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With Egypt dominating the news in recent days, Kindle readers may wish to learn more about this uneasy ally of the United States. Who will fill the vacuum left by the overthrow of Mubarik and will Egypt emerge from the "social media revolution" of the last two weeks with a chance to build the free and democratic society that many Egyptians desire? Here is a small selection of Kindle books that will give you a taste of the recent history and culture of a country the whole world is watching.

Egypt: Culture Smart! The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture by Jailan Zayan. Kuperard, 2010. Print length: 168 p. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (8 reviews). Kindle edition $7.79; Paperback $9.95. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
Egypt: Culture Smart! is one of a series of outstanding culture guides on countries around the world. It offers insights into customs, values and traditions as well as the history, religion and political background of Egypt, including insider information you might never find in a travel book. The author, a British national of Libyan-Egyptian origin, is a graduate of the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. She who moved to Egypt in 2000 and has reported and contributed articles to international and Middle Eastern publications about the Arab world, specifically Egypt.

Inside Egypt: The Land of the Pharaohs on the Brink of a Revolution by John R. Bradley. Palgrave Macmillan, updated edition 2008. Print length: 256 p. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (11 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99; Paperback $11.53. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Five decades after Nasser and the Free Officers overthrew the British-backed monarchy in a dramatic coup d'état, the future of Egypt grows more uncertain by the day. John Bradley examines the junctions of Egyptian politics and society as they slowly disintegrate under the twin pressures of a ruthless military dictatorship at home and a flawed Middle East policy in Washington. Inside Egypt is a tour-de-force of the most brutal Arab state where torture and corruption are endemic - but one that is also a key U.S. all and a historic regional trendsetter. This uniquely insightful book brings to vivid life Egypt's competing identities and political trends, as the Mubarak dynasty struggles to resolve a succession crisis and the disciplined Islamists wait patiently in the wings for a chance to seize power.
John R. Bradley has written for The Economist, The Washington Quarterly, The Financial Times, The New Republic, The Times Literary Supplement, Newsweek, and Salon. Fluent in Egyptian Arabic, he is the author of the critically acclaimed Saudi Saudi Arabia Exposed." - Amazon.

Egypt on the Brink: From Nasser to Mubarak by Tarek Osman. Yale University Press, 2011. Print length: 304 p. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (1 review). Kindle edition $4.99; Paperback $13.60. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.

"Famous until the 1950s for its religious pluralism and extraordinary cultural heritage, Egypt is now seen as an increasingly repressive and divided land, home of the Muslim Brotherhood and an opaque regime headed by the aging President Mubarak. In this immensely readable and thoroughly researched book, Tarek Osman explores what has happened to the biggest Arab nation since President Nasser took control of the country in 1954. He examines Egypt’s central role in the development of the two crucial movements of the period, Arab nationalism and radical Islam; the increasingly contentious relationship between Muslims and Christians; and perhaps most important of all, the rift between the cosmopolitan elite and the mass of the undereducated and underemployed population, more than half of whom are aged under thirty. This is an essential guide to one of the Middle East’s most important but least understood states. Born and raised in Egypt, Tarek Osman was educated at the American University in Cairo and Bocconi University in Italy. His writings appear in a number of publications in the United Kingdom, Europe, and the Middle East." - Amazon.


The Day the Leader was Killed by Naguib Mahfouz. Anchor, 2008. Print length: 112 p. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (6 reviews). Kindle edition $8.59; Paperback $9.64. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"From the Nobel Prize laureate and author of the acclaimed Cairo Trilogy, a beguiling and artfully compact novel set in Sadat's Egypt. The time is 1981, Anwar al-Sadat is president, and Egypt is lurching into the modern world. Set against this backdrop, The Day the Leader Was Killed relates the tale of a middle-class Cairene family. Rich with irony and infused with political undertones, the story is narrated alternately by the pious and mischievous family patriarch Muhtashimi Zayed, his hapless grandson Elwan, and Elwan's headstrong and beautiful fiancee Randa. The novel reaches its climax with the assassination of Sadat on October 6, 1981, an event around which the fictional plot is skillfully woven." - from the trade paperback edition.


Beneath the Sands of Egypt: Adventures of an Unconventional Archaeologist by Donald P. Ryan. Harper Collins, 2010. Print length: 304 p. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (14 reviews). Kindle edition $12.99; Hardcover $19.43. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.

"...Ryan, the archaeologist who rediscovered tomb KV 60 in the Valley of the Kings (later identified as the final resting place of the pharoah Hatshepsut), takes us through his life, career, and numerous expeditions. It's a thrilling book, not because it's full of Indiana Jones heroics but because Ryan's enthusiasm for what he does (more dirt-sifting than bullwhip-wielding) is manifested on every page; and...he catches us up in his excitement, makes us wish we weren't just reading about this stuff but were actually doing it. Ryan also dispels or challenges some long-held pieces of so-called common knowledge, such as the belief that slaves built the pyramids (there's no evidence to support that) and the much-ballyhooed but sadly nonexistent curse of the mummy's tomb. This wonderful adventure story should be must reading for anyone aspiring to become an archaeologist, but even those of us who harbor no such dreams will be aching to get a little dirt under our fingernails." - David Pitt for Booklist.

A History of Egypt: From the Arab Conquest to the Present by Afaf Lutfi Al-Sayyid Marsot. Cambridge University Press, 2007. Print length: 196 p. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (2 reviews). Kindle edition $15.39; Hardcover $90.00. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.

"Egypt occupies a central position in the Arab world. Its borders between sand and sea have existed for millennia and yet, until 1952, the country was ruled by foreigners. Afaf al-Sayyid Marsot explores the paradoxes of Egypt's history in a new edition of her successful A Short History of Modern Egypt. Charting the years from the Arab conquest, through the age of the Mamluks, Egypt's incorporation into the Ottoman Empire, the liberal experiment in constitutional government in the early twentieth century, followed by the Nasser and Sadat years, the new edition takes the story up to the present day. During the Mubarak era, Egyptians have seen major changes with the rise of globalization and its effects on their economy, the advent of new political parties, the entrenchment of Islamic fundamentalism and the consequent changing attitudes to women. Afaf Lutfi Al-Sayyid Marsot is Professor Emerita of History at the University of California at Los Angeles." - Amazon.


The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany. Harper Collins, 2006. Print length: 272 p. Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (74 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99; Paperback $10.07. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"This controversial bestselling novel in the Arab world reveals the political corruption, sexual repression, religious extremism, and modern hopes of Egypt today. All manner of flawed and fragile humanity reside in the Yacoubian Building, a once-elegant temple of Art Deco splendor now slowly decaying in the smog and bustle of downtown Cairo: a fading aristocrat and self-proclaimed 'scientist of women'; a sultry, voluptuous siren; a devout young student, feeling the irresistible pull toward fundamentalism; a newspaper editor helplessly in love with a policeman; a corrupt and corpulent politician, twisting the Koran to justify his desires. These disparate lives careen toward an explosive conclusion in Alaa Al Aswany's remarkable international bestseller." - Amazon.

Hold on to Your Veil, Fatima! And Other Snapshots of Life in Contemporary Egypt a by Sanna Negus. Gaarnet Publishing, 2010. Amazon customer rating: none yet. Kindle edition $5.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"What happened to a former Miss Egypt when she took to wearing the veil under her pilot’s cap? Who are the young people posting videos of policemen torturing crime suspects? Where do Coptic Christians celebrate the Holy Family’s journey to Egypt? Why is President Hosni Mubarak still ruling Egypt, virtually uncontested, after more than 25 years in power? In Hold on to Your Veil, Fatima!, author Sanna Negus answers these questions and more, taking the reader on a journey into 21st-century Egypt. As a reporter, Ms Negus witnessed Egypt’s political opening after the Iraq war, the subsequent quelling of the Cairo Spring, and the growing influence of the Muslim Brotherhood. In addition to politics, the author discusses the thorny issue of relations between the sexes, listens to Copts’ grievances about the worsening relations between Muslims and Christians, and reveals an appalling human rights record. On the brighter side, she also visits oriental dancers and authors who defy censorship. While Egyptians joke about the longevity of their president, there is no doubt that Egypt is a nation waiting for a new, uncertain dawn... This is the other side of Egypt, an intriguing modern nation a long way removed from the pyramids and temples visited by most visitors to the country." - Amazon.

Down the Nile: Alone in a Fisherman's Skiff by Rosemary Mahoney. Little, Brown and Company, 2007. Print length: 288 p. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (36 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99; Paperback $10.19. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"This is travel writing at its most enjoyable: the reader is taken on a great trip with an erudite travel companion soaking up scads of history, culture and literary knowledge, along with the scenery. The genesis for the trip is simple: the author's love of rowing. Her plan, 'to buy a small Egyptian rowboat and row myself along the 120-mile stretch of river between the cities of Aswan and Qena,' is less so. Mahoney conveys readers along the longest river in the world, through narrative laced with insight, goodwill and sometimes sadness. Mahoney's writing style is conversational, her use of metaphor adept. She cleverly marshals the writings of numerous river travelers but focuses on 'two troubled geniuses': Florence Nightingale and Gustave Flaubert. The device allows readers a backward glance at the Edwardian travel accoutrements of sumptuous riverside dinners, staggering supplies of alcohol and food, trunks of books and commodious accommodations. The physical environment is demanding. 'When I removed my hat, the sun had made the top of my head sting... it was like having a freshly baked nail driven into one's skull.' Yet her biggest obstacle isn't the climate but the slippery hurdles of culture and sex. Whether struggling to buy a boat, visiting historic Luxor or rowing, innocent encounters become sticky psychological and philosophical snares. Still, the ride is smooth, leaving the reader wishing for more nautical miles." - Publishers Weekly.
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Note to readers: The book prices quoted here are the Amazon.com prices in effect at the time of the blog posting. Please follow the links to the individual book to check the current price.