Saturday, March 9, 2013

Crescent by Diana Abu-Jaber

Synopsis: An American chef of Iraqi heritage works at a Middle Eastern cafe and allows her cooking, friends from the cafe, and her beloved uncle to be her world until she is introduced to a handsome Iraqi professor with whom she begins a passionate love affair. Due to his influence - his longing for home and frustrations with political exile - she begins exploring her own Iraqi heritage through food, family history, the news, and Islam.

Analysis: This book made me hungry for Middle Eastern fare.  I'd love to be able to cook like the heroine.  But the heroine's sexual exploits (and not just with the professor) just never seemed to fit the tone of the rest of the story.

Something I learned: Islam uses the crescent moon to symbolize hope and the beginning of a new time.  The crescent is the first sliver of moon seen after the new moon.

Words I Learned:
mellifluous = smooth and sweet
perspicacious = having penetrating mental discernment
sough = to make a soft murmuring or rustling sound

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