways, this makes following her thoughts more difficult for readers, but simultaneously allows them to more fully immerse themselves in another culture. Future journalists and readers curious about the Middle East will enjoy this new title as well as No Ordinary Assignment by Jane Ferguson.