Books about the Middle East

One of my favorite topics to read about is the history and politics related to the Middle East. I try to find books that are written by people with different stands on sensitive issues. It is not always easy to find good books with dependable information about this topic. This partially has to do with the long history and bias thinking of people built over the years in this area. Past few years I have read some books about different countries in this region and I like to share them here. 

Iran

1. All the Shah's Men by Stephen Kinzer. This is one my favorite books about Iran. It gives a brief introduction about the Iranian history and the dominant religion in this country. It talks about an American backed coup in Iran in 1953 and consequences of that coup for years to come.
2. Our Man In Tehran by Robert Wright. This is the first hand accounts of the US embassy hostage crisis during Iranian revolution in 1979. I have not seen the movie Argo but I like to see it and compare the facts.
3. The Shah by Abbas Milani. The biography of last king of Iran. This is a nice book with good information about the king himself.
4. The Devil We Know by Robert Baer. I read this book because of Robert Baers first book. This was not as good as his other book but it is worth reading.
5. A Time to Betray by Reza Kahlili. This is the memoir of a former Iranian revolutionary guard who becomes a CIA agent.

Lebanon, Israel, Palestine

1. We Shall Not Hate by Izzeldin Abuelaish. This book is just amazing. It is very sad but amazing. This book is the memoir of a doctor from Gaza working in Israel. The book talks about his life and his tragic loss of his daughters and niece during Israels attack to Gaza in 2009.
2. Six Days of War by Michael B. Oren. I always wanted to know more about the six days war. I was very cautious and couldn't decide which book to choose since most books are very one sided and biased. The author is the Israel's ambassador to the united states and I wasn't sure how much of the book is based on facts. The book was very informative and helped me to get a better understanding of what led to the 1967 war and what happened during the six days. I like to read other books that looks at this war from other countries point of view.
3. See no Evil by Robert Baer. Memoir of a former CIA agent with lots of interesting insight about the region.
4. Son of Hamas by Mosab Hassan Yousef. This book tells the life of the son of one of the founders of the Hamas. He worked under cover for the Israel's internal security service, Shin Bet. I have mixed feeling about this book but I still think it worth reading.

Pakistan

1. Decent into Chaos by Ahmed Rashid. I wanted to know more about Pakistan and Taliban and that is why I chose this book. Ahmed Rashid is a Pakistani journalist and he has written several books about Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia.

Saudi Arabia

1. The Siege of Mecca by Yaroslav Trofimov. This book is fascinating and I recommend this book to everyone to read. Very well researched and covers a topic that was missed at the time. I wish the Facebook and Twitter or at least mobile phones were around back then :)

I am planning to read following books.

1. Faith at War by Yaroslav Trofimov.
2. The General's Son by Miko Peled.
3. Guests of the Ayatollah by Mark Bowden.

If you know any other books about this region that you liked and found interesting please leave me a comment. I like to know more about Turkey, Jordan, Egypt, ...

My eReaders

I wanted to write about the books I read for some time. I thought writing about them will help me to think more about what I've read and remember the parts that I liked the most about them. Every time I tried to start the blog I end up wasting my time browsing Facebook and as we all know nothing gets done at that point. But what made me finally start the blog was the accident that happened to my electronic Kobo book reader and the experience I had with the customer service. So I decided to start this blog with a brief story about my book readers. So here we go ...

It all started in 2009 when I heard about eReaders that use eInk technology. I decided to get one that supports ePub format and in 2010 as soon as Kobo released their first eReader I bought my Kobo eReader from Chapters. I was very excited about the whole experience. Having all my books when going on a travel and borrowing books from library with no need to go to a library were the best parts of the experience. There were two downsides with my new reader. I wasn't happy about the page turn and start-up speed and the contrast of the screen was not great. Even with these two issues I loved my Kobo eReader.

My first Kobo

In summer of 2011 while travelling in US and checking out one of Borders bookstores I bought a Kobo Touch. This was the new eReader from Kobo and the reviews on it were excellent. Borders was going out of business and they had a good deal on the readers. My new reader was much faster, the contrast was excellent and the battery life was really good, I loved my new reader.

My Kobo Touch

Now fast forward to the winter of 2011 and my vacation in Mexico. I had three books loaded in my reader and ready to enjoy reading them under the sunshine. Half way thru my vacation and it happened. I was very careful not getting my reader wet but one bad decision led to another and I was looking at my reader inside the pool. I picked it up super fast and started the CPR. Cleaned it with my towel, Powered it off, and Removed the battery. I also used a blow drier with cool air to dry it. Once I was sure there is no moisture left inside the reader I turned it on and it was working. I was so happy and finished the book I was reading as fast as I could. After a day or two I started noticing that the touch screen not responding and I have to restart the reader to make it work. Few days after I got back from my vacation the touch screen stopped working and even the restart did not help.

I took my reader to Chapters to see if they can help me but they told me to contact Kobo directly. I sent the customer service an email and the responded back asking for more information about the proof of purchase. After few emails back and forth they escalated to their tier 2 support and there is when things got real bad. I waited for couple of weeks and since it was end of December I thought people in tier 2 are on holiday or something. I got an email eventually that they are going to close the incident. Looked like that they have sent me an email that I had never gotten. Fortunately the lost email was part of the email that I got. They mentioned that if the damage is covered by warranty they will give me a new one otherwise it will require a repair and the cost of repair in US dollar. I send another email asking for Canadian price and the fact that I have caused the damage and not looking for the warranty. All I wanted to know was whether they can fix the reader and how much it will cost me before sending it to them. I never got an answer and few weeks later got an email that they are going to close the incident. I was very disappointed with this experience and decided to forget about my Kobo Touch and Kobo company and get another reader.

I briefly considered Kindle but not supporting the ePub was the deal breaker. My choice for the new reader was the Sony PRS-T1. It is lighter than Kobo Touch and slightly bigger. It has a built-in support to browse the ebooks from different libraries. The PDF support is much better and the built in browser is reasonable. I had issues with multiple page turns when I just want to turn one page but this seems to be fixed after I got the latest firmware update. Only thing that I am not happy is the shiny body of the reader. It is not a major issue but at times it gets annoying. Overall I am very happy with my new reader and I will make sure to take a zip lock with me on my next vacation.

My Sony PRS-T1 reader