Book Review: The President´s Oranges by Abbas Khider

My next book by Abbas Khider Die Orangen des Präsidenten/The President´s Oranges is written on the same autobiographical note, on the same background of the changing sands of Iraq´s last decades. From the Iraq-Iran war to the everyday hardships under Saddam to the American invasion.

There is more than a before - when Mahdi, the main character, whose POV reflects the story is brought to prison for presumed connections with members of the opposition and communists; when he was a child during the war with Iran, his father dead on the front - and an after, when he is freed from prison, without never being indicted. There is the absurdity of the everyday life during a dictatorship, where being a victim means being a random target of same random circumstances. Like, for instance, being offered in prison oranges on behalf of the president on the occasion of his birthday. Those who experienced the slightest time in a dictatorship may resonate with such situations.

The storytelling is stronger in this book than in the previous, although I was longing for a longer story, or for at least more content into the story. What I really appreciated though it´s the chance to read accounts from Iraq, during the wars and during the dictatorship, written by someone who had a direct contact with those times, who lived there and did not imagined or projected his or her expectations on an area turned into an Orientalist attraction for all the wrong reasons.

The book was written in German, in a prose which is entincing without being overcharged. Simplicity in writing, as in life, is the best direct way to the heart of a story.

And there is another book by Khider waiting for me to be read. 

Rating: 3.5 stars

Die Diplomatin by Lucy Fricke

 

For more than one reason, I am interested in literary representations of diplomats, preferably contemporary, best if the main character is a woman. I don´t remember too many such possibilities, therefore I was more than interested to have access as soon as possible at the book called ´The (woman) Diplomat´ (Die Diplomatin, in the original german language) by the German author Lucy Fricke. 

Friederike is in her late 40s, a single woman, from a modest background. She entered the diplomatic service dreaming to make a difference - does ´I wanted to understand the world´, count? -, but ended up entangled in a consular failure in Montevideo and a couple of years after, another consular incident in Turkey. She has a one night stand with a journalist that himself was in a delicate situation in Turkey. 

Friederike has an institutional voice which may contradict her relatively erratic behavior, with a touch of arrogance that unfortunately is quite common to some contemporary German novels where there is an encounter between the German citizen and the rest of the world. There is irony and a bit of humour too, which are always a matter of taste. 

It ends with an image of the German flag blowing in the wind, and Friederike is mentioned at least twice being involved in activities related to the preparation of the German National Day - 3rd of October, The Day of German Unity.

It is an understatement to say that I was largely disappointed about the book, although there are some well suited references to real diplomatic intricacies - the fact that, among others, consular service is usually the highest resilience test of a diplomat that can either destroy or promote your career. The ironies about the under-superpower Germany may bring a smile or too.

But unfortunatelly, the action took over the representation of the characters and Friederike sounded very simple for the role she was assigned. Her disillusioning is cartoonish, given her unprofessional behavior and her experience and eventual dedication to her profession seem to be overrated for the sake of a stereotypical character. At times, it looked like an image - of a diplomat - was cut from a piece of paper and blew from one part to another of the story, just like the German flag in the wind.

There is a good news about this though: the hope that, who knows, one day there will be a great book about a real woman diplomat, hopefully with a good sense of humour as well.

Rating: 3 stars

The Book of Delights by Ross Gay

 

I had a relatively absurd day this week and, as usual, in such situations, my solution is to start a book or even two. For times I can´t remember, books are my shield against the everyday intellectual shortages. For better or worse, there is always a delight in being alone with a story, imaginary or real.

In the words of Ross Gay there is a ´delight muscle´ which, like all the muscles we know, needs practice. Or, it is ´something that implies that the more you study delight, the more delight there is to study´. I was not necessarily aware about the theory of delights, but actually in practice this is what I modestly tried to understand and follow in the last two years: how to rejoice the moment, in its very existence, ´not without sorrow or fear or pain or loss. But more full of delights´.

A collection of diary-like entries, The Book of Delights is a pleasure (of the delightful type) of a book. Not only because the writing itself is a pleasure for the brain, but also because although does not avoid traumatic realities, such as the racial discrimination in America and its humiliating episodes, it does recognize the simple humanity and simplicity of beauty. Such as, the unique red of the flower growing up in the cracks of the pavement. 

The Books of Delights requires the return to the pleasure of being alive. As a human, plant or red colour.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Random Things Tours: The Girl in the Photo by Heidi Amsinck

In the last two years at least I had the chance to get to know a plethora of representatives of the Nordic Noir but it seems there is no end to the quality writing created in this part of Europe. It is a fascinating literary history in the making that I am glad I got to know and even feature on my blog.

My latest discovery is Danish-born journalist Heidi Amsinck, currently based in London. The Girl in the Photo is the second in the series featuring the curious retired journalist Jensen and his helper and apprentice Gustav. It was my first though but was easy to read it without connecting it to the previous one, My Name is Jensen. However, after getting to know the author´s style and the main cast of characters, I am definitely more than keen to start the other book as well. 

What at the first sight could have been just a murder with robbery, brutally commited against the 90 yo lrene Valborg seems to be at the second sight, more than this. Her diamond necklace was stolen therefore the aim of the culprit is almost clear. But then, soon after, there will be other victims, close to the first victim´s age, and there is a mysterious photo of a girl found at one of the crime scenes. Indeed, it seems to be more than that, and Jensen´s investigative mind is searching for connections and the ultimate thruth.

I´ve found the character of Jensen very relatable and a great match for his journalistic background. The ideas and suggestions are exactly what one may expect from a journalist and this take is largely influencing the rest of the story. He is the center of the plot, and his hints do direct the narrative in one direction or another. 

The details of the plot are revealed in a timely manner while maintaining a constant wondering on behalf of the reader. From the first until the last page it is an engaging read and I almost forgot where my time reading the book went. Well, I suppose I was busy having an imaginary dialogue with Gustav and Jensen about what should be better investigated next. 

The Girl in the Photo is an engaging crime novel with a clever ending and overall story construction. It challenges with unexpected twists and engages the reader, in the most natural storytelling way. The most adventurous way to spend one fully summer day for a crime novel lover.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour, but the opinions are, as usual, my own 

Book Review: If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English by Noor Naga

Question: ´If an Egyptian cannot speak English who gonna tell his story?´.

An American-Egyptian middle-class young woman moves from America to Egypt after the ´revolution´. Her Arabic is still artificious, but she got a position thanks to her mother´s connection, teaching English. He is a boy from the village of Shubrakhit, a former photopher of the ´revolution´, now on drugs and almost homeless. They meet, but there is no happy end - of the American princess saving the Egyptian boyfriend while she discovers herself and her praised heritage hid from her by her American immigrants parents. There is no end, because it is writing in process. But there are many questions, both about the ´American girl´ - whose name will be revealed in the very end - and the ´boy from Shubrakhit´, their own questions, our own questions.

I love to read books about identity, Middle East and revolutions, but unfortunately the demands of the publishers - assumed as the expectations of the market - are almost the same, both in terms of form and of content. A simple story, where the intention of the soul-searching human - usually a woman - of returning to the country of her ancestors is praised, rarely doubted and seldom decrypted with the real code, which in the end may reveal the foolishness of all this. If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English by Noor Naga breaks the curse - finally - with an innovative writing and out-of-the box characters and story.

It is a book about some people in post-revolutionary Egypt. They struggle, they are looking to live but is life really here? Then, of course, the second generation Egyptians, spoiled kids who went on private schools and talk the local language with a strong accent, are returning to find themselves, for their roots, wearing their fancy clothes and Fendi bags - sure, a present from the once Egyptian mother - and their shaved heads. They can leave wherever they want. However, the ´boy from Shubrakhit´ have nowhere to go. Not in Shubrakhit, not in Cairo. 

There is no romance and no revelation of the original culture and unspoiled truths of the origins - worse than any ´orientalisms´. It is a story that doesn´t go wrong or good because there is no story and there is no good or wrong. The ´post-revolutionary´ Egypt is not doing perfectly well either.

The innovative format, with different levels of inter-textuality and literary interrogations about the writing itself is a welcomed detour from the usual literary takes as well. It does not hurt the intelligence of the reader and instead, it offers a journey worth the intelligent effort. There is still hope to write creatively about identity and soul searching. 

Rating: 4.5 stars

Cristina Rivera-Garza: Grieving. Dispatches from a Wounded Country translated by Sarah Booker

 

A country at war, with an enemy, or with its own people, turns overnight into an open air cemetery. Bodies hanging, left without a grave under the burning sun. It is a collective display of hate and suffering, a collective trauma for which there is no end of grieving. Personal trauma may be never healed. ´National´, collective dramas are the dramas of individuals unable to heal. The suffering is never ending, as it is the grieving.

In Grieving. Dispatches from a Wounded Country translated by Sarah Booker, Mexican academic and author Cristina Rivera-Garza is attentively observing the effects on the war on drugs and the subsequent violence that took over the Mexican society. A social violence rooted in the anti-democratic realm polished during the enormous amount of time when the political scene was dominated by one single party: Partido Revolucionario Institutional (Institutional Revolutionary Party - PRI) who reigned between 1929-2000. Indeed, revolution can become an institution too. Everywhere, dictatorships plant the seeds of death and violence.

Rivera-Garza´s dispatches are delving deep into the social effects and implications of the outburst of violence: on the victims´ families, on women, on the social rituals and the resistance to pain. It is a different journalistic approach that one may expect, because it allows the author to scream ´injustice´ instead of just enumerating and exploring facts. Keeping yourself calm and detached is as toxic as passing near corpses on the way to work, day after day.

Grieving. Dispatches from a Wounded Country is an insightful and minutious journalistic and anthropologic chronicle. I wish we don´t have to read such accounts. However, for the times we are living, it offers inspiration on how to deal with such heavy social encounters, as it opens up the doors of perception and understanding to tell the truth, both in terms of displaying feelings and explaining facts. We may need it more than we wish for. 

Rating: 4.5 stars

Read Dangerously. The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times by Azar Nafisi

There is a sentence in Read Dangerously. The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times by best-seller author of Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi: books don´t save us from death, but help us live and live with hope. Hope is here the keyword: without hope it´s hard to survive in the real world, especially when this real world is a hateful one. Hateful against women, the freedom, the right to live itself.

Nafisi, whose book I had access to in the audiobook format, read by the author, was written during the pandemic, and Trump administration. Nafisi, in exile in the US, comes from a prestigious family in Iran. She is the niece of Saeed Nafisi and her father, Ahmad Nafisi, to whom the chapters are addressed to in the form of letters, was the mayor of Tehran between 1961 and 1963.

The times we are living, in Iran, in the world, are forcing a reevaluation of the strength of imaginary, of the power of books. Books do not betray and they can be the home you don´t have to leave. You can confess to them without the fear of being betrayed and through books one can build a house for your soul. 

Nafisi is having a real or imaginary dialogue with writers from all over the world that either approached such topics or who were turned into victims of violent minds because of their writings. One can ´read dangerously´ David Grossman - whom she meet and whose book To the End of the Land she mentioned extensively - Salman Rushdie, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison or Margaret Atwood. They are writers that at different times and in different contexts defended the right of the writer to exist, as part of the right of the reader him- or herself to have access to knowledge. 

Through all her letters, it is her love for her culture and country that remains. It is a longing for the world that would cease to hide, like women bodies, in order to exist. Because, as she said, ´readers are born free´ and once one gets the taste of reading, will always remain free.

The bibliography mentioned in the book can serve as an inspiration to anyone looking to explore more this kind of literature, made to empower the reader, even more than the usual literature do. Read Dangerously that every passionate reader should include in his or her bibliography. It is less about the dangers, but about the powers of words, that will always be stronger than power. After all, after centuries, dictators of all colours and orientations will be forgotten. Brave authors, not. There is a bet of history that power tugs are fully ignorant of and therefore, born to be losers.

Rating: 5 stars

Book Review: The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen

´This was our patterns: I challenged Richard by trying to assert my independence, and he made me pay for my transgressions´.

I must confess that I made all the wrong assumptions about the main woman character from The Wife Between Us, my second book by the writing team Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen. It may be the intention of the authors to completely confuse the reader and build up smoke mirrors reflecting the previous smoke mirrors, But I may confess as well that it was really hard to keep myself interested until the end - which has a spectacular unexpected twist. 

I am a fast and hard-working reader, and I can read a 200+ pages book in one day, but this time it took me almost two weeks, not because the writing was not good but due to the very slow pace that made me reconsider several times if I will or not finish the book.

On the other hand now, at the end of the reading journey, I dare to say that the pace was good for the kind of problem featured: domestic abuse, violent, narcissist and manipulative husband. In a ´real´ relationship it takes a lot of time to acknowledge such aggressive patterns and it takes even more time for the others to switch sides on behalf of the victim. Was it an intended effect of the writers to the reader, I don´t know, but the story made me think about it for sure.

There are three women, two actual ex-wives, one about to become one, deceived in this story. Deceived by a charming, successful and rich man who doesn´t necessarily need their love but needs to control and subdue them. Love and affection depends on interpretation and intention and sometimes the intersection between the two reveals either an error of judgment or the aim to manipulate.

I appreciate the fine net of meanings and interpretations spread all over the book, but felt that the pace and the coherence of the story was missing focus. 

Besides the wise insights into abusive relationships hard to pattern as such, The Wife Between Us is at the same time a warning about how our decisions may influence for good or for bad other people´s lives. Hence, how important is to think before we act, no matter how strong our passions may be.

Rating: 3 stars 

Random Things Tours: The Wilderness by Sarah Duguid

 

Fate works in mysterious unexpected ways. Life can change within the second and it is part of life to deal with loss, while being pushed out of the comfort zone, both mentally and practically. The Wilderness by Sarah Duguid is journey through the pain of leaving your comfort zone while mourning for your dear ones and being requested to guarantee comfort when oneself lacking any sense of emotional stability. 

Anna and David are a couple with a normal average life. A phone call change it all though, as they were requested to take care of their nieces, whose parents were killed in a car accident. A flip of fate changing their life and relationship for ever as their about to embark on a journey to unknown on the West coast of Scotland.

The story is reflected through Anna´s lenses and although it may look limitative, the choice of one point of view confers authenticity to the narrative. And where the unique perspective is not enough Sarad Duguid succeeds to introduce into the literary discussion nature descriptions that do resonate with the state of mind of the main characters. Such intermezzo offers depth and emotional content where the plot itself may be lacking.

The Wilderness by Sarah Duguid is a novel of grief, love and resilience. I loved the prose and the relative simplicity of the idea, which gives space for the characters to develop and for an intimate approach to the shape of emotions on different levels and in different contexts. 

Rating: 4.5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the blog tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own

Random Things Tours: Honor by Thrity Umrigar

 

Honor by Thrity Umrigar is a complex novel of love and hate, journalist perseverance and realistic connection with the country of your dreams. Very often, the country of your dreams may be a nightmare but from a certain point on, there is no other choice than to face the reality as it is. After all, real love is when the both sides of the story do acknowledge their shortcomings as well, beside their attractive and lovable strengths.

It is a complex novel, made of several intertwined layers and it took me some time to think and appreciate all of its hidden meanings and sub-plots.

Prompted by an article Sneeta, an Indian-American journalist, is going to India to research the story of a woman whose brothers were about to kill her and killed already her Muslim husband because she dared to marry outside her religion. We may read and heard about such stories way too often, and while doing her own research about the story, she is facing her own prejudices and freedoms, based on her education and/or passport. 

Inspired by real journalists and the author´s own experiences in the media, Honor has the merit of avoiding the usual takes on such topics: the Romanticized version of the country, or the emotional interpretation of honor killings. The reality Umrigar displays in her book, is neither black or white. It is the reality of a world that needs to be understood. Similarly with the approach of a journalist looking for the truth, the novel´s character is proceeding to a step-by-step search for her own meanings, based on her own experiences. In the end, it is more than a journalistic proceeding, it is a self-discovery which is at a certain extent expected, but the process in itself is considered through its fine and empathic stages. 

Entinced by our affordable freedoms, we may forget that for many individuals and in many cultures, it is not an achievable aim, and often, the price of assuming it, may be your dear life.

Honor will stay with me for a long time, as definitely a reference for books about cultural divisions and the toxicity of traditions, especially when applied to the very personal choices as your love mate.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour, but the opinions are, as usual, my own

Random Things Tours: The Hope Affair by Jim Chambers

 

I am fascinated by political thrillers because they are so real and rarely do not give glimpses into our everyday political realities. As a fact, British politics never deceived a literarily curious soul therefore no wonder that there are so many books inspired by them or set on the dramatic backgroud of London´s intricate intrigues. 

The Hope Affair by Jim Chambers is set between the end of the 1990s, beginning of the 2000s, but the fast-paced action can be realistically take place nowadays as well. Christopher Townsend, Caroline Hope - a civil servant, and the ´Hope´ from the title - and his lost love, Elizabeth, an many more characters, of different shades of morality, are brought together into a world of corruption and loose morality. 

When politics and business meet, there is rarely a good news following, but in The Hope Affair, this encounter is as stinky as it can get. Personal connections, love and especially loyalty, are void words in a world where what it really matters is the highest bid and calculating how much a person value, not in itself, but for further personal purposes.

It is an interesting story, well planned, and told at a fast pace. The dialogues are the salt and pepper of the story, intensifying the alert pace of the narrative.

The characters look and behave very realistically, but my favorite so far is Caroline, that reflects the usual naivety of someone who is definitely confronted with a situation unable to grasp its global intrications and implications at a larger society level. I may not like her type in real life, but in the story, she is one of the best profiled characters, acting as natural as someone like her may act, therefore adding a layer of authenticity to the narrative.

The Hope Affair is a recommended read to any politics lover, that want to take a break from the everyday political reality to refugiate in the world of fiction from where to learn even more about the infinite transfiguration of evil and his servants into everyday life.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour, but the opinions are, as usual, my own

Random Things Tours: Death Drop by Claire MacLeary

The fifth installment of the series featuring the detective team of Harcus and Laird, Death Drop by Claire MacLeary is a fast paced crime novel, with a fine take on procedures. 

It starts as you may wish a good crime story begins: ´The body swung from a crossbeam.´ With the crime expectations set high, the passionate crime novel reader can only expect that the best is about to come. 

But the corpse is just the beginning of an adventure in the world of underworld - both real and virtual. When Frankie Bain, a problematic schoolboy disappears, the stakes are even higher and the race against clock aims to find him - preferably alive.  

The writing is precise, with a constant switch from POVs, with a knowledgeable focus on procedural details and a good flavor of cybercrime (which I always fancy). The revelations are calculated and appear at the right moment when you wish more than ever to know more about the pieces of the puzzle eventually leading towards a solution to this complex case. May be sometimes that the fast pace is taking you too far without spending too much time trying to understand one point of view or another, 

There is a strong focus on sexuality but this is the frame within which the story unfolds, without any hint of vulgarity or excessive exploitation of the subject, in order to get more superficial attention. It may considered a risky choice, but the smart writing and the well organised plot saves from risky approaches.

Although the book is part of a series, those meeting the investigative for the first time can easily go into the story, with no necessary background required. Definitely, they would be more than curious to try the other five novels, but this is another good written crime story to be told.

Rating: 4 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the blog tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own

Rachel´s Random Resources: Now That You´re Here

 

A beautiful declaration of love and belonging, Now That You´re Here by York-based children book author Kate Staves, beautifully illustrated by Ekaterina Uspenskaya is the kind of books I love to read my son before going to sleep. 

Usually, our ritual is to spend some little time together before he is falling asleep, sharing the events of the day, trying to make peace and found solution for some eventual conflicts, but first and foremost, to outline how much we belong together, and how important we are one of the other. This is exactly the spirit of this book, exploring those feelings in the sweetest possible way, across various animal families and circumstances, or moments of the day.

There is nothing more important for a child than to feel welcomed in his world, and to be cherished and loved. Now, That You´re Here is an empathic declaration of love and belonging, a testimony in verses about direct bonds and that special time we all need to spend together, out of time and space.

The book can be read as a good night story, but can be also useful to be read by the child him/herself during the first months of learning to read. It is inspiring and bring that touch of colour we all need in the family nest, wherever this nest is built.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour, but the opinions are, as usual, my own

Random Things Tours: Cabin Fever : Trapped on board a cruise ship when the pandemic hit. A True Story by Michael Smith & Jonathan Franklin

 

Imagine being trapped for weeks and even months, during a strange pandemic, surrounded by people as helpless as you. With a pandemic unfolding, the world set to close while you are wandering aimlessly in the middle of the ocean, with no safe harbor.

Cabin Fever : Trapped on board a cruise ship when the pandemic hit. A True Story by Michael Smith & Jonathan Franklin is the story of Zandaam cruise that set to leave Buenos Aires, Argentina, for a couple of entertaining days at the beginning of 2020 and ended up being caught in the chaos that took over the world. 

There are many interesting aspects that make Cabin Fever a story worth reading. First there is a first hand insight into how the pandemic affected tourism and the cruise industry. Obviously, there are many controversial things about this specific way of travel, but all common prejudices put aside, it is important to acknowledge that there are people who fancy this kind of travel and Covid19 brought to people working in this industry and their depending families a lot of economic problems. 

In addition, this book is an important account and contribution to the literature, especially non-fiction, documenting the pandemic times. Written in an easy journalistic style, this book is a testimony that adds to various other testimonies about the world changes that upside-down the world at a speed faster than a cruise´s.

Last but not least, the story shared in Cabin Fever is a story of human kindness and solidarity under crisis. With only two doctors on board, unable to update to the latest medical changes ongoing in the outside world, and a Covid outbreak on board, those trapped on the cruise rediscovered basic solidarity and the need to act together, no matter the language, background or social status, in order to stay alive and get back to the shores.

Cabin Fever is a recommeded read to anyone interested to understand the challenges brought by Covid 19 from the human perspective, but also for those looking for lessons of crisis management in times of big distress.

Rating: 4 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour, but the opinions are, as usual, my own 

Book Review: Live a Little by Howard Jacobson

 

Every time I read something by Howard Jacobson I am intrigued. The books I´ve read by now, among which The Finkler Question, do display an extraordinary storytelling strength - although expressed sometimes through quite unnatural wordings - with an unique humorous effect. To be honest, I cannot name any other writer right now who can unchain so much laugh on my side. 

Live a Little, my latest read by Jacobson is a story about love in old age. Actually, very old age, as the two main protagonists of the story, Shimi Carmelli and Beryl Dusinbery, are well over 90. One - she - married several times - and fighting hard against forgetfulness. He - Shimi - never married before, with a heavy weight of regrets from becoming estranged from his brother. Around Shimi, the buzz of desire uttered by a cast of widows from North London. Shortly, a bunch of very much alive old people with desires and interests as every other young person on earth. Love and being alive does not have a term of availability. 

The characters are mostly Jewish, but the kind of ´enlightened´ Jewish approch to life that one can find in London, although co-existing with traditional forms. ´Enlightened´ means that there are not too many identity markers except being born from one or both Jewish parents.

It is a kind story, that makes the old age more relatable and less frightening. There is no age limit for falling in love, and love somes every shapes and at every moment. Also, being a widow(er) or over 60, or even 90, does not stop someone from being alive. It is an important take on life that needs to be outlined more often, as it makes life itself more liveable.

Jacobson remains an important storytelling voice of contemporary British literature and I make a mention for myself to explore more of his books in the coming months. Be it only for trying to replicate the never ending laughter I experienced in Live a Little. 

Rating: 3.5 stars

Random Things Tours: The Daves Next Door by Will Carver

 

A suicide bomber is cycling the Circle Line searching for the right moment to detonate his fully packed vest. Two men named Dave seem to share the same symptoms of a brain tumor. A nurse trying to learn how to care again after feeling fully deceived and unable to properly focus on her work. And there are more characters waiting to be discovered in The Daves Next Door by Will Carver published by Orenda Books. Like, for instance, an injured young sportsman, or a old lonely widower. Characters excentric enough to meet during your commuting time - ok, except the Daves which may be a bit extra anyway - and I appreciated how normal is their special breed. Humans are not born to be a copy-paste of one another, anyway.

Their fate is randomly intertwined and the subsequent meditation about fate and human destiny overlaps the original psychological thriller plot. The story is told backwards, starting from 2023, looking back at the events that took place during one July in 2022. 

The time span is relatively long enough to allow both the action and the reflective thread. Both sides are perfectly balanced and complete each other, having as result an original prose and literary approach. I´ve only read another book by Carver before, but The Daves Next Door appealed to me on a higher string because of the complexity of the topics as well as the original interpretation. 

In the end, there is a longing for a different world that remains at the end of the book. I am rarely reading books set in the future and I avoid too much philosophy in books featuring terrorists but this book is my notable exception. It defies categorizations and literary limits and it is enough to convince me that a good book is after all has only one label - that of a good book. 

Rating: 4.5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the blog tour, but the opinions are, as usual, my own

Random Things Tours: Secrets of an Undercover Activist by Nat Amoore

Casey, Zeke and Cookie - aka the Green Peas - are pranking in order to catch the attention of the adults in order to pay attention to serious environmental problems. Secrets of an Undercover Activist by Sydney-based Nat Amoore is a midgrade adventurous novel, which abunds in unexpected twists. 

What I really found unique to this book, in addition to the group dynamic betwen the three members of the secret society is the way in which the eco-warriors topic is used as a background for a children novel. Although it is considered generally a very ´heavy´ topic and not necessarily attractive for this age rank. However, Amoore seized the right narrative and turned an everyday life reality into a pretext for a book hard to put down, no matter the age of the reader. 

Another topic which is wisely approached and solved in the book is dealing with the loss of a parent: Casey´s mother, Trixie, died, but her memory is kept alive through her insightful cards with daily thoughts but also her passion for protecting the environment. 

Last but not least, the whole cast of characters is unique and unforgettable and so are the new words the reader - native English or not - is learning on the go, while trying to figure out the next prank of the ´Peas´. The sentences are short, reduced to an essential vocabulary, yet well paced. 

Secret of an Undercover Activist is a book of stringent actualy, translated into a midgrade language and a story which will raise for sure a lot of questions among the very young readers. Maybe some will be inspired to try some pranks too, but this is just a completely different story. Children activism - undercover or not - is part of the narrative of the new mindset and this book is an adequate illustration of the mentality in the making.

Rating: 4 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour, but the opinions are, as usual, my own.

Random Things Tours: The Realm of Smaller Things by Kent Knowles

 

Educating children in the direction of empathy is a difficult job. Part of the freedom of being ´small´ is also a self-permission to do what it suits you, especially by affecting and sometimes restraining the freedom of the other. The survival of the fittest may suit the description of the freedom of the child, the kind of uneducated, wild freedom one is keen to use stubbornly against the Rousseau principle of freedom ending short when the freedom of someone else´s starts. 

The Realm of Smaller Things is a lesson in un-learning childish cruelty. A girl is enjoying harming and torturing small things - until she is turned herself into a small creature, facing the lessons of being in the danger of being treated - although nicely in reality - similarly with the way she treats the others inhabitants of the forest. A good lessons she learned, a humanly insightful journey.

Atlanta-based children author and figurative painter Kent Knowles created a strong story to remember, particularly through the combination between the images and the text. The strong colours used for the illustration are hard to remember and in sync with the serious topics discussed. The text is short, in an accessible language for various age levels, as well as for children learning English as a second language.

The Realm of Smaller Things can be read to and by first and second grade children, a bit curious but inclined to be naughty. It offers a wide area of topics to be discussed with the children by educators and parents. It helps to educate empathy and raise awareness about how important our acts are, no matter how small we are. 

Rating: 4 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own

Book Review: Silence is a Sense by Layla AlAmmar

 

There is nothing but silence that makes sense in trauma. When the succession of events of your life are overwhelming, the right answer is silence. The silence when faced with death, existential disruption, loneliness, misunderstanding. The depression comes last. But first is the silence because being thrown into a new situation against your will and unable to do anything to change the situation leaves us without words. And then, ´silence is a sense´.

Silence is a Sense by Kuwaiti writer and academic Layla AlAmmar dares to change the literary trends based on stories of dislocation from Syria. I had enough to read and heard about the same story over and over again - both in books and in the media: poor refugees embarking on a dark journey to Europe, smuggled or surviving storms on boats, living in refugee camps at the borders with Germany or Austria, beaten by the border police in Hungary, Croatia or North Macedonia. The good happy refugee enjoying his or her life in the ´free world´, working hard to integrate and learn the language and accept menial works like cleaning and carers but hoping one day their children will be academics and ingineers and maybe doctors.

The woman character of the book lives in an unnamed British city, is mostly silent and sometimes sents articles signing the ´Voiceless´. Her editor is keen to read her stories about being caught at the border, about her journey, about being ´refugee´. As being a ´refugee´ is a mental or chronical sickness, a condition you carry with you for the rest of your life. As the refugee should have only a past as a refugee and a future as a refugee. A victim of history, maybe, but unable to be more than a victim. An eternal victim, with a before and after calculated based on this vague past.

But being ´Voiceless´ is not her choice. Is what society, Western societies particularly, expected her to be. She is a ´Voiceless´ writing articles, remembering her past before being a refugee. Her memories of her life in Syria, flowing to her while she is avidly watching the life of her neighbours, are memories of intellectual encounters and thoughts about revolution. They are not struggles to fight against religion opression, but inserted in the everyday social life. I guarantee that people in the Middle East have more social and political issues to talk about. 

Those people we randomly label as ´refugees´ are not necessarily poor - actually many of those escaping are rather middle class, people able to afford the costs of the journey - non-educated/illiterate. They are people with their own intellectual stamina and sometimes twice as educated as the official processing their asylum application. 

Silence is a Sense is not criticizing all this, but rather tries to open up and offer an alternative story. It offers a different narrative, written poetically, that may give a voice to the ´Voiceless´ whose name is revealed at the end of the book. It´s an intellectual journey reversing with the strength of the word everything we may be convinced to think about due to the overuse of the simplicity principle.

Rating: 5 stars

Book Review: We Had to Remove This Post translated by Emma Rault

Books inspired by social media and the ways in which it changes ourselves and our relationships are my favorite. I will simply leave any other book and immerse into the virtual realities and real challenges because it helps to better understand the world we are living in, but equally are examples of creative inspiration from the everyday reality. 

We Had to Remove this Post by acclaimed Dutch writer Hanna Bervoets, translated into English by Emma Rault, is a novella following Kayleigh working for the social network Hexa - which rhymes with Meta, of course - as a content supervisor. Her duty is to check, based on an elaborated code of practices and standards elaborated by the company, which posts do not have an offensive content - violence, suicide, pornography ... you name it.  The final posts allowed online do articulate a world view in the same way those who are left behind are part of the contemporary narrative.

I had the chance to talk with few people working for the Facebook offices in charge with such content evaluation jobs and they hated their assignments, their work and the world. Stories of horrible videos and pictures humans like everyone of us recorded and wanted to post online are as real as the atrocities we, humans, inflict to one another. Only that the online world is just another tool to propagate them.

In the end, the decisions of simple humans - guided by a code of online conduct - shape our worldview: all those cats and funny animals may make us happier but it´s far from this. In fact, there is a never-ending discussion about social media as a source of harm or/and a blessing, and particularly German and French public opinion - that I am familiar with - is very vocal about the negative parts.

We Had to Remove this Post though does summarize and include some of those topics, from the perspective of a single individual, with her own needs and failures. Kayleigh fell in love with a colleague and the work is an intrusive part of their private life and eventual break-up.  

Somehow though, the pieces of life and the meditations about the social network are not always seamed together. May it be the short length of the story or the disbalance between the heavy philosophical background and the facts. Sometimes it is hard to include the line of thought into a story without sounding apologetic - for or against, doesn´t matter. The risk is to create just another book inspired by current events who is taken over by the events. 

It seems that I still have to wait a bit more until reading a book in real literary sync with the social media world we are living in - although Fake Accounts is not so bad either.

Rating: 2.5 stars

Random Things Tours: Night Shadows by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir translated by Victoria Cribbs

 

Night Shadows by Icelandic author Eva Björg Ægisdóttir, translated into English by Victoria Cribbs, is an intricate tale built up with the highest finesse and attention to the smallest plot detail. 

Iceland detective Elma is requested to investigate the death of a young man during an unexpected fire accident in Akranes. But the more she and her team are digging deep into the incident, the more surprising the details discovered. Such as the fact that the fire was not an accident but an arson act, and it seems that there is more than one corpse. Meanwhile, Elma herself is dealing with her own personal issues and the terrible secrets she is discovering while investigating this case put her in moral danger.

This is just a short outline of the plot, which leaves over 70% of the rest of the story to be discovered by the reader him/herself.

I love thrillers because it allows me to get involved in searching for a solution myself, obviously based by the details revealed be the author. Sometimes I do guess the ending, sometimes part of it. In the case of Night Shadows, I was completely at lost. As mere details were revealed - at wisely calculate times and moments - , the whole prediction was proved fully wrong in just a delicate twirl of a new twist. It´s annoying, indeed, especially for someone so highly competitive as me, but it´s the good kind of annoyance, that happens when you deal with some intellectually changing person or, in this particular case, story.

With Night Shadows, one of my favorite thriller and mystery edition houses, Orenda Books (here you can find more reviews of their titles) rewards the mystery and crime reader with just another extraordinary suspenseful read. My particular pleasure of reading this book was to have been given the chance to read about some details about Icelandic pronunciation. Thus, the reader is more than immersed into the story, but equally introduced to a culture and its language.

Eva Björg Ægisdóttir herself is born in the city where the action of the book takes place, in Akranes, a port city in the Western part of the country. Night Shadows is part of the trilogy Forbidden Iceland, featuring Elma as the main investigative character. The book can be easily read without being familiar with the others, but it opens the appetite for further readings. Eva Björg Ægisdóttir is the winner of the CWA John Creasey New Blood Dagger for The Creak on the Stairs. 

Rating: 4.5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the blog tour, but the opinions are, as usual, my own

Random Things Tours: Lies at Her Door by A.A.Abbott

 

Set in the posh middle-class area of Bristol, Lies at Her Door by A.A.Abbott is a whodunnit with a bourgeois touch exploring young friendships and betrayal. 

The quiet beauty of the Georgian houses is shattered by the discovery of a bunch of human remains in Lucy Freeman´s yard during an accidental giant sinkhole collapse. In her early 30s, Freeman seems to go through a moment of self-doubt and insatisfaction: a carer for her terminally ill mother, with a life in the shadow of her successful music star brother. The accident will though completely shake her world, especially after it is proved that the remains belong to Jason Jardene, an ex-member of her brother´s band that disappeared for a couple of years already. 

The book is built through various angles and perspectives shared by the main protagonists of the story, which is always a brilliant idea when it comes to crime thrillers. Thus, one can have a broad overview of possibilities and intentions. However, I´ve felt that for such a short book, the pace is relatively slow and so it is the distance between the revelation of one possible element and the other. Of a higher interest for me was the revelation of the net of rivalities and envy between the members of her brother´s band for their human insights, particularly on dysfunctional relationships.

The expression ´lies at someone´s door´ means bearing responsibility, a task that not too many of us may be ready to assume. The ending is one of hope, in both a better future and it looks like Lucy, despite all the challenges, she was given a chance of her own and assumed the responsibility of her own life, and no one else´s.

A.A.Abbott is a passionate British crime and thriller authors, and Lies at Her Door is her ninth book. 

Rating: 3.5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the blog tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own.

Medusa´s Daughter

 

Inspired by the Greek myth of Medusa - punished by gods for being seducted in the Temple of Athena to have her hair changed into snakes - the third collection of poetry by Jane Rosenberg LaForge explores topics like freedom and inheritance of fate through the dynamic of the relationship between mother and daughter.

The force of the myth is transmutated into contemporary approaches. Is the myth an inspiration for the contemporary take? Does it make any sense to use the myth for the contemporary rendition? It is not too pompous to use mythology nowadays, even it has to do with the perfect freedom of poetic purposes?

It is not unexpected - at least, not for me - to use the myth and in fact, the constant reference to the Medusa across various poetic episodes added extra layers - particularly dramatic ones, to the poetic account. At a certain extent even matches the motherly reference, although a Medusa is the least one may expect from a mother figure. 

However I´ve feel sometimes the shadow of the Medusa too heavy and compelling the prose to attain a resemblance of Greek myth. Maybe I need to revisit the story of the Medusa and its literary reverberations but nevertheless it was an intellectually rewarding (poetic) challenge because it brought my anti-classical mind very far away from the comfort zone, at least twice - the second being on a poetic ride. 

But freedom is a matter of words too in the end, and the snaked-haired Gorgon may be a good background for a relationship that is always expected to be challenging. Medusa´s fate was sealed by the gods, but was it her fate and her mother´s also pre-determined by inheritance and genetics and the laws of the outside occurrences? LaForge is Jewish and there are references about it scaterred across the stories as allusions to inheritance of fate.

Will Poetry Save the World?

 

Jean-Pierre Siméon, Goncourt de la Poésie in 2016, answers optimistically ´yes´. Poetry he says, using in his support quotes from poets like Aragon, is a different order of the verb, it recreates the reality and brings worlds together in the most unexpected ways. 

Poetry saves the world, he says, because it can change our way in which we are aware of the world. ´La poésie est ce qui n'exige pas d'être compris et qui exige la révolte de l'oreille´, he quotes Aragon. Not the mind, the brain, the sight...just the ear should rebel. A revolution of the earsight leading to a revolution of the hearts and minds.

Celan often repeated Adorno´s ´To write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric´ (Cultural Criticism and Society, 1949), acknowledging its power but when words lost their essence, meaning is re-invented. Dictators - new and old - are delighted to hear poems about themselves or in their honor. There are the same words we use to express love or the clay-words poetry plays with to redefine the new layer of reality.

I am still finding my way through poetic worlds. As a reader keen to travel to another worlds of the mind yet reluctant to reclaim my space. I am also skeptical by nature and cynical sometimes, because no one can save the world if words lost their meaning. However, I still believe in the mesmerizing power of the Shir HaShirim and Celan and Apollinaire and Eluard and Forugh Farrokhzad and of all the many poets I haven´t read yet. 

 

Book Review: She´s Mine by A.A.Chaudhuri

 

There are thriller books you can read at the pace of your mind, in a couple of days or maybe weeks, into bits, like a precious delicious cake you want to not spoil it´s uniqueness but having it all at once. But there are also books - not too many for my stuck to the order, over-organised being - that refuse to leave you alone until you deciphered the last bit of its mystery. She´s Mine by A.A.Chaudhuri  whose latest book, The Loyal Friend, I reviewed last week on my blog. 

Told from the perspective of various intervenants, all part of the same story, She´s Mine is a story of betrayal, mind-games and dangerous efforts of playing Gods. It made me think how hard one´s revenge can go and why being honest and trustworthy is a personal responsibility. Playing nonchalantly with the trust other people invested in us - as friends, spouses, simple humans - opens up the darkest chambers of the soul leaving the army of evils to invade our mind. It´s a matter of personal choice to avoid doing it.

The sudden disappearance of her daughter Heidi destroyed Chrissy and her family for ever. Unable to bond with her other two children, born after the incident, the absent part of her marriage, trying to punish herself by over-exercising and self-inflicted eating limitations. She languished through life with no hope: both professionally and personally her life ended when Heidi disappeared. The promise of a new therapist that may bring her into a happier place made her forget her misery for a while. Until mysterious messages trying alluding to well-hidden secrets about an affair that haunted her for the rest of her life.

The plot so masterfully built piece by piece by A.A.Chaudhuri doesn´t leave you too much space to guess. Only your highest attention is required because every single element revealed is important for the next revelation. Every single page there are new hints offered that are about to confuse completely the timeline again and again. It´s an exercise of imagination and patience the readers is requested to practice and although I developped some vague ideas about the kidnapper, nothing prepared me for the details of the story.

Although all the details are almost perfectly falling together as in a game of cards, there were some details about Dr. Freya Cousins who for me were not fully credible, like for instance the fact that Chrissy could figure out about her persona while paying for her sessions. 

But otherwise, She´s Mine is a pleasure for the lovers of psychological thrillers and after reading two of Chaudhuri´s books I am definitely joining her trustful readers who cannot wait until her new book is out on the market.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Book Review: The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

´They are the only ones who understand me. I am the only one who understands them. Four skinny trees with skinny necks and pointy elbows like mine. Four who do not belong here but are here. Four raggedy excuses planted by the city´.

There are books far before their intellectual time and readers who are reading the books far behind their peak moment. As in life, trying to think twice before being judgemental will only bring a better perspective of the context of a specific book. 

I´ve read The House on Mango Street by Mexican-American writer Sandra Cisneros relatively late, many years after the 25th anniversary edition. When published, in the second half of the 1980s, the book was considered an unique story about the struggles of Mexican families in the US with domestic abuse, sexual harassment, poverty and discrimination. The book was subsequently taught in school and an example of Mexican-American approach to identity and ´ethnic otherness´ in a time when such topics were new to both grasp literarily and intellectually.

Set on Mango Street, a suburb of Chicago, it includes a series of vignettes told in the voice of Esperanza Cordero, a young girl dreaming of a white Mexican house, and her neighbours and friends. Most of them seem to be legal immigrants, therefore there is no legal drama surrounding their status, but their struggle is in trying to make a life, life their life or dream their possible lives.

The vignettes are short snapshots into the life and encounters Esperanza is experiencing, a great way to cover a topic from different angles and perspectives. What in my opinion is an achievement of this book is the sync to a teenage girl voice, which sounds genuine and direct. For instance, Esperanza is describing without judging or conceptualizing, and only our adult mines and mental habits can figure out what she is actually talking about - like, for instance, when she mentioned being kissed on the mouth by an older man, a fact she is describing as such in one of her short installments.

Definitely since The House on Mango Street was published, many books treating similar subjects, some much better, was published, both on Chicano topics or other immigration-, feminist- or other similar topics. However, Cisneros wrote Mexican-American history by being one of the first women authors to introduce those subjects to the public debate. 

Rating: 3.5 stars

My June Movie Selection

I wish I have more time to watch more movies. When there is so much work to do and lessons to prepare, I rarely can focus in the evenings - the only part of the day when I can freely and unbothered watch a movie - on anything but organising the schedule for the next day. As I cannot watch movies while commuting, as it happens in the case of the books that always accompany my journey across the city, the movie watching department always suffers and unless I will spend days and days just binge watching - which is most likely impossible in the next 30 years or so - there is no chance to watch more than maximum 6-7 movies the day.

However, this month I had the chance to add some movies to my meagre film collection, some of them I wanted to watch for a long time. 

Joker directed by Todd Phillips 

A mentally troubled stand-up comedian is caught into an absurd game of circumstances and turns into an avatar of riots in Gotham City. There are times of social unrest where the law is becoming unlaw. In order to survive, emotionally and physically, you eliminate the cause of your pain instead of going away. Joaquin Phoenix plays a very refined and complex role in one of the saddest movie I´ve watched in a long time. The take on mental health is frontal, without adornments and messages of positivity. Before turning the others into hell, oneself is the door in the front of which all hopes die.

There is No Evil directed by Mohammad Rasoulof

Rasoulof is not allowed to turn movies in Iran and There is No Evil was filmed illegally and therefore it is currently forbidden. Currently available on Amazon Prime, it includes four stories of four average people, some young, whose lives do have encounters with the death penalty. They are no evil, and they don´t want to do evil, but in a world where the moral values are reversed and instrumentalized, the guilt is fluid. 

The young man who wanted to see his girlfriend as soon as possible, accepted to be part of the execution squad to get his leave earlier. As they meet, and he is about to propose any time soon, she is mourning the death of a dear family friend, just executed because of his political activities. It happens to be the man the boyfriend co-killed because he wanted to impress his superiors and see her. 

The everyday drama of encountering evil is heartbreaking, beyond the clear philosophical questions it raises.

Quo Vadis, Aida directed by Jasmila Žbanić

Aida, a former teacher and translator for the UN during the war in Bosnia is duped into believing that her husband and sons will be taken on a safe location. In fact, all the men will be killed in cold blood by the Serbian paratroopers leaded by the war criminal Ratko Mladic. In Europe, over 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed at Srebenica. UN, represented by the Dutch blue helmets, accepted a deal offered by Mladic with a naivity that in politics is called stupidity. 

The incompetence that lead to the genocide is perfectly portrayed in Quo Vadis, Aida, as it is the hardship of starting life again in a human void. For me, this is the best movie ever featuring the terrible crimes committed during the Balkan Wars. A lesson that was never learnt enough: there are terrible crimes committed in Ukraine or in Yemen or in Syria. And there are terrible incompetent international bureaucrats unable to grasp the meaning of their mission, beyond the glamour expected from adding ´missions´ to the CV.

Children of the Decree directed by Florin Iepan

I don´t understand why all the religious maniacs from all over the world got together and get out of this world before destroying even more life. Why was it needed to reverse Roe vs. Wade decision and return to a time of darkness for women bodies? Why those maniacs not keep themselves busy doing their religious obsessions without going out of their caves and attack women?

The abortion ban reminded to many of the times of the women of Romania whose bodies were regulated by a different kind of maniacs: two illiterates and their clique of peasants. The Romanian dictatorship was one of the most absurd and cruel from the communist countries and the ban on abortions was a horrible experience. Children of the Decree (after the infamous Decree 770 from 1967) directed by Florin Iepan testified about the trauma of a generation of parents forced to have children and their children who were born by the accident of the law. Terrible times generated by terrible people and a trauma that was never healed.

Elser directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel

Georg Elser was largely unknown unless a couple of years ago. A carpenter from the South of Germany who never supported the Nazi Party and its criminal leader, he failed to killed Hitler in a bomb attack that missed him by a couple of minutes. Elser, an unusual hero, is presented as an average citizen who couldn´t stand the moral degradation and decided to act on his own, even though the price was his own life. Elser died in Dachau, executed a couple of days only before the complete victory against Germany. Elser´s straightforwardness draws of line beyond which there is no excuse for the popular models of ´resistant´, many of them former Nazi supporters. (Another noticeable exception is the former chancellor Willy Brandt). 

The film is mostly based telling the story than playing with the internal game of guilt and cowardness, therefore maybe missed some potential sub-plots that would have put more salt on the wounds of a past which cannot heal through ignorance.

For the next weeks, I still have movies from the previous months that I haven´t watched yet therefore, some of them with a deep moral/historical topic but hopefully also some light ones for more summer rest and relaxation. Maybe.