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Ellen R. Sheeley is the author of Reclaiming Honor in Jordan: A National Public Opinion Survey on "Honor" Killings and a contributor to the anthology Nothing But Red.
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I vacillate between Khaled Hosseini's "The Kite Runner" and Frank McCourt's "Angela's Ashes." I've read both multiple times and relate perhaps too well to Hassan in "The Kite Runner," for I first read that book while in the midst of my own shattering betrayal by a friend for whom I would've taken a bullet.

For the last couple years, I've been on a serious jag of reading books about the Arab world, Islam, and the Middle East. I've probably blown through over 100 books on these topics.

At the moment, I'm reading Ali A. Allawi's "The Occupation of Iraq: Winning the War, Losing the Peace," though I'm not far enough along to offer an assessment.

My favorite book in this genre is Raphael Patai's "The Arab Mind." It is unavailable (code for banned) in Jordan, making it, of course, that much more attractive. :-) But a Canadian friend sent me a copy while I was living in Amman, and I found it so useful in understanding the culture that I almost immediately re-read it from cover to cover (something I'd never done before). It is a large tome, so that is no small undertaking. In this book, I suppose I was seeking not only to better understand the culture, but also the phenomenon of dishonor killing (although the book does not address that directly) and the reasons for my supposed friend's sudden, explosive, unprovoked betrayal. In it, I found some answers, but questions and mysteries remain. Maybe one day everything will be illuminated.

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