The meaning of home is malleable, moulded by the city we live in and by the rituals that root our day. This World Book Day, look to titles that linger on that instinct. Whether you turn outward to the evolution of the Emirates or inward to prose and poetry, both new and old meditations offer a recalibration, moving the mind beyond the churn of headlines and back to our people and places of peace.
Artists Of The Middle East: 1900 To Now (2025)
Saeb Eigner
In Artists of the Middle East: 1900 to Now, art historian Saeb Eigner presents the first A–Z of contemporary artists from across the region. An Art Newspaper Art Book of the Year, it brings together detailed biographies and shorter profiles to form a comprehensive record of its most important names, from early pioneers to today’s internationally exhibited figures. Read Now
Of Palm Trees And Skies (2024)
Dr Afra Atiq
Published by the Emirates Literature Foundation, Emirati poet Dr Afra Atiq writes of growing up among the region’s palms and possibilities in her latest poetry collection. Read Now
Flashes Of Thought (2015)
His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum shares the priorities that propel him. Available in an updated pocket edition, the book meditates on the principles behind the city we proudly call home. Read Now
Lugma (2025)
Noor Murad
In Lugma, Bahraini chef Noor Murad of the Ottolenghi Test Kitchen shares over 100 recipes inspired by the food she grew up eating. Raised in Bahrain and based in London, here, flavours of home are brought to the fore. Read Now
+971: 50 Emirati Creatives Shaping The UAE (2025)
Myrna Ayad, Rizzoli
Published by Rizzoli and edited by Myrna Ayad, +971: 50 Emirati Creatives Shaping the UAE is the first book to profile the country’s creative scene through Emirati voices working across art, architecture, design, film, music and writing. Using interviews and imagery, it offers a clear view of a creative community gaining ground both at home and internationally. Read Now
Sheikh Zayed: An Eternal Legacy (2021)
Myrna Ayad, Assouline
Sheikh Zayed: An Eternal Legacy traces the life and leadership of the UAE’s founding father, from the formation of the nation in 1971. Here, his role as a statesman and a steward of both people and place are illustrated through archival imagery, offering a detailed portrait of the man behind the country we know and love. Read Now
Contemporary Living In The Middle East (2024)
Wim Pauwels
In Contemporary Living in the Middle East, 20 houses and apartments across the region are presented through the work of architects and designers from the Middle East and beyond, including names such as VSHD, Leila Khalil and JMDA. Photographed in detail and paired with profiles of the people behind them, the reader is offered a rare glimpse of a region setting the standard in residential design. Read Now
Rumi (2006)
Rumi, Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets
Rumi’s thirteenth-century musings on faith are written with a clarity that continues to comfort readers today. This finely bound Everyman’s Library edition gathers translations of the Persian poet’s most celebrated meditations. Read Now
Zaitoun (2018)
Yasmin Khan
In Zaitoun, food writer Yasmin Khan compiles recipes gathered during her journeys across Palestine. From slow-cooked stews to salads, sweets and staples, the book pairs everyday cooking with stories of the people and places behind it. Read Now
Something About Living (2024)
Lena Khalaf Tuffaha
In Something About Living, her third collection, Lena Khalaf Tuffaha writes as a Palestinian living in the diaspora, drawing on her own life between the Middle East and the United States. Winner of the 2024 National Book Award for Poetry, Khalaf Tuffaha’s reader is led down a punishing path of hope in the midst of a precarious present. Read Now
Originally published in the April 2026 issue of MOJEH. Subscribe here
