Via MoorishGirl (have you bought her book yet?) I found this wonderful list from Azar Nafisi (of Reading Lolita in Tehran fame) on books on Iran.
Her list: (asterisks are ones I’ve read)
Encyclopedia Iranica (*as much as one reads an encyclopedia)
The Blindfold Horse: Memories of a Persian Childhood
Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope
www.fis-iran.org
www.abfiran.org
My Uncle Napoleon (*I just saw the new edition of the English translation. I’ve read the original Persian, and it’s a hoot.)
Persepolis [vol. 1 and vol. 2] (*love it)
Strange Times My Dear
The Secret of Laughter
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (*I’ve never found a translation I was happy with)
Shahnameh (*only in Persian)
Gertrude Bell’s Hafez (*nice translations, not always true to the Persian original. I also like Ladinsky’s translations)
any Rumi (*Barks is probably the best known versioner out there. Arberry is good solid translation, and Nicholson manages to keep some of the poetic quality)
any Shirin Neshat (*like her photographs. not as taken with her video)
Babak and Friends (*got this a year ago after seeing them at an Apple Store. Really good.)
Under the Olive Trees
In the Mirror of the Sky
Night Silence Desert
My additions:
Twelve Photographic Journeys: Iran in the Twenty-First Century
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