I’m the moderator for two book clubs at Alif Institute here in Atlanta. To see all they have to offer go to www.alifinstitute.org

The evening group is reading Sharon and My Mother-in-Law, about living under Occupation while caring for her mother-in-law during curfews that lasted 42 or more days at a time.  One of you is bound to lose it from time to time! I lived with my mother-in-law for six years. I empathize. Did you know that Palestinian families living in the West Bank and Gaza are kept inside their houses for as long as six months at a time? And that only one member of the family is allowed to leave once a week for two hours to buy groceries? Because houses are bulldozed down regularly, the family might have many relatives living with them. How would you cope with 10 or 12 people living with you, several with children, all unable to go outside for months at a time? I’d be emotionally distraught. How about you?

Our previous book was House of Stone by Anthony Shadid. A quote from him appeared in the convention booklet. “I was an ADC intern many years ago and it’s an experience I doubt I’ll ever forget. I learned a lesson that has guided me and my journalism since then, and is that being right is a relative term, and most importantly that no voice should be silenced.”