December Didn’t Disappoint
Posted: 2019/01/03 Filed under: E-Books, Fiction, NonFiction | Tags: africa, Anthony Burgess, astronaut, audio books, Bill Adler Jr, books, Carl Raswan, childrens book, Delia Owens, Diana Athill, Dorothy Dunnett, e-books, editor, fantasy, Fiction, historical, Jeffrey Kluger, Jim Lovell, Mark Owens, memoir, middle east, NonFiction, Philip Pullman, racism, sad, science fiction, Sena Jeter Naslund, series, southern, Tahar Ben Jelloun, time travel, Ursula Le Guin Leave a commentI may not be happy with my personal life in regards to fitness, health, and so on, but I am definitely satisfied with the number of books I was able to check off my Challenge list for the month of December. Special thanks to my kisa who did all the driving up and back and around the great state of Maine.
Fiction:
- The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin (EB/print).
- Any Old Iron by Anthony Burgess.
- Four Spirits by Sena Jeter Naslund.
- This Blinding Absence of Light by Tahar Ben Jelloun.
- Time Machines: the Best Time Travel Stories Ever Written edited by Bill Adler, Jr.
Nonfiction:
- The Black Tents of Arabia: (My Life Among the Bedouins by Carl Raswan.
- Lost Moon: the Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13 by Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger.
- The Female Eunuch by Germain Greer.
- Stet: a Memoir by Diana Athill (EB and print).
- Cry of the Kalahari by Mark and Delia Owens (EB and print).
Series continuations:
- Unicorn Hunt by Dorothy Dunnett. Confessional: I did not finish this.
- The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman (EB/print/AB).
Black Tents of Arabia
Posted: 2018/12/30 Filed under: Book Reviews, Lust To Go, NonFiction | Tags: 2018, adventure, book lust iii, book review, Carl Raswan, december, middle east, NonFiction Leave a commentRaswan, Carl R. The Black Tents of Arabia: My Life Among the Bedouins. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1935.
Reason read: The movie, Lawrence of Arabia, was released in December of 1962.
Raswan spent more than twenty years with different Bedouin tribes of Arabia. He went along with them hunting, raiding, battling and surviving as they migrated across the unforgiving arid desert. He submersed himself in the Ruala tribe, learning their customs and traditions on an intimate level. This intimacy and his passion for Arabian horses helped him escape enemy clutches when they were ambushed more than once. How he managed to avoid certain death was beyond me.
Raswan’s language has the ability to take the reader on his adventurous journey. In Black Tents of Arabia he had a way of describing sights and sounds that brought his wild experiences to life. Here’s one of my favorites, “In our tumble-down car there were now no less that seven men: Ibrahim, Ali, two Bedouin rafiqs, two soldiers, and myself; also a gazelle, a greyhound, and two hens. We were packed like sardines: we had to hold on to anything that we could and change grips when the hand threatened to go to sleep. But with thirteen arms interlaced (Ibrahim’s free arm controlled the steering-wheel) we prevented the car from falling apart, nor could any passenger fall out without the knowledge of the others” (p 122).
Quote I needed to quote: Here’s an example of romance in the desert. Faris says to his love, “The blade of my dagger reminds me that I shall never be at peace until the slender blossom bends before the storm of my love” (p 61).
Author fact: Raswan took all of the photographs featured in Black Tents of Arabia.
Book trivia: There are a generous number of photographs in Black Tents of Arabia. I counted over 65 photographs and they are remarkable.
Nancy said: Pearl said Black Tents of Arabia is “a hymn of joy and affection for the nomadic life” (p 25).
BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called Arabia Deserta” (p 23).
Six Days of War
Posted: 2018/07/03 Filed under: Book Reviews, BookLust I, NonFiction | Tags: 2018, book lust i, book review, june, Michael Oren, middle east, NonFiction, war Leave a commentOren, Michael B. Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Reason read: the Six Day War took place in June.
Oren’s challenge was to weave together an accurate account of the Six Day War that covered many different perspectives from a myriad of sources. All sides of the conflict needed to be represented and not just from the perspective of battles and conflict. He needed to produce an account that was not only balanced and unbiased, but thorough in its investigation and analysis. This was accomplished through meticulous and extensive research.
Author fact: Oren is a former ambassador to the United States
Book trivia: Six Days of War includes a fair collection of black and white photographs as well as maps to orientate you.
Nancy said: Six Days of War is “massively thorough and equally readable” (Book Lust, p 154).
BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “The Middle East” (p 154).
Coast of Incense
Posted: 2018/03/28 Filed under: Book Reviews, BookLust I, NonFiction | Tags: 2018, autobiography, book lust i, book review, Freya Stark, march, middle east, NonFiction, travel Leave a commentStark, Freya. The Coast of Incense: Autobiography 1933 – 1939. London: John Murray, 1953.
Reason read: to finish the autobiography of Freya Stark, started in January in honor of her birth month.
Freya Stark was born to travel. Unafraid. Unconcerned with custom, tradition or the assumed proper behavior of the single woman, Stark was a woman who did as she pleased. Long fascinated with maps she set out to be a lady “traveller” in the middle east. She thought it fun to be “a speck on the map of Arabia” (p 58). The only reoccurring obstacle in her way was illness, whether it be dysentery or the measles, or her heart, she was frequently bed ridden. Never the less she traveled throughout the Hadhramout of South Arabia. As with her other autobiographies, Stark introduces each chapter with a present day impression followed by alternating letters from the time frame. She is careful to weave memory with retrospection to build a compelling portrait of her life.
Personally, I loved her descriptions of Himyar, her pet lizard the best.
Best quotes, “…for no iron curtain yet discovered will stand against the pressure and persistence of life, and I still hope to live long enough to write about an opening door” (preface, p xiii), “..and again astonished me with the strangeness of being rewarded for what one likes to do – although it is, perhaps the best thing to be rewarded for” (p 15), and “A young Yemeni teacher comes three hours a week and Arabic is pouring back into my brain” (p 40).
Author fact: Stark was one feisty woman. Take these quotes for example, “I spent a long time the night before wondering whether I should take our little revolver and shoot the Duce as he came by” (p 6). Then there is this: “Little details one would never think of, such as one’s hostess stopping in the middle of dinner to see if there is vaseline on your knife, as it has just come out of someone’s waistband” (p 72) and “…”but I walked on, stolid and angry, with an occasional remark, on the wickedness of robbing travellers, thrown behind me” (p 246).
Book trivia: The Coast of Incense has a great collection of photographs. There is one of Freya looking like a model in Athens that I just love.
Nancy said: nothing that hasn’t already been said somewhere else.
BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Lady Travellers” (p 142).
