Jaber Baker's Books

Syrian Gulag

Inside Assad’s Prison System

By: Jaber Baker,Ugur Ümit Üngör

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Syrian Gulag

Inside Assad’s Prison System

By: Jaber Baker,Ugur Ümit Üngör

An estimated 300,000 people have been detained or have died in prison since the Syrian uprising broke out. Syrians can be arrested for liking a post on Facebook or for the political activities of a distant relative. They are imprisoned without trial, and tortured and starved, often to death. This book is the first to expose the worst prisons in the Middle East, if not the world. In previous years it had been too dangerous to undertake research on this subject, but the enormous numbers of Syrians taking refuge in neighbouring countries and Europe has allowed unprecedented access to their stories. Based on interviews with both the victims and perpetrators, survivors' memoirs and notes, as well as leaked regime archives, leaked photos, and leaked intelligence files, the book is a testament of the internment and imprisonment system in Syria under the rule of the Assads, father and son (1970-2020). A harrowing account of the machinery of the Assad dynasty, Syrian Gulag is also an urgent exposé on Syria today.

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Page Count

433

Publisher

Bloomsbury Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

0755650212

ISBN 13

9780755650217

Birds of Paradise: A Novel

By: Diana Abu-Jaber

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Birds of Paradise: A Novel

By: Diana Abu-Jaber

“A full-course meal, a rich, complex and memorable story that will leave you lingering gratefully at [Abu-Jaber’s] table.”—Ron Charles, Washington Post At thirteen, Felice Muir ran away from home to punish herself for some horrible thing she had done—leaving a hole in the hearts of her pastry-chef mother, her real estate attorney father, and her foodie-entrepreneurial brother. After five years of scrounging for food, drugs, and shelter on Miami Beach, Felice is now turning eighteen, and she and the family she left behind must reckon with the consequences of her actions—and make life-affirming choices about what matters to them most, now and in the future.

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Page Count

407

Publisher

W. W. Norton & Company

Published Date

ISBN 10

0393082946

ISBN 13

9780393082944

Life Without a Recipe: A Memoir

By: Diana Abu-Jaber

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Life Without a Recipe: A Memoir

By: Diana Abu-Jaber

A “bold, luscious” memoir, “indispensable to anyone trying to forge their own truer path” (Ruth Reichl). On one side, there is Grace: prize-winning author Diana Abu-Jaber’s tough, independent sugar-fiend of a German grandmother, wielding a suitcase full of holiday cookies. On the other, Bud: a flamboyant, spice-obsessed Arab father, full of passionate argument. The two could not agree on anything: not about food, work, or especially about what Diana should do with her life. Grace warned her away from children. Bud wanted her married above all—even if he had to provide the ring. Caught between cultures and lavished with contradictory “advice” from both sides of her family, Diana spent years learning how to ignore others’ well-intentioned prescriptions. Hilarious, gorgeously written, poignant, and wise, Life Without a Recipe is Diana’s celebration of journeying without a map, of learning to ignore the script and improvise, of escaping family and making family on one’s own terms. As Diana discovers, however, building confidence in one’s own path sometimes takes a mistaken marriage or two—or in her case, three: to a longhaired boy-poet, to a dashing deconstructionist literary scholar, and finally to her steadfast, outdoors-loving Scott. It also takes a good deal of angst (was it possible to have a serious writing career and be a mother?) and, even when she knew what she wanted (the craziest thing, in one’s late forties: a baby!), the nerve to pursue it. Finally, fearlessly independent like the Grace she’s named after, Diana and Scott’s daughter Gracie will heal all the old battles with Bud and, like her writer-mom, learn to cook up a life without a recipe.

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Page Count

256

Publisher

W. W. Norton & Company

Published Date

ISBN 10

0393249107

ISBN 13

9780393249101

The Mehlis Report

By: Rabee Jaber

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The Mehlis Report

By: Rabee Jaber

The English-language debut of 2012’sInternational Arabic Fiction Prize winner A complex thriller, The Mehlis Report introduces English readers to a highly talented Arabic writer. When former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri is killed by a massive bomb blast, the U.N. appoints German judge Detlev Mehlisto conduct an investigation of the attack — while explosions continue to rock Beirut. Mehlis’s report is eagerly awaited by the entire Lebanese population. First we meet Saman Yarid, a middle-aged architect who wanders the tense streets of Beirut and, like everyone else in the city, can’t stop thinking about the pending report. Saman’s sister Josephine, who was kidnapped in 1983,narrates the second part of The Mehlis Report: Josephine is dead, yet exists in a bizarre underworld in the bowels of Beirut where the dead are busy writing their memoirs. Then the ghost of Hariri himself appears…

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Page Count

209

Publisher

New Directions Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

0811221180

ISBN 13

9780811221184

Origin: A Novel

By: Diana Abu-Jaber

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Origin: A Novel

By: Diana Abu-Jaber

Finally, a novel of literary suspense that gets almost everything right—forensically and psychologically." —Sarah Weinman, Baltimore Sun Secretly, in her heart of hearts, Lena Dawson hides the strangest of beliefs about her childhood. Hiding behind a cool competence as a superb fingerprint analyst in a crime lab in snowy Syracuse, New York, she feels totally out of place in the ordinary world of human interaction. Especially since the controlling husband who guided and protected her, then cheated and left her (though now he wants her back). Her uncanny ability to read a crime scene draws her into investigating a mysterious series of crib deaths—but ultimately the most difficult puzzle she must solve is the one of her own origins. Diana Abu-Jaber, a “gifted and graceful writer” (Chicago Tribune), masterfully “transcends formula” (Kirkus Reviews) as “the tension of Origin escalates, shaped as much by beautifully nuanced prose as menacing events” (New York Daily News).

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Page Count

401

Publisher

W. W. Norton & Company

Published Date

ISBN 10

0393066657

ISBN 13

9780393066654

The Language of Baklava

A Memoir with Recipes

By: Diana Abu-Jaber

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The Language of Baklava

A Memoir with Recipes

By: Diana Abu-Jaber

Diana Abu-Jaber’s vibrant, humorous memoir weaves together delicious food memories that illuminate the two cultures of her childhood—American and Jordanian. Here are stories of being raised by a food-obsessed Jordanian father and tales of Lake Ontario shish kabob cookouts and goat stew feasts under Bedouin tents in the desert. These sensuously evoked repasts, complete with recipes, paint a loving and complex portrait of Diana’s impractical, displaced immigrant father who, like many an immigrant before him, cooked to remember the place he came from and to pass that connection on to his children. The Language of Baklava irresistibly invites us to sit down at the table with Diana’s family, sharing unforgettable meals that turn out to be as much about “grace, difference, faith, love” as they are about food.

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Page Count

354

Publisher

Anchor

Published Date

ISBN 10

0307428834

ISBN 13

9780307428837

Syrian Gulag

Inside Assad’s Prison System

By: Jaber Baker,Ugur Ümit Üngör

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Syrian Gulag

Inside Assad’s Prison System

By: Jaber Baker,Ugur Ümit Üngör

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Page Count

433

Publisher

Bloomsbury Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

0755650212

ISBN 13

9780755650217

Inside Interviewing

New Lenses, New Concerns

By: James Holstein,Jaber F. Gubrium

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Inside Interviewing

New Lenses, New Concerns

By: James Holstein,Jaber F. Gubrium

Inside Interviewing highlights the fluctuating and diverse moral worlds put into place during interview research when gender, race, culture and other subject positions are brought narratively to the foreground. It explores the 'facts', thoughts, feelings and perspectives of respondents and how this impacts on the research process.

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Page Count

572

Publisher

SAGE

Published Date

ISBN 10

0761928510

ISBN 13

9780761928515

Handbook of Interview Research

Context and Method

By: Jaber F. Gubrium,James A. Holstein

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Handbook of Interview Research

Context and Method

By: Jaber F. Gubrium,James A. Holstein

Interviewing has become the window on the world of experience for both researchers and professionals. But as familiar as interviewing is now, its seemingly straightforward methodology raises more questions than ever. What is the interviewer's image of those who are being interviewed? Who is the interviewer in the eyes of the respondent? From where do interviewers obtain questions and respondents get the answers that they communicate in interviews? How do the institutional auspices of interviewing shape interview data? Drawing upon leading experts from a wide range of disciplines to address these and related questions, The Handbook of Interviewing offers a comprehensive examination of the interview at the cutting edge of information technology in the context of a challenging postmodern environment. Encyclopedic in its breadth, the Handbook provides extensive discussions of the conceptual and methodological issues surrounding interview practice in relation to forms of interviewing, new technology, diverse data gathering and analytic strategies, and the various ways interviewing relates to distinctive respondents. The Handbook is also a story that spins a particular tale that moves from the commonly recognized individual interview as an instrument for gathering data to reflections on the interview as an integral part of the information we gather about individuals and society.

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Page Count

1423

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Published Date

ISBN 10

1483365891

ISBN 13

9781483365893

Fencing with the King: A Novel

By: Diana Abu-Jaber

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Fencing with the King: A Novel

By: Diana Abu-Jaber

One of The Millions' Most Anticipated Books of the Month A mesmerizing breakthrough novel of family myths and inheritances by the award-winning author of Crescent. The King of Jordan is turning 60! How better to celebrate the occasion than with his favorite pastime—fencing—and with his favorite sparring partner, Gabriel Hamdan, who must be enticed back from America, where he lives with his wife and his daughter, Amani. Amani, a divorced poet, jumps at the chance to accompany her father to his homeland for the King’s birthday. Her father’s past is a mystery to her—even more so since she found a poem on blue airmail paper slipped into one of his old Arabic books, written by his mother, a Palestinian refugee who arrived in Jordan during World War I. Her words hint at a long-kept family secret, carefully guarded by Uncle Hafez, an advisor to the King, who has quite personal reasons for inviting his brother to the birthday party. In a sibling rivalry that carries ancient echoes, the Hamdan brothers must face a reckoning, with themselves and with each other—one that almost costs Amani her life. With sharp insight into modern politics and family dynamics, taboos around mental illness, and our inescapable relationship to the past, Fencing with the King asks how we contend with inheritance: familial and cultural, hidden and openly contested. Shot through with warmth and vitality, intelligence and spirit, it is absorbing and satisfying on every level, a wise and rare literary treat.

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Page Count

320

Publisher

W. W. Norton & Company

Published Date

ISBN 10

0393867722

ISBN 13

9780393867725

Varieties of Narrative Analysis

By: James A. Holstein,Jaber F. Gubrium

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Varieties of Narrative Analysis

By: James A. Holstein,Jaber F. Gubrium

Offers practical illustrations from different disciplines and perspectives, showing how researchers from various backgrounds deal with narrative data.

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Page Count

329

Publisher

SAGE

Published Date

ISBN 10

1412987555

ISBN 13

9781412987554

Memories

An Oasis in Time

By: Kamel Abu Jaber

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Memories

An Oasis in Time

By: Kamel Abu Jaber

The story of Kamel Abu Jaber (1932-2020) is in some ways the story of the modern day Kingdom of Jordan. In this short and sweet collection of memories, Kamel recounts his tribal past, being a Christian Bedouin family, his childhood, seeking better opportunities in the United States, returning to his homeland to become head of many educational establishments and later a major political figure. Full of humour wit and wise andecdotes, Kamel takes you on his life' s unexpected journey with all its twists and turns. These stories were barely finished before his passing in 2020, and were published posthumously with a collection of photographs compiled by his wife Loretta Pacifico Abu Jaber.

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Page Count

243

Publisher

Hesperus Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1843919907

ISBN 13

9781843919902

Toward Quality Assurance and Excellence in Higher Education

By: Ahmed Odeh Al Jaber

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Toward Quality Assurance and Excellence in Higher Education

By: Ahmed Odeh Al Jaber

Quality Assurance is not a new concept in the education sector in general, and higher education in particular, though it is becoming increasingly more relevant and important. Higher education helps to improve an individual's quality of life by enabling them to inflate their knowledge and expertise, to grasp abstract concepts and theories, and to raise their awareness of the world and their community, and as such the assurance of quality is becoming more pivotal in the whole education process.There is no simple definition of the concept of quality in education, though numerous models and theories have been devised. Toward Quality Assurance and Excellence of Higher Education is a new episode of the Quality Assurance perception in higher education, which identifies the quality culture and orientation from the beginning, integrating crucial factors to build a “pyramid” of higher education excellence. The book compares concepts from the main theories of Quality Assurance, management and control when they are applied to educational systems in higher education. The book also presents a new model of excellence in higher education. Excellence is an architecture of building blocks that comes with process performance, effectiveness, harmony and collaboration which should be incorporated in a quality-oriented concept of a sustainable excellence of higher education. The model integrates four main facets: the Educational System, Quality Assurance Managing and Control, Strategic Planning and Globalization. Also presented are international “best-practices” in quality assurance in higher education, from Japan and Finland.

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Page Count

450

Publisher

CRC Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1000794660

ISBN 13

9781000794663

Turkish-Qatari Relations

From Past to Present in a Turbulent Geopolitical Landscape

By: Özgür Pala,Khalid Al-Jaber

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Turkish-Qatari Relations

From Past to Present in a Turbulent Geopolitical Landscape

By: Özgür Pala,Khalid Al-Jaber

This book examines domestic and regional geopolitical dynamics behind Turkish-Qatari relations from the past to the present. Utilizing arguments of practical geopolitical reasoning, Özgür Pala and Khaled Al-Jaber situate their analysis of evolving relations in the contexts of Ottoman-British geopolitical rivalry in the Persian Gulf, the Turkish Republic’s fluctuating relations with the Middle East until the 2000s, the AKP governments’ opening to the region and finally the Arab Spring and its aftermath. Contextualizing the trajectory of Turkish-Qatari relations within the larger Middle East and the Gulf Arab region, the authors argue that material interests and identity politics have generally determined relations until the turn of the millennium. Under Erdogan and Sheikh Hamad’s assertive leadership and ambitious foreign policy, Turkey and Qatar came to witness various foreign policy convergences on critically important regional issues. Pala and Al-Jaber argue that these convergences, coupled with their geopolitical and security goals, facilitated a political alignment between Ankara and Doha throughout the Arab Spring. They argue that despite facing major geopolitical setbacks, Turkey and Qatar were able to chart a much deeper cooperation, which later evolved into a strategic partnership in various areas.

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Page Count

263

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield

Published Date

ISBN 10

1666901733

ISBN 13

9781666901733

Postmodern Interviewing

By: Jaber F. Gubrium

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Postmodern Interviewing

By: Jaber F. Gubrium

Postmodern Interviewing offers readers an exploration of the postmodern interview, providing cutting edge discussions of new horizons in inteviews, featuring reflexivity, poetics, and power as new ways of gathering experiential knowledge.

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Page Count

298

Publisher

SAGE

Published Date

ISBN 10

0761928502

ISBN 13

9780761928508

Arabian Jazz: A Novel

By: Diana Abu-Jaber

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Arabian Jazz: A Novel

By: Diana Abu-Jaber

This oracular first novel, which unfurls like gossamer [has] characters of a depth seldom found in a debut." —The New Yorker In Diana Abu-Jaber's "impressive, entertaining" (Chicago Tribune) first novel, a small, poor-white community in upstate New York becomes home to the transplanted Jordanian family of Matussem Ramoud: his grown daughters, Jemorah and Melvina; his sister Fatima; and her husband, Zaeed. The widower Matuseem loves American jazz, kitschy lawn ornaments, and, of course, his daughters. Fatima is obsessed with seeing her nieces married—Jemorah is nearly thirty! Supernurse Melvina is firmly committed to her work, but Jemorah is ambivalent about her identity and role. Is she Arab? Is she American? Should she marry and, if so, whom? Winner of the Oregon Book Award and finalist for the National PEN/Hemingway Award, Arabian Jazz is "a joy to read…You will be tempted to read passages out loud. And you should" (Boston Globe). USA Today praises Abu-Jaber's "gift for dialogue...her Arab-American rings musically, and hilariously, true.

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Page Count

408

Publisher

W. W. Norton & Company

Published Date

ISBN 10

0393066681

ISBN 13

9780393066685

Arabian Jazz

By: Diana Abu-Jaber

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Arabian Jazz

By: Diana Abu-Jaber

Balances are struck in this luminous first novel-between two radically distinct cultures, between obligation and self-will, between past and future, between hilarity and heartbreak-as the Jordanian family of Matussem Ramoud settles in a small, poor-white community in upstate New York.

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