| Whether you are living in Sharm or planing to move to the Sinai, this page lists books about the Sinai or Egypt in general. They could be guides for your life in Egypt. Even we live in Sharm we might not know the Western Desert or might not be familiar with the Egyptian kitchen. Therefore we thought this page will be useful to understand the country we all live in. Listed are travel-guides, history books, phrase books and cooking books. These books are available through Amazon. Just click the book you are interested in and order it. Books can be sent to Egypt without having to pay major custom fees. Let us also know your favorite books, whether the topic is Egypt or anything else you think could be of interest for other women, we would like to add them to our list. Send your email to our webmaster. Give us your input. |
 |
| Travel Guides | |
 | Sinai: The Site and the History Mursi Sa’d al-Din Six Egyptian scholars and two master photographers capture a lasting impression and a host of little known facts and history about this vital and strategic geographic entity. The essays, together with 60-plus color photographs, most of them full-page, provide a comprehensive picture of the region’s more info |
 | |
 | Guide to Exploration of the SinaiAlberto Siliotti (Photographer) A book which presents a vast number of routes for those who wish to explore the Sinai peninsula – either in an armchair or in real life – along ancient tracks and through wadis on the interior of a desert full of majestic and wild landscapes and along some of the loveliest coastlines on earth. The text is accompanied by detailed maps, created specially for this book, specific practical information, and photographs of great power and beauty. * Northern Sinai * The Suez Canal * The Gate of Egypt * West Coast of Sinai * Sharm El-Sheik * Strait of Tiran * From Naama Bay to Dahab * Blue Hole * Monastery of Saint Catherine * Gebel Musa (Mount Horeb and Moses) * * Abu Galum National Park * Gebel Katherina * The Blue Desert * more info |
 | Sinai(Egypt Pocket Guides) Alberto Siliotti This guide covers the natural environments of the Sinai peninsula – the coral reefs,the desert and the oases. It covers the history, from Moses and the exodus to the modern period and it covers the places – al-Tor, Sharn al-Sheikh, Dahab, Nuweiba, Taba, St. Catherines and al-Arish. more info |
| Egypt Insight Guide (Insight Guides S.)This guide includes a section detailing Egypt’s history, eight features covering aspects of the country’s life and culture, ranging from its spectacular pyramids to its breathtaking bazaars; a region by region visitor’s guide to the sights, and a comprehensive travel tips section packed with essential contact addresses and numbers. Plus hundreds of photographs and 21 maps and site plans. more info |
 | Lonely Planet Egypt (Country Guides) Joann Fletcher, Andrew Humphreys, Siona Jenkins, A. Sattin |
 | The Rough Guide to Egypt Dan Richardson, Karen OBrien Egypt remains the most popular and varied destination in the Middle East. This guide has a 200-page section devoted to Cairo and the Pyramids alone, as well as full coverage of the great landscapes, from the Nile Valley to the Sinai coast and the oases of the Western Desert. For pre-departure inspiration, the author’s "things not to miss" section aims to immerse the reader in the sights and sounds of this enthralling destination. The book also includes the latest on Red Sea diving, including new areas being opened up away from the established resorts. more info |
 | Egypt and Nubia: Gifts of the Desert Renee Friedman (Editor) This volume originates in an international colloquium held in the British Museum in 1998. It comprises 18 papers, written by leading scholars, each of whom explores an aspect of the use and exploitation of the deserts lying to the east and west of the Nile Valley by the ancient Egyptians and their prehistoric ancestors. Exploding the myth that Egypt was simply the "Gift of the Nile", it aims to create an understanding of how the Egyptians perceived and exploited their wider environment. more info |
| The Western Desert of Egypt: An Explorer’s HandbookCassandra Vivian A guide for anyone travelling in Egypt’s Western Desert. Oasis by Oasis, the book explores major and minor sites, little-known desert areas that promise serenity, and an array of caravan routes. Descriptions of sites, people and places are complemented by practical information on routes and places to stay, eat and fill your gas tank. Global positioning system (GPS) waypoints are provided as an aid to navigatin on many routes. more info |
| Dive Guides | |
 | Red Sea Reef Guide Helmut Debelius Sport Diver, March 2001 – Covering all of the Red Sea, from Israel to Sudan and beyond, this guide identifies virtually every underwater creature you will sea. DIVE, April 2000 – Accepted as the best in the world – a beautiful hardback classic. more info |
 | Lonely Planet Diving and Snorkelling… This guide presents sites for divers in the Red Sea. The information on each site includes: depth and visibility; required expertise; bottom terrain; currents; marine life; safety tips; and local dive shops. more info |
| Phrase Books | |
| Lonely Planet Egyptian Arabic Phrasebook(Phrasebooks) Scott Wayne, Siona Jenkins (Editor) more info |
 | Arabic-English Dictionary Phrasebook J. Wightwick – As the national language of nearly 20 countries in Africa and Asia, and spoken by approximately 190 million people, Arabic is the lingua franca of the Middle East. This title uses a standard Arabic helpful to those travelling all over the region. The emphasis is on commonly heard terms and phrases that are recognisable throughout the Arabic speaking world. Both the dictionary and phrasebook incorporate the Arabic script and its romanised transliteration. The two-way dictionary contains important travel, geographical, and cultural terminology, while the phrasebook focuses on the needs of travellers and covers almost every situation from arrival to departure. more info |
| The Rough Guide to Egyptian Arabic (A Dictionary Phrasebook) Lexus, Lexus Translations The dictionary-style structure of this Egyptian Arabic phrasebook allows the user to speak in the way they would in their own language. Feature boxes fill in on the dos and don’ts, cultural know-how and other matters where language is important, like making a phonecall more info |
 | Children’s Illustrated Arabic Dictionary Designed to be a child’s very first foreign language dictionary (5-10 years). 500 entries, each accompanied by a large illustration.more info |
| Cooking Books | |
| Egyptian Cooking Samia Abdennour
|
| A New Book of Middle Eastern Food(Cookery Library) Claudia Roden …make it this one. The recipes easy to follow, and Roden’s writing style is peppered with amusing anecdotes about her childhood in Egypt and historical information that make this book a good read outside the kitchen as well as in. Roden’s recipes are authentic. Many include alternate suggestions and regional variations from family recipes submitted by her friends and readers from across the region, so chances are you’ll always have the proper ingredients to hand. In other words…absolutely essential. more info |
| The Complete Middle East Cookbookmore info |
| Novels | |
 | Bedouin Life in the Egyptian Wilderness Joseph J. Hobbs, Leo A. Tregenza (Designer) Joseph Hobbs based his work on Leo Tregenza’s earlier "Egyptian Years" (op) and updated and drew on Tregenza’s accounts of life with the Bedu of the Eastern Desert of Egypt, between the Nile and the Red Sea. Geographically, botanically, zoologically and anthropologically it is a fascinating book with all kinds of gems of information which are found nowhere else. It can be a little dry in places (no pun intended) hence the four stars rather than five but for those travelling in this arid, yet beautiful, region, it is well worth the effort. more info |
 | Baladi Women of Cairo: Playing with an Egg and a Stone Evelyn A. Early Traditional, urban Egyptian women – baladi women – extol themselves with the proverb, "A baladi woman can play with an egg and a stone without breaking the egg". Evelyn Early illustrates this and other expressions of baladi women’s self-identity by observing and recording their everyday discourse and how these women – who consider themselves destitute yet savvy – handle such matters as housing, work, marriage, religion, health and life in general. Based on more than three years of research in Bulaq Abu’Ala – a jammed popular quarter north of the fashionable Nile-side hotel district of Cairo – Early’s work reveals important cultural themes by minimizing the reflective gaze of the researcher and allowing spontaneous discourse and narrative recountings to "catch" culture in action. more info |
 | A Woman of Egypt Jehan Sadat
|
 | The Cairo House Samia Serageldin This is a haunting and very beautifully written book. It evokes the city of Cairo marvelously covering several decades in the last half of the century. Although the story focuses around a particular family house there, it is really a very personal story of an Egyptian woman and her life both in Egypt and abroad. I found it a very thought-provoking book and would recommend it without any doubt more info |
 | The Cairo Trilogy: Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, Sugar Street (Everyman’s Library) Naguib Mahfouz, Edward W. Said (Introduction), William M. Hutchins (Translator) This trilogy takes you through the history of Cairo/ Egypt at the start of the 20th century and in fact also leads you through three generations of the same family undergoing, shaping and living the events of that time. The tone is frank – it boosted by understading and appreciation for the culture involved. more info |
 | Daily Life in Ancient and Modern Cairo (Cities Through Time) Joan Barghusen, Bob Moulder (Illustrator) – The Amazing Story of the Gateway to the East; Home to more than 13 million residents, Cairo is heir to the diverse traditions of more than five thousand years of Egyptian history. In Daily Life in Ancient and Modern Cairo, young readers will watch as the ancient Egyptians build majestic pyramids. Centuries later, Cairo’s bustling markets at the juncture of east and west made the city one of the medieval world’s richest trading centres. In the 1800s, Europeans turned Cairo into a luxurious vacation outpost. Modern Cairo’s residents mingle traditional and contemporary lifestyles in this timeless city. more info |
 | The Alexandria Quartet Lawrence Durrell With its politics, passions, corruption and vice, this quartet of novels is set in war-time Alexandria. The experimental form presents the narrative from different view points, allowing the story to unfold gradually. This is one of the major english novels of the century and it is a shame that it not read and known more widely. more info |
| Ancient Egypt | |
| Egyptology, Search for the Tomb of Osiris – Emily Sands, Dugald Steer (Editor), Ian Andrew (Illustrator), Nick Harris (Illustrator), Helen Ward (Illustrator A facinating guide to Ancient Egypt, told through the (fictional) journal of Emily Sands who, in 1926, led an expedition up the Nile to find the lost body of Osiris. On January 5th 1927, Emily Sands and her companions vanished without trace and were never seen again… more info |
| Miscellaneous | |
| Cairo (City Maps S.) Lonely PlanetThis is one in a series of maps covering cities on and off the beaten track. It includes public transport routes and walking tours as well as essential information and telephone numbers. more info |
 | The Awesome Egyptians (Horrible Histories S.) Terry Deary, Martin Brown (Illustrator) History with the nasty bits left in. Awful information about phabulous Pharoahs, mean mummies, revolting recipes for 3000 year old sweets, and more. History has never been so horrible! For 9-12 year olds. more info |
| Your favourite book | |
 | |
