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Books
By and About Persians
A Belvedere-Tiburon Library
Reading List
Nonfiction
Persian
Myths
By Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis
Traditional tales and stories of ancient Iran.
299.1 Curtis 1993
Inside
Iran: Women's Lives
By Jane Howard
Relying on anecdotes of individual women, Howard who
lived in Iran from 1996-2000 as the wife of a U.N. diplomat,
relates the paradoxes of women's lives.
305.420955 Howard 2002
Answering
Only to God: Faith and Freedom in Twenty-First-Century
Iran
By Geneive Abdo and Jonathan Lyons
The authors explore the controversial view that beyond
their quarrel with the West, stemming from decades of
exploitive foreign policies, the real struggle in Iran
is between reformers and conservative mullahs.
320.955 Abdo 2003
The
Persian Puzzle: The Conflict Between Iran and America
By Kenneth M. Pollack
Pollack argues that the Iranians want the bomb in order
to deter an American attack, which they genuinely fear.
The prospect of nuclear-armed Islamic fundamentalists
is a prima facie threat, even if their motives are defensive,
and must be dealt with by the U.S. Pollack provides
50 years of historical background to defend his thesis.
327.7305 Pollack 2004
We
are Iran: the Persian Blogs
By Nasrin Alavi
In September 2001, one the first webblogs in Farsi was
created. Alavi reviewed over 64,000 blogs in 2005 prior
to writing this book. This collection functions not
only as an archive of Iranians' thoughts on their country,
culture, religion, and the rest of the world, but also
as an alternative recent history of Iran.
323.044 Alavi 2005
Strange
Times, My Dear: The PEN Anthology of Contemporary Iranian
Literature
Edited by Nahid Mozaffari
Poetry editor: Ahmad Karimi Hakkak
A rich and varied collection of short stories, extracts
from novels, and poetry that showcases the latest developments
in Iranian literature, from which we have been virtually
cut off since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
891.5 Strange 2005
In the Rose Garden of the Martyrs: A Memoir of Iran
By Christopher De Bellaigue
Iran today, as Bellaigue colorfully describes it, is
ideologically torn across generational fault lines,
crowded with young people (the median age is 23 and
a half) who have little knowledge of the Islamic revolution
and are increasingly resentful of its legacy.
955.05 De Bellaigue 2005
The
Iranians: Persia, Islam, and the Soul of a Nation
By Sandra Mackey
Explores Iran in the context of its old and complex
civilization. How the "Persian soul" was developed
and how its characteristics led to the fall of the Shah
and to the rise of Islamic fundamentalism.
955.05 Mackey 1996
Persian
Mirrors: The Elusive Face of Iran
By Elaine Sciolino
Elaine Sciolino was aboard the airplane that took Ayatollah
Khomeini to Tehran in 1979 and has reported on Iran
for the last 20 years. She was there for the Iranian
Revolution, the hostage crisis, the Iran-Iraq War, the
rise of President Khatami, and the riots of the summer
of 1999. She provides insights on the public and private
faces of Iran's people.
955.05 Sciolino 2000
Searching
for Hassan
By Terence Ward
The Ward family returned to Iran in 1998; they were
looking for a Hassan, a family friend who had played
"Persian father" to the author and his brothers
in the 1960's. Using the trip as his main thread, the
author weaves history, culture, politics and religion
into his story.
955.05 Ward 2002
Honeymoon
in Purdah: An Iranian Journey
By Alison Wearing
Covered by a chador and pretending to be married, the
author travels in Iran for five months to learn about
the Iranian people.
955.05 Wearing 2000
Neither East nor West: One Woman's Journey Through
the Islamic Republic of Iran
By Christiane Bird
Iranians from all walks of life were interviewed by
Bird, who spent part of her childhood in Iran. Part
travelogue, part historical inquiry, the author breaks
the silence about Iranian culture.
955.054 Bird 2001
Fiction
The
Persian Bride
By James Buchan.
A young English hippie, living in Iran falls in love
with a 17 year old Iranian girl. Their life together
and the fall of the Shah become intertwined.
Fiction Buchan
Whirlwind
By James Clavell
Clavell effectively portrays the chilling and bewildering
encounters when Westernized lifestyle clashes with harsh
ancient traditions.
Fiction Clavell
House
of Sand and Fog
By Andre Dubus III
An Iranian immigrant and his family are involved in
a conflict over a house on the San Mateo coast with
disastrous results.
Fiction Dubus
Pomegranate
Soup
By Marsha Mehran
The Aminpour sisters escape the Iranian Revolution and
make their way to a small Irish village where they open
a café. Stark contrasts between the sisters'
lives in Iran and Ireland and between the Irish and
Persian cultures energize Mehran's tale.
Fiction Mehran
Biography
My
Name is Iran
By Davar Ardalan
Drawing on her remarkable personal history, NPR
producer Davar Ardalan brings us the lives of three
generations of women and their ordeals with love, rejection,
and revolution.
Bio Ardalan
To
See and See Again: A Life in Iran and America
By Tara Bahrampour
Bahrampour, the daughter of an Iranian father and an
American mother, spent her formative years in Iran.
In 1979, when she was 11, her family fled the country.
She spent the next 16 years trying to become an American.
On a return visit to Iran in 1994, she found a nation
too complex to be described by political stereotypes.
Bio Bahrampour
Funny
In Farsi: A Memoir Of Growing Up Iranian In America
By Firoozeh Dumas
The author and her family moved to the U.S. from Iran
twice. Once in the 1970s and again in the 1980s. They
met with a very different reception the 2nd time. Humorously
told tale of the immigrant experience in America.
Bio Dumas
Daughter
of Persia: A Woman's Journey from her Father's Harem
Through the Islamic Revolution
By Sattareh Farman-Farmanian with Dona Munker
Born in 1921, into a powerful and aristocratic family,
Farman's life spans nearly a century of tremendous change
in Iran. She spent a sheltered childhood in her father's
harem, studied at the University of Southern California,
worked for 20 years as the founder and director of Teheran
School of Social Work, and eventually lived in exile
in the United States.
Bio Farman-Farmanian
Even
After All this Time: A Story of Love, Revolution, and
Leaving Iran
By Afschineh Latifi, with Pablo F. Fenjves
This memoir chronicles one family's experiences through
the Iranian Revolution. The author was only 10 when
her father, a military officer, was executed by Khomeini's
government. Her mother sent her and an older sister
to school in Austria and later to relatives in Virginia
to protect them, while she stayed in Iran with her two
sons. The family later reunites in the United States.
Bio Latifi
Tales of Two Cities: A Persian Memoir
By Abbas Milani
In the 1960's, at the age of 15, the author was sent
from his home in Tehran to the Bay Area, to be educated.
Milani chronicles his education, politicization, return
to Iran, disillusionment and eventual exile
Bio Milani
Lipstick
Jihad: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America And
American in Iran
By Azadeh Moaveni
One of the strongest memoirs written about being trapped
between two cultures. The author returns to Iran to
find her authentic self. It is an excellent introduction
to recent Iranian history.
Bio Moaveni
Reading
Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
By Azar Nafisi
Nafisi resigned as a professor of literature at the
University of Tehran, but she opened her home to 7 students
who met weekly to study the great books of Western literature.
As they discuss these books, and we learn about the
their lives under Khomeni's regime, we get a rare inside
look at Revolutionary Iran.
Bio Nafisi
The
Shah's Last Ride
By William Shawcross
Shawcross presents a balanced view of the last days
of the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
Bio Pahlavi
created in 2006
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