Book ~ "Laughing All the Way to the Mosque" (2014) Zarqa Nawaz

From Goodreads ~ Zarqa Nawaz has always straddled two cultures. She’s just as likely to be agonizing over which sparkly earrings will “pimp out” her hijab as to be flirting with the Walmart meat manager in a futile attempt to secure halal chicken the day before Eid. 

Little Mosque on the Prairie brought Zarqa’s own laugh-out-loud take on her everyday culture clash to viewers around the world. And now, in "Laughing All the Way to the Mosque", she tells the sometimes absurd, sometimes challenging, always funny stories of being Zarqa in a western society. From explaining to the plumber why the toilet must be within sitting arm’s reach of the water tap (hint: it involves a watering can and a Muslim obsession with cleanliness “down there”) to urging the electrician to place an eye-height electrical socket for her father-in-law’s epilepsy-inducing light-up picture of the Kaaba, Zarqa paints a hilarious portrait of growing up in a household where, according to her father, the Quran says it’s okay to eat at McDonald’s - but only if you order the McFish.

Zarqa's Muslim parents were from Pakistan and moved to the Toronto area when she was young ... their marriage was arranged and happy.  Zarqa's original plan was to become a doctor but she ended up going to journalism school instead.  When her brother wanted to get married, tradition stated that he couldn't until Zarqa was married so the search began for a husband for her.  She married Sami and moved to Saskatchewan and they had four children.  She directed some documentaries about Muslims before creating and producing the hit CBC show, Little Mosque on the Prairie. 

This book contains her stories of growing up as a somewhat "modern" Muslim in the Toronto area and her life as a wife and mother in Saskatchewan ... dealing with being extra hairy, interviewing prospective husbands, going for hajj, explaining to a "white" contractor the need to have a water jug within reach when one is using the toilet, the impact of being Muslim after 9/11 and having to pray in separate areas from the men in mosques.

I didn't know much at all about Muslims and learned a lot.  The author told her stories in a funny and comical way.

I enjoyed this book and would recommend it.