melissa
What I enjoy most in sci-fi, is the reflection of the reality of the author, in the way he imagines the future, and how descriptive it is of their own time. It shows that the book was written when the “specter of Communism was haunting Europe”, and when the Theory of Evolution suggested that anything is possible. However, the future imagined by Wells felt a tad ridiculous. Even though he explains his theory in the book, and how the present we live in lead to that future, but all I could think of was “really? that's what you came up with?”. It's still a very enjoyable adventure book, but as far as sci-fi books being an observation of reality, I found this one lacking. It felt more like a fantasy book (i know that I have more than a century of science discoveries over him but that's not what I'm talking about).
I surprisingly loved this book. I usually don't like young adult books, as they seem too one dimensional, but this is a really good book. It's a slow book, where nothing really happens, is narrated by Death, and it's the most realistic book I've ever read set during a war. The waiting around, the improvised games, and the always present Death.
When death is coming from above, randomly and haphazardly, there's nothing to do, there's no action, and there's no planning. Everyone is a pawn in much bigger hands, and hoping death won't be coming for them this time, while planning their little rebellions here and there. I don't want to spoil any parts, so I'm being really vague, but it's a book that I have deeply felt, with characters that I truly got attached to.
It's a really well made book, complete and thorough, however John Lennon is not one to wax lyrical in letters. It's a bunch of stream-of-consciousness piece of papers, filled with inside jokes between him and himself, with doodles. He talks about the influence of The Goon Show on him and Britain, and it feels like he always speaks in that voice. There are only a couple of genuine letters, one to Paul, one to Cynthia, and some to his cousin Liela, but mainly it feels like he's throwing random words on postcards and sending them to people all over the world.
Anyway, this book can be read as a John Lennon biography (as it was written by the writer of The Beatles' official biography, and a friend of John) it goes through all the phases of his life, with letters as documentation, and gives a lot of insight into the Beatles disintegration, his family life (in all its forms), and his (very brief phase of) activism.
I used to be obsessed with John Lennon (before I've even heard a Beatles album), I remember downloading a compilation of his work online, just to check him out, and having that album on loop for the next 6 months, and my love for his music just kept getting bigger and bigger. But, I'm glad I read this book, after I got a bit over him as a person, cause he's really so flawed, however good his intentions may be. I guess the book just shows how normal he was, however eccentric he might've seemed.
This was an intense book to read for me. I know that the world is made up of fictional rules and values, that we force ourselves to believe for no reason whatsoever, but it's the first time I actually feel the nonsensicalness of it all in all its force. I had to stop reading for a while, as the thread that divides fact from fiction became too thin for me. What is the point of gendering clothes, of deciding a certain sexuality as acceptable and another as not, of the concept of marriage as a paper that unites two souls or organized religion in all its many forms... Everything is made up, and it just hit me harder than expected, reading about this made up world by LeGuin, and seeing no difference between their idiosyncrasies and ours. I really loved this book, if you're interested in anthropology, and in the exercise of studying human behavior in different environments, this book is fascinating.
It's a slow read, not much story happening, but it's still immersive. I truly loved it.
Donno, it would've made a good fable but this is too long and too detailed for that purpose. I found his style overly didactic, i never read a fictional book so lacking in poetry, and the insertion of Spanish terms were just awkward.
When i don't like classics, i wonder if there's some kind of aspect i didn't get. I know i did like how it shows the fisherman's appreciation for the fish and the sea even though he's there to hunt, which is very different from today's industrialisation and alienation of fishing (or any quest for food). Nature with all its hardships is not the enemy, and the respect shows. But it's mainly too on the nose for my taste.
I did love the setting and the idea of the book, but I have a problem with the story structure. It's a recurring problem (imo) in YA books, and it's the feeling of the story only happening around the protagonist, as if life freezes where he doesn't exist, and only continues when he starts paying attention. I did enjoy the read, thus the 4/5 rating, but I'm not gripped enough to start the second book asap.
First poetry book I read by Bukowski, and i love him in this format. He writes beautifully, could be sweet, raw and always poignant. I could've very easily given him 5* if it weren't for the way he talks about women, they're mostly another thing to be addicted to, like booze and cigaretts. There's a couple of poems with him belittling the claims of misoginy about him, and a few about his domestic life with his wife, which are lovely. But really sexism is about the faceless women who pass by, and obviously never register to him as other humans, not the few he loves.
I guess he feels that it's part of his misanthropy, like he dislikes them the way he dislikes everybody, even himself, but however horrid the man he describes is, he at least feels like a complete human.
I read this whole book with a lump in my throat. Even though it's historical, it's also very personal, and I had to take a break a couple of times, cause things just kept going from worse to worse, and I really didn't want to be bawling in front of a book.
It is an important book as it doesn't only talk about Malala and her family during all the changes in her country but also the History of Afghanistan and Pakistan and mainly her region Swat, since the creation of Pakistan till 2013. It talks about the development of the Taliban, how they were created by the US and Saoudi Arabia to fight off the soviets, and the role of the CIA, and how they kept growing and growing until they were ruling the region. And of course it talks about her fight to keep on going to school after the Taliban started targeting the education of girls.
It's an important book, in the way it documents how a region can go this way, how a region can be so impoverished, it can follow any helping hand, however sadistic it may be. And of course it traces the importance of education, which is mainly Malala's influence from her father, to question everything and to think for herself, not only the school system, but about not getting swept by the crowd.
It's obvious the west keep using Malala to show themselves as the saviors, when most of the problems can be traced to them, the chapters going through her operations after she was shot, shows a clear picture of how much of a political symbol her name has become, outside of who she actually is as a person. Anyway, this review is running too long, as many ideas are still running in my brain. So all in all, important book, personally and politically (as long as you don't read it to “appreciate your own life” cause that's the most self-centered thing I keep reading on here).
It's a collection of love poems/love letters. I don't know if they were directed to someone specific, or if they were just a collection of musings or recollections. But what I'm certain of, is that Ghada Al Samman is a person in love with the idea of love, and in love with being in love. Whoever the person she's talking about is, her description of her feelings and diving into her psyche, has been a really nice adventure.
i'm loving Kanafani in short story format. His style, it just works. There's this kind of irony that envelops all his stories, that knowing that no matter what you try to do, life will conspire in a way to make you fail. It reminded me of Camus, though i don't think Kanafani's point was to talk about the plight of the Human Existence in general, but the reality of the Life of the Palestinian, but both converged into that same feeling of powerlessness in a world that doesn't make sense.
Mixed feelings about this one, as it's neither a book of poems, nor are they purely letters. This book is a collection of “poetic excerpts” Qabbani chose to put in a collection, from letters he has sent to past lovers. We neither know to whom the letters were written, nor in what context they were composed.
Another problem I have is his relationship to women, it goes from “i love you, and i want to liberate you from society” to “i love you, you are mine and i can do with you what ever i want, i don't care what you feel” and back, and also without the context, I don't know what kind of evolution he's going through.
However, I love his style, and how over the top he is. It's like destroying the world and torturing oneself is the only logical step after falling in love, and i find that hilarious.
I read this book knowing how it's gonna end, because we learned about the film adaptation in uni. I'm glad i knew, cause that ending is brutal. This story is about 3 Palestinians trying to get smuggled into Kuwait, as it's known as the land of money. We learn about their reasons first and then follow them on their journey.
History keeps repeating itself, and books like this one will always be relevent. Hundrends are dying in the Mediterranean sea, and people are nitpicking about the legality of such immigrations, but no one stops to think about why these people are leaving, gambling with their lives, instead of staying in their countries
. Here's an excerpt, from the book, i have translated, which pretty much says it all:
“_The road is long, and i'm an old man, i can't walk the way you did... i might die.
[...]
_You might die? Hah, who said that's not better than how you live now.”
***Changed my 5/5 rating to a 4, cause I've been reading other Kanafani books, and they're even better. As they can't be rated 6/5, I'll be lowering this one.
I think these are the most beautiful love letters i've ever read, and the saddest.
It's a shame Ghada Al Samman's letters are not included, cause the way the letters are compiled, the affair seems totally one sided, obsessive and somehow delusional. Maybe someday we'll get the other side of the story.
Very important book and always relevant.
I had to read it in 3 sittings, even though it's quite short, as it was getting suffocating. The way a group of people vilify the Other, turning that difference into the incarnation of the Devil. It happened in Salem, it happened in Nazi Germany, it's mirroring what happened during the “red scare” of the McCarthyist era (according to Arthur Miller), it happened to the queer community during the aids epidemic and it's been happening to the immigrants and refugees everywhere. It's always the same rhetoric, “they bring crime, and rape to our community”, while crime and rape have always been part of your community, you just got a new group of people to pin them to. In states like Arizona, you now “have to” report anyone you suspect as being undocumented, POC keep being threatened by being “reported to ICE” by any racist they encounter, and thus starts a new witch-hunt in America.
I had forgotten that Arabic fiction always follows the rule of “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong”. It's weird how a light read can be so fatalistic.
About the book, I enjoyed it, though not the style of books I would usually go for (found it overly poetic at times, and got lost in the stream of consciousness descriptions), but a very important document about the state of women in Lebanese villages around that time (early 60s), the state of limbo they are held in, without education or future prospects, other than being married off to the first comer. Even the narrator's escape of the system, only found her in another prison, alienated in the city, a stranger to everyone, even her own family.
My problem with this book however, is the lack of a main story. We follow the many women and men surrounding Mona (the narrator), their hardships and their woes, but Mona is just there describing everything around her, feeling alienated by her peers, but nothing else happening to her, until the last chapter. It doesn't take away from the book, but that lack of main story, didn't allow me to dive into the book, the way I would've loved to.
There are so many different ways of existing, yet the society we live in would like us to believe that there's only one way to be a woman, and another for being a man. Would be nice if people were less judgemental. And now back to the book: Julia leads us in this diary like series of comic strips, on her journey of transitioning, during good days and bad, from her relationship with her family, her workplace, and the drudgery of the Name Changing bureaucracy. It's a really heartfelt and genuine book, loved going through it.
I made a purpose to read this book, in a sunny spot, outside, with a good cup of coffee and nice music, and it was such a nice experience. I think this page pretty much sums up the feel of the book. It's about love in all its forms, from the all encompassing to the smallest fascinating details. From others to yourself.
I have found the best travelling book! I've been reading it on long train rides, or on flights, and it just puts me in such a good mood. The book made me laugh all through out, and got me really overwhelmed towards the end, but i think that's just me being tired from travelling. I am just truly happy for James.