A well-informed fellow on Twitter, an Assad opponent, has listed the ten best books he’s read in 2016 on Middle East politics & history. Those who are political savants or who apply ready-made formulas to social & political reality may not be interested but those who inform themselves about complex issues will be. These are the titles:

Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution & War

Bahrain’s Uprising: Resistance & Repression in the Gulf

Muted Modernists: The Struggle Over Divine Politics in Saudi Arabia

The Alawis of Syria: War, Faith & Politics in the Levant

A Revolution Undone: Egypt’s Road Beyond Revolt

Shiism & Politics in the Middle East

The Arab Spring: Pathways of Repression & Reform

Syria: Revolution From Above (The Contemporary Middle East)

The Crossing: My Journey to the Shattered Heart of Syria

Awakening Islam: Religious Dissent in Contemporary Saudi Arabia