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Thank you, Steve Jobs, for Letting Me Write
Since I was in college, the one thing that has been in my life nearly everyday—and for better or worse, nearly all day—has been my Apple. Along with one of those apples that grow on trees, turning on my Mac has been part of my morning ritual wherever I have been and in whatever state-of-mind Continue reading
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The Henna Hands of The Night Counter
The paperback cover is ready, and no, neither one of the hands on it is mine, as some people have asked me. Responding to “Don’t you love it as much as we do? We hope so!” was about as much input as I was allowed to have in the cover’s design. And after getting over Continue reading
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The Boston Globe Review
http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2009/08/09/in_dunants_sacred_hearts_a_story_of_thwarted_love_and_church_intrigue/ “In Alia Yunis’s poignant, hilarious first novel, “The Night Counter,’’ purple-haired, 85-year-old Fatimah Abdulla tells her life story to Scheherazade, the legendary storyteller from “The Arabian Nights,’’ who appears every night in the elderly woman’s Los Angeles bedroom. Fatimah has plenty of stories. She came to Detroit from Lebanon as a teenage bride, had Continue reading
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RAMADAN IN DETROIT
Here in Abu Dhabi Ramadan is essentially a national event, a month of family celebration as well as religious significance, with virtually every Emirati fasting. In THE NIGHT COUNTER, Fatima doesn’t talk about Ramadan but she is someone who fasts the whole month. Fatima spent most of her life in Detroit, which is the largest Continue reading
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The Night Counter On True Talk in Tampa On Aug. 21
Here is the link to Samar Jarrah’s interview with me on NPR Tampa’s True Talk: http://www.wmnf.org/programs/256 Continue reading
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Mathematics and Olive Oil
In The Night Counter, Fatima is fixated on numbers and it is something that runs through the family for five generations. She thinks about math when’s she’s cooking, too, as any woman who raised 14 kids probably would—how much to make for each one, how much it was costing, and so forth. And how many Continue reading
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PENN, CHEESESTEAKS, AND BROTHERLY LOVE
A week ago I was in Philadelphia reading at the Penn Bookstore, my first East Coast stop. I was pretty uncomfortable about Philadelphia, as it was a city I had no base in, so I accepted the offers of two friends to come down from New Jersey and New York for the event, bringing along Continue reading
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The Night Counter A Best Bet in Dayton/The Mother Daughter Book Club in Santa Barbara
http://daytonmetrolibrary.blogspot.com/2009/08/night-counter.html The Wright Brothers didn’t write so much as fly, but pretty cool for the book to get such a nice mention in their hometown. Meanwhile, I loved reading at Chaucer’s (www.chaucersbooks.com) in Santa Barbara last night amidst Fiesta Night traffic, and one of the great moments for me was when a woman in attendance Continue reading
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Updates: Book Soup and Christian Science Monitor And Entertainment Weekly
The Night Counter is still #2 Bestseller at Book Soup, thank you West Hollywood. I should be blogging about San Francisco and Seattle, which have been awesome, but I’m waiting for photos. Meanwhile, Entertainment Weekly gave it a B+, which reminded me of my students when they say to me, “A B+? Couldn’t you make Continue reading
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THE NIGHT COUNTER: NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER AT VROMAN’S
It really is true: http://hometown-pasadena.com/2009/07/vromans-bestsellers-7202009/ Of course, that probably will not be the case next week at Vroman’s, as there are no books left in the store at the moment. But fear not, more are on the way. The Night Counter’s sold out status at one of L.A.’s best bookstores—if not one of the country’s–is Continue reading
Alia Yunis 