The Books We Read

  If you could choose to be a creature of land, air or sea, what would you choose to be? I’d choose the air , said she Why would I not want to see the zillion glittering stars above me and below me What would give me the same adrenaline rush as free falling and the gravity pull  Or the peace when I view the zenith from a vantage point far above And I can be wherever I want to be. Land or sea can be here or there, but with air i can be anywhere, everywhere. Yes,    creature of the air is what l’d want to be, said she

  Recommended: Yes,   though it took me a long time to realise that the book was going back and forth and in parallel a bit with time - could be just my newness with reading in digital format . The book will make for an awesome movie - a visual treat, however, reading each word builds the anticipation which seeing the entire scene on a screen might not do justice. An awesome book to illustrate on - so many scenes to choose from! Spoiler: No The circus arrives without warning. The disagreement between a teacher and his student about the ways of the world, about permanence and endurance and time lead to a game to test whose methods were better.  Two students , unknown to each other , never having a choice on whether they’d want to play, are pitted against each other in a challenge of chaos and control to see which technique is strongest. One of them survives. The other has to die for the challenge to end.The teachers fail to realise that the challengers become dependen...

 Recommended: Yes, though may not be of your genre. The book could be more interesting. Spoiler : Yes. I will mention when to stop reading. The Dig is a 2021 British drama film directed by Simon Stone, based on the 2007 novel of the same name by John Preston, which reimagines the real events of the 1939 excavation of Sutton Hoo.  https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/death-and-memory/anglo-saxon-ship-burial-sutton-hoo The movie starts with excavator Basil Brown taking the boat to Edith Pretty’s land in Suffolk. It is 1939. Basil Brown is a self taught excavator discounted by his employer the Ipswich Museum for his lack of formal education. Basil Brown’s suggestion that the burial grounds at the site are older than the Viking era is ignored. What is buried there? What happens to the artefacts ? SPOILER ahead.  It’s the start of WW2. Mrs Pretty is a widow with a young son. She respects Mr Brown regardless of his lack of formal education and trust his educated instincts. ...

 Recommended : Yes, especially for kids. Spoilers: No, but I have also indicated where you can stop reading if you don’t want more details. Janet’s debut novel is about a 12 year old black girl Zoe Washington who is being raised by her mom and white step father. Zoe loves baking and dreams of winning the kids baking competition and win 20000$ + get her one book published.  On her 12th bday Zoe accidentally finds that her biological father, a murder convict in jail, has been writing to get but her mom never let her receive those letters. That starts Zoe’s quest for getting to know her father more, and unearth if he was really a murderer.  The book talks about how black kids at a young age are introduced to racial injustice, that it’s common for blacks to be convicted of crimes and put in jail without a fair trial. The book talks about the Innocence Project a non profit org with a mission to release people wrongly convicted of crimes. STOP READING if you plan to read the bo...

 Recommended: Yes Spoiler : Yes. I will clearly state when to stop reading to avoid the spoiler. I like reading writers from different countries. Their writing gives you a feel of the local culture, politics, social dynamics. Yamen is from Tunisia. His book was written in French, published 2021 by a Tunisian publication to ensure that the book was accessible by Tunisian readers.I read the English translation. The period is after the Arab Spring when different parties - political and religious were trying to gain power through the first democratic elections. The book is also an allegory. You get to know a lot about bee keeping, and it’s super interesting!  Sidi is a bee keeper, in a small village Nawa in northern Tunisia. No one cares about the village existence, and so the villagers lead a quite life with little excitement. The villagers are poor, the nearest school is miles away and no one listens to the news. With the old regime there wasn’t anything new ever. Sidi lives a c...