![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Overview.png?resize=632%2C241&ssl=1\")
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Welcome Readers!<\/p>\n
Our 2026 Online Reading Challenge is \u2026 KNOW YOUR HISTORY! Each month we will be reading about a different observance month and highlighting a main title about that month.<\/p>\n
As Nahr sits, locked away in solitary confinement, she spends her days reflecting on the dramatic events that landed her in prison in a country she barely knows. Born in Kuwait in the seventies to Palestinian refugees, she dreamed of falling in love with the perfect man, raising children, and possibly opening her own beauty salon. Instead, the man she thinks she loves jilts her after a brief marriage, her family teeters on the brink of poverty, she\u2019s forced to prostitute herself, and the US invasion of Iraq makes her a refugee, as her parents had been. After trekking through another temporary home in Jordan, she lands in Palestine, where she finally makes a home, falls in love, and her destiny unfolds under Israeli occupation. Nahr\u2019s subversive humor and moral ambiguity will resonate with fans of My Sister, The Serial Killer, and her dark, contemporary struggle places her as the perfect sister to Carmen Maria Machado\u2019s Her Body and Other Parties.<\/em> – Washington Square Press<\/p>\n Looking for some other books that celebrate Arab American culture and heritage? Try any of the following.<\/p>\n As always, check each of our locations for displays with lots more titles to choose from!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Welcome Readers! Our 2026 Online Reading Challenge is \u2026 KNOW YOUR HISTORY! Each month we will be reading about a different observance month and highlighting a main title about that month. For April, we will be reading books that celebrate Arab American culture and heritage by reading books that feature[Read more]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,3371,5,1,8],"tags":[11206,12005,12007,837,4562,11207,3395,12006],"class_list":["post-61366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-online-book-challenge","category-read-a-likes","category-reference","category-staff-picks","tag-11206","tag-against-the-loveless-world","tag-arab-american-heritage-month","tag-culture","tag-heritage","tag-know-your-history","tag-online-reading-challenge","tag-susan-abulhawa"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd0CXx-fXM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61366"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61441,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61366\/revisions\/61441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/against-the-loveless-world.jpg?resize=200%2C311&ssl=1\")
<\/a>For April, we will be reading books that celebrate Arab American culture and heritage by reading books that feature Arabic culture and history. Our main title for April is Against the Loveless World <\/em><\/strong><\/a>by Susan Abulhawa.\u00a0Here\u2019s a quick summary from the publisher:<\/p>\n\n