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Book Review – The Butterfly Mosque

January 11, 2022 by Karen Filed Under: Book / Book Reviews Leave a Comment

Book Review – The Butterfly Mosque

The Butterfly Mosque: A Young American Woman’s Journey to Love and Islam
by G. Willow Wilson
3 1/2 out of 5 stars

I’m still not much in the headspace to do in-depth reviews on books. It’s all I can do to even read a book for leisure right now during COVID and while I’m also working my degree. The isn’t a massive book review but I’m at least documenting that I read it.

This library book really crept up on me. I was expecting it to be one thing and yet it was another. I don’t feel like any review I do of it will do it justice until I read it a second time and that time I need to highlight and make comments that I couldn’t do in a library book. This book needs time for me to process it.

As a devout atheist, just as the author used to be, there is almost zero information in my mind about Islam as a religion, being Muslim, and to be fair the Middle East in general. I mean, I know where it is geographically, but as a typical American that learned world history in 70s-90s I know next to nothing. Maybe I know a little but it’s minimal. Therefore, with almost each chapter I read I created more questions and more thoughts for myself that then clouded how I read the rest of the book. Sometimes I couldn’t even focus on what she was saying about Islam or an American living in the Middle East as my brain was trying to process these rules it seems that living there seems to guide for every person. The book made me angry and inquisitive at the same time but I’m coming at it from a Westerners perspective and one that typically thinks unpleasant thoughts about organized religion. the last half of the book got more political than I wanted it to be. My expectations were that it was going to be more of a social and cultural review of living there and not a political but I also see how living there gets political.

I didn’t read any reviews about the book beforehand as I didn’t want them to cloud my judgement. I had an opinion they might get political. I still haven’t read any and don’t want to until I can read this again when I have my own copy and can devote more time to it.  

FROM BOOKSHOP.ORG
The Butterfly Mosque, journalist G. Willow Wilson’s remarkable story of converting to Islam and falling in love with an Egyptian man in a volatile post-9/11 world, was praised as “an eye-opening look at a misunderstood and often polarizing faith” (Booklist) and “a tremendously heartfelt, healing cross-cultural fusion” (Publishers Weekly). Inspired by her experience during a college Islamic Studies course, Wilson, who was raised an atheist, decides to risk everything to convert to Islam and embark on a fated journey across continents and into an uncertain future. She settles in Cairo, where she attempts to submerge herself in a culture based on her adopted religion, and where she meets Omar, a man with a mild resentment of the Western influences in his homeland. They begin a daring relationship that calls into question the very nature of family, belief, and tradition. Torn between the secular West and Muslim East, Wilson records her intensely personal struggle to forge a “third culture” that might accommodate her values without compromising them or the friends and family on both sides of the divide.

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Finished the final art project. Picked a few new c Finished the final art project. Picked a few new colors different from my practice post. 

The brush lettering is done by an @ecolineworld brush marker in Deep Orange and Mahogany. The @sakuraofamerica black Aqualip pen for the floral borders. 3 Sakura Glaze pens and 1 @pentelofamerica Fude Touch Brush Sign pen in Yellow Ochre for the smaller lettering.

I used watercolor paint to fill in the doodles and it worked perfectly. 

This paper is smooth and great too but I have no idea what it is. I only have a few loose sheets of it.

PS - If I could write everything in a Glaze or Aqualip pen I would. I love them so much.

#LetteringPractice #Lettering #Calligraphy #BrushLettering #SakuraGlaze #SakuraAqualip #PentelFude #AutumnToDoList #markerillustrator #penlovers #handlettering #markerillustration #brushpendrawing #brushpenart #handletter #royaltalensecoline #talensecoline #ecolinebrushpens #ecolinebrushpen #autumn #autumnmood #autumnstyle #autumnvibes #autumncolors
Well, here's how everything I made in my 7-week be Well, here's how everything I made in my 7-week beginner wheel pottery class at @centerfortheartspc turned out when it came out of the kiln. Glazes are funny.......you never know how they are going to react. You could have put it on too thin, too thick, not mixed it up enough before you dipped your pottery in, or a million of things when chemical reactions and heat get involved. All of those things happened to me here.

The yellow/white piece cracked in the kiln. Oh well. They didn't turn out exactly as I thought, but not bad for my first try. I was going for a pride rainbow cup and that didn't really work out and the fish I carved on the bottom of a saucer for @stringerbellthecat got covered up with the thick glaze.

#WheelPottery #PotteryClass
I am practicing some lettering tonight with thanks I am practicing some lettering tonight with thanks to @colleenpastoor for the idea templates. 

I've really got to get less shaky. Not sure if I'm going too fast or too slow. 

What I liked about the hey pumpkin lettering on the left was the @pilotpenusa Futayaku Double-Sided Brush Pen Fine / Medium in Black Ink. It gave a bold line but I need to practice more on the thin lines. 

On the to do list I used the same Pilot pen for the title and the other end of the pen for the subtitle. But what was really great here was the @sakuraofamerica black Aqualip pen for the floral borders. It just consistently lays down a glossy and raised black line that never smears when dry even when I filled in some of it with @crayola marker. I used a Sakura Glaze pen in green #830 for the alternating list items. It's hard to see in this first photo but it's perfect. I used a bronze fountain pen ink loaded into a @kuretakezig_usa Karappo Felt Tip Pen with Fine Wick for the other alternating list items. 

I think tomorrow I'm going to try it all over again with a different ink for the bronze lettering on the list and maybe no markers but use watercolor paint instead to fill in the drawings.

This paper is smooth and great too but I have no idea what it is. I only have a few loose sheets of it.

PS - If I could write everything in a Glaze or Aqualip pen I would. I love them so much.

#LetteringPractice #Lettering #Calligraphy #SakuraGlaze #SakuraAqualip #KuretakeKarappo #PilotFutayaku #AutumnToDoList #HeyPumpkin #CrayolaMarkers
If you aren’t starting your morning off from a r If you aren’t starting your morning off from a rainbow 🌈 Dolly mug then what are you even doing with your life? 

Yes, I drink my coffee through a straw to keep the pearly whites white 🦷. 

2nd favorite mug I own. 1st goes to my Ruth Bader Ginsburg mug. #RainbowDolly #Dolly #DollyParton #RBG #CoffeeMug #CoffeeMugsOfInstagram
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Hey y'all! I'm Karen, a Gulf Coast of Florida based purveyor of Southern sass. I'm an Indiana Jones & Anthony Bourdain wannabe. I'm introverted and usually found with my nose in a book and pen/pencil in hand. I'm addicted to yoga, lip gloss, dumplings, noodles, and have an intense love for Scotland and Paris. I work in a library but my side hustle is teaching about safer skincare and cleaner cosmetics. It's been said I'm a little bit country and a little bit rock 'n roll. Read More…

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