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A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea
A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea: One Refugee's Incredible Story of Love, Loss, and Survival | Melissa Fleming
Emotionally riveting and eye-opening, A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea is the incredible story of a young woman, an international crisis, and the triumph of the human spirit. Melissa Fleming shares the harrowing journey of Doaa Al Zamel, a young Syrian refugee in search of a better life. Doaa and her family leave war-torn Syria for Egypt where the climate is becoming politically unstable and increasingly dangerous. She meets and falls in love with Bassem, a former Free Syrian Army fighter and together they decide to leave behind the hardship and harassment they face in Egypt to flee for Europe, joining the ranks of the thousands of refugees who make the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean on overcrowded and run-down ships to seek asylum overseas and begin a new life. After four days at sea, their boat is sunk by another boat filled with angry men shouting threats and insults. With no land in sight and surrounded by bloated, floating corpses, Doaa is adrift with a childs inflatable water ring around her waist, while two little girls cling to her neck. Doaa must stay alive for them. She must not lose strength. She must not lose hope.
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Joseph5
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I recommend you to read as a gift for 2020

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Cinfhen
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77 likes1 stack add
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erinjohns
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Romeo and Juliet vs Titanic...a heartbreaking rip your heart right out of the chest cavity telling of the modern day refugee crisis. It made you feel like you were right there.

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overtheedge
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Wow!!
I can sum this story up in one word....wow! Doaa AL Zamel is the most brave, courageous and resilient woman I've read about in a long time. This true story of a Syrian refugee will blow your mind and open your eyes and heart to the refugee crisis and Syrian conflict.The last chapter captures the extremes of humanity. I cried throughout this book. Amazing!!

JoScho Welcome to Litsy! I hope you love it here 💕 7y
Eggs Welcome to Litsy 👋🏻👋🏻 7y
StillLookingForCarmenSanDiego Welcome to Litsy 👍📚 7y
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asiriusreader Welcome to Litsy!! 7y
CarolynM Welcome to Litsy🌼 7y
overtheedge Thanks everyone....I love it here! 7y
10 likes6 comments
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Kshakal
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Such a heartbreaking story... I was very unaware of the Arab Spring and the crisis in Syria. It makes my heart so sad that there are people in the world who have to endure so much pain, suffering, heartbreak and death. Doaa is such a strong and amazing individual for surviving all that she has! This is one book that will stay with me for a long time to come! #Booked2018 #refugee @Cinfhen @BarbaraTheBibliophage @4thhouseontheleft

Cinfhen Oooh, really want to read this...thanks for putting this book back on my radar 😊congrats on another prompt🙌🏻 7y
BarbaraTheBibliophage This one is on my radar as well! I‘m glad for your review. And 👏🏻👏🏻 for moving into a new season for #booked2018! 7y
47 likes5 stack adds2 comments
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Kshakal
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My couch, blanket, homemade caramel corn, a glass of wine and a good book... sounds like a pretty great Saturday evening to me!

wen4blu Sounds perfect! 7y
53 likes1 comment
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Kshakal
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New month...new book... starting this book club read today!! #currentlyreading #marchinbooks @maich

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ShannonOffDuty
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It's not often that I cry while reading a book but I couldn't help it with this one. The story of Doaa Al Zamel is astonishing. She fled Syria to find refuge in Egypt only to have the domino effect of the Arab Spring continually displace her. Her survival story is unlike anything I've read. What an amazing woman.

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Riveted_Reader_Melissa
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That feeling when you return three library books unread, because the real news is just to close to that topic to read at the moment.

I'm not sure if that counts as burying your head in the sand, or just being aware enough of your limits to not want to visit the same horrors in your down time reading that are on the current news. I know I'll get back to them eventually, I just couldn't right now. It feels cowardly, but I have to shift gears.

Riveted_Reader_Melissa If these disturbing news cycles keep up, I might be reading a lot more light reading in my future. 8y
KCorter I feel you. I keep meaning to reread and watch The Handmaid's Tale. I know that it won't feel like fiction though. Sometimes that is good, but right now I want an escape from this frightening reality. 8y
avalinah Definitely limits. If I have learned anything about the gentle balance of your mind and keeping your sanity in the everyday, not even mentioning challenging times, it's the fact that you have to protect yourself. In some cases, it might even mean not listening to sad songs. So of course it's the same for books. There's only so much we can take and not go under. 8y
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mrsbatman85 I've seen a few "dystopian" and "sci-fi" books a little too damn close to reality lately and I too cannot bring myself to read them. Far too scary. Makes me wonder what people back in the day thought of such books as 1984 by Orwell (to name but one....) 8y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @KCorter I read it earlier this year.... but I haven't watched it yet either. 8y
AmyG The news has greatly cut into my reading time. Or should I say....bigly. 8y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @AmyG Same here.... and although the "Bigly" news is a full time job in itself to keep up with, the crematorium found in Syria that is being overshadowed by it all just saddens my heart deeply....so much for the decades of pledges of "never again" 8y
BethFishReads So wish I could simply bury my head in the sand ... or rather escape reading 8y
BestOfFates I did the exact same thing with A Hope More Powerful Than The Sea! 8y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @BethFishReads Honestly I finding concentrating on any real reading difficult this month, lots of news watching in my house though. What I have managed lately is comic books, downloaded from the library or Hoopla that I can read through the commercials as I watch everything else unfold. 8y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @BestOfFates It's sad to have to do it though, I was, and still am, looking forward to it and Nujeen which I had just bought. But it's just too serious a political non-fiction right at the moment. Hopefully I'll be able to come back to it soon though. 8y
Gezemice I did the same thing with "The Hate U Give". Just couldnt face it. 8y
Gezemice @Riveted_Reader_Melissa And ditto on the comics, too! 8y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @Gezemice Sad isn't it! I was looking forward to Maus too, was able to check them both out and that same week it was all news about Syrian crematoriums found, and then no one talked about it again, it just got buried in the news again. I'll check them out again later, probably still this year....I just couldn't then. To close to the present. 8y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @Gezemice The Hate U Give is on my list too, I even saw it at the library and thought...soon, but not this week. 8y
58 likes15 comments
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Librarylady
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Ran into a former student at a play tonight. I've trained her well- we both had our books with us "just in case."

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arlenefinnigan
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Such a powerful, heartbreaking story. A harrowing insight into the trauma that pushes refugees to flee their homes and the horrors they suffer in doing so. I really wish the editorial board of the Daily Mail could be made to read this. #ReadHarder

24 likes1 stack add
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Librarylady
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Time to start this one tonight. I've heard so many great things about it that I have pretty high expectations.

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arlenefinnigan
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#ReadHarder challenge 10: a book with a central immigration narrative

21 likes1 stack add
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Ellen_C
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Outstanding memoir of a teenaged Syrian girl forced from her beloved home by war. Writer Melissa Fleming works with the UN High Commission for Refugees and provides concise background on politics and history plus vivid detail about Doaa's life and her resilience. https://cannonballread.com/2017/02/nevertheless-she-persisted/

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lauralovesbooks1
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I lack the skills to describe just how much this book broke my heart. Doaa Al Zamel's story of her childhood in Syria, her family's flight to Egypt as war and chaos descended around them, and her attempt to get to Europe with her fiance brings this crisis home. We need to put faces on the crisis, and this book does that. Her determination to survive and to save the 2 kids entrusted to her as their parents drowned is inspiring. Read this now!

12 likes4 stack adds
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balletbookworm
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I had a coupon to use today, I think I put it to good use. (I've been thinking about this book since I updated the Discover Bay at my store, BN Coral Ridge, last week. Thank you @flatironbooks for putting this out.) #newbooks

BookishMarginalia Ooooh-- I will be getting that one! Thanks for the heads up! 8y
balletbookworm @BookishMarginalia I'm not even kidding, I almost cried while reading the flap copy as I walked back across the store with a stack of books in my arm 8y
41 likes6 stack adds2 comments
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Nutmegnc
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Timely and appropriate.

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Lauren_reading
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#TBR another book to add! Thanks #hony for the tip 😀 Whole caption doesn't fit - it's the book's author.

79 likes3 stack adds