Tag: Books

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Five repressed women humiliated by men, discover new paths

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Women Without Men, by Shahrnush Parsipur, now 80, we follow the lives of five women against the background of revolution and coups as they find their way to a garden, drawing on recent Iranian history and transcendent elements of Islamic mysticism, Parsipur’s unforgettable novel sees women escaping strict confines of family and society. Five repressed women abandoned or humiliated by men, discover new, sometimes surreal paths for themselves. As societal expectations and the fear of spinsterhood weigh on, Iran tried and failed to silence Women Without Men ( Zanan bedun-e Mardan in Persian) exposed the brutality of Iranian regime and … Continue reading Five repressed women humiliated by men, discover new paths

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Story of a courageous woman who broke her silence and survived

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The sexual assault that stunned the world. A courageous woman’s rallying call for shame to change sides. For the very first time Giséle Pelicot tells her story. In 2024, Giséle Pelicot waiver her right to anonymity in her legal fight against her ex-husband and the fifty men- accused of sexually assaulting her, a courageous decision that inspired millions of people around the world. Only four years prior, Giséle has made the shattering discovery that her partner, Dominique Pelicot, had been secretly drugging and raping her, and inviting strangers to also abuse her in their home for nearly a decade. “Shame … Continue reading Story of a courageous woman who broke her silence and survived

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Baltic crusades adapted by Nazi expansionism

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Crusading armies unleashed a relentless holy war against the last Pagan societies in northern Europe, particularly in the Baltic Sea region between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries. Led by Catholic rulers, churchmen, and most importantly of all, the warrior monks of the Teutonic Order, they sought to expand Christendom through conquest and conversion. In the process they forged a new world with a profound legacy that resogates into the present. Aleksander Pulskowski, professor of medieval archaeology at the UK’s university of Reading, explores how the construction of castles and towns, and the introduction of new languages, technology, monetary economies, and … Continue reading Baltic crusades adapted by Nazi expansionism

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Political power, religion, and perpetual dissent

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Mohammed Hanif, Booker-longlisted author’s lively and rich novel about the power of language, friendship, and protest in the face of political turmoil. Rebel English Academy is set during the rapid descent of semi-socialist Pakistan into neither its first nor last period of military dictatorship. In 1979, the army’s hanging of leftist prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto precipitates mysterious changes in the Punjab province.  Sir Baghi, a closeted gay communist English teacher who stopped volunteering his critiques of the government after being subjected to brutal torture, when a widow and former track runner Sabiha Bano, on the run arrives at his door … Continue reading Political power, religion, and perpetual dissent

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A tale of intergenerational tension and revenge from the Booker Prize nominee.

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“Every Successful marriage has its own private language.” So it is for baby boomer Kate and her beloved architect husband Jack, thirty years into their seemingly idyllic metropolitan North London life. It is for spiky millennial screenwriter Phoebe and her charming loafer of a partner, Tony. John Lanchester, a former restaurant reviewer, brochettes the pretensions affluent, middle-aged metropolitans when architect Jack says at a Notting Hill dinner party that Yotam Ottolenghi had destroyed British cooking and “done more damage to this country than the Luftwaffe”. Jack’s wife Kate, who is one of the novel’s two narrators, finds him dead from … Continue reading A tale of intergenerational tension and revenge from the Booker Prize nominee.

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Family tensions amid America’s immigration policies

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Lionel Shriver’s A Better Life, is a provocative novel addressing contemporary immigration, where a New York family takes in a Honduran migrant- who may or may not be the innocent paragon she claims to be. Shriver rages about the influx of illegal immigrants to America, but when asked if he writes op-eds about this, he replies “Oh no, no, no, no,.. I most certainly do not,”. Gloria Bonaventura, living in a sprawling house in Brooklyn with her 26-year-old son Nico, an Italian American engineering major  who spent  four years since graduation telling on the dime of his divorced mother of three, decides … Continue reading Family tensions amid America’s immigration policies

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Guilt and regret

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Fila, a protagonist of Michelle Steinbeck’s Favorita, receives an anonymous phone call from Italy telling her that her mother Magdalena is dead, her instinctive feeling is one of relief. Fila hasn’t seen her in years, not since she disgraced their family by advertising her brothel in the newspaper. Fila is already unmoored by the recent death of her grandmother Lavinia, who raised her. In Lavinia’s kitchen in Switzerland Fila now sits, listening to the voice on the “mortadella-coloured rotary telephone” that says “they say it’s because of her liver, but I can assure you that it was not her liver… … Continue reading Guilt and regret

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Insider’s guide to boom-and-bust

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Lloyd Blankfein, head of an institution legendary for its culture of success writes a candid memoir of global leadership in an age of extreme turbulence. Blankfein is quiet scary smart about people, markets, and life generally, as his 10, 000 Small Businesses idea proved to be a huge winner. During the 2008-2009 financial crisis, Lloyd acted decisively and he tells the story of what happened with unique insights. When Blankfein was attacked as a Wall Street fat cat, he had to smile, thinking of his precarious childhood in the notorious public housing projects of East New York, Brooklyn, and attending … Continue reading Insider’s guide to boom-and-bust

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Focus on Parenting

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Narrator Sandra embarks on an odyssey through the afterlife to her autistic son, who is literally and figuratively lost at sea: a hilarious and deeply moving voyage of the body and the mind. “It was a strange experience, speaking to someone who didn’t tune in to you. It was like talking hallucinogens” Sandra said. Following a documentary producer who dies and desperately tries to rescue her child while her spirit still roams the earth, Amie Barrodale’s debut novel Trip as much about neurodivergence and the impossibility of human empathy as it is about the bizarreness of the afterlife. Trip is … Continue reading Focus on Parenting

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Thinking sideways can propel you to success and happiness

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Chess is the art of the possible, as there are more possible chess moves than atoms in the universe. Essential life lessons from the world of chess so that making smarter choices to building focus and confidence from Jennifer Shahade, a former two-time chess U.S. Champion and professional poker player. Chess players are experts in considering their options, allowing them to seize an opportunity idea, or move that no one else saw. In today’s hyper competitive world, thinking sideways can help you win at life. Shahade reveals you don’t have to be a great chess player to think more like … Continue reading Thinking sideways can propel you to success and happiness