Previous Books

• Reopening Muslim Minds by Mustafa Akyol (336 pgs) purchase on Amazon here

  A fascinating journey into Islam's diverse history of ideas, making an argument for an "Islamic Enlightenment" today

• Dead Man Walking by Sister Helen Prejean (304 pgs) purchase on Amazon here

  A profoundly moving spiritual journey through our system of capital punishment. Here Sister Helen confronts both the plight of the condemned and the rage of the bereaved, the fears of a society shattered by violence and the Christian imperative of love.

• Three Worlds: Memoirs of an Arab -Jew by Avi Shlaim (336 pgs) purchase on Amazon here

  A timeless clash between Arab and Jewish civilization? Avi Shlaim tears up this script. His parents had many Muslim friends in Baghdad and no interest in Zionism. As anti-Semitism surged in Iraq, the Zionist underground fanned the flames. Yet when Iraqi Jews fled to Israel, they faced an uncertain future, their history was rewritten to serve a Zionist narrative.

• They Called Me a Lioness - Ahed Tamimi & Dena Takruri (288 pgs) purchase on Amazon here

  They Called Me a Lioness shows us what is at stake in this struggle and offers a fresh vision for resistance. With their unflinching, riveting storytelling, Ahed Tamimi and Dena Takruri shine a light on the humanity not just in occupied Palestine but also in the unsung lives of people struggling for freedom around the world.

• The Moor’s Account - Laila Lalami (336 pags) purchase on Amazon here

  Laila Lalami brings us the invented memoirs Mustafa al-Zamori, called Estebanico. The slave of a Spanish conquistador, Estebanico sails for the Americas with his master, Dorantes, as part of a danger-laden expedition to Florida. Within a year, Estebanico is one of only four crew members to survive.

• A Day in the Life of Abed Salama - Nathan Thrall (288 pgs) purchase on Amazon here

  Immersive and gripping, an intimate story of a deadly accident outside Jerusalem that unravels a tangle of lives, loves, enmities, and histories over the course of one revealing, heartbreaking day.

• Beyond Bilal: Black History in Islam - Mustafa Briggs (216 pgs) purchase on Amazon here

  Beyond Bilal explores and uncovers the deep rooted relationship between Islam and Black History, from Black Prophets and prominent figures in the Qur’an, to the unknown black Sahaba and scholars of the early generations, the history of Islam in Africa, and the legacy of contemporary African Islamic scholarship and its role in the International Relations of the Muslim World

• Talking to Strangers - Malcolm Gladwell (400 pgs) purchase on Amazon here

  A challenging and controversial excursion through history, psychology, and scandals taken straight from the news.

• Solito: A Memoir - Javier Zamora (416pgs) purchase on Amazon here

  A young poet tells the inspiring story of his migration from El Salvador to the United States at the age of nine in this gripping memoir of bravery, hope, and finding family.

• Afterlives - Abdulrazak Gurnah (320 pgs) purchase on Amazon here

  From the winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature, a sweeping, multi-generational saga of displacement, loss, and love, set against the brutal colonization of east Africa.

• What Happened to You? - Oprah Winfrey & Dr. Bruce D. Perry (304 pgs) purchase on Amazon here

  Our earliest experiences shape our lives far down the road, and What Happened to You? provides powerful scientific and emotional insights into the behavioral patterns so many of us struggle to understand.

• The Butterfly Mosque: A Young American Woman's Journey to Love and Islam - G. Willow Wilson (320 pgs) purchase on Amazon here

  G. Willow Wilson’s remarkable story of converting to Islam and falling in love with an Egyptian man in a volatile post–9/11 world.

• Muslim Girl: A Coming of Age - Amani Al-Khatahtbeh (144 pgs) purchase on Amazon here

  The brilliant founder of MuslimGirl.com shares her harrowing and candid account of what it’s like to be a young Muslim woman in the wake of 9/11, during the never-ending war on terror, and through the Trump era of casual racism.

• How to Be a Muslim: An American Story - Haroon Moghul (256 pgs) purchase on Amazon here

  A searing portrait of Muslim life in the West, this “profound and intimate” memoir captures one man’s struggle to forge an American Muslim identity.

• The Wrong End of the Table - Ayser Salman (288 pgs) purchase on Amazon here

  Part memoir and part how-not-to guide, The Wrong End of the Table is everything you wanted to know about Arabs but were afraid to ask.

• Fatty Fatty Boom Boom - Rabia Chaudry (352 pgs) purchase on Amazon here

  A delicious and mouthwatering book about food and family, the complicated love for both, and how that shapes us into who we are.

• Threading My Prayer Rug - Sabeeha Rehman (360 pgs) purchase on Amazon here

  This enthralling story of the making of an American is a timely meditation on being Muslim in America today.

• Go Back To Where You Came From - Wajahat Ali (272 pgs) purchase on Amazon here

  Wajahat Ali tackles the dangers of Islamophobia, white supremacy, and chocolate hummus, peppering personal stories with astute insights into national security, immigration, and pop culture. In this refreshingly bold, hopeful, and uproarious memoir.

• Jameela Green Ruins Everything - Zarqa Nawaz (288 pgs) purchase on Amazon here

  A no-holds-barred satire about the international cost of the American Dream, Jameela Green Ruins Everything is a compulsively readable, darkly comedic, yet unexpectedly touching story of one woman’s search for meaning and connection.

• The Great Theft - Khaled Abou El Fadl (336 pgs) purchase on Amazon here

  In The Great Theft, Khaled Abou El Fadl, one of the world's preeminent Islamic scholars, argues that Islam is currently passing through a transformative period no less dramatic than the movements that swept through Europe during the Reformation

• The Purpose of Power - Alicia Garza (352 pgs) purchase on Amazon here

  An essential guide to building transformative movements to address the challenges of our time, from one of the country’s leading organizers and a co-creator of Black Lives Matter

• Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom - Rick Hanson (251 pgs) purchase on Amazon here

  If you can change your brain, you can change your life.

• Muslim Cool - Su’ad Abdul Khabeer (288 pgs) purchase on Amazon here

  The groundbreaking study of race, religion and popular culture in the 21st century United States focuses on a new concept, “Muslim Cool.”

• Do Muslim Women Need Saving? - Lila Abu-Lughod (336 pgs) purchase on Amazon here

  An indictment of a mindset that has justified all manner of foreign interference, including military invasion, in the name of rescuing women from Islam.

• Ayesha At Last - Uzma Jalaluddin (368 pgs) purchase on Amazon here

  A modern-day Muslim Pride and Prejudice for a new generation of love.

• Mindset: The New Psychology of Success - Carol Dweck (320 pgs) purchase on Amazon here

  How success in school, work, sports, the arts, and almost every area of human endeavor can be dramatically influenced by how we think about our talents and abilities.

• Forgotten Queens - Fatima Mernissi (189 pgs) download the book here

  Recovering the stories of fifteen Islamic queens, this remarkable exploration tells how they ascended the throne, how they governed and exercised their power, and how their forgotten reigns influence the ways in which politics is practiced in Islam today.

• A Quiet Revolution - Leila Ahmed (360 pgs) purchase on Amazon here

  A probing study of the veil's recent return—from one of the world's foremost authorities on Muslim women—that reaches surprising conclusions about contemporary Islam's place in the West today.

• On the Boundaries of Theological Tolerance in Islam - Sherman Jackson download the book here

  On The Boundaries of Theological Tolerance in Islam is one of the most important books for our time, though not of our time. It holds insights relevant to the discourse and formation of the Muslim identity, not in tension with modernity and liberalism, but in tension with Muslim groups. Positions arrived at on this issue have implications not only to intensified intra-Muslim othering, but also to acceptability of shedding Muslim blood by Muslims.

• Secrets of Divine Love - A. Helwa (385 pgs) purchase on Amazon here

  Secrets of Divine Love: A Spiritual Journey into the Heart of Islam is an inspiring guide that will lead you towards the hidden meaning of the Qur'an through passion and joy. Written with care and precision, Helwa’s metaphoric insights invite you on her earnest search for truth and understanding. By accessing the inner workings of Islamic tradition, your struggles in faith will be met with a deeper connection to Allah rooted in compassion

• Purification of the Heart - Hamza Yusuf  (211 pgs) purchase on Amazon here

  This exploration of Islamic spirituality delves into the psychological diseases and cures of the heart. Diseases examined include miserliness, envy, hatred, treachery, rancor, malice, ostentation, arrogance, covetousness, lust, and other afflictions that assail people and often control them.

• Black Wave - Kim Ghattis (400 pgs) purchase on Amazon here

  Kim Ghattas seamlessly weaves together history, geopolitics, and culture to deliver a gripping read of the largely unexplored story of the rivalry between between Saudi Arabia and Iran, born from the sparks of the 1979 Iranian revolution and fueled by American policy. 

• Love Inshallah: The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women - various contributors (256 pgs) purchase on Amazon here

  Romance, dating, sex and - Muslim women? In this groundbreaking collection, 25 American Muslim writers sweep aside stereotypes to share their search for love openly for the first time, showing just how varied the search for love can be--from singles' events and online dating, to college flirtations and arranged marriages, all with a uniquely Muslim twist.  

• Centering Black Narrative: Black Muslim Nobles Among the Early Pious Muslims - Ahmad Mubarak (118 pgs) purchase on Amazon here

  Blackness is a term which has been understood differently based upon time and geography. The authors of this book explore how the term was understood by Arabs during the era surrounding the first three generations of Muslims and how such context can better inform understanding who from among them would today be considered Black Muslims in the West.

• Men In Charge?: Rethinking Authority in Muslim Legal Tradition - various contributors (304 pgs) purchase on Amazon here

  The contributors all engage critically with two central juristic concepts; rooted in the Qur’an, they lie at the basis of this discrimination. One refers to a husband’s authority over his wife, his financial responsibility toward her, and his superior status and rights. The other is male family members’ right and duty of guardianship over female members and the privileging of fathers over mothers in guardianship rights over their children.

• Muhammad and the Believers: At the Origins of Islam - Fred Donner (280 pgs) purchase on Amazon here

  The origins of Islam have been the subject of increasing controversy in recent years. The traditional view, which presents Islam as a self-consciously distinct religion tied to the life and revelations of the prophet Muhammad in western Arabia, has since the 1970s been challenged by historians engaged in critical study of the Muslim sources.

• Islam without Extremes: A Muslim Case for Liberty - Mustafa Akyol (368 pgs) purchase on Amazon here

  Is Islam incompatible with freedom? In Islam without Extremes, Turkish columnist Mustafa Akyol answers this question by revealing the little-understood roots of political Islam, which originally included both rationalist, flexible strains and more dogmatic, rigid ones.

• The Prophet - Khalil Gibran (92 pgs) purchase on Amazon here

  A collection of poetic essays that are philosophical, spiritual, and, above all, inspirational. Gibran’s musings are divided into twenty-eight chapters covering such sprawling topics as love, marriage, children, giving, eating and drinking, work, joy and sorrow, housing, clothes, buying and selling, crime and punishment, laws, freedom, reason and passion, pain, self-knowledge, teaching, friendship, talking, time, good and evil, prayer, pleasure, beauty, religion, and death. Each essay reveals deep insights into the impulses of the human heart and mind.

• If Oceans Were Ink: An Unlikely Friendship and a Journey to the Heart of the Quran - Carla Power (350 pgs) purchase on Amazon here

  An eye-opening story of how she and her longtime friend Sheikh Mohammad Akram Nadwi found a way to confront ugly stereotypes and persistent misperceptions that were cleaving their communities. Their friendship-between a secular American and a madrasa-trained sheikh-had always seemed unlikely, but now they were frustrated and bewildered by the battles being fought in their names. Both knew that a close look at the Quran would reveal a faith that preached peace and not mass murder; respect for women and not oppression. And so they embarked on a yearlong journey through the controversial text.

• Difficult Conversations - by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton and Sheila Heen (351 pgs) purchase on Amazon here

  This book provides a step-by-step approach to having those tough conversations with less stress and more success. you'll learn how to:
  · Decipher the underlying structure of every difficult conversation
  · Start a conversation without defensiveness
  · Listen for the meaning of what is not said
  · Stay balanced in the face of attacks and accusations
  · Move from emotion to productive problem solving

• Broken Wings - Khalil Gibran (60 pgs) purchase on Amazon here

  A tale of tragic love, set in turn-of-the-century Beirut. A young woman, Selma Karamy, is betrothed to a prominent religious man's nephew. The protagonist (a young man that Gibran perhaps modeled after himself) falls in love with this woman. They begin to meet in secret, however they are discovered, and Selma is forbidden to leave her house, breaking their hopes and hearts. The book highlights many of the social issues of the time in the Eastern Mediterranean, including religious corruption, the rights of women (and lack thereof), and the weighing up of wealth and happiness.

• After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split in Islam - Lesley Hazleton (258 pgs) purchase on Amazon here

  Combining meticulous research with compelling storytelling, After the Prophet explores the volatile intersections of religion and politics, psychology and culture, and history and current events. It is an indispensable guide to the depth and power of the Shia-Sunni split.

• Muslim Teens: Today's Worry, Tomorrow's Hope - Dr. Ekram and Mohamed Reda Beshir (256 pgs) purchase here

  Offers Muslim parents a practical guide for meeting the challenges of raising teens in today's world.

• Major Themes of the Quran - Fazlur Rahman (207 pgs) purchase on Amazon here

  An introduction to one of the richest texts in the history of religious thought. In this classic work, Rahman unravels the Qur’an’s complexities on themes such as God, society, revelation, and prophecy with the deep attachment of a Muslim educated in Islamic schools and the clarity of a scholar who taught for decades in the West.

• Laughing All The Way to the Mosque - by Zarqa Nawaz (203 pgs) purchase on Amazon here

  Being a practicing Muslim in the West is sometimes challenging, sometimes rewarding and sometimes downright absurd. How do you explain why Eid never falls on the same date each year; why it is that Halal butchers also sell teapots and alarm clocks; how do you make clear to the plumber that it's essential the toilet is installed within sitting-arm's reach of the tap?

• Caste - Isabel Wilkerson (447 pgs) purchase on Amazon here

  In this brilliant book, Isabel Wilkerson gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings.