Laughing Without an Accent : Adventures of an Iranian American, at Home and Abroad

This is the second book I have read of Mrs. Dumas - and I can unequivocally say that I love her writing! Writing stories about her family and how they coped with moving to and living in America are a breath of fresh air. Families the world over are not that different - different language maybe, different religion perhaps - but it is still all about families. My favorite passage of the book, located towards the very end, reads: "For Kathryn [Koob], it was the words in the Bible that had helped her endure 444 days of captivity [in Iran] and let go of her justifiable anger. The Bible is foreign to me, but its concepts are not. My father always said that hatred is a waste and never an option. He learned this growing up in Ahwaz, Iran, in a Muslim household. I have tried my best to pass this same message to my children, born and raised in the United States. Ultimately, it doesn't matter where we learn that lesson. It's just important that we do."