Beirut

Books & Beirut

Books to remind us of the Beirut and Lebanon that runs in all our veins... On days where it is the place of pundits and rhetoric. Let these novels take you on a journey through the best and worst parts of this magnificent city & country.

Heads up these are Amazon affiliate links, so you enjoy the books and we enjoy some pocket money. 
By Hanan Al-Shaykh
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£12.38
By Iman Humaydan
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£10.66
By Salma Abdelnour
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Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
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By Tawfiq Yusuf Awwad
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£8.99
By Iman Humaydan Younes
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£22.04 £22.04
By Rabih Alameddine
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£21.26
By Zena El Kahlil
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£27.95
By Samir Kassir
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£8.25
By Khalaf
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By Emily Nasrallah
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£11.22
By Elias Khoury
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£11.57
By Ghada Samman
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£7.33
By Zeina Abirached
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£15.95
By Hoda Barakat
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£9.95
By Nadia Tueni
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£24.95
By Mahmoud Darwish
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By Jean Said Makdisi
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Film Recommendation: Someone Beiruti

Film Recommendation: Someone Beiruti I حدن بيروتي

It's not easy to make a film with talking heads captivating which is why this film is even more impressive than you can imagine. Touching, funny and heartbreaking you are taken on a journey of love and nostalgia and personal reflections.

Be ready to weep at some lovely moments. Happy viewing:

Follow the director on twitter  @JudeSChehab 

Quote of the Day: From "Mapping Beirut: Toward a History of the Translation of Space from the French Mandate through the Civil War (1920–91)"

Maps are traces left behind by the operation of power, and they reflect the production of spatial relations and exclusions. The way in which Beirut has been understood as a symbol first for the promise, then the failure, of a secular, liberal multi-ethnic city in the Arab Middle East is revealing both of the geography of Eurocentric historical imaginaries and of the strengths, incoherence, and frailties of modern forms of power
— Hatim El-Hibri

Evening Listening: The Wanton Bishops

We have been big fans of Beirut Jam Sessions for a while now. They pick beautiful music and showcase it in interesting locations and really, what more could you want?

Tonight's "Evening Listening" segment is from their session with The Wanton Bishops, a Lebanese  band that leans towards rock spiced blues.

Here is the video of them playing "Bad Rhyme" in an abandoned space in Sioufi, Achrafieh Beirut.

Trivia: The Sioufi Quarter got its name because of the Sioufi furniture factories built there in 1910.