Boston Anneleri Kitap Kulubu

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

2011-08-23T05:22:00.000-07:00

Location: Barnes & Noble

When: 08/10/2011 7:30pm

Shiva and Marion Praise Stone come into the world as identical twins attached at the skull. Their father, a British surgeon living in Ethiopia, abandons them within moments of their birth, and their mother (a nun who kept her pregnancy secret from everyone) dies without holding them in her arms. The two brothers are raised in and around the hospital in which they are born. Called Missing. a misspelling of the intended name Mission, its name coincides with one of the major themes of the novel: missing people, missing fathers, missing clues, etc… Abraham Verghese’s sprawling family saga spans nearly fifty years and takes the readers from Ethiopia, to New York, to Boston, and back to the small village in Africa where the story first began.

Marion narrates the novel, taking the reader back to when his mother first makes her voyage to Africa as a young first novitiate of the Carmelite Order of Madras. While traveling there she meets Thomas Stone, a skilled British surgeon, and the first glimmerings of their love begin. In the first part of the book, the reader is introduced to Matron (Missing’s wise leader), Hema (a gynecologist who becomes the boys’ adoptive mother), Ghosh (a warm and caring doctor who imbues Marion with the desire to become a surgeon), Rosina (the boys’ nursemaid), and Genet (Rosina’s young daughter who steals Marion’s heart). Once the characters have been established, the novel moves forward building on the lives of the characters and pulling the reader into their stories.

Verghese’s debut novel is centered around the twins who although are physically identical, are very different people. Their connection as brothers is tested throughout the book, and although the reader sees their relationship through only the eyes of Marion, it is a compelling look at siblings, specifically twins.

He was the rake, and I the erstwhile virgin; he the genius who acquired knowledge effortlessly while I toiled in the night for the same mastery; he the famous fistula surgeon, and I just another trauma surgeon. Had we switched roles, it wouldn’t have mattered one bit to the universe. – from Cutting for Stone -
http://www.caribousmom.com/2010/08/08/cutting-for-stone-book-review/

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

2011-08-23T05:15:00.000-07:00

Location:Barnes & Noble

When:06/08/2011 7:30pm

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Kathryn Stockett’s phenomenal debut novel The Help, set in Jackson, Mississippi in 1962, is told from the perspectives of three very different women. Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan is fresh out of college and back at her parents’ home in Jackson, Mississippi. Her dream is to become a writer. Her mother’s dream is for her to find a well-to-do Southern boy from a good family with a healthy trust fund and get married. Bored with her friends and frustrated by the way they talk to and about their maids—the help—Skeeter dreams up an idea that could change life in Jackson for the better, but it is quite a dangerous proposition.

Aibileen Clark is a fifty-something black woman who works as a maid for Elizabeth Leefolt, one of Skeeter’s close friends. Aibileen has spent her life raising other people’s children and is still mourning her son Treelore, who died in a horrible accident three years ago. Aibileen is stoic and strong, and she knows her place, but she understands what the ladies she works for are really all about. More

http://www.thebookladysblog.com/2009/02/09/book-review-the-help-by-kathryn-stockett/

Siirler

2011-08-23T05:11:00.000-07:00

Location: Ruhan's
When: 4/13/2011 7:30pm

Sectigimiz sair/sairler hakkinda biraz bilgi toparlayip paylasagiz ve begendigimiz, okumak istedigimiz siirlerini okuyacagiz.

Buddha: A Story of Enlightenment by Deepak Chopra.

2011-08-23T05:04:00.000-07:00

Location: Barnes and Noble

When: 02/09/2011 7:30pm

Buddha: A Story of Enlightenment by Deepak Chopra.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Eastern philosophy popularizer and mind-body pioneer Chopra has done novels before, and critics have not found fiction his long suit. That should change with this tale of how the Indian prince Siddhartha came to be the enlightened one, the Buddha. The subject is tailor-made for Chopra. He can draw on what he's familiar with: the ancient Indian culture that shaped the historic personage of the Buddha, and the powers of mind that meditation harnesses. Although the novel begins a little slowly with exposition and character introduction, once the character of the Buddha is old enough to occupy center stage, Chopra simply portrays the natural internal conflict experienced by any human seeking spiritual wisdom and transformation. Centered on a single character, the narrative moves forward simply and inexorably. Especially imaginative and intriguing is the low-key nature of the Buddha's enlightenment experience. In case Chopra's fans want something more direct, an epilogue and concluding "practical guide" offer nonfiction commentary and teaching on core Buddhist principles. Chopra thanks a film director friend for sparking the project, and the novel has clear cinematic potential. This fast and easy-to-read book teaches without being didactic. Chopra scores a fiction winner. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Chopra is best known for his spiritual how-to books. Here, he turns to fiction (though he adds a how-to epilogue), writing about the life of Prince Siddhartha, who became the Buddha. Chopra divides his book into three parts. The first chronicles the youth of a motherless boy who has a destiny: to be a spiritual leader as foretold by astronomers at his birth. But his powerful father refuses to bow to fate and keeps his son isolated from the world. In the second part, Siddhartha, now a husband and father, sees suffering and decides to leave his life of leisure and become a monk. Despite extreme asceticism and a duel with a demon, enlightenment eludes him. In the final section, Siddhartha sees the error of trying to defeat his body and, in one night, achieves enlightenment and becomes the Buddha. The Buddha's story is compelling, and though Chopra's writing can be overly dramatic and his language flowery, he captures the essence of the spiritual seeker, sometimes shockingly single-minded in the pursuit of illumination. When the novel ends, the explanations begin, with Chopra providing a Q and A about the tenets of Buddhism. Many will find his "answers" as enigmatic as they are enlightening. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Benim Adim Kirmizi/My name is Red

2011-08-23T04:58:00.000-07:00

Location: Barnes and Noble

When: Tuesday December 7, 2010, 7:30pm

Benim Adim Kirmizi/My name is Red by Orhan Pamuk

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Acclaimed Turkish novelist Pamuk offers this fascinating murder mystery set against the backdrop of 16th-century Istanbul. The story surrounds a sultan who commissions a book to celebrate his life and times, as well as a set of talented artists hired to recreate the work in the European style. But when one of the artists disappears, the answer to his whereabouts seems to lie in the images themselves. British narrator John Lee reads with a classical tone, drawing on his theatrical experience to create a rousing, epic, but personal reading sure to appeal to a wide range of listeners. Lee reads with such inherent skill that his words seem to be coming straight from memory, recreating Pamuk's ancient world in colorful clarity. A Knopf hardcover (Reviews, Aug. 6).
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

From Library Journal

In 16th-century Istanbul, master miniaturist and illuminator of books Enishte Effendi is commissioned to illustrate a book celebrating the sultan. Soon he lies dead at the bottom of a well, and how he got there is the crux of this novel. A number of narrators give testimony to what they know about the circumstances surrounding the murder. The stories accumulate and become more detailed as the novel progresses, giving the reader not only a nontraditional murder mystery but insight into the mores and customs of the time. In addition, this is both an examination of the way figurative art is viewed within Islam and a love story that demonstrates the tricky mechanics of marriage laws. Award-winning Turkish author Pamuk (The White Castle) creatively casts the novel with colorful characters (including such entities as a tree and a gold coin) and provides a palpable sense of atmosphere of the Ottoman Empire that history and literary fans will appreciate. Recommended. Marc Kloszewski, Indiana Free Lib., PA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

2010-09-14T15:13:00.000-07:00

Location: Sibel's

When: Tuesday September 21, 2010, 7:30pm

Audrey Niffenegger throws you into a pretty perplexing scenario at the start of The Time Traveler's Wife. Here are a woman and a man meeting in a Chicago library, but while Clare clearly knows Henry and has done for ages, Henry doesn't have a clue who she is. This, we gradually understand, is because he has been travelling from his future to her past, and in that past they fell in love, so he hasn't yet met her in his own present. Somehow, that tangled mess of tenses sorts out on the page into a scene that is entirely comprehensible and rather charming.

Niffenegger goes on to exploit the possibilities of her fantasy scenario with immense skill: no wonder this first novel has spent weeks on the bestseller lists in the US. Her version of time travel lends itself to neat comedy - it is an uncontrollable condition, which means Henry can find himself sucked out of the present and thrown naked into another time and place at any moment.

For instance, when Clare and Henry finally get married, with all their family and friends in attendance, he is maddeningly whisked away just before the ceremony. But luckily, through one of the sweet coincidences that is a feature of Niffenegger's world, an older Henry falls through the years to take his place, and only the most observant of guests wonders about his suddenly grizzled appearance.

Even at such a carefully composed moment of comedy, Niffenegger keeps the pitch tuned not just to the mechanics of her magical world, but also to the emotions of the couple. This is what saves this novel from being just a childish joke: her ability to mesh the japes with a careful grounding in the dynamics of character and relationship. Take away the time travel, and you have a writer reminiscent of Anne Tyler and Carol Shields, who captures the rhythms of intimacy, who burrows into the particularities of family life. Because she builds this scaffolding of domesticity, what you remember is the realism as well as the fantasy, and through much of the book the time travel works to enhance the reality rather than take over from it.

When Clare first makes love with Henry she is 18, but he has travelled back in time, and in his present he is 41, has been married to her for years, and is finding their relationship going through a bad patch. After they make love, he is pulled back into his present with the thirtysomething Clare, who is waiting for him crossly: "Henry's been gone for almost 24 hours now, and as usual I'm torn between thinking obsessively about when and where he might be and being pissed at him for not being here... I hear Henry whistling as he comes up the path through the garden, into the studio. He stomps the snow off his boots and shrugs off his coat. He's looking marvellous, really happy. My heart is racing and I take a wild guess: 'May 24, 1989?' 'Yes, oh yes,' Henry scoops me up, and swings me around. Now I'm laughing; we're both laughing."

This scene epitomises the best thing about this book, which is the way Niffenegger uses time travel as a way of expressing the sense of slippage that you get in any relationship - that you could be living through a slightly different love story from the one your partner is experiencing. And she certainly weaves her plot well. This is one of those books that makes you want to eat it up from start to finish, eager to see how the twisted curves of time will be straightened out. But despite the way that I felt sucked through the novel, the book's limitations eventually begin to grate.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2004/jan/31/featuresreviews.guardianreview17

The Piano Teacher by Janice Y K Lee

2010-09-14T15:04:00.000-07:00

Location: Sibel's

When: Monday May 24, 2010, 7:30pm

“That’s us, the British colonials, battling against our circum stances, always,” the formidable Edwina Storch says to Claire Pendleton over tea one sweltering afternoon. Most of the colony’s British residents are cultivating a lifestyle of potted palms and potted duck. But not 28-year-old Claire. While her compatriots wilt and sweat, she glows. Hong Kong suits her. “Something about the tropical clime had ripened her appearance, brought everything into harmony.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/18/books/review/Fugard-t.html

Alamut by Vladimir Bartol

2010-09-14T14:53:00.000-07:00

Location: Alkim's

When: Thursday March 25, 2010, 7:30pm

Alamut is set at the end of the 11th century, and tells the story of the legendary Hasan ibn Sabbah's plan to conquer, utilising the first 'Assassins'. Ensconced in the practically impregnable Alamut fortress, the Ismaili leader does not have great armies at his disposal -- but he does have a plan.

The novel begins by focussing on two young individuals who are among the many cogs in Hasan's plan. Halima is a young girl who had been sold off in distant Bukhara and has now been transported to Alamut, not knowing what awaits her. The buyer promised her previous master that she: "would live like a princess", and she does find herself in a sort of paradise. There are many other girls and women there -- and a few eunuchs to take care of their needs, and teach them -- and while there are a variety of lessons that fill much of the day, life there is almost idyllic. Even leopards and gazelles frolic together .... . But the girls aren't sure what they're being groomed for.
At about the same time as Halim arrives at Alamut a young man named Avani ibn Tahir also reaches it. He is an Ismaili whose grandfather was beheaded -- "the first martyr for our cause in Iran" -- and whose father has sent him to serve the Ismaili cause and avenge his grandfather's death. He is taken in and begins a rigorous training with a number of other young men to become fedayeen ("A feday is an Ismaili who's ready to sacrifice himself without hesitation at the order of the supreme commander").
Hasan remains far removed from most of the goings-on, helping add to the air of mystery about him. But he has grand ambitions:

He was the master of thirty armed fortresses. He was the commander of thousands of believers. He lacked only one tool to assume absolute power. To become feared by all potentates and foreign despots far and wide. That tool was the plan just now on the verge of being launched. A plan built on thorough knowledge of nature and human weakness. An insane and wild plan. A plan calculated in every respect.

He's embraced the idea that: "The truth is unknowable. Therefore we believe in nothing and have no limits on what we can do." But that doesn't stop him from using the teachings and the lore of Islam to get his way. His followers believe: "He's the prophet", first after Allah himself -- and so if he says it's okay for the girls to have some wine then they can enjoy some wine. http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/slovenia/bartolv.htm

The Fourty Rules of Love by Elif Safak

2010-09-14T14:46:00.000-07:00

Location: Beliz's
When: Thursday, Januray 14, 2010 7:30PM

The Forty Rules of Love is the follow-up novel to Turkish author Elif Shafak's 2007 novel,The Bastard of Istanbul. Ella Rubinstein is forty years old, the mother of three, and she is stuck in a rut. She remains married to her husband, David, and stays in the marriage although she suspects her husband of cheating on her numerous times. Her life is one of ease and financial security, but it lacks passion. Determined to re-enter the work force after taking a break to raise her children, Ella takes a job as a reader for a literary agent. The first book that she is given to read and summarize is Sweet Blasphemy, a novel that tells the story of how the great poet Rumi met Shams of Tabriz, the man who changed Rumi's path in life forever. As Ella reads this novel she begins an intimate correspondence with Aziz Zahara, the author of the novel, because she has found something in Aziz's words that is desperately missing from her own life.

Shafak has chosen to write the book using parallel narratives, a daring choice that pays off in her case. One narrative is that of Ella, and we join her as she experiences discontent in her own life, highlighted as she reads the story that the literary agency has assigned to her. The other narrative tells the story of Shams of Tabriz, the whirling dervish who enters the great Rumi's life and impacts it greatly. Although this potentially could have been confusing, it is not, as Shafak writes with such grace that we are clear on whose story she is telling, and how that story relates to the other one.http://book-chic.blogspot.com/2010/03/review-forty-rules-of-love-by-elif.html

2010-09-14T14:36:00.000-07:00

Wish Club by Kim Strickland

Location: Dilhan's
When: Thursday, December 3, 2009 7:30PM

tella Cameron gets back to romance basics in The Wish Club and it works well for her and for her readers. There's an honest, fresh quality to this story that I found missing from the author's last couple of books. Although the plot of this book is simple and familiar, two people from very different backgrounds fall in love, the story line is insightful and the character development of the hero is very good. The Wish Club includes — what has come to be obligatory in books by Cameron — some kinky sex between the villains, but not much. The author has a good story and doesn't need the filler.

Because of the kindness of a good man, ten-year-old Max and his sister were rescued from the streets of London. Straun Rossmara, Viscount Hunsingore, not only rescued the two illegitimate and unwanted children, he adopted them and gave them his name. Max Rossmara grew up adoring his father, his family and the daughter of a tenant farmer on his uncle's estate in Scotland, Kristy Mercer....http://www.theromancereader.com/cameron-wish.html

Subat Ayi Kitap Secim Anketi

2010-01-29T18:20:00.000-08:00

Lutfen kitap secimi icin asagidaki link'i tiklayip listeden en cok okumak istediginiz 4 kitabi isaretleyin. Oylama sonucuna gore onumuzdeki dort ay icin okuyacagimiz kitaplari ayni anda secmis olacagiz. Lutfen oyunuzu 3 Subat 2010 Carsamba gunune kadar kullanin. Persembe gunu sonuclari aciklayacagiz.

Click here to take survey-Ankete katilmak icin lutfen buraya tiklayin

Seciminizi yaptiktan sonra lutfen en altdaki "Done" tusuna basmayi unutmayin!

You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation

2009-09-27T17:55:00.000-07:00

Location: Barnes and Noble98 Middlesex ParkwayBurlington, MA 01803 US
When: Thursday, October 29, 7:30PM

Have you ever had a conversation with someone of the opposite sex that seemed like you were operating on different wavelengths, or that the conversation you thought you were having was interpreted completely differently by the other party? Dr. Tannen argues that it's not in your head: women and men in conversation is much closer to cross-cultural communication than we might imagine. She then goes on to enumerate the many ways that miscommunication arises based on the different ways we tend to speak and interpret conversations: through the lens of status (men) or connection (women).Dr. Tannen's research, including transcripts of conversations from studies of boys, girls, men, and women of various ages and anecdotal evidence from real conversations persuasively makes the case for the status and connection at work in every conversation. I appreciated that the author never makes a moral judgment about the way one or the other interprets the conversation. She merely explains what's going on from each point of view, giving each party the language to express what they're trying to do or say. I recognized many conversations as ones I have had with my brother, my father, and male friends. Some of the topics she touches on, such as high-involvement/high-considerate and direct/indirect ways of speaking are beneficial even in conversations with people of the same sex (for example, as a "high-involvement speaker" I can now explain to my family that I really do end a sentence with "and" waiting for someone to overlap my speech). Because she ties everything back to the original ideas of status and connection, her comments on conversations do become a bit repetitive after awhile. But her conversational style and clear presentation of a persuasive argument make this book worth reading.
(http://www.librarything.com/work/1345249)

Istanbullular by Buket Uzuner

2009-09-27T14:37:00.000-07:00

Location: Serpil'in evi

When: 09/22/09 , 7:30PM

Yaz 2005. Yalnızlıklar ve imkânsız aşklar şehri İstanbul. Atatürk Havalimanı. Belgin, Ayhan ve diğerleri. Sonunda artık hiçbirinin eskisi gibi olmayacağı 4 saatlik serüven.İstanbullular romanı, Atatürk Havalimanı dış hatlar terminalinde, sevse de sevmese de hepsinin İstanbul' la gönül, iş, ekmek, yurt ve/veya kimlik bağları olan, 15 kişinin hayatla, kendileriyle, hiç beklenmedik büyük bir tehditle ve İstanbul' un kendisiyle yüzleşmelerinin hikâyesini anlatıyor.İstanbul'un kendisinin de bir anlatıcı- karakter olduğu roman, modernitenin ve şehrin sınırında; genetik bilimciden-gurbetçi işçiye, taksi şoförunden-ünlü bir heykeltıraşa, tuvalet temizlikçisinden-mimarlar odası eski başkanına kadar İstanbullu 15 kişinin yollarının kesiştiği bir ortamda, yüzyılımızın göçlerle genişlemiş İstanbul' undan, dolayısıyla Türkiye' sinden bir kesit sunuyor. Bir İstanbul romanının en olmazsa olmazı aşksa elbette baş köşede yer alıyor!13 yıl önce hayatını değiştiren trajik bir olayı İstanbul'la özdeşleştirerek şehri terk edip New York'a yerleşen Bebekli bilim kadını-akademisyen Belgin Gümüş'ün (41), orada bir sergi açılışında tanıştığı ünlü Türk heykeltıraş Ayhan Pozaner'e (38) aşık olur. Birlikte yeni bir hayat kurmak üzere İstanbul'a dönmekte olan Belgin hamiledir ve bebeği doğurma konusunda kararsızdır. İstanbul'a ve Ayhan'a olan aşkı, her türlü ihanetten çok çekmiş biri olarak onu ürkütmektedir.Aslen Adanalı pamuk işçisi bir çiftin yedinci çocuğu olarak doğan, müstehcen bulunduğu için sürekli parçalanan Maçka Parkı'ndaki heykellerini tekrar tekrar onarmasıyla tanınan heykeltıraş Ayhan Pozaner, kendi 'İstanbul Rüyası' nı gerçekleştirebilmiş ender bir 'İstanbullu'dur. Darüşafaka Lisesi ve Mimar Sinan Güzel Sanatlar mezunu, 'kendi kendini yetiştirmiş' bir insan olan Ayhan, kendisinden yaşça büyük, kültürel/sınıfsal olarak farklı bir burjuva kızı olan Belgin'e sırılsıklam aşıktır ama tıpkı İstanbul'a duyduğu ürpertili hayranlık gibi bu aşktan da ürkmektedir.Aynı havalimanı çatısı altında pasaport kontrol çizgisinin iki yanında bekleyen Ayhan ve Belgin, aşktan ve İstanbul'dan korkarak, kararsız, tedirgin; özlemle ve suçlulukla yanarak, her an birbirlerinden, İstanbul' dan kaçmayı düşünmektedirler.Bu sırada dış hatlar terminalinde bir dijital arıza nedeniyle bütün uçuşların iptal edildiği ANONS edilir. Herkes bu ANONS'un bir bomba ihbarıyla ilgili olduğundan kuşkulanır ve ölüm endişesiyle iç hesaplaşmaya girer. Tuvalet temizlik işçisi varoşlu Hasret Sefertaş, pasaport polisi şoven Üzeyir Seferihisar, taksi şoförü İstanbullu Kürt Hamo Türk, Duty Free müdürü İstanbullu laik Yahudi Jak Sarfati, Moskova'dan dönen liberal işadamı Mehmet Emin Entek, onun genç sevgilisi ve asistanı Tijen Derya, türban yasağı nedeniyle Amerika'da üniversite eğitimi almaya giden türbanlı Aleynâ Gülsefer, Cannes'da bir festivale giden ünlü sinema yazarı İstanbullu Levanten Anna Maria Vernier, Fransa'da okuyan kızını
ziyaretten dönen Fransızca öğretmeni İstanbullu Ermeni Ayda Seferyan, yurtdışında yaşayan kızı ve torununu ziyaretten yaşadığı Büyükada'ya dönen emekli tarih öğretmeni Kemalist Ulviye Yeniçağ, Barcelona'daki bir mimarlık konferansında Türkiye'yi temsil eden İstanbullu aktivist, ünlü mimar Erol Argunsoy, onun genç sevgilisi havalimanı barmeni İ. Baturcan Uzunçay, Atina'ya göçmüş akrabalarını ziyarete giden Boğaziçi Üniversitesi çevre bilimci İstanbullu Rum Prof. Yannis Seferis, San Francisco'daki ailesini ziyarete giden İstanbullu turizmci Susan Constance Berlin'den tatile gelen Alevî işçi Sabriye Bektaş ve Belgin'i karşılamaya gelen dadısı, dert ortağı, eski besleme İstanbullu Kete...

...

http://www.buketuzuner.com/TR/kitaplar_romanlar_istanbullular.asp

Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist by Michael J. Fox

2009-09-27T14:30:00.000-07:00

Location: Ruhan'in Evi
When: 6/26/09, 7:30PM

Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist by Michael J. Fox

Long before I discovered that Michael J. Fox had Parkinson's disease, I had already been an ardent fan and admirer. Growing up watching Family Ties and his movies, I was heavily influenced by his own distinct brand of dry wit and comedy. So when I found his first memoir, the number one bestseller Lucky Man (2003), I devoured the book in one sitting. It was a funny, witty and truly moving book.
His second book, Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist isn't really a memoir. Although Mr. Fox peppers this book with some very funny anecdotes about his life experiences, it's really more of a collection of personal essays dealing with his views on four themes: work, faith, family and politics. These themes are spread out into four chapters.
Always Looking Up deals more with his battle with Parkinson's, picking up where Lucky Man left behind, but delves into more serious tones as he chronicles his battles with the disease. Luckily, the reader is spared from depressing narratives, and rightfully so, because the title does suggest optimism.
Michael J. Fox is a particularly gifted writer, though, as he states in the book, he has never finished high school or college, and one has to marvel at how articulate he can be.This in itself is testament to the man's unrelenting passion for continuous improvement, particularly so, given the crippling nature of Parkinson's.

...
http://blogcritics.org/books/article/book-review-always-looking-up-the/

Heart and Soul by Maeve Binchy

2009-04-29T16:55:00.000-07:00

Location: Serra'nin Evi
When: Wednesday, April 29, 7:30PM

Heart and Soul by Maeve Binchy

Another delightful Binchyesque amalgamation of intersecting lives...The collective, charming effect of these story lines suggests that individuals are more connected than they might think." –Publishers Weekly"Only a curmudgeon could resist this master of cheerful, read-by-the-fire comfort." –Kirkus Reviews"Interweaving the domestic narratives of a dissimilar collection of individuals is beloved Binchy's stock-in-trade, and once again, she does so with sublime ease, inventively engaging readers through a reassuring and persuasive combination of gracious warmth, gentle humor, and genuine affection." –Carol Haggas, Booklist“Ambitious and intelligently conceived...A heart clinic is really the perfect metaphor for how this book feels. It's a warm and comfy world [and reading Heart and Soul is] not unlike getting a hug from your mother...Binchy's millions-strong readership...will not be disappointed.” –William Kowalski, The Globe and Mail (Toronto)"Oh, the bliss...Maeve's back, on top form...The heart is the theme, literally and metaphorically, and this is heartwarming stuff–sweet but never cloying." –The Times"[Maeve Binchy] knows how to fashion a minor drama into a crisis, and the book rattles along from one gripping story to another, leaving the reader with a satisfying glow...It does exactly what it says on the tin: gives heart and soul." –Daily Mail"[Heart and Soul] brings together the secret hopes and dreams of a disparate group of characters...with [Binchy's] trademark warmth and empathy." –Irish Sunday Independent"Maeve Binchy's latest novel is packed as usual with wonderful characters...Full of warmth, caring and commonsense." –CHOICE
http://www.diesel-ebooks.com/cgi-bin/item/parent-9780307265791/Heart-and-Soul-eBook.html

The Next Thing on My List by Jill Smolinski

2009-04-29T16:48:00.000-07:00

Event:Kitap Klubu Mart Ayi Toplantisi
Location:Alkim'in Evi
When:Thu, 03/12/09, 7:30PM

The Next Thing on My List by Jill Smolinski

The new novel from Jill Smolinski ("Flip-Flopped") takes a trendy concept and spins it into a charming tale, albeit with a few holes. She creates yet another cookie-cutter chick-lit world, where the heroine, June, is a little witty and a little self-conscious and works at a job in which she is underappreciated. Then comes the whirlwind transformation that turns her world upside down and elicits positive change.
After a Weight Watchers meeting, June is in a car accident. Her passenger, a 24-year-old woman, dies. After soul-searching and a push from outside forces, June decides to finish the dead girl's list of "20 Things to Do by My 25th Birthday."
From "eat ice cream in public" to "change a life," the items begin to make June into a better person. She sees the world around her differently and opens herself to new possibilities. The story is complicated by June's attraction to the dead girl's brother, a traffic reporter who can help her career, one in which women climb the corporate ladder if they look good in a tight skirt.
June's lack of self-esteem muddles the plot as everyone around her has to build her up to see what they see: an attractive and able career woman who can stand on her own feet. Also troubling is June's lack of emotion; Smolinski would have made the novel more interesting if she included the emotional turmoil of a woman trying to make amends after a fatal accident.
This is summer reading candy. The pages seem to turn themselves, but the story never quite reaches the emotional or adventurous pinnacle it strives to attain.

http://www.tbo.com/entertainment/books/MGBN8ZHR42F.html

Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution

2009-04-29T16:43:00.000-07:00

Event:Kitap Klubu Ocak Ayi Toplantisi
Location:Sibel Babacan
When:Wed, 02/4/09, 7:30PM

Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution

Thomas L. Friedman's no. 1 bestseller The World Is Flat has helped millions of readers to see globalization in a new way. Now Friedman brings a fresh outlook to the crises of destabilizing climate change and rising competition for energy—both of which could poison our world if we do not act quickly and collectively. His argument speaks to all of us who are concerned about the state of America in the global future.
Friedman proposes that an ambitious national strategy—which he calls "Geo-Greenism"—is not only what we need to save the planet from overheating; it is what we need to make America healthier, richer, more innovative, more productive, and more secure.
As in The World Is Flat, he explains a new era—the Energy-Climate era—through an illuminating account of recent events. He shows how 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and the flattening of the world by the Internet (which brought 3 billion new consumers onto the world stage) have combined to bring climate and energy issues to Main Street. But they have not gone very far down Main Street; the much-touted "green revolution" has hardly begun. With all that in mind, Friedman sets out the clean-technology breakthroughs we, and the world, will need; he shows that the ET (Energy Technology) revolution will be both transformative and disruptive; and he explains why America must lead this revolution—with the first Green President and a Green New Deal, spurred by the Greenest Generation.
Hot, Flat, and Crowded is classic Thomas L. Friedman—fearless, incisive, forward-looking, and rich in surprising common sense about the world we live in today.
http://www.thomaslfriedman.com/bookshelf/hot-flat-and-crowded

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver

2009-04-29T16:36:00.000-07:00

Event:Kitap Klubu Aralik Ayi Toplantisi
Location:Barnes and Noble
98 Middlesex Parkway, Burlington, MA
When:Wed, 12/17/08, 7:30PM

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin is the true story of Mortenson's work building schools in remote villages in Pakistan. Mortenson moves from a lost climber who promises a school to one small village to a major player in promoting peace through education in Pakistan and Afghanistan. His story is too crazy to be made up. Three Cups of Tea is good reading for anyone who wants to understand more about Central Asia and be inspired by what one humble person can do.
http://bestsellers.about.com/od/memoirs/gr/three_cups_tea.htm

Eat, Pray, Love Yazar by Elizabeth Gilbert

2009-04-29T16:29:00.000-07:00

Event:Kitap Klubu Ekim Ayi Toplantisi
Location: Barnes and Noble
98 Middlesex Parkway, Burlington, MA
When:Tue, 10/28/08, 7:30PM

Eat, Pray, Love Yazar by Elizabeth Gilbert

Review by JENNIFER EGAN
Published: February 26, 2006
Early on in "Eat, Pray, Love," her travelogue of spiritual seeking, the novelist and journalist Elizabeth Gilbert gives a characteristically frank rundown of her traveling skills: tall and blond, she doesn't blend well physically in most places; she's lazy about research and prone to digestive woes. "But my one mighty travel talent is that I can make friends with anybody," she writes. "I can make friends with the dead. . . . If there isn't anyone else around to talk to, I could probably make friends with a four-foot-tall pile of Sheetrock." This is easy to believe. If a more likable writer than Gilbert is currently in print, I haven't found him or her. And I don't mean this as consolation prize, along the lines of: but she's really, really nice. I mean that Gilbert's prose is fueled by a mix of intelligence, wit and colloquial exuberance that is close to irresistible, and makes the reader only too glad to join the posse of friends and devotees who have the pleasure of listening in. Her previous work of nonfiction, "The Last American Man" (she's also the author of a fine story collection and a novel), was a portrait of a modern-day wilderness expert that became an evocative meditation on the American frontier, and was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2002.
Here, Gilbert's subject is herself. Reeling from a contentious divorce, a volatile rebound romance and a bout of depression, she decided at 34 to spend a year traveling in Italy, India and Indonesia. "I wanted to explore one aspect of myself set against the backdrop of each country, in a place that has traditionally done that one thing very well," she writes. "I wanted to explore the art of pleasure in Italy, the art of devotion in India and, in Indonesia, the art of balancing the two." Her trip was financed by an advance on the book she already planned to write, and "Eat, Pray, Love" is the mixed result.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/26/books/review/26egan.html

The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak

2009-04-29T15:48:00.000-07:00

Event:Kitap Klubu Eylul Ayi Toplantisi
Location:Barnes and Noble 98 Middlesex Parkway, Burlington, MA
When: Tue, 09/23/08, 7:30PM

The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak

The human memory can either be a blessing or a curse; a blessing because it allows you to hold onto moments in time that you cherish and a curse because it won't let you forget things you'd rather not remember. No matter how hard you try, once something has been observed and recorded by your brain it's stored there permanently unless you have that piece of your brain killed - and even that isn't foolproof because nobody's quite sure which parts of the brain do what. Memories thought isolated to one part of the mind can migrate of their own volition and show up again somewhere else completely unexpected and unwanted.
History is a recording of past events that sometimes has nothing to do with what actually happened, but unlike memories, history has a way of surviving unchallenged. Somehow because it is written down, or recorded officially, it is considered much more accurate than anything the human brain is capable of remembering. The fact that histories are sometimes written by people with vested interests in how they read and years after the events recounted took place doesn't seem to change anyone's opinion of their veracity. Only in the face of irrefutable evidence can history be re-written, and even then there will always be resistance.
All of us have a history; we were all born, we all were children, adolescents (a time a lot of would choose to forget if we could, I'm sure), young adults, and so on down the line until we die. As we age we formulate our own histories based on the memories we have of the days we've lived. Yet like any history there are points in time that are beyond the reach of our own memories, and we have to rely on what other people claim has happened.

http://blogcritics.org/books/article/book-review-the-bastard-of-istanbul/

Life's a Beach by Claire Cook

2008-05-23T17:25:00.000-07:00

Kitap Kulubunun bulusma tarihi ve saati: Tuesday, June 17, 7:30PM

Kitap Kulubunun bulusma yeri: Sehnaz'in evi -Acton

Tartisilacak Kitap: Life's a Beach by Claire Cook

Synopses & Reviews
Publisher Comments:
By the bestselling author of Must Love Dogs, the story of two grown-up sisters who fight like cats andd dogs ��” but call each other at least twice a day.
When Must Love Dogs was published, the Chicago Tribune called it "pitch-perfect" and the Washington Post declared, "Readers will hope that Claire Cook will be telling breezy summer stories from the South Shore of Massachusetts for seasons to come." Luckily for her legions of fans, Cook returns with another sparkling romantic comedy that's reminiscent of Must Love Dogs in all the right ways, but very much its own animal — about a relationship-challenged single woman, her quirky-to-put-it-mildly extended family, and the summer the shark movie came to town.
Life's a bit of a beach these days for Ginger Walsh, who's single at forty-one and living back home in the family FROG (Finished Room Over Garage). She's hoping for a more fulfilling life as a sea glass artist, but instead is babysitting her sister's kids and sharing overnights with Noah, her sexy artist boyfriend with commitment issues and a dog Ginger's cat isn't too crazy about. Geri, her BlackBerry-obsessed sister, is also nearly over the deep end about her pending fiftieth birthday (and might just drag Ginger with her). Toss in a dumpster-picking father, a Kama Sutra T-shirt-wearing mother, a movie crew come to town with a very cute gaffer, an on-again-off-again glassblower boyfriend, plus a couple of Red Hat realtors, and hilarity ensues. The perfect summer read, Life's a Beach is a warm, witty, and wise look at what it takes to move forward at any stage in life.
Review:
"Must Love Dogs author Cook returns with Ginger Walsh, 41, who has ditched her job in sales and moved above her parent's garage with a cat she calls Boyfriend — despite (or because of) her casual relationship with alluring glassblower Noah. As big sister Geri gets anxious about her impending 50th, their parents decide to sell the house, and Geri's second-grader Riley lands a small role in a horror movie being filmed in their quaint New England town. Ginger babysits Riley on the set and meets a gaffer who may be charming enough to make her forget all about Noah. Cook's wit and unflagging heart save this moderately paced beach read from its anticlimactic ending. (June)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
Review:
"'Must Love Dogs author Cook returns with Ginger Walsh, 41, who has ditched her job in sales and moved above her parent's garage with a cat she calls Boyfriend — despite (or because of) her casual relationship with alluring glassblower Noah. As big sister Geri gets anxious about her impending 50th, their parents decide to sell the house, and Geri's second-grader Riley lands a small role in a horror movie being filmed in their quaint New England town. Ginger babysits Riley on the set and meets a gaffer who may be charming enough to make her forget all about Noah. Cook's wit and unflagging heart save this moderately paced beach read from its anticlimactic ending. (June)' Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
Review:
"Cook...ably catalogues the issues facing 40-something women, but the generic settings and tepid romances prevent this book from taking off." Kirkus Reviews
Review:
"In this lighthearted, breezy read, Cook...displays a wry sense of humor and knows how to write realistic characters." Library Journal
Review:
"[F]illed with hilarity, sister love and sister hate, juicy arguments and hard-won reconciliations, but most of all, heart." Adriana Trigiani, author of Return to Big Stone Gap
Synopsis:
From the bestselling author of "Must Love Dogs" comes the story of two grown-up sisters who fight like cats and dogs--but call each other at least twice a day.
back to top
About the Author
Claire Cook is the author of Must Love Dogs, Multiple Choice, and Ready to Fall. She lives in Scituate, Massachusetts, with her husband, where they are occasionally visited by their borderline adult children and their laundry.(http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9781401303242-2)

The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler

2008-05-23T17:19:00.000-07:00

The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler

ABOUT THE BOOK
Macon Leary hates travelling and writes guide books for these businessmen who feel the same. The ‘Accidental Tourist’ series tells them how to travel in such a way that they will feel that they have never left home. Macon however, finds himself unable to provide a guidebook for his soul – he fails to save his marriage and cannot come to terms with the random, senseless death of his son. His answer is to retreat into a downward spiral of complex rituals and habits that threaten to take over his life. Two random incidents that leave Macon with a broken leg and a need to get his dog trained become a potential turning point in his life, but the question is whether Macon’s retreat into the comfortable and habit and conformity has gone to far to allow him to grab the moment and take his life down another unknown route.
‘My favourite writer, and the best line-and-length novelist in the world, is Anne Tyler, the Americna author of The Accidental Tourist and Saint Maybe… Brilliant, funny, sad and senstive’ Nick Hornby, Author of High Fidelity and How To Be Good
‘Anne Tyler gets better with every book, and this one is a triumph – funny, profound, sad and ultimately reassuring.’ Sunday Telegraph
‘Now poignant, now funny… Anne Tyler is brilliant’ New York Times Book Review
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Anne Tyler was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, but grew up in North Carolina, as the daughter of an industrial chemist and a social worker. The family lived among various Quaker communities in the rural south before settling in Raleigh, North Carolina. These years formed background for her Southern literary flavour, which is seen in the settings of her fiction.
At the age of 19 Tyler graduated from Duke University, North Carolina, where she twice won the Anne Flexner Award for creative writing She did post-graduate work in Russian studies at Columbia University before settling in Baltimore, where she has lived for much of her adult life, If Morning Ever Comes in 1964 and became a full-time writer in 1967. She is the author of 14 novels of which The Accidental Tourist won a National Book Critics Circle Award in 1986 and was made into a film starring William Hurt and Kathleen Turner in 1988, and Breathing Lessons was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1989. The Amateur Marriage was published in 2004.
Anne Tyler was nominated by Roddy Doyle and Nick Hornby in The Sunday Times survey in 1994 as ‘the greatest living novelists writing in English.
AUTHOR INTERVIEW
www.realsimple.com
When your children were young, did you ever worry that being a mother and a writer were mutually exclusive?
I learned early that I cared much, much more about my family than my writing. If a novel wasn't going well, I could still enjoy my children, but if one of my children was sick, I couldn't even remember what the novel was about. In that way, I've been lucky. I didn't have to deal with any serious inner conflicts.
What kind of writing schedule, if any, do you follow?
I try to write every weekday, starting fairly early in the morning and stopping in the afternoon, because my mind always seems to "click off" later in the day. I believe in the importance of routine - going into the same room every morning, sitting in the same place on the couch, hearing the same birds in the tree outside my window.
Do you keep any kind of journal when writing a novel?
No, no journal. It seems to me that writing about writing would weaken any impetus to undertake the writing itself. I do have a cardboard box filled with three-by-five index cards on which I've very briefly - telegraphically - jotted down random daydreams, or phrases that intrigue me, or thoughts about "what if." What if such-and-such a type of character had to deal with such-and-such a situation? That sort of thing.
I write with a Parker 75 fountain pen, a No. 62 nib (I live in fear they'll be discontinued), and black ink on unlined paper. I rewrite, rewrite, rewrite, and then put what I've written into a computer. But I rewrite it all over again in longhand at the end because the slow pace of longhand and the silence (no clicking of keys) make it easier for me to catch false notes.
How does Baltimore nourish you as a writer?
Baltimore is so much its very own self, with its own language and style and way of looking at things, that a novel set there just seems automatically to develop extra layers. It's a wonderful gift for a writer. I can't imagine living anywhere else.
Which of your novels was the most difficult to write? Which experience was the most pleasurable? Is there an early work you still feel especially proud of?
I always think the most recent book was the most difficult. Certainly the most pleasurable was Searching for Caleb. Writing that was like attending a long party. And the book I'm proudest of is Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, because it's the one that most closely resembles my original vision of it.
What happens after you finish a novel? Is it difficult to let go of certain stories or characters?
After I send a manuscript off to my agent, I always picture my central characters riding the train alone to New York City, looking hopeful and a little scared, and I feel very protective of them. If my agent calls later to say he likes the book, I think, Well, bless their hearts, they made it after all! And then I more or less forget them (more information http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/offthepage/guide.htm?command=Search&db=/catalog/main.txt&eqisbndata=0099480018)

Mutluluk-Bliss by Zulfu Livaneli

2008-05-23T17:15:00.000-07:00

Mutluluk-Bliss by Zulfu Livaneli

Synopses & Reviews
Publisher Comments:
Meryem, a fifteen-year-old girl, lives in a rural village on the shores of Lake Van in Eastern Turkey. Her simple life changes dramatically after her uncle, a sheikh in a dervish order, rapes her. She is considered an outcast for shaming her family. When she is locked in a shed and left alone for days, she comes to the painful realization that her family expects her to hang herself with a length of rope left on the dirt floor. But she is defiant.
As tradition still has it, a judgment must be made in the name of honor. She is told she is to be taken to Istanbul, a shining city she envisions being just over the nearest mountain. Many girls from her village have "gone to Istanbul," and she assumes it must be a wonderful place since not one has returned. In fact, those girls have been the victims of "honor-killings."
Cemal, Meryem's cousin, a commando in the army, has been fighting in the mountains against the rebels. On his return home, he is welcomed as a hero though he has been severely traumatized by his war experiences. His father, who had violated Meryem, charges Cemal with the task of executing his cousin's punishment. As he and Mereym begin their journey, they proceed through the marketplace where the townspeople have gathered, some weeping and others mocking her.
In Istanbul, a Harvard-educated professor named Irfan lives an elite existence. He has published many books, hosts a radio show, and seems to enjoy success and jet-set freedom. He revolts against the routine of his soulless life, deciding to leave his wealthy wife and Istanbul. He charters a boat to sail the Aegean. By coincidence, his path crosses with that of Meryem and Cemal. They embark on a journey togetherthat fills their hearts with hope and sets them free.
Already an international bestseller, this lyrical and moving tale juxtaposes the traditional and modern and draws attention to human rights violations against women in the Middle East.
Review:
"The paths of three characters converge to illustrate, perhaps too patly, the conflicts of contemporary Turkey. Raped by her uncle, the sheikh, 15-year-old villager Meryem has shamed her family. To save the family name, Cemal, the sheikh's son, a soldier home from his tour fighting Kurds in the Gabar Mountains, is ordered by his father to take Meryem to Istanbul and to murder her. When Cemal and Meryem reach Istanbul, they are shocked by the cosmopolitan city, full of women wearing low-cut blouses and children who disobey their parents. Cemal falters at the moment of decision and, instead of murdering Meryem, travels with her to the seaside, where they encounter Irfan, a successful Istanbul professor who, plagued by insomnia and anxiety, has fled his cushy life to set sail in the Aegean Sea. Irfan offers them jobs on his boat and forges a tenuous mentorship with Meryem, but Cemal, whose psychological torment is richly captured early in the book, is soon reduced to a glowering presence. Livaneli, a former exile who was elected to Turkey's Parliament in 2002, takes great pains to reveal his country's complex culture, but the result often reads like a cautionary fable. Readers should prepare themselves for heavy-handed allegory." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
Review:
"A writer, composer, and elected member of the Turkish parliament, Livaneli offers readers a fascinating look at the diversity of Turkey today in his American debut." Library Journal
Review:
"Eye-opening and deeply moving — essential for anyone looking for decency in the world today." Kirkus Reviews
Review:
"[T]his novel by an eminent Turkish writer and member of Parliament tells a gripping contemporary story that gets behind stereotypes of exotic Islam to reveal the diversity in individual people and the secrets and lies, cruelty and love, in family, friendship, and public life." Booklist
Review:
"Livaneli is an essential force in Turkey's musical, cultural and political scene." Orhan Pamuk, author of the national bestseller, Snow
Synopsis:
Already an international bestseller, this lyrical story ripped from the headlines embodies the sweep and contradictions of modern Turkey and shows that lovely things can happen in the space between wounded people.
back to top
About the Author
O.Z. Livaneli is one of Turkey's most prominent and popular authors as well as an accomplished musician and composer, whose works have been recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra. He was held under military detention during the coup of March 12, 1971 and lived in exile for eight years. He studied music in Stockholm, then lived in Paris and Athens, returning to Turkey in 1984. He was one of the founders of the Turkish-Kurdish Peace Movement and the initiator of the Campaign Against Violence in Turkey, and he has made significant contributions to the Greek-Turkish Frienship Committee. He was elected a Member of Parliament in 2002.
(http://www.powells.com/biblio/97803123605350

2008-02-12T09:30:00.000-08:00

Kitap Kulubunun bulusma tarihi ve saati: Wednesday, March 5, 7:30PM

Kitap Kulubunun bulusma yeri: Barnes and Noble - Burlington

Tartisilacak Kitap:The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham

Written by Katie McNeillPublished January 10, 2007
See also:» Book Review: All My Tomorrows by Kathleen Sherwood» Interview With M.C. Beaton, Author of Death of a Maid» Book Review: Wolf Dreams by Yasmina Khadra
“… the painted veil which those who live call Life.”

I saw a preview last week for Edward Norton's new movie, The Painted Veil. The movie looks fantastic, a sweeping romantic period piece. a type that I just love. Then the next day at a favorite bookstore sitting there on the table in front of me was a copy of The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham, first published in 1925.

Maugham (1874-1965) was an English playwright, novelist and short story writer who traveled the globe using the exotic locals as backdrops to his work. This was the 2004 reprint, the cover a beautiful painting of a woman holding a bird cage casually in one hand. There is something so captivating about her face, especially the look in her eyes. So I bought the book.

The Painted Veil is not only a story of Kitty and her ill-fated marriage to bacteriologist Walter Fane, but of her own personal growth as a human being. Kitty was raised by her mother to do one thing in life, marry young and well. When her younger sister announces her own engagement Kitty, who has already passed up several offers of marriage, accepts Walter Fane’s proposal for her own very selfish reasons.

Right from the start you know that Kitty does not love Walter, barely even likes him, and views him as a way of escape from the thought of being an old maid, as well as her mother's bitterness. Kitty is selfish and often unkind to the man so madly in love with her. She pities Walter and often despises him because of his love for her.

But still Kitty moves from England to the British colony of Hong Kong, where she soaks up the attention that is given to a new bride. But when the shine starts to wear off and Kitty discovers that being the wife of a bacteriologist isn’t as glamorous as she had hoped she finds other things to occupy her time.

When Walter learns of Kitty’s adulterous affair with Charles Townsend, an official in the Hong Kong colony, he gives her two choices. Kitty can go to Charlie and ask him to divorce his wife to marry her or she can go with Walter into the middle of a cholera epidemic.

In the middle of this epidemic, Kitty finally starts to realize what a good man Walter is. She still does not love him but can see for the perhaps the first time how lucky she is to have someone like him. Kitty begins to view her self differently as well. But Walter, once so madly in love, can not forgive Kitty her sin.

With beautiful China as a backdrop to this story of growth, The Painted Veil is a classic. It is beautifully written, the writing compact but amazingly detailed. Kitty is finely drawn and fully realized, Walter much more distant but still captivating.

The ending, while being satisfying, is the not ending that I hoped for. Desperately I wanted Kitty to find something in Walter to love; I wanted to see their relationship healed. But in the end it is her relationship with her father that is mended and the narrowness of her soul expanded.

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/01/10/203021.php

Self-Made Man: One Woman's Journey into Manhood and Back Again: My Year Disguised as a Man)

2008-02-12T09:25:00.000-08:00

Kitap Kulubunun bulusma tarihi ve saati: Fri, 01/18/08, 7:00PM

Kitap Kulubunun bulusma yeri: Barnes and Noble - Burlington

Tartisilacak Kitap: Self-Made Man: One Woman's Journey into Manhood and Back Again: My Year Disguised as a Man (Yazar: Norah Vincent)

Review by DAVID KAMP
Published: January 22, 2006
Don't judge this book by its cover. It features two photographs of the author, Norah Vincent. In the first, she's a brassy, attractive woman with short, upswept hair and a confident smirk on her face. In the second, she's done up in man drag, with poindexter eyeglasses, a day's worth of stubble and a necktie. There's your premise in a nutshell: assertive, opinionated Vincent, best known as a contrarian columnist for The Los Angeles Times, goes undercover as a man to learn how the fellas think and act when them pesky broads ain't around. Flip the book open, and the first thing you come to is its dedication: "To my beloved wife, Lisa McNulty, who saves my life on a daily basis." Yes, ladies and gents, the author is a self-proclaimed "dyke."

...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/22/books/review/22kamp.html

THE FAITH CLUB:A Muslim, A Christian, A Jew-- Three Women Search for Understanding

2007-10-30T16:56:00.000-07:00

Kitap Kulubunun bulusma tarihi ve saati: November 29, 2007
Kitap Kulubunun bulusma yeri: Barnes and Noble - Burlington
Tartisilacak Kitap: The faith club : a Muslim, a Christian, a Jew : three women search for understanding / by Ranya Idliby, Suzanne Oliver, Priscilla Warner.

THE FAITH CLUB was started when Ranya Idliby, an American Muslim of Palestinian descent, recruited Suzanne Oliver, a Christian, and Priscilla Warner, a Jew, to write a children's book about their three religions. As the women's meetings began, it became clear that they had their own adult struggles with faith and religion, and they needed a safe haven where they could air their concerns, admit their ignorance, and explore their own faiths. Ranya, Suzanne, and Priscilla began to meet regularly to discuss their religious backgrounds and beliefs and to ask each other tough questions. As the three women met and talked, there were no awkward silences -- no stretches of time with nothing for them to say to each other. Honesty was the first rule of THE FAITH CLUB, and with that tenet as a foundation, no topic was off limits. With courage, pain, and sometimes tears, Ranya, Suzanne, and Priscilla found themselves completely transformed by their experience inside the safe cocoon of THE FAITH CLUB, and they realized that they had learned things so powerful they wanted to share them with the rest of the world. This is their story.
http://www.faithfulreader.com/guides/074329047X-guide.asp

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie

2007-09-11T19:52:00.000-07:00

Kitap Kulubunun bulusma tarihi ve saati: October 29, 2007
Kitap Kulubunun bulusma yeri: Barnes and Noble - Burlington
Tartisilacak Kitap: Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie

In 1971, as Mao's Cultural Revolution swept over China, shutting down universities and banishing "reactionary intellectuals" to the countryside, two teenage boys are sent to live on the remote and unforgiving mountain known as Phoenix in the Sky. Even though the knowledge the narrator and his best friend Luo had acquired in middle school was "precisely nil," they are nevertheless considered dangerous intellectuals and forced to spend their days carrying buckets of excrement up and down the mountain to fertilize the fields. But when they bargain their way into obtaining a forbidden Balzac novel from their friend Four Eyes, a new and dizzyingly vast world opens up to them. Through Balzac, the narrator discovers "awakening desire, passion, impulsive action, love, all the subjects that had, until then, been hidden" [p. 57]. And when Luo falls in love with the beautiful Little Seamstress, life and literature come together in a passionate romance. Luo and the narrator plot to steal Four Eyes' suitcase full of books both for their own pleasure and to transform the seamstress from a simple peasant into a sophisticated woman. Their success in doing so, and the unexpected consequences that follow, drive the novel to its stunning, heart-wrenching conclusion.Part historical novel, part fable, part love story, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is a moving testament to the transformative power of literature. (http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides3/balzac_and_the_seamstress1.asp)

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

2007-09-07T17:39:00.000-07:00

Kitap Kulubunun bulusma tarihi ve saati: September 2007
Kitap Kulubunun bulusma yeri: Barnes and Noble Burlington
Tartisilacak Kitap: The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

This celebrated New York Times bestseller -- is a book that is changing the way Americans think about selling products and disseminating ideas.

More about This Book

Title: The Tipping PointAuthor: Malcolm GladwellPublisher: Back BayCopyright: 2002ISBN: 0316346624Pages: 301Price: $15.00Rating: 60%
Malcolm Gladwell, a staff writer for the New Yorker, has a way with words. He also has a way with ideas, and in this book posits an interesting concept: that major changes occur when things reach a "tipping point" (or "the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point"). This idea is similar to that of the "paradigm shift", which is generally applied to science and our understanding of the world, but Gladwell attempts to show how it affects more mundane things: the sale of Hush Puppies shoes, epidemics, or the fall of crime in New York.
The first example in the book - that of how Hush Puppies went from being a moribund brand, sold only to the un-hip, to a hugely successful national brand, thanks to a handful of downtown New York trendsetters - is a prime example of how such shifts can occur. A group of "opinion makers" started wearing these shoes; others saw them and copied the style, with people even driving to out-of-the-way places to buy up stocks of Hush Puppies. Then a few fashion designers used them on the walkway, and visibility reached the "tipping point". The brand then experienced a renewal that, to this day, astounds even those in the company, who had been ready to throw in the towel.
But Gladwell then strays from this concept, talking about Paul Revere's famous ride to warn patriots that "the British are coming". Gladwell says that this event "is perhaps the most famous historical example of a word-of-mouth epidemic." But this doesn't fit in his other descriptions of "tipping points". After all, Revere's ride was a single incident - albeit an important one - but not one where anything "tipped". He alerted lots of people, in part because he knew them and was known, but there was no accumulation effect that caused this "ride" to have its famous results.
Gladwell should also talk about what I'll call the "dipping point", that point in a book when the reader starts paying less attention because of information overload. For me, this started on page 112, when Gladwell had already spent far too many pages trying to convince me that "stickiness" was a key factor in the success of Sesame Street and Blue's Clues. Stickiness seems to be that indescribable, yet analyzable, factor that keeps you attention "stuck" on something. In this case, it is what keeps pre-schoolers glued to the TV screen. But this seems to have little to do with any "tipping point"; sure, it may attract and hold people, and contribute to the popularity of these shows, but I dipped as Gladwell stretched this example out over too many pages.
The problem is that when Gladwell talks about people, he is sticky; when he talks about technology and processes, he dips. Chapter 2, The Law of the Few, talks about "connectors, mavens and salesmen", or three types of people who help spread ideas. Gladwell is in awe of all these people, and his prose is energetic. Yet when he describes the focus groups of pre-schoolers watching Sesame Street, it just gets turgid.
Gladwell approaches the dramatic fall in crime in New York as a "tipping point", but tries to discount every meta-change that helped drop the crime rate: increased police presence, tougher sentencing, and, above all, a vibrant economy that lowered unemployment drastically among the underclass, those who commit crimes. He prefers to believe in some mystical force that "tipped" everyone from being mean to being nice. He claims that the first element that caused the tip was a crackdown on graffiti on subway cars: graffiti was cleaned off subway cars, showing the taggers that they would no longer be tolerated. Then it was a crackdown on fare-beating; stopping people from cheating obviously gave them new moral values. He loses me when, talking about the 1984 incident when Bernard Goetz shot four youths who were harassing him on a subway train, he claims this: "...the showdown on the subway between Bernie Goetz and those four youths had very little to do, in the end, with the tangled psychological pathology of Goetz, and very little as well to do with the background and poverty of the four youths who accosted him, and everything to do with the message sent by the graffiti on the walls and the disorder at the turnstiles." This after describing how Goetz, after a stern upbringing and being mugged and injured, got a gun, with clear plans to become a vigilante. This, after describing how the four youths had all been previously arrested for assault, and how at least two of them were on drugs at the time. But Gladwell finds nothing more than graffiti and turnstile-jumping to be the cause. Balderdash! Goetz was mad as hell, and was not going to take it any more.

Snow Falling on Cedar by David Guterson

2007-09-07T17:36:00.000-07:00

Kitap Kulubunun bulusma tarihi ve saati: June 2007
Kitap Kulubunun bulusma yeri: Barnes and Noble Burlington
Tartisilacak Kitap: Snow Falling on Cedar by David Guterson

The Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan

2007-09-07T17:33:00.000-07:00

Kitap Kulubunun bulusma tarihi ve saati: May 2007
Kitap Kulubunun bulusma yeri: Barnes and Noble Burlington
The Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan

A Peace to End All Peace by David Fromkin

2007-09-07T17:29:00.000-07:00

Kitap Kulubunun bulusma tarihi ve saati: April 2007
Kitap Kulubunun bulusma yeri: Barnes and Noble Burlington
Tartisilacak kitap: A Peace to End All Peace by David Fromkin

Leyla'nin Evi by Zulfu Livaneli

2007-09-07T17:25:00.000-07:00

Kitap Kulubunun bulusma tarihi ve saati: January 2007
Kitap Kulubunun bulusma yeri: Barnes and Noble Burlington
Tartisilacak kitap: Leyla'nin Evi by Zulfu Livaneli

Harem by Dora Levy Mossanen

2007-09-07T17:17:00.000-07:00

Kitap Kulubunun bulusma tarihi ve saati: March 2007
Kitap Kulubunun bulusma yeri: Barnes and Noble Burlington
Tartisilacak kitap: "Harem" by Dora Levy Mossanen

2006-11-01T15:55:00.000-08:00

Kitap Kulubunun bulusma tarihi ve saati: 6-Kasim-2006 7:30PM
Kitap Kulubunun bulusma yeri: Barnes and Noble Burlington
Tartisilacak kitap: "Amateur Marriage" by Anne Tyler

New York Times Book Review
BOOKS OF THE TIMES; He's Stodgy, She's Zany, Till Death Do Them Part

By MICHIKO KAKUTANI
Published: January 9, 2004

THE AMATEUR MARRIAGE By Anne Tyler 306 pages. Alfred A. Knopf. $24.95.
Anne Tyler's 1988 novel, ''Breathing Lessons,'' worked an artful variation on the old Audrey Hepburn-Albert Finney movie, ''Two for the Road,'' giving us a portrait of a marriage as a couple go on a long car trip and reminisce about their years together. Her affecting, if somewhat warmed-over new novel, ''The Amateur Marriage,'' gives us a similar portrait of a 30-year-long marriage between a warm, ditsy blabbermouth and her cautious, stick-in-the-mud husband -- minus the road trip.
Michael and Pauline Anton in ''The Amateur Marriage'' have so much in common with the couple in ''Breathing Lessons'' that the reader of both novels may well come down with a case of déjà vu: the husbands are both proprietors of small businesses that they took over from their families; the wives are both bad drivers and impetuous zanies; both couples are given to pondering the roads not taken in their pasts; both must contend with a wayward child and the unexpected arrival of a grandchild.

...(http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9506E0DD1E31F93AA35752C0A9629C8B63)

A Wedding in December

2006-07-02T03:15:00.000-07:00

Kitap Kulubunun bulusma tarihi ve saati: 2-Agustos-2006 7:30PM
Kitap Kulubunun bulusma yeri: Ruhan-Acton
Tartisilacak kitap: "A Wedding in December" byAnita Shreve

A WEDDING IN DECEMBERAnita ShreveLittle, Brown and CompanyFictionISBN: 0316738999
• Read an Excerpt-->-->
In this new novel from the acclaimed author of SEA GLASS and ALL HE EVER WANTED, Anita Shreve tells the tale of seven former schoolmates who gather for a wedding in the Berkshires. Throughout the nuptial weekend, the characters begin to examine the many choices they have made since they left school and where those decisions have brought them.Bridget and Bill, long-ago sweethearts when they were at Kidd Academy prep school in Maine, have since rekindled their romance after they met again at their 25th reunion and now they are getting married. But theirs is a bittersweet reunion. Bridget has breast cancer and her prognosis isn't good, so they call on their old friend Nora, who has converted her old rambling house she shared with her late husband --- the famed poet Carl Laski --- into a lovely country inn. They arrange to have the wedding there, and it will also serve as an impromptu reunion for the former classmates of Kidd Academy.Among the guests are Harrison, the reflective businessman who wonders if he married the right woman after he gets reacquainted with Nora. They are joined by Jerry, the powerful New York banker with the tough-as-nails wife, and Rob, well-known concert pianist, with his lover, Josh. Rounding out the reunion is Agnes, who stayed on at Kidd as a history teacher and is currently working on a novel about a terrible explosion that decimated the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, during World War I; sections of her work in progress are interspersed throughout the modern-day story. In Shreve's latest tale of love and redemption, all of her characters are on the crux of a new phase in their lives and begin to wonder how the choices they make when they are young impact the rest of their lives, how they know when they've made the right ones, and if it's ever too late to change the course of one's life. Readers will certainly be able to relate these dramatic ebbs and flows to their own lives, which makes this a natural choice for book clubs.A WEDDING IN DECEMBER doesn't deal directly with the tragic events of September 11, 2001 (although the sections of explosion in Halifax are meant to serve as a parallel), but the repercussions are felt throughout and we see how time truly has been divided into two quadrants: before 9-11 and after. In this novel, as in her others, Shreve maintains a thoughtful balance between reflective storytelling and accessible entertainment. --- Reviewed by Bronwyn MillerClick here now to buy this book from Amazon.com.Click here to get the audiobook from Audible.com.
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http://www.bookreporter.com/reviews2/0316738999.asp

Birds Without Wings

2006-03-29T05:57:00.000-08:00

Kitap Kulubunun bulusma tarihi ve saati: 7-Haziran-2006 7:30PM
Kitap Kulubunun bulusma yeri: Barnes and Noble - Burlington
Tartisilacak kitap: Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernieres

Birds Without Wings begins in the early 1900s in an idyllic town in southwest Turkey in the declining years of the Ottoman Empire. The people are a mix of Greek and Turkish, Muslim and Christian, and they live harmoniously in a simple life unfettered by outside forces. The beautiful Philothei, who is Christian, loves the Muslim boy, Ibrahim. Rustem Bey, the local landlord, finds his wife with another man, murders her lover, and drags her to the town square to be stoned, but the imam saves her. Intertwined with their stories of the townspeople is the history of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the father of modern Turkey. The rise of Turkish nationalism, the onset of World War I, the conscription of the local boys and men, the battle of Gallipoli, and ethnic cleansing tear their world apart. Louis de Bernieres (author of Captain Corelli's Mandolin) returns with an epic novel about small town life and the worldwide forces that have changed the world forever. Birds Without Wings has received mixed reviews with the Sydney Morning Herald saying, "At a time when the hypocrisy of modern invasions and of simplistic caricatures of other faiths circulates all too easily, this book offers a timely message to us all."

Date Reviewed: 20th September 2004
Reviewed by: Serena Trowbridge © 2004
REFERENCES
General Fiction
Switch off the phone, make a pot of tea and settle down for a good long read. I couldn't put this book down - and when a book is this long, that's really saying something. Louis de Bernieres' follow-up to Captain Corelli's Mandolin is not just longer, it is broader and more ambitious in scope. Like the hugely successful Captain Corelli, though, this novel sets the personal, detailed lives of everyday people against the sweep of political events, looking at how the actions of militia and politicians affects the lives of innocent civilians. The Ottoman empire is the political focus of the narrative, which is told in short chapters both in the third person, describing, for example, the rise of the politician and soldier Mustafa Kemal, whose misplaced nationalism wreaks havoc on the population, and in first person chunks, including memories of survivors. The disjointed (but nonetheless easy to follow) narrative reflects the disintegration of a community. De Bernieres' ability to incorporate a fascinating and immense history lesson with sharp close-ups of personalities and situations never ceases to amaze me.
The story is set mostly in a small village in southwestern Anatolia, where we meet a range of colorful characters who make up the life of the village. In an ethnically mixed population there is a certain amount of mistrust, especially between Christians and Muslims, but on the whole the village lives and works harmoniously side by side, having developed their own ways of dealing with things - for example, most of the women pray not only to Allah but also offer their respects to the Virgin - just to hedge their bets. Some of the tales of the characters are little vignettes which give the reader enormous insight into the lives of the people in the village, and are told with humor and pathos. There is Yusuf the Tall, who forces his son to kill his pregnant daughter, there is Lydia the Barren, praying for a child, Iskander the Potter, who makes bird-whistles and vases and whose son is one of the main protagonists. There is also the beautiful Philothei, who is Greek and betrothed to a Muslim goatherd, who is away from her fighting for most of the war, and who is destined for an early death which is tantalizingly hinted at throughout the book, and her ugly but happier friend Drosoula, who becomes the mother of Mandras who we met in Captain Corelli's Mandolin, in Cephalonia after her exile.
(My favorite humorous bit is about the camel that has become so addicted to cigarette smoke from walking behind his master that it will only move when a cigarette is inserted into his nostril!) The snapshot of life covers the position of women, religion (about which de Bernieres himself is publicly skeptical), the hardships of rural life, politics and just about anything else you can think of.
There is also a lengthy section from Gallipoli, where a character, Ibrahim, that we have seen grow up and fall in love with Philothei is fighting, in the mud and stench of the trenches. The descriptions are so vivid one can picture it in all too vivid detail; and it is interesting to see a perspective that is not a European one. De Bernieres' gradfather fought at Gallipoli and was badly wounded, and much of the novel is based on true stories from the battlefield, as well as real people, such as Mustafa Kemal and the Turkish Prime Minister, Enver Pasha. The trust and mistrust in the troops, and the occasional and unexpected camaraderie between the different sides give an insight into both the best and the worst of human nature.
The narrative is sometimes straightforward, almost unobtrusive, especially when the voice of the villagers is speaking to the reader (which leaves me with a vague impression of text that has been translated, a very clever ploy), and sometimes sweeping, colorful and complex. This is a tale of a civilization about which I knew nothing, but de Bernieres conjures it up in all its filthy, stinking, jeweled and blossoming glory. From the countryside of Eskibahce to the battlefields of Gallipoli, from churches to brothels, it is all laid out here, and it is absolutely addictive. This is no less than an epic - and with its battle scenes, its love scenes, its personal and political moments, it is indeed reminiscent of Homer or Virgil. Not only that, but it examines conflicts, both political and religious, which are ongoing to this day and makes fascinating reading in the cold light of the twenty-first century.
The title gives the book yet another interesting dimension. Near the beginning, Iskander the Potter (who has a tendency to make up his own proverbs) says:
"Man is a bird without wings, and a bird is a man without sorrows."
In the epilogues, this feeling is echoed by Mehmet the Tinsman, since he has in many ways replaced Iskander the Potter with his modern ways of working with tin:
"A long time to us is a short time to God, and a long way for us is a short way for a bird, if it has wings." Two of the main characters, whom we first meet as young boys, take the names Mehmetcik (robin) and Karatavuk (blackbird) and wear corresponding red and black shirts. As children they even try to fly, but by the end, have learned much about the worlds and its sadness, and accept that flying away is something that earth-bound creatures can never do. The metaphor is extended throughout the novel, and finally ends with Karatavuk's words "Because we cannot fly, we are condemned to do things that do not agree with us."
This is the essential human element of the book - it's all about the harm that humans inflict upon each other in a variety of ways, both deliberately and unintentionally, and so many of them wish to fly away. The bird theme is continued throughout the book, as beings who are free of the pains and restraints of mankind, while the sorrows of humanity are also all too clearly depicted. In the tragic Philothei, called by her lover Ibrahim "the little bird", reposes a metaphor for the fate of the harmonious village. Both the tragedy and the humor in the book are striking, but it is tragedy that conquers, with a cathartic sense that reminds me of King Lear, especially as Birds Without Wings closes with an epilogue explaining the survivors' lives; they might say, like Edgar at the end of King Lear:
The weight of this sad time we must obey,
Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.
The oldest hath borne most; we that are young
Shall never see so much, nor live so long.

The NameSake

2006-03-29T05:19:00.000-08:00

Kitap Kulubu 23-Mart-2006'da saat 7:30'da Burlington'da Barnes and Noble'de bulusacaktir!
Tartisilacak kitap"The NameSake" by JhumpaLahiri

Best Book of the Year: New York Times, USA Today, Entertainment Weekly, Newsday, San Jose Mercury News New York Magazine Book of the Year "Dazzling . . . An intimate, closely observed family portrait. — New York Times "Lahiri handles issues of assimilation and belonging with her trademark mix of quiet observation and heartbreaking honesty." — Elle From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri's critically acclaimed first novel is a finely wrought, deeply moving family drama that illuminates her signature themes: the immigrant experience, the clash of cultures, the tangled ties between generations. The Namesake takes the Ganguli family from their tradition-bound life in Calcutta through their fraught transformation into Americans. On the heels of an arranged marriage, Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli settle in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Ashoke does his best to adapt while his wife pines for home. When their son, Gogol, is born, the task of naming him betrays their hope of respecting old ways in a new world. And we watch as Gogol stumbles along the first-generation path, strewn with conflicting loyalties, comic detours, and wrenching love affairs.

Book Seller of Kabul

2005-12-19T08:14:00.000-08:00

Kitap Kulubu 30-Ocak-2006'da saat 7:30'da Burlington'da Barnes and Noble'de bulusacaktir!
Tartisilacak kitap"Book Seller of Kabul" by Asne Seierstad

The Kabul bookseller, the famous reporter, and a 'defamation' of a nation An international bestseller has caused fury in the Afghan capital - and the man on whom it is based has flown over to defend his name, reports Tim Judah Sunday September 21, 2003The Observer
She is young, glamorous and famous, he is an obscure bookseller from Kabul. She had a good idea - why not live with him for a few months and write his story, which would also be the story of one family's experience of surviving the tragedy of civil war? At the time, he thought it was a good idea, too. Asne Seierstad's book is now a world bestseller - but Mohammed Shah Rais is an angry man. 'It is defamation of me, my family and my nation,' he rages.
So, just weeks after its publication in Britain, and in a move that has unnerved the publishing world, Shah has decided to do what no Afghan or, indeed, anyone who has been the subject of such a book from a poor country, has ever done before. He has flown to Europe, determined to drag Seierstad through the courts and campaign for the destruction of her book. 'It is slander and salacious. I hate her,' he says.
Seierstad, 33, is Scandinavia's best-known war reporter. In spring this year, she covered the Iraq war from Baghdad. But one year earlier, after having covered the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan, she lived for several months with Shah and his family. Her book has been a phenomenal success.
The Bookseller of Kabul has sold more than half a million copies in Scandinavia alone. It has been sold to publishers in 17 countries and came out to rave reviews in Britain last month. It is due out in the US in October, and is the bestselling Norwegian non-fiction book of all time.
Not surprisingly, it has propelled Seierstad to fame and fortune. What is so gripping about it is her portrayal of the innermost thoughts of Shah's family. Perhaps he thought he would be presented as a hero. After all, as he tells her: 'First the communists burned my books, the mujahideen looted and pillaged, finally the Taliban burnt them all over again.'
But, in fact, he comes across as a cruel, tyrannical patriarch. The women of his family, except for his new teenage bride, are treated like dirt. His sister, especially, is a virtual slave. His 12-year-old son is made to sell sweets rather than go to school.
So now, in the cruellest of ironies, Shah who, in the book, is called Sultan Khan, is not only demanding 'compensation' and 'damages', but says that many people, himself included, 'would be happy to see it burned'.
Over the past three weeks, Shah has been conducting a media blitz in Norway, Seierstad's home. Soon he will head to Sweden and Denmark and then to the Frankfurt book fair, Europe's greatest publishing trade market. 'If I get a visa, I will come to Britain,' he says.
The case has opened serious questions about the ethics of journalists and authors from rich countries writing about people from poor countries with very different cultures.
Friends of Seierstad say she is angry that many who applauded her success over the past year have begun to board a bandwagon denouncing her. As one friend, who asked not to be identified, says: 'This is not about the book, it is about Asne, and it's because she has become so successful that people are jealous and want to take her down.'
Seierstad is defiant. She says she made an agreement with the family that if there was anything they did not want published, they should tell her. 'And there were things,' she says. Now Shah has called her a liar, but she says that the book is simply a straight tale of what she heard and witnessed, especially the brutal treatment of Afghan women.
She says: 'Lots of Afghan women in Norway have been calling to support me.' If the case goes to court, she adds, she has no fear, because her lawyers have told her Shah has no legal case. So, she says: 'I know I will win.'
Still, the denunciations have upset her - like those from Norwegian anthropologist and Middle East specialist Professor Unni Wikan, who doubts the authenticity of much of the book - 'especially some of those bits she gives in quotation marks'. He said: 'There is no way she could have possibly had such access to people's hearts and minds. The moment I saw it in Norwegian, I thought it would be a catastrophe when it came out in English. She has revealed the secrets of the women, which is shameful and dishonourable. It will be regarded as an affront for its lack of respect for Afghans and Muslims.'
In the book, Seierstad writes how Shah's first wife is humiliated when he takes a second bride and, 'how sometimes she hates him for having ruined her life, taken away her children, shamed her in the eyes of the world'.
When a poor carpenter steals a stack of postcards from Shah, the bookseller insists on his imprisonment, despite the entreaties of his own family that, as a result, the carpenter's children 'might die of starvation'.
Shah, one of whose shops is in the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul, says all this has impugned his honour and that of all Afghans. So he has engaged a high-profile lawyer in Norway, Brynjar Meling, who says: 'She has made herself rich...he has got nothing and she has brought him into dishonour.'
Another of Meling's high-profile clients is Mullah Krekar, a leader of Ansar al-Islam, an Iraqi Kurdish group alleged to have close links to al-Qaeda, who is currently living in Norway.
Seierstad's publishers are readying themselves for the coming fight. Anders Heger, literary director of Cappelen, the book's Norwegian publishers, says: 'We're not frightened. We're supporting the book all the way.'
Likewise, Antonia Hodgson, Seierstad's editor at Time Warner in the UK, says that, on the advice of their in-house lawyer, 'we are confident that everything is OK and we stand by the book entirely. We know she is a very scrupulous and cautious journalist.'
However, Time Warner, as with all the publishers who have bought the book across the world, are not relishing the prospect of a campaign of denunciation by Shah, or legal actions which he may decide to launch in other countries after Norway. Seierstad is also gearing up for the coming fight, strenuously denying Shah's allegations.
'It is a total clash of civilisations,' she told The Observer . 'I'm very surprised. I knew, and told them in advance, that they might not like the book, but I think it is important to write about real life in Afghanistan. I'm not saying there is abuse particularly in this family, but this is still a society where women have almost no human rights.'
· Tim Judah reviewed The Bookseller from Kabul for The Observer on 31 August 31.08.2003: Observer review: The Bookseller of Kabul by Åsne Seierstad

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

2005-12-19T08:01:00.000-08:00

Boston Anneleri Kitap Klubunde Kasim ayinda "My Sister's Keeper" adli kitap tartisildi.

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

A conversation with Jodi Picoult about My Sister's Keeper

"The author vividly evokes the physical and psychic toll a desperately sick child imposes on a family, even a close and loving one like the Fitzgeralds… there can be no easy outcomes in a tale about individual autonomy clashing with a sibling's right to life, but Picoult thwarts out expectations in unexpected ways… a telling portrait of a profoundly stressed family."
—Kirkus Reviews

Daha cok bilgi icin http://www.jodipicoult.com/sister.html