I just discovered that the fascinating book I'm in the middle of reading, Qatar: Then and Now, is available online, so those of you who aren't here in Qatar to buy a copy can still read it! Those of you who like hearing about Qatari society or have questions about what students are like should definitely read this. (Psst, Mum, I was going to buy you a copy of this, but now I don't have to! ;-)

Qatar: Then and Now is a collection of personal essays by (mostly) university students in Qatar, reflecting on the differences between life in their grandparents' time and life now. I've always known that life has changed very quickly in Qatar in the last 50 years, but I didn't get a very good sense of the unbelievable rate of change until reading this.

If you only want to read a couple essays, I particularly recommend the first one in each section: Saad Al-Matwi (CMU student woo!)'s story about revisiting the house he grew up in, and Mashaael Salman Rashid's story about convincing her family to let her enter a coed school. But it's fun to read all of them, and it's interesting to compare and contrast the stories.

This is the second book in a series, and the first, Qatar Narratives, is also available online. Qatar Narratives is a collection of essays by women who live in Qatar. Each essay is in some way a reflection on life in Qatar, whether it is the rumination of a Qatari girl who doesn't wear hijab (CMU student woo!) or an expository essay on the increase in obesity among Qatari women. Also very good, but if you only read one of them, I personally would lean towards Qatar: Then and Now.

N.b. These books were edited by my friend mohanalakshmi, but I swear she didn't pay me to say nice things about them. ;-)