White and mauve clouds of pear blossom, bursts of yellow daffodils, riots of purple pansies, small cobalt-blue birds: I ride my bicycle with my head up looking into the tops of trees. My red camellia bush is in full bloom. Nothing could be finer than to be in Carolina-r in the spring time, as goes the song the schoolchildren sing. March is spring in N. Carolina, and it's also Women's History Month, so now that The Naqib's Daughter is finally available in the States, I am giving my first reading for it at the Bull's Head Bookshop at UNC in Chapel Hill tomorrow afternoon!

Visited the new campus of the American University in Cairo- or, more accurately, outside of Cairo- for the first time when I was invited to give a talk to a graduate Comp. Lit seminar. Spreading over several acres in the middle of the desert in New Cairo east of Heliopolis, a vast, pristine, bare complex of Islamicate architecture in sand and ochre tones guarded by Fort-Knox level security. I can't make up my mind whether the best, or the worst thing about it is that it isn't Cairo.
In contrast, the Manial Palace, built early 1900's in the middle of Cairo, is a walled complex of shaded gardens and mature trees crowned by an over-the-top late-Mamluke style palace. Its vast gold-trimmed domed "Gold Hall" was the fitting setting for a book signing by Iran's Empress Farah Pahlavi, remarkably well-preserved. Also in attendance and equally well-preserved: Jihan Sadat and Omar Sharif.