What I love about books is consuming compelling stories and being entertained by them. Having known I wanted to be a writer since I was a little kid, it's hard for me to imagine a time before my love of reading stories was not also coupled with my desire to want to create stories of my own. 

Most of the time, I create my stories by writing them down. Other times, I tell them live on stage. If you like things like The Moth or otherwise enjoy true stories told live, I hope you'll like this video of me telling the story of me being half redneck, half Palestinian and trying my damnedest to find grape leaves that are even half as decent as my dead Arab grandmother's. 

I told this story at Story Club Columbus on July 3rd where the theme of the night was "American" for the Fourth of July. 

If you like this story, I hope you'll check out my other storytelling videos. And if you're in Columbus, I hope you'll come to the next Story Club event! It's always at Rambling House. It's super fun and the storytellers are always good (not that I'm biased or anything).