melissa

Nice creepy mood

If someone wants to read the book i recommend they read this edition cause it's really the supplementary readings that get the high rating.

“Story of my Life” in itself gets 3/5, i think Keller of everything she could be writing about finds writing about her own life the least interesting way to use her talents.
The letters are a bit more interesting but not by much. But as supplementary reading we we have Anne Sullivan's letters following Helen Keller's education and progress, we have some of Keller's essays from college and then the appendix which really shows the literary talent Helen Keller has, a woman reduced to her disabilities and later to a punchline apparently.

After the public followed Helen Keller's education, her unparalleled thirst for knowledge and language, they seem to have disliked her beliefs once she was able to express them clearly (and beautifully- her style is truly remarkable) she was silenced again. When you admit to being a socialist in America, they will try their best to bury you, with her all they left was the story of a little girl discovering water's name.

Lovely illustrations, great selection of Greek myths, i appreciated the choice of order they took, and how short and concise each were, perfect to be read more than once.

Important document on how the Holocaust was coopted by the zionists to fund and excuse israeli crimes.

It's the first time i take my time reading a Tragédie Française play. Truly enjoyed the Alexandrains.

Just epically emotionally brilliant, happy i took my time reading it ^_^

First time i read a travel journal, and discovered I really like the genre. i do understand why this book is not a popular one though. If you're not from here I don't think you'd care about the shiny sides of Sannine or the way the roads sinew in between the Lebanese villages. And if you are from here, being called a barbaric savage thug isn't the best experience. it is still a really good document of life in Sham in the 19th century, and a good insight into the west's plans for this region, from Napoleon's siege, the Balfour accords and Sykes-Picot.

I will be reading the following volumes, but will be taking a break for a bit.

This was really nice, love the illustrations.

If you want to know more about the PLFP and their operations during the 70s, this is a great book. It is divided into 4 chapters, the first with testimonies about the life of Wadih Haddad, the second a couple of interviews with Carlos, then with Anis Naccache and finally with Georges Habash.

The chapters about Wadih Haddad and Naccache are a must. They go in details about the evolution of the resistance movements then and the operations they did. However, Carlos didn't make any sense, which putting him on the same level seems ridiculous, and the interview with Georges Habash was sadly lacking, and did not go into detail about his relationship with Haddad, which misses the point of the book.

This collection of poetry is written in spoken Arabic (Lebanese aamiya) instead of fus'ha, and i'm not used to read those. Most of the poems are political but i did prefer the ones he wrote about love.

I would've loved hearing the poet deliver his poems live tho, or watching him in zajal.

I find it weird to review a play that's over 2 millennia, but i do write these to remember my impression of a book. I had to read some context to understand what was going on, apparently there are 3 plays that follow that one, not much happened here it was just an intro (also some dialogue is missing and it's Eschyle's first), but looking forward to follow the Danaids.

It's a play in the vein of the greek plays, of a mythological figure facing the fatality of life and its gods, with a turn to the existential here where man gets to face god.
Like anything written by Kanafani, i have to analyze the work from the angle of Palestinian struggle, and in that way, even in death we are pushed to keep fighting the mightiest of powers, in this case the global imperialist machine.

Funny and enjoyable, the humour still holds up, but the way black people are drawn is so damn racist, I can't believe no one considers it a big deal. Like minstrel show racist.

It's hard to rate a book that's actually an israeli study on how to destroy the region, but that five is cause it's a necessary read to understand what we've been going through since 2007 (when the study was written).

How they planned the sunni-shia schism, how they planned the excessive sanctions on iran, syria and now Lebanon, how they planned the war on Syria and rallying all western powers to call any anti-zionist movement a “terrorist org”, how they planned to use the destabilization of Lebanon to lead us to another civil war and the list goes on.

We live neighboring a power of absolute evil that cold bloodily writes a study with bulletpoints on the “steps to f*ck it all up”, must read to understand the depravity and how we've been foiling their plans even if rn, in the eye of the storm, it doesn't seem like it.

A good collection of poems calling for a much needed revolution against colonizing powers

I did not discover a new absolute favourite in this collection, but it's still Darwish poetry, so beautifully written as usual.

Very sweet small collection of poems. It doesn't include the better known works of Abu Chabke, but still a nice intro.

Finally done. It's one of my childhood books but never completely read it. Really fun, and Sempé's illustrations are so on point.

A poignant, intelligent and beautiful book, from a militant and a poet. Collection of essays and thoughts by Darwish, as a refugee in his own land (and not metaphorically) and some others. Every page of it was thought provoking.

This was my favourite book when I was 5, and no wonder I fell in love with the Harry Potter series a few years later. This book has sorcery and magic, a wizarding school and accepting your child however different they are. The illustrations are lovely, actually funny and so heartfelt. I was so happy I didn't lose the book, I read it with a smile on my face. Will be re-reading it more often.

I've joined a reading challenge where we revisit our favourite books from our childhood, so there will be a lot of similar books this month. I loved going through this one, many illustrations had been stuck in my mind, and it was nice to see them again. The stories are fine (there are two), I think I only looked through the book when I was a kid, so it was good to finally read it, and not just guess from the drawings what's happening.

I loved them. The books are shorter than I remember, but still really fun. Plus had forgotten how hilarious Milou's expressions are.

I really enjoyed this one. I had completely forgotten the story, so it was cool to re-read. Plus the drawings of Picsou (Uncle Scrooge) running after the ghost at the end of each chapter, would always make me chuckle.

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.

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.