52 Books in 52 Weeks (2011) discussion

Book reviews for week 8.

القراءة الذكية
by Sajed Al-abdali

3/5

My review
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

Dog Is My Co-Pilot: Great Writers on the World's Oldest Friendship by Bark Editors, Claudia Kawczynska (Editor)
Feb 20, 2011
4/5
Collection short stories and essays by writers who are dog owners/lovers. Book is divided into four sections: Beginnings, Pack, Lessons and Passages.
Great book for pet lovers, dog lovers, reading while traveling, brining along to the doctor's office. The stories are very short, extremely well written. The stores are heart warming, motivating, moving, and delightful. I would especially recommend this to people who DO NOT understand what is the big deal about dogs !

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The Hobbit By J.R.R. Tolkien

4.5/5

" I have seen the LOTR movies and it was nice to get to
know where it all started and the story of little Bilbo Baggins,
his early life and first adventure .
The book was entertaining and the characters were vivid ,
though at times it was kind of slow paced.
Loved the narrative style .

J.R.R. Tolkien imagination was really impressive and his writing style is great,
felt like I was there living the adventure with them. "

link to review

Messenger
5/5

Messenger brings The Giver and Gathering Blue together. This book was very sad but shows you the importance of taking care of others.

ماذا صنعت بالذهب.. ماذا فعلت بالوردة | أنسي الحاج
2\5

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/82...

كان ضائعاً فلما وجدها
فرحَ على الأرض قليلاً
وطار إلى السماء "
،
تأملّتُ منه أكثر مما وجدت
لكنه يبقى جيّداً
بشكلٍ ما !

3/5 stars, would have given 3.5

I really liked this book. Rodgers & Hammerstein are arguably the best musical partners ever, and I really enjoyed reading about the Hammerstein family and how Oscar Hammerstein came to be part of the Broadway scene. I loved the pictures of the old theaters in NYC from the late 1890s through the 1950s, so gorgeous! I also had no idea that Stephen Sondheim was Hammersteins protege, that was really fun to read about. I would recommend this to anyone interested in musicals or theater! :)

The Pact by Jodi Picoult
4/5

I have enjoyed reading a Jodi Picoult novel before and this one I liked even better. It makes you wonder whether you really know the people you love. The author gets you to enter the skin of the characters and share their feelings.

The Stranger by Albert Camus

My rating: 5 of 5 stars




Wow.

I bought this book over a year ago, but I wasn't really so interested in reading it till Albert Camus was mentioned in one of the essays in 'Radiohead and Philosophy' that spoke of the absurdness of life and existentialism and nihilism. 'The Stranger' was brilliant, but shouldn't be read by those who don't carry a philosophical mind; otherwise, it will be an average book to them.
I related to Meursault a lot, but reading it made me wish to be very different than he is. I guess I am not like him after all. Really interesting novel, blew my mind, personally. Albert Camus is a great writer, and Matthew Ward (translator) made reading it enjoyable and easy.
I wish I had time to write a lengthy deep review about it, but I don't.
Recommended.





View my review.

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

The Snowman by Jo Nesbø

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Best book I've read so far this year



View all my reviews

The book Thief by Markus Zusak.

4/5 stars.

One of the most captivating books i've read so far. A must read. Don't miss it.

Title: The White Castle
Author: Orhan Pamuk
Rating: 2.5/5

The story started off with enthrallment: a young Italian scholar’s ship is captured by Ottomans in the 17th century. He is then taken as a slave by a scholar called Hoja, who demands that he teaches him everything he knows and all that has been taught by “them” (them being the Western scholars). In time, the Sultan begins to take interest in Hoja’s astrological predictions, and appoints him as the Imperial Astrologer. The Sultan asks them to build a giant weapon, which they will later attempt to use in a war to claim The White Castle. However, as the two work together throughout the years, Hoja begins to wonder why a person is who they are, and how he and his slave are who they are. He begins to wonder if they were to exchange knowledge of each other’s history and secrets, could they actually exchange identities? Although filled with a mysterious and philosophical air, the book was quite disappointing coming from a Noble Prize winner. After the introduction of the plot, the story kept drifting in and out. There was no proper sense of time. It kept jumping in to the far future without connecting the mid-events. In the last third, it became repetitive and boring. The ending was interesting though, but it could’ve been written in a more satisfying way.
Overall it was an interesting story. I would recommend it if you like psychological mind games.


Review: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

Obit
By Jim Sheeler
3/5
At first I really liked this book. I loved the stories told and often found myself crying while reading some of the obituaries. But about halfway through the book, I was over it. I guess a person can only read by so many obituaries. BUT, I saw why Sheeler has been praised and recognized for his obituaries. They're really good and go above and beyond news obits you find today. My favorites were the obituary for the elderly couple that died four days apart and a soldier that died in Iraq where the family remembers not only the good things he did, but the bad.
If you're looking for a quick read and don't mind the feeling of repetitiveness that kicks in halfway through the book, this could be a book for you.

حين تركنا الجسر
عبدالرحمن منيف
٥/٢

هذه تجربتي الثانية مع منيف، وكما سابقتها لم تعجبني كثيراً. مُنيف مبدعٌ في الوصف والتشبيه. أما التشويق وتصاعد الأحداث وتتابعها فهو لايتقنه برأيي الشخصي المتواضع.

http://bit.ly/eTiSK0

Zombie Spaceship Wasteland
Patton Oswalt
3/5

More literary than I thought. Has some interesting analogies (e.g. people being either zombies, spaceships, or wastelands).

4.5/5

The Hunger Games
Suzanne Collins

Brilliant.

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

في ديسمبر تنتهي كل الاحلام
أثير النشمي

5/5

I'll write my review later : ) ..

2/5

I honestly did not expect anything before reading this book. It's a heartbreaking story, and I've been asked to read the whole set (3 books) but I hesitated after this one.

I liked how the author made me actually be inside his head, even though he was too young, I liked how he described some things. I disliked his style of circling around an idea, without getting into details, I also disliked the fact that it's a true story.
From my own point of view(and I'm not saying I understand what he felt) if he wrote about something else, to express his feelings, for example an imaginary story, that'd be better, then I might even dig deeper and read his own story(biography).
All in all, it was ok.

The total Money Makeover: A proven plan for financial fitness



3/5

I am working on our family budget and debt consolidation strategy and Dave Ramsey’s five steps strategy sounds like a good fit for us. The book contains a lot of praise for his system and repetitive words of encouragement and catchy phrases that I found irritating. I also skipped the majority of "real-life stories" of people who used his strategy and claimed to become debt-free. These stories are very repetitive and often sound too good to be true. If you do not have time to read this book, you can check his website.

الهويات القاتلة
by Amin Maalouf
Rating: 4/5

كتاب رائع يدعونا إلى إعادة النظر في مفهوم الهويات والإنتماءات. لم أستطع أن أضع إصبعي على الفكرة التي أراد الكاتب إيصالها بالتحديد. لكنه طرح الكثير من الأسئلة التي ما زال صداها يتردد حتى الآن.

أنصح به

I'm running a bit late, bear with me.

Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I'm not very interested in reading plays, but I made an exception for this one because I'm quite interested in that era of old England.



I very much liked Higgins' and Pickering's characters, but I didn't get to see much of Eliza to establish an opinion on her personality. It's a short, lively play that I think would be great when acted out. I definitely recommend a reading, it won't take much of your time anyway.





Off to see My Fair Lady now:D







View all my reviews

Passage to India

3-5
great classical novel with its presentation about East,Islam, and India. Aziz's character is one of the loveliest character one would meet in India with such a sweetness and kindness.

On Natural Selection by Charles Darwin

This is the "On Natural Selection" chapter of Darwin's Origin of the Species.

Darwin is renowned for his "controversial" theories which are a constant topic of discussion from different groups. Now, I have read a lot about Natural Selection prior to reading it and read different views on it yet the first impression that I had was people don't do him justice. The theory is simple and explained so beautifully in his brillant writing. You can feel the passion and enthusiasm through his picturesque explanations. I loved the introduction, he gave a lot of examples which he goes into more detail in later chapters It had such an easy flow as he went from topic to topic. It took me a while to read it, more because I wanted to absorb it than anything. I found myself rereading different parts again and again as well as researching while reading each part.

My review.

Hiiii =)



5/5

Excellent book, I coundn't stop reading it although it is fiction it is based on actual events that took place in the US. It is a dark moment in their history which I haven't had much of a chance to read about. Very good book =)

As I Lay Dying William Faulkner

3.5 / 5

It's always a pleasure to read for Faulkner, he's one of my personal favorite. His famous style of writing, "Stream of Consciousness" is one of the reasons why I love reading his books, it's so challenging and it's like an exersice for the brain! The story is about a country family that is planning to bury their dead mother in Jefferson for she was always longing to go there. The book starts from the mother being sick on bed and takes us to the journey to Jefferson. The family is so of dysfunctional and it has different individuals, the book reminds of The Sound and the Fury in this point. But if I have to compare, I would say that As I Lay Dying is easier to read although the two books are similar in the writing technique and the narration type. The book is definitely worth the time, it has dark humor, entertaining story line and thought-provoking images. It is about family bonds; you'd feel sad on some members and pissed at others.

تشي غيفارا نهاية بطل وميلاد أسطورة
فريد الفالوجي
٣\٥

إستمتعت بقراءة الجوانب الشخصية في سيرة حياته تقريباً في الأربع فصول لأولى،أما من
ناحية
معرفته كرجل سياسي وكأحداث وقعت لم أشعر بالحياد او بمعنى آخر لإنصاف في كتابته.
أعتقد أن قراءة هذا الكتاب لوحده غير كافية للإلمام بجوانب الأحداث من عدة مؤرخين سواء منحازين لغيفارا او محايدين او معارضين له،حتى أستطيع تكوين صورة أفضل عن أفكاره،لكن عموماً يتضح أنه إلى جانب روحه الثورية المتمردة على الإمبريالية والظلم بأي شكل كان إلا أنه كان يمارس ذلك ضد من يخالفه بالقتل،تلك اللغة الدموية بالنسبة لي تنفي عنه بطوليته الثورية أياً كان إنجازه.
تشي غيفارا نهاية بطل .. وميلاد أسطورة