Hashem's bookshelf: all en-US Tue, 15 Oct 2024 04:39:34 -0700 60 Hashem's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor]]> 105189 106 Gabriel García Márquez Hashem 3 3.85 1955 The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor
author: Gabriel García Márquez
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1955
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/10/15
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Greek Myths: The Complete and Definitive Edition]]> 36316694 'Icarus disobeyed his father's instructions and began soaring towards the sun, rejoiced by the lift of his great sweeping wings. Presently, when Daedalus looked over his shoulder, he could no longer see Icarus; but scattered feathers floated on the waves below...'

These are the greatest stories ever told - the labours of Hercules, the voyage of the Argonauts, Theseus and the minotaur, Midas and his golden touch, the Trojan War and Odysseus's journey home - brought together into one epic and unforgettable story.

Ideal for the first time reader, it can be read as a single page-turning narrative, while full commentaries as well as a comprehensive index of names make it equally valuable for anyone seeking an authoritative and detailed account of the spectacular stories that make up the bedrock of Western literature.

The Greek Myths is a classic among classics, a treasure trove of extraordinary tales and a masterful work of literature in its own right.]]>
729 Robert Graves Hashem 3 3.62 1955 The Greek Myths: The Complete and Definitive Edition
author: Robert Graves
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.62
book published: 1955
rating: 3
read at: 2021/03/17
date added: 2023/11/20
shelves:
review:

]]>
Worlds in Collision 632271 389 Immanuel Velikovsky 067181091X Hashem 0 to-read 3.96 1950 Worlds in Collision
author: Immanuel Velikovsky
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1950
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/02/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[أبو لؤلؤة المجوسي في المخيلة المذهبية السنية والشيعية]]> 59731984 0 محمد يسري ابوهدور 9774993861 Hashem 0 currently-reading 3.57 2020 أبو لؤلؤة المجوسي في المخيلة المذهبية السنية والشيعية
author: محمد يسري ابوهدور
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/02/12
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]>
Small Things Like These 58639322
**A Book of the Year in The Times - The New Statesman - Observer - Financial Times - Irish Times - Irish Independent - Times Literary Supplement **

SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING CILLIAN MURPHY!
WINNER OF THE ORWELL PRIZE AND THE KERRY GROUP IRISH NOVEL OF THE YEAR AWARD!
SHORTLISTED FOR THE RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE AND THE IRISH NOVEL OF THE YEAR AT THE DALKEY LITERARY AWARDS!

'Exquisite.' Damon Galgut
'Masterly.' The Times
'Miraculous.' Herald
'Astonishing.' Colm Tóibín
'Stunning.' Sunday Independent
'Absolutely beautiful.' Douglas Stuart]]>
116 Claire Keegan 0571368719 Hashem 5 4.23 2021 Small Things Like These
author: Claire Keegan
name: Hashem
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2022/02/12
date added: 2022/02/12
shelves:
review:

]]>
النباهة والاستحمار 6177452 وفي هذا الكتاب يقول الدكتور علي شريعتي: إنه لمن سوء الحظ أن لا ندرك ما يراد بنا، فيصرفوننا عما ينبغي أن نفكر فيه من مصير مجتمعنا أو أفكر فيه أنا من مصيري كإنسان، إلى أن نفكر في أشياء نحسبها راقية جداً وعظيمة ومشرِّفة، فيصيبون الهدف دون أن نشعر! ومن أجل هذا قلت في مكان آخر: "إذا لم تكن حاضر الذهن في "الموقف" فكن أينما أردت، المهم أنك لم تحضر الموقف، فكن أينما شئت: واقفاً للصلاة أم جالساً للخمرة، كلاهما واحد".ـ
إن المستعمرين لا يدعونك لما تستاء منه دائماً، فيثيرون انزجارك فتنفر منهم الى المكان الذي ينبغي أن تصير اليه! بل يختارون دعوتك حسب حاجتهم، فيدعونك احياناً الى ما تعتقده أمراً طيباً نم أجل القضاء على حق كبير، حق مجتمع أو إنسان، وأحياناً تدعى لتنشغل في حق آخر، فيقضون هم على حق آخر هو أولى.ـ
عندما يشب حريق في بيتك، ويدعوك أحدهم للصلاة والتضرع الى الله، ينبغي عليك ان تعلم أنها دعوة خائن، فكيف الى عمل آخر؟
فالأهتمام بغير إطفاء الحريق، والإنصراف عنه الى عمل آخر، ما هو الا استحمار، وإن كان عملاً مقدساً أو غير مقدس.ـ]]>
152 Ali Shariati 9953494142 Hashem 1 3.79 النباهة والاستحمار
author: Ali Shariati
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.79
book published:
rating: 1
read at: 2022/02/09
date added: 2022/02/06
shelves:
review:

]]>
Artemis 35098840
WELCOME TO ARTEMIS. The first city on the moon.
Population 2,000. Mostly tourists.
Some criminals.

Jazz Bashara is a criminal. She lives in a poor area of Artemis and subsidises her work as a porter with smuggling contraband onto the moon. But it’s not enough.

So when she’s offered the chance to make a lot of money she jumps at it. But though planning a crime in 1/6th gravity may be more fun, it’s a lot more dangerous…]]>
305 Andy Weir 052557266X Hashem 0 to-read 3.49 2017 Artemis
author: Andy Weir
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/02/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
The Other Black Girl 55920242 Get Out meets The Devil Wears Prada in this electric debut about the tension that unfurls when two young Black women meet against the starkly white backdrop of New York City book publishing.

Twenty-six-year-old editorial assistant Nella Rogers is tired of being the only Black employee at Wagner Books. Fed up with the isolation and the micro-aggressions, she's thrilled when Hazel starts working in the cubicle beside hers. They've only just started comparing natural hair care regimens, though, when a string of uncomfortable events cause Nella to become Public Enemy Number One and Hazel, the Office Darling.

Then the notes begin to appear on Nella's desk: LEAVE WAGNER. NOW.

It's hard to believe Hazel is behind these hostile messages. But as Nella starts to spiral and obsess over the sinister forces at play, she soon realises that there is a lot more at stake than her career.]]>
368 Zakiya Dalila Harris 1526630397 Hashem 0 currently-reading 3.30 2021 The Other Black Girl
author: Zakiya Dalila Harris
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.30
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/01/10
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[A ​Court of Silver Flames (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #4)]]> 53138095 Global phenomenon Sarah J. Maas’s sexy, richly imagined #1 bestselling Court of Thorns and Roses series continues with the journey of Feyre’s fiery sister, Nesta.

Nesta Archeron has always been prickly-proud, swift to anger, and slow to forgive. And ever since being forced into the Cauldron and becoming High Fae against her will, she’s struggled to find a place for herself within the strange, deadly world she inhabits. Worse, she can’t seem to move past the horrors of the war with Hybern and all she lost in it.

The one person who ignites her temper more than any other is Cassian, the battle-scarred warrior whose position in Rhysand and Feyre’s Night Court keeps him constantly in Nesta’s orbit. But her temper isn’t the only thing Cassian ignites. The fire between them is undeniable, and only burns hotter as they are forced into close quarters with each other.

Meanwhile, the treacherous human queens who returned to the Continent during the last war have forged a dangerous new alliance, threatening the fragile peace that has settled over the realms. And the key to halting them might very well rely on Cassian and Nesta facing their haunting pasts.

Against the sweeping backdrop of a world seared by war and plagued with uncertainty, Nesta and Cassian battle monsters from within and without as they search for acceptance—and healing—in each other’s arms.]]>
757 Sarah J. Maas 168119628X Hashem 0 to-read 4.44 2021 A ​Court of Silver Flames (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #4)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Hashem
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/12/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
The Reading List 55276648 An unforgettable and heartwarming debut about how a chance encounter with a list of library books helps forge an unlikely friendship between two very different people in a London suburb.

Widower Mukesh lives a quiet life in the London Borough of Ealing after losing his beloved wife. He shops every Wednesday, goes to Temple, and worries about his granddaughter, Priya, who hides in her room reading while he spends his evenings watching nature documentaries.

Aleisha is a bright but anxious teenager working at the local library for the summer when she discovers a crumpled-up piece of paper in the back of To Kill a Mockingbird. It’s a list of novels that she’s never heard of before. Intrigued, and a little bored with her slow job at the checkout desk, she impulsively decides to read every book on the list, one after the other. As each story gives up its magic, the books transport Aleisha from the painful realities she’s facing at home.

When Mukesh arrives at the library, desperate to forge a connection with his bookworm granddaughter, Aleisha passes along the reading list� hoping that it will be a lifeline for him too. Slowly, the shared books create a connection between two lonely souls, as fiction helps them escape their grief and everyday troubles and find joy again.]]>
368 Sara Nisha Adams 0063025280 Hashem 0 to-read 4.02 2021 The Reading List
author: Sara Nisha Adams
name: Hashem
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/12/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Project Hail Mary 54493401
Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.

All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.

And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone.

Or does he?]]>
476 Andy Weir 0593135202 Hashem 0 to-read 4.49 2021 Project Hail Mary
author: Andy Weir
name: Hashem
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/12/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
The Personal Librarian 55333938 This is a previously-published edition of ISBN 9780593101537.

The remarkable, little-known story of Belle da Costa Greene, J. P. Morgan's personal librarian—who became one of the most powerful women in New York despite the dangerous secret she kept in order to make her dreams come true, from New York Times bestselling author Marie Benedict and acclaimed author Victoria Christopher Murray.

In her twenties, Belle da Costa Greene is hired by J. P. Morgan to curate a collection of rare manuscripts, books, and artwork for his newly built Pierpont Morgan Library. Belle becomes a fixture on the New York society scene and one of the most powerful people in the art and book world, known for her impeccable taste and shrewd negotiating for critical works as she helps build a world-class collection.

But Belle has a secret, one she must protect at all costs. She was born not Belle da Costa Greene but Belle Marion Greener. She is the daughter of Richard Greener, the first Black graduate of Harvard and a well-known advocate for equality. Belle's complexion isn't dark because of her alleged Portuguese heritage that lets her pass as white—her complexion is dark because she is African American.

The Personal Librarian tells the story of an extraordinary woman, famous for her intellect, style, and wit, and shares the lengths to which she must go—for the protection of her family and her legacy—to preserve her carefully crafted white identity in the racist world in which she lives.]]>
341 Marie Benedict Hashem 0 to-read 3.98 2021 The Personal Librarian
author: Marie Benedict
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/12/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
The Sirens of Titan 304752 The Sirens of Titan is an outrageous romp through space, time, and morality. The richest, most depraved man on Earth, Malachi Constant, is offered a chance to take a space journey to distant worlds with a beautiful woman at his side. Of course there� s a catch to the invitation–and a prophetic vision about the purpose of human life that only Vonnegut has the courage to tell.]]> 336 Kurt Vonnegut Jr. 0385333498 Hashem 0 currently-reading 4.16 1959 The Sirens of Titan
author: Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
name: Hashem
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1959
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/12/23
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Fairy Tales of Hermann Hesse]]> 13514
Containing all the themes common in Hesse's great novels Siddhartha, Steppenwolf, and Demian—and mirroring events in his own life, these exquisite short pieces exhibit the same mystical and romantic impulses that contribute to the haunting brilliance of his major works. Several stories, including "The Poet," "The Fairy Tale About the Wicker Chair," and "The Painter," examine the dilemma of the artist, torn between the drive for perfection and the temptations of pleasure and social success. Other tales reflect changes and struggles within society: in "Faldum," a city is irrevocably transformed when each resident is granted his or her fondest wish; in "Strange News from Another Planet," "If the War Continues," and "The European," nightmarish landscapes convey Hesse's devastating critiques of nationalism, barbarism, and war.

Illuminating and inspiring, The Fairy Tales of Hermann Hesse will challenge and enchant readers of all ages. A distinguished and historic publication, this fine translation by Jack Zipes captures their subtlety and elegance for decades nto come.]]>
266 Hermann Hesse 0553377760 Hashem 2 4.04 1919 The Fairy Tales of Hermann Hesse
author: Hermann Hesse
name: Hashem
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1919
rating: 2
read at: 2021/12/23
date added: 2021/12/23
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Bring Up the Bodies (Thomas Cromwell, #2)]]> 13507212 9780805090031)

Though he battled for years to marry her, Henry VIII has become disenchanted with the audacious Anne Boleyn. She has failed to give him a son, and her sharp intelligence and strong will have alienated his old friends and the noble families of England.

When the discarded Katherine, Henry's first wife, dies in exile from the court, Anne stands starkly exposed, the focus of gossip and malice, setting in motion a dramatic trial of the queen and her suitors for adultery and treason.

At a word from Henry, Thomas Cromwell is ready to bring her down. Over a few terrifying weeks, Anne is ensnared in a web of conspiracy, while the demure Jane Seymour stands waiting her turn for the poisoned wedding ring. But Anne and her powerful family will not yield without a ferocious struggle. To defeat the Boleyns, Cromwell must ally himself with his enemies. What price will he pay for Annie's head?]]>
412 Hilary Mantel Hashem 0 to-read 4.26 2012 Bring Up the Bodies (Thomas Cromwell, #2)
author: Hilary Mantel
name: Hashem
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/10/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Neti-Neti Meditation 19183043 54 Andre Doshim Halaw Hashem 0 to-read 4.47 2013 Neti-Neti Meditation
author: Andre Doshim Halaw
name: Hashem
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/10/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo]]> 32620332
Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband has left her, and her professional life is going nowhere. Regardless of why Evelyn has selected her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.

Summoned to Evelyn’s luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the �80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way, Evelyn unspools a tale of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love. Monique begins to feel a very real connection to the legendary star, but as Evelyn’s story nears its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique’s own in tragic and irreversible ways.]]>
389 Taylor Jenkins Reid 1501139231 Hashem 0 to-read 4.39 2017 The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Hashem
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/10/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Man Who Created the Middle East: A Story of Empire, Conflict and the Sykes-Picot Agreement]]> 27866752
The Sykes-Picot agreement was a secret pact drawn up in May 1916 between the French and the British, to divide the collapsing Ottoman Empire in the event of an allied victory in the First World War. Agreed without any Arab involvement, it negated an earlier guarantee of independence to the Arabs made by the British. Controversy has raged around it ever since.

Sir Mark Sykes was not, however, a blimpish, ignorant Englishman. A passionate traveller, explorer and writer, his life was filled with adventure. From a difficult, lonely childhood in Yorkshire and an early life spent in Egypt, India, Mexico, the Arabian desert, all the while reading deeply and learning languages, Sykes published his first book about his travels through Turkey aged only twenty. After the Boer War, he returned to map areas of the Ottoman Empire no cartographer had yet visited. He was a talented cartoonist, excellent mimic and amateur actor, gifts that ensured that when elected to parliament a full House of Commons would assemble to listen to his speeches.

During the First World War, Sykes was appointed to Kitchener’s staff, became Political Secretary to the War Cabinet and a member of the Committee set up to consider the future of Asiatic Turkey, where he was thirty years younger than any of the other members. This search would dominate the rest of his life. He was unrelenting in his pursuit of peace and worked himself to death to find it, a victim of both exhaustion and the Spanish Flu.

Written largely based on the previously undisclosed family letters and illustrated with Sykes' cartoons, this sad story of an experienced, knowledgeable, good-humoured and generous man once considered the ideal diplomat for finding a peaceful solution continues to reverberate across the world today.]]>
320 Christopher Simon Sykes 0008121907 Hashem 0 currently-reading 3.26 2016 The Man Who Created the Middle East: A Story of Empire, Conflict and the Sykes-Picot Agreement
author: Christopher Simon Sykes
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.26
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/10/01
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]>
Dune Messiah (Dune #2) 44492285
Dune Messiah continues the story of Paul Atreides, better known--and feared--as the man christened Muad'Dib. As Emperor of the Known Universe, he possesses more power than a single man was ever meant to wield. Worshipped as a religious icon by the fanatical Fremens, Paul faces the enmity of the political houses he displaced when he assumed the throne--and a conspiracy conducted within his own sphere of influence.

And even as House Atreides begins to crumble around him from the machinations of his enemies, the true threat to Paul comes to his lover, Chani, and the unborn heir to his family's dynasty...

Includes an introduction by Brian Herbert]]>
336 Frank Herbert 0593098234 Hashem 0 to-read 3.89 1969 Dune Messiah (Dune #2)
author: Frank Herbert
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1969
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/09/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Dune (Dune, #1) 44767458
When House Atreides is betrayed, the destruction of Paul’s family will set the boy on a journey toward a destiny greater than he could ever have imagined. And as he evolves into the mysterious man known as Muad’Dib, he will bring to fruition humankind’s most ancient and unattainable dream.]]>
658 Frank Herbert 059309932X Hashem 4 4.33 1965 Dune (Dune, #1)
author: Frank Herbert
name: Hashem
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1965
rating: 4
read at: 2021/09/30
date added: 2021/09/30
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Powers and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages]]> 55880064
Across 16 chapters, blending Dan Jones' narrative shows how, at each stage in this story, successive western powers thrived by attracting � or stealing � the most valuable resources, ideas and people from the rest of the world. It casts new light on iconic locations � Rome, Paris, Venice, Constantinople � and it features some of history's most famous and notorious men and women.]]>
704 Dan Jones 1789543533 Hashem 0 to-read 4.43 2021 Powers and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages
author: Dan Jones
name: Hashem
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/09/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
أن تعودي فلسطين 56321823
تقدم الكاتبة رحلتها وتجربتها الشخصية في العودة إلى فلسطين. ويُعد الكتاب رحلة بحث حافلة بالتفاصيل والمشاهد الحياتية في الأرض المحتلة، والتي تختلط بسيرة وذكريات الكاتبة منذ هاجر أجدادها من فلسطين عام 1915، واتجهوا إلى "تشيلي. إنه تجربة شخصية وإنسانية حول العودة إلى فلسطين، ورحلة أقدمت عليها لينا مرواني بحثًا عن الحقيقة خاصة بعد أحداث 11 سبتمبر 2001، وما شاهدته من سوء فهم والتباس حول القضية الفلسطينية.

يحفل الكتاب بالمواقف والصور الحياتية ويشتبك مع العديد من الأسئلة الشائكة والذكية حول أفكار: الأصل، الهوية، الوطن، الحدود، اللغة، الحرب والسلام وغيرها مما يُشكل ملامح الإنسان ويصبغ شخصيته، كما يقدم جانبًا من سيرة الكاتبة وتفاصيل من حياتها في نيويورك أو تشيلي باعتبارها أحد أبناء المهاجرين الأوائل في نسيج سردي غني بالتفاصيل يجمع بين أصوات ولغات وهويات متداخلة، ومشاهد من بلدان عدة ما بين نيويورك وفرنسا والمغرب وفلسطين وإسرائيل والقاهرة، حيث تمضي لينا مرواني كإنسانة وباحثة وأستاذة جامعية بسؤالها الكبير عن الوطن والهوية ولا تكف عن طرح الأسئلة حول نفسها وحول هويتها وحول فلسطين ليس فقط من الناحية التاريخية والسياسية ولكن أيضًا من الناحية الإنسانية.

ينقسم الكتاب إلى جزأين : في الجزء، الأول حديثٌ عن فكرة العودة، عودة الكاتبة إلى فلسطين وإلى أصولها، ويتكون من فقرات قصيرة تستدعي فيها ذكريات العائلة وصولًا للحظة الحاضرة التي تشتبك فيها الأسئلة مع فكرة العودة، وتأملاتها المدهشة التي تختلط بما هو يومي وإنساني وتحفل بالتفاصيل الدالة. إلى أن تُقْدِم الكاتبة على تلبية دعوة صديق كاتب لزيارة فلسطين. وتصف لنا بعين لاقطة تفاصيل رحلتها ومعايشتها لأسرة فلسطينية وبحثها عن بقايا عائلتها. تتجول بنا الكاتبة في الشوارع والمقاهي والبيوت وعلى الحدود لتقدم لنا مشاهد الحياة تحت الاحتلال من خلال قطع سردية وفقرات أشبه بنسيج متداخل عن الحياة في فلسطين.

في الجزء الثاني من الكتاب تُسيطر على الكاتبة فكرة (الوجه/ الهوية)، الوجه الذي ينم عن أصل الإنسان وهويته، عبر رحلاتها بين العديد من الدول، وبحثها في التاريخ والذاكرة، تحاول أن تُحدد فكرة الهوية، من خلال المشاهد اليومية البسيطة مع البشر: الجنود، الباعة، السائق، الطلاب، رجال الأمن، وغيرهم، خليط مدهش من ثقافات وشخصيات متنوعة وبسرد سلس وعميق تحاول أن ترسم ملامح وجهها/هويتها، أو وجه الوطن الضائع.]]>
Lina Meruane Hashem 3 رغم جمال الكتاب الا ان للأسف الترجمة ضعيفة و تمنيت لو كنت قرأته مترجم الي الانجليزية بدلا من النسخة العربية.]]> 3.39 2014 أن تعودي فلسطين
author: Lina Meruane
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.39
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2021/08/30
date added: 2021/08/30
shelves:
review:
كتاب جميل جدا ! الكاتبة حولت رحلتها الرومانسية الي ارض جدها و بيته المهجور في جالا الي كتاب فريد و جميل عن العرق و معناه في الغرب حيث تعيش و في الجنوب حيث نشأت و في فلسطين حيث ذهبت للبحث عن بيت جدها. رحلة جميلة و مليئة بأفكار متسامحة عن دوافع الصمود الفلسطيني بعيدا عن النعرات القومية او الأبعاد الدينية، بل من زاوية قلما تناولها الإعلام و هي الجانب الإنساني البحت. اعجبتني قصة المفاتيح و هي ان الفلسطينين اللاجئين تركوا مفاتيح بيوتهم المهجورة لاولادهم حتي لا ينسوا بيتهم الاصلي، أجيال لا تعرف العربية، او موقع فلسطين علي الخريطة، او حتي تاريخ اجدادهم، و جدوا رسائل مغلقة تحتوي علي مفتاح صدئ قديم لبيت عتيق غير موجود علي الاغلب في وسط وصية الآباء بالمحافظة عليه و توريثه للأجيال اللاحقة حتي يعود أحدهم اخيرا و يفتح الباب المهجور !
رغم جمال الكتاب الا ان للأسف الترجمة ضعيفة و تمنيت لو كنت قرأته مترجم الي الانجليزية بدلا من النسخة العربية.
]]>
<![CDATA[Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree]]> 184305 244 Tariq Ali 0860916766 Hashem 3 3.90 1992 Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree
author: Tariq Ali
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1992
rating: 3
read at: 2021/08/11
date added: 2021/08/11
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[يوميات وجيه غالي: كاتب مصري من الستينيات المتأرجحة - المجلد الأول 1964-1966‬]]> 57191564 كل شيء حول وجيه غالي محفوف بالأسئلة، تاريخ ميلاده وانتحاره، كتابته، علاقته بعائلته، علاقته بالنظام الحاكم في مصر، رحلته إلى إسرائل بعد هزيمة 1967.]]> 400 Waguih Ghali Hashem 4 3.95 يوميات وجيه غالي: كاتب مصري من الستينيات المتأرجحة - المجلد الأول 1964-1966‬
author: Waguih Ghali
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.95
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2021/07/31
date added: 2021/07/31
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The World from Beginnings to 4000 BCE (New Oxford World History)]]> 1893407
In this lively and readable introduction, renowned anthropologist Ian Tattersall thoroughly examines both fossil and archaeological records to trace human evolution from the earliest beginnings of our zoological family, Hominidae, through the appearance of Homo sapiens to the Agricultural Revolution. He begins with an accessible overview of evolutionary theory and then explores the major turning points in human the emergence of the genus Homo , the advantages of bipedalism, the birth of the big brain and symbolic thinking, Paleolithic and Neolithic tool making, and finally the enormously consequential shift from hunter-gatherer to agricultural societies 10,000 years ago. Focusing particularly on the pattern of events and innovations in human biological and cultural evolution, Tattersall offers illuminating commentary on a wide range of topics, including the earliest known artistic expressions, ancient burial rites, the beginnings of language, the likely causes of Neanderthal
extinction, the relationship between agriculture and Christianity, and the still unsolved mysteries of human consciousness.

Complemented by a wealth of illustrations and written with the grace and accessibility for which Tattersall is widely admire, The World from Beginnings to 4000 BCE invites us to take a closer look at the strange and distant beings who, over the course of millions of years, would become us.]]>
160 Ian Tattersall 0195333152 Hashem 0 to-read 3.74 The World from Beginnings to 4000 BCE (New Oxford World History)
author: Ian Tattersall
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.74
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/07/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Goodbye to All That 55617384 Goodbye to All That is a matchless evocation of the Great War's haunting legacy. In 1929 Robert Graves went to live abroad permanently, vowing 'never to make England my home again'. This is his superb account of his life up until that 'bitter leave-taking': from his childhood and desperately unhappy school days at Charterhouse, to his time serving as a young officer in the First World War that was to haunt him throughout his life. It also contains memorable encounters with fellow writers and poets, including Siegfried Sassoon and Thomas Hardy, and looks at his increasingly unhappy marriage to Nancy Nicholson. Goodbye to All That, with its vivid, harrowing descriptions of the Western Front, is a classic war document, and also has immense value as one of the most candid self-portraits of an artist ever written.]]> 258 Robert Graves Hashem 2 4.25 1929 Goodbye to All That
author: Robert Graves
name: Hashem
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1929
rating: 2
read at: 2021/07/09
date added: 2021/07/09
shelves:
review:

]]>
The Mad Women's Ball 56969561 A literary historical novel detailing the horrors faced by institutionalized women in 19th century Paris—was a film with Amazon Studios

The Salpetriere Asylum: Paris, 1885. Dr. Charcot holds all of Paris in thrall with his displays of hypnotism on women who have been deemed mad and cast out from society. But the truth is much more complicated—these women are often simply inconvenient, unwanted wives, those who have lost something precious, wayward daughters, or girls born from adulterous relationships. For Parisian society, the highlight of the year is the Lenten ball—the Madwomen’s Ball—when the great and good come to gawk at the patients of the Salpetriere dressed up in their finery for one night only. For the women themselves, it is a rare moment of hope.

Genevieve is a senior nurse. After the childhood death of her sister Blandine, she shunned religion and placed her faith in both the celebrated psychiatrist Dr. Charcot and science. But everything begins to change when she meets Eugenie—the 19-year-old daughter of a bourgeois family that has locked her away in the asylum. Because Eugenie has a secret: she sees spirits. Inspired by the scandalous, banned work that all of Paris is talking about,The Book of Spirits,Eugenie is determined to escape from the asylum—and the bonds of her gender—and seek out those who will believe in her. And for that she will need Genevieve's help . . .]]>
224 Victoria Mas 1419757598 Hashem 0 to-read 3.70 2019 The Mad Women's Ball
author: Victoria Mas
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/07/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
To Be a Man 50997476 In this dazzling collection of short fiction, the National Book Award Finalist and New York Times bestselling author of The History of Love—“one of America’s most important novelists and an international literary sensation� (New York Times)—explores what it means to be in a couple, and to be a man and a woman in that perplexing relationship and beyond.

In one of her strongest works of fiction yet, Nicole Krauss plunges fearlessly into the struggle to understand what it is to be a man and what it is to be a woman, and the arising tensions that have existed from the very beginning of time. Set in our contemporary moment, and moving across the globe from Switzerland, Japan, and New York City to Tel Aviv, Los Angeles, and South America, the stories in To Be a Man feature male characters as fathers, lovers, friends, children, seducers, and even a lost husband who may never have been a husband at all.

The way these stories mirror one other and resonate is beautiful, with a balance so finely tuned that the book almost feels like a novel. Echoes ring through stages of life: aging parents and new-born babies; young women’s coming of age and the newfound, somewhat bewildering sexual power that accompanies it; generational gaps and unexpected deliveries of strange new leases on life; mystery and wonder at a life lived or a future waiting to unfold. To Be a Man illuminates with a fierce, unwavering light the forces driving human existence: sex, power, violence, passion, self-discovery, growing older. Profound, poignant, and brilliant, Krauss’s stories are at once startling and deeply moving, but always revealing of all-too-human weakness and strength.]]>
240 Nicole Krauss 0062431021 Hashem 0 to-read 3.62 2020 To Be a Man
author: Nicole Krauss
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/06/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
A Gentleman in Moscow 34066798 The mega-bestseller with more than 2 million readers—Now a Paramount+ with Showtime series starring Ewan McGregor as Count Alexander Rostov

From the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Lincoln Highway and Rules of Civility, a beautifully transporting novel about a man who is ordered to spend the rest of his life inside a luxury hotel

In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery.

Brimming with humor, a glittering cast of characters, and one beautifully rendered scene after another, this singular novel casts a spell as it relates the count’s endeavor to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be a man of purpose.]]>
462 Amor Towles Hashem 0 to-read 4.28 2016 A Gentleman in Moscow
author: Amor Towles
name: Hashem
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/06/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
London 92160 1152 Edward Rutherfurd 0345455681 Hashem 0 to-read 4.08 1997 London
author: Edward Rutherfurd
name: Hashem
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1997
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/06/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
China 33143059 Edward Rutherfurd, the internationally bestselling author of Sarum, London, New York and Paris, turns his pen to the bustling modern behemoth that is China - a country full to the brim with a deep, beautiful and sometimes violent heritage.

Set from the 1800s onwards, Rutherfurd's beautiful novel explores the modern history of China with all the signature authenticity and interlacing personal stories that make him one of the most beloved authors of our time.

]]>
816 Edward Rutherfurd 1444787810 Hashem 0 to-read 4.23 2021 China
author: Edward Rutherfurd
name: Hashem
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/06/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Disorderly Knights (The Lymond Chronicles, #3)]]> 52436655 The Lymond Chronicles, the highly renowned series of historical novels by Dorothy Dunnett, Disorderly Knights takes place in 1551, when Francis Crawford of Lymond is dispatched to embattled Malta, to assist the Knights of Hospitallers in defending the island against the Turks. But shortly the swordsman and scholar discovers that the greatest threat to the Knights lies within their own ranks, where various factions vie secretly for mastery.]]> 626 Dorothy Dunnett Hashem 0 to-read 4.60 1966 The Disorderly Knights (The Lymond Chronicles, #3)
author: Dorothy Dunnett
name: Hashem
average rating: 4.60
book published: 1966
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/06/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Four Princes: Henry VIII, Francis I, Charles V, Suleiman the Magnificent and the Obsessions that Forged Modern Europe]]> 32724636 'Never before had the world seen four such giants co-existing. Sometimes friends, more often enemies, always rivals, these four men together held Europe in the hollow of their hands.' Four great princes - Henry VIII of England, Francis I of France, Charles V of Spain and Suleiman the Magnificent - were born within a single decade. Each looms large in his country's history and, in this book, John Julius Norwich broadens the scope and shows how, against the rich background of the Renaissance and destruction of the Reformation, their wary obsession with one another laid the foundations for modern Europe. Individually, each man could hardly have been more different ­- from the scandals of Henry's six wives to Charles's monasticism - but, together, they dominated the world stage. From the Field of the Cloth of Gold, a pageant of jousting, feasting and general carousing so lavish that it nearly bankrupted both France and England, to Suleiman's celebratory pyramid of 2,000 human heads (including those of seven Hungarian bishops) after the battle of Mohács; from Anne Boleyn's six-fingered hand (a potential sign of witchcraft) that had the pious nervously crossing themselves to the real story of the Maltese falcon, Four Princes is history at its vivid, entertaining best. With a cast list that extends from Leonardo da Vinci to Barbarossa, and from Joanna the Mad to le roi grand-nez, John Julius Norwich offers the perfect guide to the most colourful century the world has ever known and brings the past to unforgettable life.]]> 305 John Julius Norwich 1473632978 Hashem 4 4.08 2017 Four Princes: Henry VIII, Francis I, Charles V, Suleiman the Magnificent and the Obsessions that Forged Modern Europe
author: John Julius Norwich
name: Hashem
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2021/06/16
date added: 2021/06/16
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance]]> 16131 812 Ron Chernow 0802138292 Hashem 0 to-read 3.93 1990 The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance
author: Ron Chernow
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1990
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/06/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
رحلة ابن فطومة 6482251 تحكي عن رحالة عربي هاجر من بلاده بعد فشلة في الزواج من محبوبته إلى دار الجبل بحثا عن الكمال والعدالة المفقودين في بلاده. يشجعه على ذلك استاذه الذي فشل في اكمال الرحلة بسبب الحرب التي كانت تدور بين البلاد المتجاورة.
و يمر في رحلته على عدة بلاد ويتعطل في رحلته أكثر من مرة بسبب زواجه وسجنه. يمر في رحلته على بلاد المشرق حيث يلتقي بعروسة ويتزوجها وينجب منها 5 اطفال. ولكنه يفرق بينه وبينهم بسبب محاولته تعليم اطفاله عقيدته.
ثم بعد ذلك يرحل إلى البلد التالية وهي بلاد الحيرة. يرى فيها ان الملك يعتبر تمثيل لله وتدور حرب بين الحيرة والمشرق وتنتصر جيوش الحيرة وتصبح عروسة إحدى السبايا ويشتريها. ولكن الحكيم الأكبر للملك يريدها لنفسة فيتسبب في دخول ابن فطومة إلى السجن لمدة 20 عاما. يقوم انقلاب على الملك الحالي وياتي ملك جديد ويحرر ابن فطومة. يترك دار الحيرة راحلا إلى" بلاد الحلبة " حيث يجد ان الشعوب شديدة الحرية الدينية وان كل الديانات تتعايش في البلد بما فيها الالحاد. يتزوج للمرة الثانية من سامية وهي ممرضة وينجب منها. يرحل إلى دار الامان بحثا عن استكمال رحلته ويرى في دار الامان ان كل فرد مشجع على التجسس على صاحبه.و ان كل فرد لا يحق له ابداء ارائه في غير مجاله وعمله ثم يتركها راحالا إلى بلاد الغروب التي تعتبر المحطة النهائية قبل وصولة إلى دار الجبل ومنها يرحل إلى دار الجبل بسبب الحرب الدائرة وبعد سفر شهر متواصل يصل بوابات دار الجبل وعندها يصل إلى نهاية الرواية ويترك القارئ لاستنتاج النهاية.]]>
130 Naguib Mahfouz 9770914908 Hashem 4 3.95 1983 رحلة ابن فطومة
author: Naguib Mahfouz
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1983
rating: 4
read at: 2021/06/06
date added: 2021/06/06
shelves:
review:

]]>
A Thousand Ships 53487148 This is the women’s war, just as much as it is the men’s. They have waited long enough for their turn . . .

This was never the story of one woman, or two. It was the story of them all . . .

In the middle of the night, a woman wakes to find her beloved city engulfed in flames. Ten seemingly endless years of conflict between the Greeks and the Trojans are over. Troy has fallen.

From the Trojan women whose fates now lie in the hands of the Greeks, to the Amazon princess who fought Achilles on their behalf, to Penelope awaiting the return of Odysseus, to the three goddesses whose feud started it all, these are the stories of the women whose lives, loves, and rivalries were forever altered by this long and tragic war.

A woman’s epic, powerfully imbued with new life, A Thousand Ships puts the women, girls and goddesses at the center of the Western world’s great tale ever told.]]>
368 Natalie Haynes 0063065398 Hashem 3 4.05 2019 A Thousand Ships
author: Natalie Haynes
name: Hashem
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2021/06/05
date added: 2021/06/06
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Persian Fire: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West]]> 103749 418 Tom Holland 0385513119 Hashem 0 to-read 4.16 2005 Persian Fire: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West
author: Tom Holland
name: Hashem
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/06/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Winter's Tales 6541874 The Sailor-Boy's Tale
The Young Man with the Carnation
The Pearls
The Invincible Slave-Owners
The Heroine
The Dreaming Child
Alkmene
The Fish
Peter & Rosa
Sorrow-Acre
A Consolatory Tale]]>
313 Isak Dinesen Hashem 0 to-read 4.05 1942 Winter's Tales
author: Isak Dinesen
name: Hashem
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1942
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/06/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Einstein, Picasso: Space, Time, And The Beauty That Causes Havoc]]> 773506 368 Arthur I. Miller 0465018599 Hashem 0 to-read 3.89 2001 Einstein, Picasso: Space, Time, And The Beauty That Causes Havoc
author: Arthur I. Miller
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/06/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
The Day of the Owl 130219
This short, beautifully paced novel is a mesmerizing description of the Mafia at work.]]>
136 Leonardo Sciascia 159017061X Hashem 3 3.77 1961 The Day of the Owl
author: Leonardo Sciascia
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1961
rating: 3
read at: 2021/05/26
date added: 2021/05/26
shelves:
review:

]]>
Richard II 82397 Richard II occupies a significant place in the Shakespeare canon, marking the transition from the earlier history plays dominated by civil war and stark power to a more nuanced representation of the political conflicts of England's past where character and politics are inextricably intertwined. It is the first of four connected plays--including 1 Henry IV, 2 Henry IV, and Henry V--generally considered Shakespeare's finest history plays.
The drama of Richard II centers on the power struggle between the grandiloquent King Richard and the plain-spoken, blunt Henry Bolingbroke, who is banished from Britain at the beginning of the play. But when Henry's father John of Gaunt dies, Richard confiscates his property with no regard to his son's rights, and Bolingbroke returns to confront the king, who surrenders his crown and is imprisoned in Pomfret Castle, where he is soon murdered. This new edition in the acclaimed Oxford Shakespeare series features a freshly edited version of the text. The wide-ranging introduction describes the play's historical circumstances, both the period that it dramatizes (the start of the "wars of the roses") and the period in which it was written (late Elizabethan England), and the play's political significance in its own time and our own. It also focuses on the play's richly poetic language and its success over the centuries as a play for the stage. Extensive explanatory notes help readers at all levels understand and appreciate the language, characters, and dramatic action and the book's lively illustrations provide a sense of the historical background and performance of the play.]]>
168 William Shakespeare 0198320043 Hashem 3 3.75 1595 Richard II
author: William Shakespeare
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.75
book published: 1595
rating: 3
read at: 2021/05/15
date added: 2021/05/15
shelves:
review:

]]>
Men Without Women 108218 “Hills Like White Elephants� and “Fifty Grand,� which a Cosmopolitan editor praised as “one of the best short stories that ever came to my hands.� Read by an Earphones Award–winning narrator.

Originally published in October 1927, the second short-story collection published by Pulitzer Prize winner and Nobel Laureate Ernest Hemingway contains the following fourteen stories:
The Undefeated, In Another Country, Hills Like White Elephants, The Killers, Che Ti Dice La Patria?, Fifty Grand, A Simple Enquiry, Ten Indians, A Canary for One, An Alpine Idyll, A Pursuit Race, Today is Friday, Banal Story, Now I Lay Me. Themes and subject matter range from bullfighting, boxing, and prizefighting to divorce, infidelity, and death. Critics at the time praised Hemingway’s concise language and powerful prose.

Content Warning: As a part of the public domain, Men Without Women is a literary work that reflects the time in which it was published—both its good and its ill. The original text of Men Without Women contains slurs and depictions that represent prejudiced and harmful beliefs regarding race, ethnicity, and religion. To erase or bury this representation of inequity and prejudice would be akin to pretending it never existed, a denial that only perpetuates and extends the original harm done. Thus, in the interest of preserving and documenting both the faults and highlights of literary history—an instrumental, crucial function of works entering the public domain—this text is unedited and uncensored in this audiobook recording. Please proceed with discretion.]]>
153 Ernest Hemingway Hashem 3 3.62 1927 Men Without Women
author: Ernest Hemingway
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.62
book published: 1927
rating: 3
read at: 2021/05/09
date added: 2021/05/09
shelves:
review:

]]>
Dancer 18928081 356 Colum McCann Hashem 0 to-read 3.99 2003 Dancer
author: Colum McCann
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/05/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[First Person Singular: Stories]]> 54614599 A riveting new collection of short stories from the beloved, internationally acclaimed, Haruki Murakami.

The eight masterful stories in this new collection are all told in the first person by a classic Murakami narrator: a lonely man. Some of them (like With the Beatles, Cream and On a Stone Pillow ) are nostalgic looks back at youth. Others are set in adulthood--Charlie Parker Plays Bossa Nova, Carnaval, Confessions of a Shinagawa Monkey and the stunning title story. Occasionally, a narrator who may or may not be Haruki himself is present, as in The Yakult Swallows Poetry Collection. Is it memoir or fiction? The reader decides. The stories all touch beautifully on love and loss, childhood and death . . . all with a signature Murakami twist.']]>
245 Haruki Murakami 0593318072 Hashem 3 3.58 2020 First Person Singular: Stories
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2021/05/06
date added: 2021/05/06
shelves:
review:

]]>
دنيا الله 5955000 Mahfouz, Naguib 208 Naguib Mahfouz 9770915440 Hashem 4 3.75 1962 دنيا الله
author: Naguib Mahfouz
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.75
book published: 1962
rating: 4
read at: 2021/04/30
date added: 2021/04/30
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Death's End (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #3)]]> 25451264
Now this epic trilogy concludes with Death's End. Half a century after the Doomsday Battle, the uneasy balance of Dark Forest Deterrence keeps the Trisolaran invaders at bay. Earth enjoys unprecedented prosperity due to the infusion of Trisolaran knowledge. With human science advancing daily and the Trisolarans adopting Earth culture, it seems that the two civilizations will soon be able to co-exist peacefully as equals without the terrible threat of mutually assured annihilation. But the peace has also made humanity complacent.

Cheng Xin, an aerospace engineer from the early 21st century, awakens from hibernation in this new age. She brings with her knowledge of a long-forgotten program dating from the beginning of the Trisolar Crisis, and her very presence may upset the delicate balance between two worlds. Will humanity reach for the stars or die in its cradle?]]>
604 Liu Cixin 0765377101 Hashem 5 4.40 2010 Death's End (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #3)
author: Liu Cixin
name: Hashem
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2021/04/27
date added: 2021/04/27
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Cairo: The City Victorious (Vintage Departures)]]> 36219219
With intimate knowlege, humor, and affection, Rodenbeck takes us on an insider's tour of the magnificent city: its backstreets and bazaars, its belly-dance theaters and hashish dens, its crowded slums and fashionable salons, its incomparably rich past and its challenging future. Cairo: The City Victorious is a unique blend of travel and history, an epic, resonant work that brings one of the world's great metropolises to life in all its dusty, chaotic beauty.]]>
308 Max Rodenbeck 0525562982 Hashem 0 to-read 4.15 1998 Cairo: The City Victorious (Vintage Departures)
author: Max Rodenbeck
name: Hashem
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1998
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/04/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[1666: Plague, War, and Hellfire]]> 28696607
Shedding light on these dramatic events and their context, historian Rebecca Rideal reveals an unprecedented period of terror and triumph. Based in original archival research drawing on little-known sources, 1666 opens with the fiery destruction of London before taking readers on a thrilling journey through a crucial turning point in English history as seen through the eyes of an extraordinary cast of historical characters.

While the central events of this significant year were ones of devastation and defeat, 1666 also offers a glimpse of the incredible scientific and artistic progress being made at that time, from Isaac Newton’s discovery of gravity to the establishment of The London Gazette. It was in this year that John Milton completed Paradise Lost, Frances Stewart posed for the iconic image of Britannia, and a young architect named Christopher Wren proposed a plan for a new London—a stone phoenix to rise from the charred ashes of the old city.

With flair and style, 1666 exposes readers to a city and a country on the cusp of modernity and a series of events that altered the course of history.]]>
304 Rebecca Rideal 1250097061 Hashem 0 to-read 3.77 2016 1666: Plague, War, and Hellfire
author: Rebecca Rideal
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/04/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Klara and the Sun 54120408
In Klara and the Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro looks at our rapidly changing modern world through the eyes of an unforgettable narrator to explore a fundamental question: what does it mean to love?]]>
303 Kazuo Ishiguro 059331817X Hashem 4 3.71 2021 Klara and the Sun
author: Kazuo Ishiguro
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2021/04/03
date added: 2021/04/03
shelves:
review:

]]>
Cities in Civilization 1769293
Hall identifies four distinct expressions of civic artistic growth, technological progress, the marriage of culture and technology, and solutions to evolving problems. Descriptions of Periclean Athens, Renaissance Florence, Elizabethan London, and nineteenth-century Vienna bring to life those seedbeds of artistic and intellectual creativity. Explorations of Manchester during the Industrial Revolution, of Henry Ford's Detroit, and of Palo Alto at the dawn of the computer age highlight centers of technological advances. Tales of the creation of Los Angeles' movie industry and the birth of the blues and rock 'n' roll in Memphis depict the marriage of culture and technology.

Finally, Hall celebrates cities that have been forced to solve problems created by their very size. With Imperial Rome came the apartment block and aqueduct; nineteenth-century London introduced policing, prisons, and sewers; twentieth-century New York developed the skyscraper; and Los Angeles became the first city without a center, a city ruled instead by the car. And in a fascinating conclusion, Hall speculates on urban creativity in the twenty-first century.

This penetrating study reveals not only the lives of cities but also the lives of the people who built them and created the civilizations within them. A decade in the making, Cities in Civilization is the definitive account of the culture of cities.]]>
1184 Peter Geoffrey Hall 0394587324 Hashem 0 to-read 4.16 1998 Cities in Civilization
author: Peter Geoffrey Hall
name: Hashem
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1998
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/04/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Death and Life of Great American Cities]]> 30833 The Death and Life of Great American Cities has, since its first publication in 1961, become the standard against which all endeavors in that field are measured. In prose of outstanding immediacy, Jane Jacobs writes about what makes streets safe or unsafe; about what constitutes a neighborhood, and what function it serves within the larger organism of the city; about why some neighborhoods remain impoverished while others regenerate themselves. She writes about the salutary role of funeral parlors and tenement windows, the dangers of too much development money and too little diversity. Compassionate, bracingly indignant, and always keenly detailed, Jane Jacobs's monumental work provides an essential framework for assessing the vitality of all cities.]]> 472 Jane Jacobs 0375508732 Hashem 0 to-read 4.29 1961 The Death and Life of Great American Cities
author: Jane Jacobs
name: Hashem
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1961
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/04/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Hamnet 50214441 'Dazzling. Devastating' Kamila Shamsie
'Stunning... deserves to win prizes' Marian Keyes

A stunning new departure for Maggie O'Farrell's fiction, HAMNET is the heart-stopping story behind Shakespeare's most famous play.

On a summer's day in 1596, a young girl in Stratford-upon-Avon takes to her bed with a fever. Her twin brother, Hamnet, searches everywhere for help. Why is nobody at home?

Their mother, Agnes, is over a mile away, in the garden where she grows medicinal herbs. Their father is working in London. Neither parent knows that one of the children will not survive the week.

Hamnet is a novel inspired by the son of a famous playwright. It is a story of the bond between twins, and of a marriage pushed to the brink by grief. It is also the story of a kestrel and its mistress; flea that boards a ship in Alexandria; and a glovemaker's son who flouts convention in pursuit of the woman he loves. Above all, it is a tender and unforgettable reimagining of a boy whose life has been all but forgotten, but whose name was given to one of the most celebrated plays ever written.

]]>
321 Maggie O'Farrell Hashem 3 4.39 2020 Hamnet
author: Maggie O'Farrell
name: Hashem
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2021/03/12
date added: 2021/03/12
shelves:
review:

]]>
The Midnight Library 52578297
When Nora Seed finds herself in the Midnight Library, she has a chance to make things right. Up until now, her life has been full of misery and regret. She feels she has let everyone down, including herself. But things are about to change.

The books in the Midnight Library enable Nora to live as if she had done things differently. With the help of an old friend, she can now undo every one of her regrets as she tries to work out her perfect life. But things aren't always what she imagined they'd be, and soon her choices place the library and herself in extreme danger.

Before time runs out, she must answer the ultimate question: what is the best way to live?]]>
288 Matt Haig 0525559477 Hashem 0 to-read 3.96 2020 The Midnight Library
author: Matt Haig
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/03/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Grand Hotels of Egypt: In the Golden Age of Travel]]> 12053745 216 Andrew Humphreys 9774164962 Hashem 0 to-read 4.66 2011 Grand Hotels of Egypt: In the Golden Age of Travel
author: Andrew Humphreys
name: Hashem
average rating: 4.66
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/03/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays]]> 6425404 A sparkling collection of Zadie Smith's nonfiction over the past decade.

Zadie Smith brings to her essays all of the curiosity, intellectual rigor, and sharp humor that have attracted so many readers to her fiction, and the result is a collection that is nothing short of extraordinary.

Split into four sections�"Reading," "Being," "Seeing," and "Feeling"�Changing My Mind invites readers to witness the world from Zadie Smith's unique vantage. Smith casts her acute eye over material both personal and cultural, with wonderfully engaging essays-some published here for the first time-on diverse topics including literature, movies, going to the Oscars, British comedy, family, feminism, Obama, Katharine Hepburn, and Anna Magnani.

In her investigations Smith also reveals much of herself. Her literary criticism shares the wealth of her experiences as a reader and exposes the tremendous influence diverse writers—E. M. Forster, Zora Neale Hurston, George Eliot, and others—have had on her writing life and her self-understanding. Smith also speaks directly to writers as a craftsman, offering precious practical lessons on process. Here and throughout, readers will learn of the wide-ranging experiences—in novels, travel, philosophy, politics, and beyond—that have nourished Smith's rich life of the mind. Her probing analysis offers tremendous food for thought, encouraging readers to attend to the slippery questions of identity, art, love, and vocation that so often go neglected.

Changing My Mind announces Zadie Smith as one of our most important contemporary essayists, a writer with the rare ability to turn the world on its side with both fact and fiction. Changing My Mind is a gift to readers, writers, and all who want to look at life more expansively.]]>
320 Zadie Smith 1594202370 Hashem 2 3.84 2009 Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays
author: Zadie Smith
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2009
rating: 2
read at: 2021/02/27
date added: 2021/02/27
shelves:
review:

]]>
Einstein’s Dreams 14376 Einstein's Dreams is a fictional collage of stories dreamed by Albert Einstein in 1905, when he worked in a patent office in Switzerland. As the defiant but sensitive young genius is creating his theory of relativity, a new conception of time, he imagines many possible worlds. In one, time is circular, so that people are fated to repeat triumphs and failures over and over. In another, there is a place where time stands still, visited by lovers and parents clinging to their children. In another, time is a nightingale, sometimes trapped by a bell jar.

Now translated into thirty languages, Einstein's Dreams has inspired playwrights, dancers, musicians, and painters all over the world. In poetic vignettes, it explores the connections between science and art, the process of creativity, and ultimately the fragility of human existence.]]>
140 Alan Lightman 140007780X Hashem 0 to-read 4.08 1993 Einstein’s Dreams
author: Alan Lightman
name: Hashem
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1993
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/02/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Darwin Comes to Town: How the Urban Jungle Drives Evolution]]> 38614652 290 Menno Schilthuizen 1250127831 Hashem 0 to-read 4.07 2018 Darwin Comes to Town: How the Urban Jungle Drives Evolution
author: Menno Schilthuizen
name: Hashem
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/02/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
The Black Cathedral 45892273 Haunting and transcendently twisted, this English-language debut from a Cuban literary star is a tale of race, magic, belief, and fate

The Stuart family moves to a marginal neighborhood of Cienfuegos, a city on the southern coast of Cuba. Arturo Stuart, a charismatic, visionary preacher, discovers soon after arriving that God has given him a mission: to build a temple that surpasses any before seen in Cuba, and to make of Cienfuegos a new Jerusalem.

In a neighborhood that roils with passions and conflicts, at the foot of a cathedral that rises higher day by day, there grows a generation marked by violence, cruelty, and extreme selfishness. This generation will carry these traits beyond the borders of the neighborhood, the city, and the country, unable to escape the shadow of the unfinished cathedral.

Told by a chorus of narrators--including gossips, gangsters, a ghost, and a serial killer--who flirt, lie, argue, and finish one another's stories, Marcial Gala's The Black Cathedral is a darkly comic indictment of modern Cuba, gritty and realistic but laced with magic. It is a portrait of what remains when dreams of utopia have withered away.]]>
224 Marcial Gala 0374118019 Hashem 0 to-read 3.66 2012 The Black Cathedral
author: Marcial Gala
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/02/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
The Anarchist Banker 42962128 102 Fernando Pessoa 1771833343 Hashem 4 3.55 1922 The Anarchist Banker
author: Fernando Pessoa
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.55
book published: 1922
rating: 4
read at: 2021/02/13
date added: 2021/02/14
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower]]> 54391767
But no prince has managed to conquer the first flight yet, let alone get to the fortieth.

In fact, the supply of fresh princes seems to have quite dried up.

And winter is closing in on Floralinda…]]>
146 Tamsyn Muir 1596069929 Hashem 0 to-read 4.17 2020 Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower
author: Tamsyn Muir
name: Hashem
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/02/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
The Library of Babel 172366 36 Jorge Luis Borges 156792123X Hashem 0 to-read 4.35 1941 The Library of Babel
author: Jorge Luis Borges
name: Hashem
average rating: 4.35
book published: 1941
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/02/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Nadja 110457
The principal narrative is an account of the author's relationship with a girl in the city of Paris, the story of an obsessional presence haunting his life. The first-person narrative is supplemented by forty-four photographs which form an integral part of the work -- pictures of various surreal people, places, and objects which the author visits or is haunted by in naja's presence and which inspire him to mediate on their reality or lack of it. The Nadja of the book is a girl, but, like Bertrand Russell's definition of electricity as not so much a thing as a way things happen, Nadja is not so much a person as the way she makes people behave. She has been described as a state of mind, a feeling about reality, k a kind of vision, and the reader sometimes wonders whether she exists at all. yet it is Nadja who gives form and structure to the novel.]]>
160 André Breton 0802150268 Hashem 0 to-read 3.57 1928 Nadja
author: André Breton
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.57
book published: 1928
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/02/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World]]> 93426 312 Jack Weatherford 0609809644 Hashem 0 to-read 4.02 2004 Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
author: Jack Weatherford
name: Hashem
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/02/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Indignation 3015764
It is 1951 in America, the second year of the Korean War. A studious, law-abiding, intense youngster from Newark, New Jersey, Marcus Messner, is beginning his sophomore year on the pastoral, conservative campus of Ohio’s Winesburg College. And why is he there and not at the local college in Newark where he originally enrolled? Because his father, the sturdy, hard-working neighborhood butcher, seems to have gone mad -- mad with fear and apprehension of the dangers of adult life, the dangers of the world, the dangers he sees in every corner for his beloved boy.

As the long-suffering, desperately harassed mother tells her son, the father’s fear arises from love and pride. Perhaps, but it produces too much anger in Marcus for him to endure living with his parents any longer. He leaves them and, far from Newark, in the midwestern college, has to find his way amid the customs and constrictions of another American world.

Indignation, Philip Roth’s twenty-ninth book, is a story of inexperience, foolishness, intellectual resistance, sexual discovery, courage, and error. It is a story told with all the inventive energy and wit Roth has at his command, at once a startling departure from the haunted narratives of old age and experience in his recent books and a powerful addition to his investigations of the impact of American history on the life of the vulnerable individual.]]>
235 Philip Roth 054705484X Hashem 0 to-read 3.73 2008 Indignation
author: Philip Roth
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/02/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Inés of My Soul 3300
Valdivia's dream is to succeed where other Spaniards have failed: to become the conquerer of Chile. The natives of Chile are fearsome warriors, and the land is rumored to be barren of gold, but this suits Valdivia, who seeks only honor and glory. Together the lovers Inés Suárez and Pedro de Valdivia will build the new city of Santiago, and they will wage a bloody, ruthless war against the indigenous Chileans—the fierce local Indians led by the chief Michimalonko, and the even fiercer Mapuche from the south. The horrific struggle will change them forever, pulling each of them toward their separate destinies.

Inés of My Soul is a work of breathtaking scope: meticulously researched, it engagingly dramatizes the known events of Inés Suárez's life, crafting them into a novel full of the narrative brilliance and passion readers have come to expect from Isabel Allende.]]>
321 Isabel Allende 0061161535 Hashem 0 to-read 3.97 2006 Inés of My Soul
author: Isabel Allende
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/02/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Rapariga com Brinco de Pérola 55228012 199 Tracy Chevalier Hashem 0 to-read 3.00 1999 Rapariga com Brinco de Pérola
author: Tracy Chevalier
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.00
book published: 1999
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/02/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[‫ال� ليلة وليلة: 4 جزء� (Arabic Edition)]]> 46142115 1882 الشيخ محمد قطة العدوى Hashem 0 currently-reading 3.91 ‫الف ليلة وليلة: 4 جزء‬ (Arabic Edition)
author: الشيخ محمد قطة العدوى
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.91
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/02/10
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]>
King Jesus 456386 King Jesus,is one of the most controversial historical novels of all time. In it, Robert Graves has summoned his superb narrative powers, his painstaking scholarship, his wit and unsurpassed ability to recreate the past, to produce a magnificent portrayal of the life of Christ on earth.
]]>
418 Robert Graves 0374516642 Hashem 0 to-read 3.88 1946 King Jesus
author: Robert Graves
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1946
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/02/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Palm Sunday: An Autobiographical Collage]]> 9602
In this self-portrait by an American genius, Kurt Vonnegut writes with beguiling wit and poignant wisdom about his favorite comedians, country music, a dead friend, a dead marriage, and various cockamamie aspects of his all-too-human journey through life. This is a work that resonates with Vonnegut’s singular the magic sound of a born storyteller mesmerizing us with truth.

“Vonnegut is at the top of his form, and it is wonderful.”� Newsday]]>
300 Kurt Vonnegut Jr. 0385334265 Hashem 0 to-read 3.78 1981 Palm Sunday: An Autobiographical Collage
author: Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1981
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/02/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Man Who Loved Only Numbers: The Story of Paul Erdős and the Search for Mathematical Truth]]> 714583 302 Paul Hoffman 0786884061 Hashem 0 to-read 4.05 1998 The Man Who Loved Only Numbers: The Story of  Paul Erdős and the Search for Mathematical Truth
author: Paul Hoffman
name: Hashem
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1998
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/02/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
يونس في أحشاء الحوت 13156478 103 Yasser Abdellatif 9776306071 Hashem 2 3.55 2011 يونس في أحشاء الحوت
author: Yasser Abdellatif
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2011
rating: 2
read at: 2021/02/05
date added: 2021/02/05
shelves:
review:
مجموعة من القصص القصيرة جدا. الكاتب يمتلك لغة جميلة و حكاء شاطر، لكن القصص ذاتية و متفاوتة في المستوي. لا استطيع لوم الكاتب علي القصص التي لم تعجبني لأنهم بلا استثناء، يمتازوا بالكتابة الجيدة، لكن كونها قصص ذاتية وضعني كقارئ في مواجهة مع افكاره و مع نظرته للعالم و بصراحة اعتقد اني و الكاتب نختلف في الاخيرة، و خصوصا تصوره لكلاب الشارع و السفر و النساء. احببت قصص "آروي علي الهواء" و "الرسل" و اعتبرهم دليل علي موهبة الكاتب الكبيرة.
]]>
On the Move: A Life 24972194 On the Move is infused with his restless energy. As he recounts his experiences as a young neurologist in the early 1960s, first in California, where he struggled with drug addiction, and then in New York, where he discovered a long-forgotten illness in the back wards of a chronic hospital, we see how his engagement with patients comes to define his life.

With unbridled honesty and humor, Sacks shows us that the same energy that drives his physical passions—weight lifting and swimming—also drives his cerebral passions. He writes about his love affairs, both romantic and intellectual; his guilt over leaving his family to come to America; his bond with his schizophrenic brother; and the writers and scientists—Thom Gunn, A. R. Luria, W. H. Auden, Gerald M. Edelman, Francis Crick—who influenced him.

On the Move is the story of a brilliantly unconventional physician and writer—and of the man who has illuminated the many ways that the brain makes us human.]]>
397 Oliver Sacks 0385352549 Hashem 0 to-read 3.98 2015 On the Move: A Life
author: Oliver Sacks
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/02/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
The Paris Library 52761909 Based on the true World War II story of the heroic librarians at the American Library in Paris, this is an unforgettable story of romance, friendship, family, and the power of literature to bring us together, perfect for fans of The Lilac Girls and The Paris Wife.

Paris, 1939: Young and ambitious Odile Souchet has it all: her handsome police officer beau and a dream job at the American Library in Paris. When the Nazis march into Paris, Odile stands to lose everything she holds dear, including her beloved library. Together with her fellow librarians, Odile joins the Resistance with the best weapons she has: books. But when the war finally ends, instead of freedom, Odile tastes the bitter sting of unspeakable betrayal.

Montana, 1983: Lily is a lonely teenager looking for adventure in small-town Montana. Her interest is piqued by her solitary, elderly neighbor. As Lily uncovers more about her neighbor’s mysterious past, she finds that they share a love of language, the same longings, and the same intense jealousy, never suspecting that a dark secret from the past connects them.

A powerful novel that explores the consequences of our choices and the relationships that make us who we are—family, friends, and favorite authors�The Paris Library shows that extraordinary heroism can sometimes be found in the quietest of places.]]>
368 Janet Skeslien Charles 1982134194 Hashem 0 to-read 4.00 2021 The Paris Library
author: Janet Skeslien Charles
name: Hashem
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/02/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
De samoerai 39797075 333 Shūsaku Endō 9043521736 Hashem 0 to-read 4.00 1980 De samoerai
author: Shūsaku Endō
name: Hashem
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1980
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/02/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Babbitt 169718 344 Sinclair Lewis 142640607X Hashem 0 to-read 3.68 1922 Babbitt
author: Sinclair Lewis
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.68
book published: 1922
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/02/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
The Stories of Ibis 6949682
The stories that Ibis speaks of are the 7 novels about the events surrounding the announcements of the development of artificial intelligence (AI) in the 20th to 21st centuries. At a glance, these stories do not appear to have any sort of connection, but what is the true meaning behind them? What are Ibis' real intentions?]]>
422 Hiroshi Yamamoto 1421534401 Hashem 0 to-read 4.24 2006 The Stories of Ibis
author: Hiroshi Yamamoto
name: Hashem
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/01/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[One Day All This Will Be Yours]]> 54303485 Adrian Tchaikovsky - asmart, funny tale of time-travel and paradox

Welcome to the end of time. It’s a perfect day.

Nobody remembers how the Causality War started. Really, there’s no-one to remember, and nothing for them to remember if there were; that’s sort of the point. We were time warriors, and we broke time.

I was the one who ended it. Ended the fighting, tidied up the damage as much as I could.

Then I came here, to the end of it all, and gave myself a mission: to never let it happen again.]]>
144 Adrian Tchaikovsky 1781088748 Hashem 0 to-read 4.02 2021 One Day All This Will Be Yours
author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
name: Hashem
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/01/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Passing 349929 Alternate Cover Edition for 9780142437278.

“I’ve often wondered why more coloured girls…never ‘passed� over. It’s such a frightfully easy thing to do. If one’s the type, all that’s needed is a little nerve.�

Clare Kendry leads a dangerous life. Fair, elegant, and ambitious, she is married to a white man unaware of her African American heritage, and has severed all ties to her past. Clare’s childhood friend, Irene Redfield, just as light-skinned, has chosen to remain within the African American community, but refuses to acknowledge the racism that continues to constrict her family’s happiness. A chance encounter forces both women to confront the lies they have told others—and the secret fears they have buried within themselves.

First published in 1929, Passing is a remarkably candid exploration of shifting racial and sexual boundaries. As acclaimed Larsen biographer Thadious M. Davis writes in her introduction, this landmark novel by the Harlem Renaissance’s premier woman writer also depicts “the golden days of black cultural consciousness.�

Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Thadious M. Davis]]>
122 Nella Larsen Hashem 0 to-read 3.93 1929 Passing
author: Nella Larsen
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1929
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/01/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Truth and Lies in Literature: Essays and Reviews]]> 249192
"If a critic's job is to puncture pomposity, deflate over-hyped reputations and ferret out true value, then Vizinczey is master of the art."� Publishers Weekly

"Stephen Vizinczey comes on like a pistol-packing stranger here to root out corruption and remind us of our ideals. He carries the role off with inspired gusto. His boldness and pugnacity are bracing and can be very funny."—Ray Sawhill, Newsweek

"Every piece in the book is good, and many are so good that, after dipping into the middle, I stayed up half of the night, reading with growing amazement and admiration."—Bruce Bebb, Los Angeles Reader]]>
350 Stephen Vizinczey 0226858847 Hashem 0 to-read 4.18 1986 Truth and Lies in Literature: Essays and Reviews
author: Stephen Vizinczey
name: Hashem
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1986
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/01/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[In Praise of Older Women: The Amorous Recollections of András Vajda]]> 1396806
"A pleasure. Vizinczey writes of women beautifully, with sympathy, tact and delight, and he writes about sex with more lucidity and grace than most writers ever acquire."—Larry McMurtry, Houston Post

"Like James Joyce, who was as far from being a writer of erotica as Dostoevsky, Vizinczey has a refreshing message to Life is not about sex, sex is about life."—John Podhoretz, Washington Times

"The gracefully written story of a young man growing up among older women . . . although some passages may well arouse the reader, this novel brims with what the courts have termed "redeeming literary merit."—Clarence Petersen, Chicago Tribune

"A funny novel about sex, or rather (which is rarer) a novel which is funny as well as touching about sex . . . elegant, exact and melodious—has style, presence and individuality."—Isabel Quigly, Sunday Telegraph

"The delicious adventures of a young Casanova who appreciates maturity while acquiring it himself. In turn naive, sophisticated, arrogant, disarming, the narrator woos his women and his tale wins the reader."—Polly Devlin, Vogue]]>
192 Stephen Vizinczey 0226858863 Hashem 5 3.90 1965 In Praise of Older Women: The Amorous Recollections of András Vajda
author: Stephen Vizinczey
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1965
rating: 5
read at: 2021/01/28
date added: 2021/01/28
shelves:
review:
Every chapter and story in the book is good, and many are so good that, after dipping casually into the middle, I stayed up reading with amazement and admiration. Vizinczey is brilliant!
]]>
Judas 27403373
Judas, el regreso de Amos Oz a la novela, género que no había frecuentado desde Una historia de amor y oscuridad, plantea una audaz y novedosa interpretación de la figura de Judas Iscariote en el contexto de una angustiosa y delicada historia de amor.

En el invierno de 1959, el mundo del joven Shmuel Ash se viene abajo: su novia lo abandona, sus padres se arruinan y él se ve obligado a dejar sus estudios en la universidad. En ese momento desesperado, encuentra refugio y trabajo en una vieja casa de piedra de Jerusalén, donde deberá hacer compañía y conversar con un anciano inválido y sarcástico. A su llegada, una atractiva mujer llamada Atalia advertirá a Shmuel de que no se enamore de ella; ese ha sido el motivo de la expulsión de sus predecesores. En la aparente rutina que se crea en la casa, el tímido Shmuel siente una progresiva agitación causada, en parte, por el deseo y la curiosidad que Atalia le provoca. También retoma su investigación sobre la imagen de Jesús para los judíos, y la misteriosa y maldita figura de Judas Iscariote, la supuesta encarnación de la traición y la mezquindad, va absorbiéndole sin remedio.]]>
303 Amos Oz 8416465673 Hashem 0 to-read 3.84 2014 Judas
author: Amos Oz
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/01/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
The Periodic Table 427282 The Periodic Table by Primo Levi is an impassioned response to the Holocaust: Consisting of 21 short stories, each possessing the name of a chemical element, the collection tells of the author's experiences as a Jewish-Italian chemist before, during, and after Auschwitz in luminous, clear, and unfailingly beautiful prose. It has been named the best science book ever by the Royal Institution of Great Britain, and is considered to be Levi's crowning achievement.]]> 233 Primo Levi 0805210415 Hashem 0 to-read 4.17 1975 The Periodic Table
author: Primo Levi
name: Hashem
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1975
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/01/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
مياومة (هايكو عامل معاصر) 55494943 70 Mohamed Farag 9773138097 Hashem 4 قد يكون عيب الكتاب الوحيد هو عنوانه فأنا مش فاهمه لحد دلوقتي، غير كده كتاب جميل.]]> 3.53 2020 مياومة (هايكو عامل معاصر)
author: Mohamed Farag
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2021/01/24
date added: 2021/01/24
shelves:
review:
كتاب صغير و جميل، و اللغة شاعرية و سهلة. مجموعة قصصية، كل قصة صفحة واحدة و ان اتخذت شكل قصيدة نثرية مثل شعر الهايكو، و المواضيع تتمحور حول ساقيه العمل الرتيب و ظاهرة التغريب بين العامل و بين العمل، و هو نقد اشتراكي بالاساس لأسلوب حياة العامل في العالم الرأسمالي.
قد يكون عيب الكتاب الوحيد هو عنوانه فأنا مش فاهمه لحد دلوقتي، غير كده كتاب جميل.
]]>
ثرثرة فوق النيل 6122468 161 Naguib Mahfouz 9770915890 Hashem 5 3.79 1966 ثرثرة فوق النيل
author: Naguib Mahfouz
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1966
rating: 5
read at: 2021/01/23
date added: 2021/01/23
shelves:
review:

]]>
Diary of a Film 54834055
Alone one morning at a backstreet café, he strikes up a conversation with a local woman who takes him on a walk to uncover the city's secrets, historic and personal. As the walk unwinds, a story of love and tragedy emerges, and he begins to see the chance meeting as fate. He is entranced, wholly clear in his mind: her story must surely form the basis for his next film.

This is a novel about cinema, flâneurs, and queer love - it is about the sometimes troubled, sometimes ecstatic creative process, and the toll it takes on its makers.

But it is also a novel about stories, and the ongoing question of who has the right to tell them.]]>
224 Niven Govinden 0349700729 Hashem 0 to-read 3.71 2021 Diary of a Film
author: Niven Govinden
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/01/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
The Red Tent 11383056 337 Anita Diamant Hashem 3 4.20 1997 The Red Tent
author: Anita Diamant
name: Hashem
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1997
rating: 3
read at: 2021/01/21
date added: 2021/01/21
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[鲹ōDz and Seventeen Other Stories]]> 35206 鲹ōDz to his later, more autobiographical writings.

Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (1892-1927) is one of Japan’s foremost stylists - a modernist master whose short stories are marked by highly original imagery, cynicism, beauty and wild humour. �鲹ōDz� and �In a Bamboo Grove� inspired Kurosawa’s magnificent film and depict a past in which morality is turned upside down, while tales such as �The Nose�, �O-Gin� and �Loyalty� paint a rich and imaginative picture of a medieval Japan peopled by Shoguns and priests, vagrants and peasants. And in later works such as �Death Register�, �The Life of a Stupid Man� and �Spinning Gears�, Akutagawa drew from his own life to devastating effect, revealing his intense melancholy and terror of madness in exquisitely moving impressionistic stories.

A WORLD IN DECAY
- 鲹ōDz (Sep 1915)
- In a Bamboo Grove (Dec 1921)
- The Nose (Jan 1916)
- Dragon: The Old Potter's Tale (May 1919)
- The Spider Thread (Apr 1918)
- Hell Screen (1918)
UNDER THE SWORD
- Dr. Ogata Ryōsai: Memorandum (Dec 7th 1916)
- O-Gin (Aug 1922)
- Loyalty (Feb 1917)
MODERN TRAGICOMEDY
- The Story of a Head That Fell Off (Dec 1917)
- Green Onions (Dec 1919)
- Horse Legs (Jan 1925)
AKUTAGAWA'S OWN STORY
- Daidōji Shinsuke: The Early Years (Dec 9th 1924)
- The Writer's Craft (Mar 1924)
- The Baby's Sickness (Jul 1923)
- Death Register (Sep 1926)
- The Life of a Stupid Man (Jun 1927 posthumous)
- Spinning Gears (Jun 1927 posthumous)

Cover illustration by Yoshihiro Tatsumi]]>
268 Ryūnosuke Akutagawa 0143039849 Hashem 0 to-read 4.15 1927 鲹ōDz and Seventeen Other Stories
author: Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
name: Hashem
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1927
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/01/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Joseph and His Brothers 88076
Thomas Mann regarded his monumental retelling of the biblical story of Joseph as his magnum opus. He conceived of the four parts–The Stories of Jacob, Young Joseph, Joseph in Egypt, and Joseph the Provider–as a unified narrative, a “mythological novel� of Joseph’s fall into slavery and his rise to be lord over Egypt. Deploying lavish, persuasive detail, Mann conjures for us the world of patriarchs and pharaohs, the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Palestine, and the universal force of human love in all its beauty, desperation, absurdity, and pain. The result is a brilliant amalgam of humor, emotion, psychological insight, and epic grandeur.

Now the award-winning translator John E. Woods gives us a definitive new English version of Joseph and His Brothers that is worthy of Mann’s achievement, revealing the novel’s exuberant polyphony of ancient and modern voices, a rich music that is by turns elegant, coarse, and sublime.
--front flap]]>
1492 Thomas Mann 1400040019 Hashem 0 to-read 4.43 1943 Joseph and His Brothers
author: Thomas Mann
name: Hashem
average rating: 4.43
book published: 1943
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/01/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold (Stephen Fry's Great Mythology, #1)]]> 35074096
This stunning book features classical artwork inspired by the myths, as well as learned notes from the author. Each adventure is infused with Fry's distinctive wit, voice, and writing style. Connoisseurs of the Greek myths will appreciate this fresh-yet-reverential interpretation, while newcomers will feel welcome. Retellings brim with humor and emotion and offer rich cultural context

Celebrating the thrills, grandeur, and unabashed fun of the Greek myths, Mythos breathes life into ancient tales—from Pandora's box to Prometheus's fire.

This gorgeous volume invites you to explore a captivating world with the brilliant storyteller Stephen Fry as your guide.]]>
416 Stephen Fry 0718188721 Hashem 0 to-read 4.27 2017 Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold (Stephen Fry's Great Mythology, #1)
author: Stephen Fry
name: Hashem
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/01/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
The Margot Affair 40528601
***

Margot Louve is a secret: the child of a longstanding affair between an influential French politician with presidential ambitions and a prominent stage actress. This hidden family exists in stolen moments in a small Parisian apartment on the Left Bank.

It is a house of cards that Margot—fueled by a longing to be seen and heard—decides to tumble. The summer of her seventeenth birthday, she meets the man who will set her plan in motion: a well-regarded journalist whose trust seems surprisingly easy to gain. But as Margot is drawn into an adult world she struggles to comprehend, she learns how one impulsive decision can threaten a family’s love with ruin, shattering the lives of those around her in ways she could never have imagined.

Exposing the seams between private lives and public faces, The Margot Affair is a novel of deceit, desire, and transgression—and the exhilarating knife-edge upon which the danger of telling the truth outweighs the cost of keeping secrets.]]>
336 Sanaë Lemoine Hashem 0 to-read 3.56 2020 The Margot Affair
author: Sanaë Lemoine
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/01/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
في أثر عنايات الزيات 39933267 تدمير أرشيف عنايات الشخصيّ، بدا لي مثل كارثة في أول الأمر، لكن غيابه جعلني أتتبع أثر ما تم طمسه. جعلني أفكر أن طموحي ليس عرض حياتها في صفحات كتاب، عرض حياة شخص ميت هو مشاركة في التسطيح والتفريغ المستمر للماضي من معناه. قلتُ لنفسي، لا يجب أن أتكلم باسمها، لا يجب أن أقدم مسودة لحياتها، هناك لحظة تقاطع بيننا، سأجعل هذه اللحظة تعمل مثل دليل روحي وسنختلف في كل ما عداها كثيرًا. ربما هي نفسها لا توجد إلا في هوامش نجت من سيطرة المؤسسات والأسرة والأصدقاء؛ ربما كان عليَّ أن أتتبع آثارها في "الهالِك"، في جغرافيا دارسة عاشت وماتت فيها، الشارع والمقبرة والمدرسة الألمانية ومعهد الآثار الألماني، في قانون الأحوال الشخصية وقضية الطلاق، في سياق رفض الرواية ونشرها، في الأحلام والصداقة والحب والاكتئاب والموت. لقد بدتْ لي قصص كل من تقاطعت حياته مع حياتها، وكأنها جزء من قصتها. أردتُ أن أعرفهم واحدًا واحدًا لأنهم مروا بحياتها]]> 243 إيمان مرسال 9778031029 Hashem 4 الكتابة سلسة و لغة الكتاب جميلة و ان نقص استمتاعي التام بالكتاب محور الكتاب نفسه "عنايات" التي برغم مأساتها لم اشعر بالاهتمام بقصتها.
ربما لم تكن عنايات محور الكتاب رغم العنوان و المسعي، بل كانت وسيلة لتأريخ حيوات عاشت بين جدران بيوت المعادي و الدقي و باب اللوق في القرن الماضي.
اعجبني في الكتاب الفضح اللطيف لأصنام العجوة لأشباه المثقفين مثل انيس منصور و يوسف السباعي. الكتاب من امتع الكتب خصوصا في تأريخ الحياة الاجتماعية في مصر في القرن الماضي.]]>
4.29 2019 في أثر عنايات الزيات
author: إيمان مرسال
name: Hashem
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2021/01/09
date added: 2021/01/09
shelves:
review:
هل"في اثر عنايات الزيات" كتاب استقصائي ام هو كتاب سردي؟ المؤكد انني استمتعت بالفصول الاستقصائية اكثر من الاخري، خصوصا مقابلات الكاتبة مع نادية لطفي، مدام مسيار، عظيمة و الفصول التاريخية عن المعهد الألماني، و فصل زيارة الكاتبة للمقابر.
الكتابة سلسة و لغة الكتاب جميلة و ان نقص استمتاعي التام بالكتاب محور الكتاب نفسه "عنايات" التي برغم مأساتها لم اشعر بالاهتمام بقصتها.
ربما لم تكن عنايات محور الكتاب رغم العنوان و المسعي، بل كانت وسيلة لتأريخ حيوات عاشت بين جدران بيوت المعادي و الدقي و باب اللوق في القرن الماضي.
اعجبني في الكتاب الفضح اللطيف لأصنام العجوة لأشباه المثقفين مثل انيس منصور و يوسف السباعي. الكتاب من امتع الكتب خصوصا في تأريخ الحياة الاجتماعية في مصر في القرن الماضي.
]]>
The Witch's Heart 53438195 When a banished witch falls in love with the legendary trickster Loki, she risks the wrath of the gods in this moving, subversive debut novel that reimagines Norse mythology.

Angrboda's story begins where most witches' tales end: with a burning. A punishment from Odin for refusing to provide him with knowledge of the future, the fire leaves Angrboda injured and powerless, and she flees into the farthest reaches of a remote forest. There she is found by a man who reveals himself to be Loki, and her initial distrust of him transforms into a deep and abiding love.

Their union produces three unusual children, each with a secret destiny, who Angrboda is keen to raise at the edge of the world, safely hidden from Odin's all-seeing eye. But as Angrboda slowly recovers her prophetic powers, she learns that her blissful life—and possibly all of existence—is in danger.

With help from the fierce huntress Skadi, with whom she shares a growing bond, Angrboda must choose whether she’ll accept the fate that she's foreseen for her beloved family…or rise to remake their future. From the most ancient of tales this novel forges a story of love, loss, and hope for the modern age.]]>
359 Genevieve Gornichec 059309994X Hashem 0 to-read 4.03 2021 The Witch's Heart
author: Genevieve Gornichec
name: Hashem
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/01/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Old Man Who Read Love Stories]]> 762211 144 Luis Sepúlveda 0156002728 Hashem 0 to-read 4.03 1988 The Old Man Who Read Love Stories
author: Luis Sepúlveda
name: Hashem
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1988
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/01/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
The Fifth Child 546644
Harriet and David Lovatt, parents of four children, have created an idyll of domestic bliss in defiance of the social trends of late 1960s England. While around them crime and unrest surge, the Lovatts are certain that their old-fashioned contentment can protect them from the world outside—until the birth of their fifth baby.

Gruesomely goblin-like in appearance, insatiably hungry, abnormally strong and violent, Ben has nothing innocent or infant-like about him. As he grows older and more terrifying, Harriet finds she cannot love him, David cannot bring himself to touch him, and their four older children are afraid of him.

Understanding that he will never be accepted anywhere, Harriet and David are torn between their instincts as parents and their shocked reaction to this fierce and unlovable child whose existence shatters their belief in a benign world.]]>
133 Doris Lessing 0679721827 Hashem 4 3.61 1988 The Fifth Child
author: Doris Lessing
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.61
book published: 1988
rating: 4
read at: 2021/01/05
date added: 2021/01/05
shelves:
review:
Lessing builds a world full of colourful and warm characters in the first few pages. A master of style - those first few pages ooze with warmth and happiness of an almost perfect family life. However, Lessing takes it all back and suddenly its a chilling, Unsettling, yet fascinating read, once Ben (the fifth child) is born.
]]>
<![CDATA[A Memory Called Empire (Teixcalaan, #1)]]> 39873472
Now, Mahit must discover who is behind the murder, rescue herself, and save her Station from Teixcalaan's unceasing expansion—all while navigating an alien culture that is all too seductive, engaging in intrigues of her own, and hiding a deadly technological secret—one that might spell the end of her Station and her way of life—or rescue it from annihilation.

A fascinating space opera debut novel, Arkady Martine's A Memory Called Empire is an interstellar mystery adventure.]]>
472 Arkady Martine 1250186455 Hashem 0 to-read 4.27 2019 A Memory Called Empire (Teixcalaan, #1)
author: Arkady Martine
name: Hashem
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/01/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Tale of the Unknown Island]]> 2529
"A man went to knock at the king's door and said, Give me a boat. The king's house had many other doors, but this was the door for petitions. Since the king spent all his time sitting at the door for favors (favors being offered to the king, you understand), whenever he heard someone knocking at the door for petitions, he would pretend not to hear . . ."

Why the petitioner required a boat, where he was bound for, and who volunteered to crew for him, the reader will discover in this delightful fable, a philosophic love story worthy of Swift or Voltaire.]]>
51 José Saramago 0156013037 Hashem 4 The protagonist is an explorer in the true sense of the word. He discovers how to revolt against the tyrant, discovers a scientific approach tolearning, to love, to cook ... etc.
Highly recommended read to kick start the new year!]]>
3.96 1997 The Tale of the Unknown Island
author: José Saramago
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1997
rating: 4
read at: 2021/01/02
date added: 2021/01/02
shelves:
review:
First book of 2021. Saramago is a genius, yet a complicated one. His writing style is lyrical and dreamy, but direct and to the point as well. The Tale if the Unknown is a short, yet not simple, fable about a man who wishes to find a better life away from his home, which is ruled by a greedy tyrant.
The protagonist is an explorer in the true sense of the word. He discovers how to revolt against the tyrant, discovers a scientific approach tolearning, to love, to cook ... etc.
Highly recommended read to kick start the new year!
]]>
Cloud Atlas 11144126 Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2004

Winner of the Richard & Judy Best Read of the Year

Souls cross ages like clouds cross skies . . .

Six interlocking lives - one amazing adventure. In a narrative that circles the globe and reaches from the 19th century to a post-apocalyptic future, Cloud Atlas erases the boundaries of time, genre and language to offer an enthralling vision of humanity's will to power, and where it will lead us.

*Please note that the end of p39 and p40 are intentionally blank*]]>
545 David Mitchell Hashem 3 4.04 2004 Cloud Atlas
author: David Mitchell
name: Hashem
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at: 2020/12/31
date added: 2020/12/31
shelves:
review:

]]>
The Vanishing Half 51791252
Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this family, from the Deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Brit Bennett produces a story that is at once a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing. Looking well beyond issues of race, The Vanishing Half considers the lasting influence of the past as it shapes a person's decisions, desires, and expectations, and explores some of the multiple reasons and realms in which people sometimes feel pulled to live as something other than their origins.]]>
343 Brit Bennett 0525536299 Hashem 0 to-read 4.11 2020 The Vanishing Half
author: Brit Bennett
name: Hashem
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/12/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
The Popes: A History 14762015 528 John Julius Norwich 0099565870 Hashem 0 to-read 3.78 2011 The Popes: A History
author: John Julius Norwich
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/11/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
On the Road 70401 307 Jack Kerouac 0140042598 Hashem 0 to-read 3.63 1957 On the Road
author: Jack Kerouac
name: Hashem
average rating: 3.63
book published: 1957
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/10/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>