Diana Abu-Jaber

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Diana Abu-Jaber

Goodreads Author


Born
in Syracuse, NY, The United States
Website

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Member Since
December 2010


Diana Abu-Jaber is the award-winning author of Life Without A Recipe, Origin, Crescent, Arabian Jazz, and The Language of Baklava. Her writing has appeared in Good Housekeeping, Ms., Salon, Vogue, Gourmet, the New York Times, The Nation, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times. She divides her time between Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Portland, Oregon.



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Diana Abu-Jaber Definitely! We each have an amazing story, the trick is getting it on to paper, expressing it in the most powerful way possible. I think everyone tell…moreDefinitely! We each have an amazing story, the trick is getting it on to paper, expressing it in the most powerful way possible. I think everyone tells their story in their own unique way-- for some of us it's writing, for others it's cooking, or dancing, or cabinetry, or something else. I do believe we all have a need to be creative.

Thank you for watching. I tend to feel proudest of my most recent work, so I'd suggest my memoir, LIFE WITHOUT A RECIPE. If you do, I hope you'll let me know what you think!(less)
Diana Abu-Jaber I usually have a few different genres going: fiction, memoir, and nutrition, and I swap back and forth between them. I can't wait to dive into Elizabe…moreI usually have a few different genres going: fiction, memoir, and nutrition, and I swap back and forth between them. I can't wait to dive into Elizabeth Strout's ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE and after that I've got Dr. Mercola's FAT FOR FUEL and Kimberly Rae Miller's COMING CLEAN. I can't wait.(less)
Average rating: 3.68 · 10,360 ratings · 1,690 reviews · 16 distinct worksSimilar authors
Crescent

3.80 avg rating — 2,738 ratings — published 2003 — 27 editions
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The Language of Baklava: A ...

3.95 avg rating — 2,342 ratings — published 2005 — 13 editions
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Birds of Paradise

3.35 avg rating — 1,661 ratings — published 2011 — 19 editions
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Origin

3.54 avg rating — 1,545 ratings — published 2007 — 3 editions
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Fencing with the King

3.68 avg rating — 794 ratings — published 2022 — 5 editions
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Arabian Jazz

3.42 avg rating — 623 ratings — published 1993 — 4 editions
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Life Without a Recipe

3.67 avg rating — 528 ratings — published 2016 — 5 editions
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Silverworld

3.51 avg rating — 91 ratings — published 2020 — 6 editions
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Delivering a Public Speech:...

0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings
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The Language of Baklava

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More books by Diana Abu-Jaber…

Notes on Writing

An MFA gives you guidance and credentials, but students sometimes forget-- a degree won't make you write. Which is the most important thing in the end and the best credential.
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Published on October 17, 2016 08:47

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Suite Française
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Diana Abu-Jaber Diana Abu-Jaber said: " A brilliant, vivid story of an extraordinary historical moment in France: the experience of occupation and the psychological impact on both occupier and the occupied. "

 
Fencing with the ...
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Cloud Cuckoo Land
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Diana’s Recent Updates

Diana Abu-Jaber is now friends with Jennifer Lang
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Fencing with the King by Diana Abu-Jaber
"I really enjoyed this book. It is nice to read about the search for the self in a person's culture and country. This was a good story about the good and trying of Jordanian culture. The book never seems like a history lesson but we get one through th" Read more of this review »
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Read Until You Understand by Farah Jasmine Griffin
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French Braid by Anne Tyler
French Braid
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Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky
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Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Malibu Rising
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The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
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Every night I read to my 13 year old daughter. We're just about done with The Catcher In the Rye and I feel like I need to help myself look at it more closely.
The first time I read it I was in high school. My mom brought it home from her school libra
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Diana Abu-Jaber liked that Qwantu recommended Tangled to Diana Abu-Jaber
Tangled by James W.  Lewis
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A House with a Date Palm Will Never Starve by Michael Rakowitz
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Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
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Quotes by Diana Abu-Jaber  (?)
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“Marry, don't marry,' Auntie Aya says as we unfold layers of dough to make an apple strudel.

Just don't have your babies unless it's absolutely necessary.'

How do I know if it's necessary?'

She stops and stares ahead, her hands gloved in flour. 'Ask yourself, Do I want a baby or do I want to make a cake? The answer will come to you like bells ringing.' She flickers her fingers in the air by her ear. 'For me, almost always, the answer was cake.”
Diana Abu-Jaber, The Language of Baklava: A Memoir

“...tasting a piece of bread that someone bought is like looking at that person, but tasting a piece of bread that they baked is like looking out of their eyes.”
Diana Abu-Jaber, Crescent

“Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are a hundred ways to kneel and kiss the ground”
Diana Abu-Jaber, Crescent

Topics Mentioning This Author

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100+ Books in 2023: Laura's 2009 Books 27 1471 Aug 15, 2009 02:27AM  
Historical Fictio...: Mini-Challenge #3 - September 2011 - REPORT POINTS HERE 267 222 Oct 01, 2011 03:06PM  
Bookworm Bitches : This topic has been closed to new comments. 2011 Fall Challenge 93 205 Dec 20, 2011 08:41AM  
The Seasonal Read...: This topic has been closed to new comments. Spring Challenge 2012: Completed Tasks -DO NOT DELETE ANY POSTS IN THIS TOPIC 2302 754 May 31, 2012 09:02PM  
The History Book ...: JUDY TANGUAY'S 50 BOOKS READ IN 2012 39 113 Dec 18, 2012 11:36AM  
Around the World ...: Dlmrose- 2012 Frequent Flyer 80 178 Dec 27, 2012 11:12AM  
Around the World ...: Von - Circumnavigator 6 18 Apr 09, 2013 12:14PM  
Fiction Fanatics: April 2013 53 101 May 02, 2013 08:26PM  
Crazy Challenge C...: Diane's Challenge Tracker 5 31 Aug 26, 2014 06:51AM  
You'll love this ...: High Five: reporting ONLY 367 72 Oct 29, 2014 02:21PM  
“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.”
Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own

“I cannot sleep unless I am surrounded by books.”
Jorge Luis Borges

“Who am I?" she snaps. "I am America, Israel, England! What am I doing?" She waits another long moment, her eyes shining. "I'm shutting up and listening." She draws the last word out so it hisses through the air. "I am the presidents, the kings, the prime ministers, the highs and the mighties—L-I-S-T-E-N!" She spells the word in the air. "The woman who made the baklava has something to say to you! Voilà! You see? Now what am I doing?" She picks up an imaginary plate, lifts something from it, and takes an invisible bite. Then she closes her eyes and says, "Mmm... That is such delicious Arabic-Jordanian-Lebanese-Palestinian baklawa. Thank you so much for sharing it with us! Please will you come to our home now and have some of our food?" She puts down the plate and brushes imaginary crumbs from her fingers. "So now what did I just do?
"You ate some baklawa?"
She curls her hand as if making a point so essential, it can be held only in the tips of the fingers. "I looked, I tasted, I spoke kindly and truthfully. I invited. You know what else? I keep doing it. I don't stop if it doesn't work on the first or the second or the third try. And like that!" She snaps the apron from the chair into the air, leaving a poof of flour like a wish. "There is your peace.”
Diana Abu-Jaber, The Language of Baklava: A Memoir




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