Friday, January 8, 2010

“Library to offer book reviews - Altavista” plus 2 more

“Library to offer book reviews - Altavista” plus 2 more

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Library to offer book reviews - Altavista

Posted: 04 Jan 2010 06:41 AM PST

New and notable book reviews - AZCentral.com

Posted: 01 Jan 2010 03:56 PM PST

'Noah's Compass'

Anne Tyler

(Knopf, $25.95)

Tyler writes with such unaffected charm that her novels feel like guilty pleasures - until, of course, she takes her characters into some of the most complex chapters of their lives. Here, it's 60-year-old Liam Pennywell, once-widowed and once-divorced, who is fired from his job as a teacher at a private boys school and then, after he has moved to a smaller apartment to start his new life, is knocked unconscious by someone who breaks in during the night. Liam spends a day or two in the hospital being poked and prodded by doctors and hovered over by his ex-wife and three daughters. But what haunts him is that he cannot remember the attack at all, and he begins a furtive quest to jog his memory and find those lost hours. In the process, he strikes up a relationship with a younger woman named Eunice, who is unorthodox (not unlike Muriel in Tyler's "The Accidental Tourist") and inspires in Liam the sort of "astonished pleasure" he has forgotten how to feel. Once again, Tyler reminds us that there is strange magic in ordinary lives.

'The Butterflies of Grand Canyon'

Margaret Erhart

(Plume, $15)

In this novel, the canyon is more character than setting. It's often in the background, but when it takes center stage nothing else in the book can beat it. In 1951, Jane Merkel comes from St. Louis with her older spouse, Morris, to visit his sister and her husband, who live on the South Rim. Morris then returns home, but Jane stays on and falls into a flustered but intense relationship with a young park ranger. Meanwhile, two female botanists arrive at the request of their friend Emery Kolb, one of the famous brothers who photographed the Grand Canyon and had many adventures there. In Erhart's book, Kolb becomes a suspect in a 13-year-old murder, and he asks the botanists to search for the truth. The story is uneven (the murder plotline all but disappears while the romance takes shape), and zany coincidences abound. It's like an old-fashioned movie, full of blushes and exclamation points but with an ending that's surprisingly poignant. And always, there's that breathtaking presence waiting just beyond the trees.

'Becoming Jane Eyre'

Sheila Kohler

(Penguin, $15)

Can this be, is it possible that this little woman wrote "Jane Eyre"? That's what publisher George Smith asks himself as he stares at the diminutive, plainly dressed woman who has come into his London office in August 1848. "You?" he sputters aloud. "You are the author of 'Jane Eyre'?" Yes, it's true, although she is frightened of giving up her anonymity and exposing herself to strangers. Under the name Currer Bell, she has written the best-seller that has set London abuzz. What's more, according to this fictional portrait of Charlotte Bronte, much of Jane's character was drawn from Bronte's experiences and put to paper in an effort that was mentally and physically cathartic. If you read and loved "Jane Eyre," Kohler's novel will not just take you back to the experience. It will add to it. The book has its own dark and brooding moments (it opens with Charlotte's care of her father after a brutal eye operation), but it also is quiet, intelligent and seemingly as unflappable as Jane herself. Enjoy.

'Cutting for Stone'

Abraham Verghese

(Vintage, $15.95)

The title, borrowed from the Hippocratic oath, is fitting because this enchanting first novel, now new in paperback, is steeped in the practice of medicine. The narrator is Marion Stone, who at 50 looks back on his birth, with his twin brother, Shiva, in Ethiopia in 1954. Their mother, a nun from India who worked at Missing Hospital in Addis Ababa, died during birth. Their father is Thomas Stone, the hospital's British surgeon, who is so wounded by her death that he flees the country and disappears for 200 pages. His boys are raised lovingly by two remarkable Indian doctors who remain at Missing Hospital through the final years of Haile Selassie's rule. Marion later goes to America as a young doctor and reconnects with his long-absent father. While Verghese has a weakness for melodrama, his tenderness for his characters and respect for the healing arts (he, too, is a doctor) give it a loveliness - especially in his portrayal of the twins' birth and early life in Ethiopia - that's hard to forget.

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Book Reviews - Egypt Today

Posted: 04 Jan 2010 08:28 AM PST


Ahlam Fatret Al-Naqaha (Dreams Of Recovery) Naguib Mahfouz (LE 8)


The book's 'dreams' are 146 short narratives written by Nobel Prize laureate Naguib Mahfouz, one of Egypt's most significant contemporary writers, in 1994, while he was recovering from an attempt on his life. Some of the dreams are only made up of a few words and most of them are less than a page long. Mahfouz was injured and depressed, but his dreams offer a surprisingly fast-paced and entertaining read.

Through this brief journey, the reader shares the writer's loneliness, isolation and fear of death: " When we lifted the lid of the box, we saw a terrifying snake that warned of death to whomever approached it," Mahfouz writes in one of his dreams. In his 129th dream, he imagines being on a mountaintop, extending his hand to help another climber; but far from being grateful, the man pulls his benefactor down. A few of the narratives are pleasurable fantasies: In one of them, a beautiful woman on a cart pulled by winged horses flies over minarets and rooftops, eventually landing on the peak of Giza's Great Pyramid. Most of the book's dreams are nostalgic memories of people and places, such as the famous nationalist musician Sayed Darwish and his old home in Abbassiya.

In general, a somber, melancholic and, in some instances, almost macabre atmosphere prevails throughout the anthology. In his 119th dream, the author writes: "I arrived at the station at a critical time and took my place in the queue leading to the ticket booth. I remained between the cart and window until the final whistle sounded. I was still so far from the window. And this is how I missed the train."

The 11-page preface was written by journalist and writer Sanaa el Beesy as a tribute to Mahfouz, on the occasion of his 93rd birthday.

Farouk: Min Al-Milad Ila Al-Raheel (Farouk: From Birth To Departure) Latifa Mohammed Salem (LE 70)

This is the third edition of the single most unbiased reference written on the life and times of King Farouk. Salem takes us through the controversy surrounding his life using solid references to shed light on previously unknown facts. The book begins with a look at the young King's upbringing in preparation for his future position. It then takes a closer look at political life in Egypt under his rule, examining the majority and the minority parties, the schism between Islam and Arabism, the positions of different ideological groups, life at the Palace and the military.

The chapter "The Eagle and The Bear" — metaphors for the United States and Russia — analyzes the foreign political scene; Britain is also mentioned more than once in this section. The 10th chapter is one of the most interesting, as it gives a detailed account of the King's lavish lifestyle as well as focusing on his apparently possessive nature and reputation as a gambler.

After the 11th and final chapter, entitled "The Fall," the third edition also contains a special supplement about the King's experiences during his final days in exile. The only major drawback of this book is the relative lack of images – the few photos are crammed at the end in a tiny appendix.

Asr El-Elm (The Age of Science)Ahmed Zewail (LE 30)

In the preface, Egyptian Nobel Prize laureate Naguib Mahfouz describes Asr El-Elm as, " a book that deserves to be read word by word, if for anything then for the extreme importance of its critical topics." The book is an investigation of the reasons behind the extreme development of some nations, the recent extraordinary upheaval of others and the continuous decline of the rest of the world.

The book comprises two parts, separated by an interesting full-color photo gallery that includes a collection of pictures portraying the author with many celebrities on different occasions over the years.

The first part is dedicated to the tremendously engaging autobiography of the author, divided into five eras, from his birth and upbringing in Egypt to his life in the United States, where he obtained a postgraduate degree — with a 'behind the scenes' look at his journey toward winning the Nobel Prize.

The second part includes enlightening articles, public lectures, an outline for the implementation of a non-profit educational and research facility (the University of Science and Technology and the Technology Park, for which land was allocated in 2000 at Sixth of October City but implementation did not follow) and the speech that Zewail gave during his decoration by the Egyptian government in 1999.

This is an inspiring book, written by an inspired writer who is not only evidently a talented economist, but also a great storyteller.

Nithar Al-Mahw, Dafatir leltadween: Al-Daftar Al-Khamis (Scatterings of Obliteration, Notebooks: Notebook Number Five) Gamal El-Ghitany (LE 20)

As the title suggests, this is a sort of scrapbook put together by one of Egypt's greatest contemporary thinkers. It's the fifth of El-Ghitany's intriguing personal journals and it takes the reader on a journey inside the brain of this true master.

The highest points of the book are the occasional paragraphs entitled "Question." In some of them, the author philosophizes on issues such as "Where did yesterday go?" "Do we get born to die? Or die to get born?" and "White, Black Black, White which comes first?"

Another topic that seems to grab El-Ghitany's attention is architecture, as confirmed by his recent appearance on a satellite TV show about this topic. In his notebook, El-Ghitany analyzes traditional Islamic architecture both in Egypt and Morocco.

He also often recalls personal experiences, such as hearing news of the war on the radio while he was going back home from work or listening, as a child, to the words of an old teacher in class. Sometimes, through his words, the author draws caricatures of people seen through his window as they walk on the street.

A mixture of reality and fantasy, pessimism and optimism, tragedy and humor, El-Ghitany's notebook is an interesting read – and not just for die-hard El-Gheitany fans. et

All books reviewed here are 2005 editions from Dar El-Shorouk, available at Madbouli and finer bookstores everywhere. See et guide/listings, page 182 for the address of your neighborhood book shop.
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