Book review 
‘Between Two Rivers’ by Moudhy Al-Rashid.
I finally got a moment this weekend to sit down and finish the last chapter. I’ve been holding off because, I didn’t want it to end.
What a wonderful journey across time this book is. Probably my favourite book I’ve read in last 5 years.
Of course, I am biased here. I’m a big fan of Moudhy's work AND I am a direct descendant of the people this book is about (I’m Assyrian).
But this book taught me more about my own ancestors than my parents, the internet and our church (when I was a kid) ever did — through their words.
I had goosebumps as each chapter ended. My brain was like a Time Machine that transported me back to be an observer in each of these stories — just there, present and watching the daily lives of the people of Mesopotamia. Their joys, struggles, thinking, pain, learnings, marvel and communications.
We take it for granted but it really is a turning point in human history once the first written words came to be.
What and why they chose to include and exclude for us to interpret is just as important as the find itself. Some of it is tales of royalty. Others of everyday people trying to survive.
Of course for me, the early beginnings of astronomy stood out. The passion and enthusiasm I have for this topic today forms a bridge that stretches thousands of years back through time to my ancestors who defined the mathematics of eclipses and recorded comets passing through their skies.
In this book Al-Rashid opens and closes with the story of Ennigaldi-Nanna — a princess and high priestess that might have curated thousands of years of her own past and history.
Moudhy’s book is today’s version of Ennigaldi-Nanna’s museum - a collection and look into ancient Mesopotamia.
RECOMMENDED!
