Favorite Quote: Oscar Wilde: The Rich & Idle Preach the Values of Thrift & Labor

From Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray:

[Lord Henry Wotton] pictured to himself with silent amusement the tedious luncheon that he had missed by staying so long with Basil Hallward. Had he gone to his aunt's, he would have been sure to have met Lord Goodbody there, and the whole conversation would have been about the feeding of the poor and the necessity for model lodging-houses. Each class would have preached the importance of those virtues, for whose exercise there was no necessity in their own lives. The rich would have spoken on the value of thrift, and the idle grown eloquent over the dignity of labour. It was charming to have escaped all that!

The full text is available online.

Review: Yo Soy Muslim: A Father’s Letter to His Daughter by Mark Gonzales

Check out these adorable readers with the new @SalaamReads picture book, Yo Soy Muslim by @markgonzalesco! pic.twitter.com/AwmwPEH2bm

— SimonKIDS (@SimonKIDS) August 29, 2017

Aishah Abdul Musawwir reviewed Yo Soy Muslim: A Father’s Letter to His Daughter
by Mark Gonzales (illustrated by Mehrdokht Amini) in The Horn Book, September 1, 2017. The publisher is Salaam Reads/Simon.

I have not read the book.

Access Free Arabic Texts from Library of Arabic Literature

You can now get free, Arabic-only PDFs of LAL bilingual books!

I can't link b/c twitter thinks it's spam but you're clever. On our site.

— LibraryofArabicLit (@LibraryArabLit) August 6, 2017

Point your browser to to http://www.libraryofarabicliterature.org/books/. The books with free, full-Arabic text will have an icon and a message underneath the ISBN number. Click the image below to enlarge.

Review: How to Be Secular: A Call to Arms for Religious Freedom by Jacques Berlinerblau

How to Be Secular: A Call to Arms for Religious Freedom by Jacques Berlinerblau
Mariner Books, Paperback, 9780544105164, 306pp. Publication Date: September 17, 2013

Professor Berlinerblau's book is a "how-to" manual for activists concerned with preserving secularism in the United States. The key to the defense of secularism is building up a large coalition of people. Some will be committed to separationism, one of secularism's variants which "maintains that [order, freedom of religion and freedom from religion] will be achieved in spades if there is, in effect, no relation between government and religion." [p. 125, emphasis in original] Others will be content with accomodationism, which allows government to establish religion, provided it does not privilege one over another. Some will be atheists who promote the abandonment of religion. Some will be believers who interpret their religion to call for distance from the state. Others will be members of religious minorities who fear persecution by the majority. Astute activists will try to gather all of these under the rubric of disestablishmentarianism.

Building Bridges 2017-2018 Grants Program of the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art

Doris Duke Foundation seeks grant proposals for arts programming on Muslims. https://t.co/Rn2i0zAP8N

— Dalia Mogahed (@DMogahed) July 26, 2017

Reading List on Modern and Colonial Science in the Middle East by Nir Shafir

Nir Shafir has compiled, with the help of the Internet hive mind, a reading list on Modern and Colonial Science in the Middle East.

You can hear Professor Nir on episode 124 of the Ottoman History Podcast.

Decolonising Science Reading List by Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

I maintain a “Decolonising Science Reading List” that is stuff that I have read &recommend. https://t.co/BQLWX2wLHE #racenstem #blackandstem

— Dr. Chanda 🇧🇧 (@IBJIYONGI) September 8, 2016

Review: "Experience & Education" by John Dewey

John Dewey (1859-1952) wrote Experience and Education in 1938, twenty-two years after his most famous work, Democracy and Education. In Experience and Education, he assumes that the reader has accepted the "new" education model and rejected the "traditional" education model and thus proceeds to warn against mistakes in the implementation of the new education model.

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

I bought the book Th1rteen R3asons Why by Jay Asher because the author is speaking today near my home, and I feel some kind of need to support local library activity. If the hype on the cover about this book's popularity among young adults is true, please protect your children from this crap.

My only caveat is I'm nearing 50 years old, so I'm probably the last person you want telling you what's good in Young Adult fiction, but here are my $0.02.

This review contains spoilers.

Ramadan Readathon: Recommendations #1 – MG, YA & ADULT FICTION

Nadia at Words Beneath the Wings compiled a list of Middle-Grade, Young Adult and Adult Fiction books by Muslim authors. And, if you're too busy during Ramadan to read these books and you, like me, missed the #RamadanReadathon, make it a Shawwal Readathon!

Shabana Mir Tells Story Behind "Umar and the Bully"

From Shabana Mir's blog:

"[Twenty] years later, I assumed [Umar and the Bully] was no longer relevant. Imagine my surprise when I discovered, a few weeks ago, that Umar and the Bully is still being used and recommended for anti-bullying work in schools."

Read about the circumstances in which Professor Shabana wrote that book.

Ernest Hemingway's Warning About Those Who Come to Divert You From the Path of Significance

In the last chapter of Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemingway warns people doing significant things to avoid seduction by the popular, rich and powerful:

The rich have a sort of pilot fish who goes ahead of them, sometimes a little deaf, sometimes a little blind, but always smelling affable and hesitant ahead of them. The pilot fish talks like this: “Well I don't know. No of course not really. But I like them. I like them both. Yes, by God, Hem; I do like them. I see what you mean but I do like them truly and there’s something damned fine about her.” (He gives her name and pronounces it lovingly.) “No, Hem, don't be silly and don't be difficult. I like them truly. Both of them I swear it. You’ll like him (using his baby-talk nickname) when you know him. I like them both, truly.”

Review: Magic in Islam by Michael Muhammad Knight

Amina Inloes reviewed Magic In Islam by Michael Muhammad Knight in the American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, Vol 33, Issue #4, 117-21. The web page for the journal is here.

I have not read the book.