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A review by mrssoule
Crescent by Diana Abu-Jaber
3.0
An American chef of Iraqi heritage works at a Middle Eastern cafe and allows her cooking, her friends, and her 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.
This book made me hungry for Middle Eastern fare! The food descriptions are mouth-watering and writing style soothing. The one thing that bothered me about this book was the sex - the heroine sleeps with two different men in a short amount of time - one for love, the other for reasons completely unclear to me - and it just didn't seem to fit the rest of the story, especially with her uncle's wisdom and in the midst of her exploring her religious roots.
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
This book made me hungry for Middle Eastern fare! The food descriptions are mouth-watering and writing style soothing. The one thing that bothered me about this book was the sex - the heroine sleeps with two different men in a short amount of time - one for love, the other for reasons completely unclear to me - and it just didn't seem to fit the rest of the story, especially with her uncle's wisdom and in the midst of her exploring her religious roots.
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