 | Guests of the Ayatollah: The First Battle in America's War with Militant Islam by Mark Bowden
Buy used from: $0.42 This is a really well written account of a painful episode between Iran and the U.S. The author obviously spent a great deal of time interviewing the surviving hostages.
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 | Searching for Hassan: A Journey to the Heart of Iran by Terence Ward
Buy new: $11.20 / Used from: $1.98 This gentle story of the abiding connection between an American family and their Iranian friends is heartwarming. The love of that ancient country is infused into every sentence.
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 | The Persian Sphinx: Amir Abbas Hoveyda and the Riddle of the Iranian Revolution by Abbas Milani
Buy used from: $9.00 Sometimes biographies can help us understand an era. Milani captures an era in the life of this cosmopolitain PM of the last Shah.
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 | The Mantle of the Prophet: Religion and Politics in Iran by Roy Mottahedeh
Buy used from: $4.49 Powerful insights into one Clerics life in the period before the age of revolution. A classic.
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 | In the Rose Garden of the Martyrs: A Memoir of Iran by Christopher De Bellaigue
Buy used from: $0.07 If you want to understand the searing impact that the violence of the Iran-Iraq war had on Iranian society I can think of no better book.
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 | All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror by Stephen Kinzer
Buy new: $10.04 / Used from: $1.51 An easy and exciting read about an incident that had a profound impact.
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 | Khomeini: Life of the Ayatollah by Baqer Moin
Buy used from: $10.91 This book helped me understand the powerful hold Khomeinei exercised over people. Whether you like him or not he's part of Iranian history.
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 | The Last Great Revolution: Turmoil and Transformation in Iran by Robin Wright
Buy new: $10.20 / Used from: $1.37 Written by a leading journalist it captures the guarded optimism of the Khatami period. Wright is a good person to read to try and understand whats been going on there.
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 | Blood and Oil: Inside the Shah's Iran (Modern Library Paperbacks) by Manucher Farmanfarmaian
Buy used from: $4.93 A insiders account of both the Iranian nobility and the Iranian oil industry. Long but quite interesting.
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 | The Soul of Iran: A Nation's Journey to Freedom by Afshin Molavi
Buy new: $10.85 / Used from: $6.70 Molavi explores Iran more initmately than any recent author. An excellent introduction to contemporary Iran.
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 | The Hafez Poems of Gertrude Bell: With the Original Persian on the Facing Page (Classics of Persian Literature ; 1) by Gertrude, Bell
Buy new: $16.15 / Used from: $8.70 Poetry is difficult to translate, but Hafez is beloved by Iranians and a central part of their culture. Read Bell's or another translation.
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 | The Gardens of Light (Interlink World Fiction) by Amin Maalouf
Buy new: $10.20 / Used from: $7.75 A beautiful novel about the 3rd Century Prophet Mani and his efforts to found a new religion in the Sassanid Empire.
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 | Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi
Buy new: $12.89 / Used from: $4.27 I don't own it, but I've read bits of it and it's really a neat little book.
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 | Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi
Buy new: $10.20 / Used from: $0.01 In my opinion more of a book about life and literature than Iran, but many people I know love it so try it.
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 | My Uncle Napoleon: A Novel (Modern Library Paperbacks) by Iraj Pezeshkzad
Buy new: $10.20 / Used from: $3.72 This amusing book is beloved by many Iranians. It's about an extended family ruled over by an Uncle/Patriarch who identifies with Bonaparte. Portrait of a vanished age but very Persian!
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 | Creation: A Novel by Gore Vidal
Buy new: $11.56 / Used from: $4.99 Gore Vidal can write - lesser known novel in which a Persian Ambassador makes a spiritual journey around the 5th Century BC world.
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 | New Food of Life: Ancient Persian and Modern Iranian Cooking and Ceremonies by Najmieh Batmanglij
Buy new: $29.67 / Used from: $24.97 A beautiful cookbook - the presentation will blow your mind and make you yearn for pilov.
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 | A Taste of Persia: An Introduction to Persian Cooking by Najmieh Batmanglij
Buy used from: $13.51 Another cookbook by the same author thats thinner and less expensive. Good intro for novices.
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