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Mission January is completed ✅ #bookspin #doublespin #bookspinbingo

The story of the partiahal family is set in Cairo around 1900, and we follow the dynamics between members, where father believes that his rigorous, tyrant beliefs are benefiting the family, while he does everything that he strictly prohibits to the others. The coloured description of the streets, political changes in #Egypt, the friction between traditional and modern, secular and religious are very beautiful depicted in the very readable style.

I love peaceful weekends … all I need is a good book and tired reading buddy. I‘m currently reading the tagged book for #readingAfrica and #foodandlit #egypt Very rich family saga, with sensual descriptions of Cairo and life in it around 1900.
#weekendReading

#WanderingJune #WalklikeanEgyptian Another book waiting for me on my shelves. Book 1 of the Cairo Trilogy, it‘s a family saga that traces three generations of an autocratic patriarch in colonial Egypt.

This is a fascinating book with a fascinating back story - even though a bit of a slog at times at 470 odd pages. Published in Arabic in 1956 it wasn‘t translated into English until 1988 after Mahfouz won the Nobel Prize. It tells the story of one family in Cairo, al-sayyid Ahmad, his cloistered wife and daughters and his three sons, from after the end of WW1 to the riots of 1919 seeking independence from England ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⬇️

It took me a little while to get into this book but now a third in & loving it! I wonder if it‘s translating from Arabic that makes it feel quite formally written. I expect it‘s difficult to translate rich prose and get the nuances across - & this book is very deep in emotion and interiority.
Side note: first day out in our new boat Sunday. Our old boat was stolen from a fenced boat club last October. Glad to be able to enjoy the ocean again 😊

Ok, I‘ll admit I have never read this but it‘s super famous, translated from #Arabic, and on sale for 2.99 USD 🎉 #translatedbooks

#getmovin #somethinglikethis

Something like this keeps happening when I visit second hand shops. (Good news - my husband was with me and now he is mumbling about building more bookshelves 😂😂)

it was uneventful except for the last 2 chapters where I really connected and really felt something for the characters. However, it was nicely and simply written with compelling characters, who you will either hate, like the father, or love, like Fahmy.
A nice look into Egyptian and Muslim culture. Such low regard for women..tsk tsk

Somebody on Litsy recommended this book to me a couple of months ago - it's the start of a trilogy and the only book I could think of for #brokedownpalace #JuneTunz @Cinfhen

Sometimes the stars align: book, couch, sleeping toddler, no chores.

I was half way through this when I realised I did not have parts 2 and 3 of the trilogy. Promptly went and ordered it online. 😂😂 I love the story of this Egyptian family and how it has been woven into historical events. Have never read any books by Egyptian authors and this was a great introduction.

I loved this book - a family saga is my wheelhouse. Palace Walk introduces us to an affluent Muslim family in Egypt roughly 1917-1919. We learn about their daily life, their hopes and dreams, their struggles and shame, several marriages and in-laws drama. Mahfouz has descriptive writing that really makes you see these events and people! I will be hunting down more of his vast backlist and the rest of this trilogy 😊

"Everything was proceeding as usual, as though nothing had happened, as though Egypt had not been turned upside down, as though bullets were not searching for chests and heads, as though innocent blood was not enriching the earth and walls."

This passage is referring to the 1919 Egyptian revolution which I had never heard of before. 2017 resolution - learn more about history of Middle East
#readharder #MiddleEast

In those two minutes he saw a whole life summed up by one image, like a brief scene in a dream that brings together diverse events that would take years in the real world. He saw his father the way he truly was - his father, not some other man, but not as he was accustomed to seeing him.

"The way love can disregard fears, however, is an age-old wonder. No fear is able to spoil love's development or keep it from dreaming of its appointed hour."

So sweet and caste (the clothes being removed is laundry from clothesline), I keep finding myself smiling as I get introduced to these characters

#currentlyreading is just two right now! But they are both long and I want to focus on finishing them before library deadlines! The good new is that they are both great

"God, I ask you to watch over my husband and children, my mother and Yasmin, and all the people: Muslim and Christians, even the English, my Lord, but drive them from our land as a favor to Fahmy, who does not like them."

Amina, the matriarch of this family, is so compassionate and endearing. So far I'm loving the set up of meeting this family.

Sometimes a "books you should be reading" list is actually pretty good. There are definitely some intriguing ones on here. Link in the comments.

Starting this tonight for the last part of my #readharder2016 challenge! A family saga that takes place in Cairo around the end of WWI by a Nobel prize winner. 🤘 And I love that my library copy is so old as to have the card insert in the front 🤓

#Egypt #Translation #Arabic

...love is like health. It is taken lightly when present and cherished when it departs.

Happening now. (A self-respecting Arab bookworm is no real bookworm until they have read at least one Naguib Mahfouz, no?)

I like to read fiction about the Middle East, by Middle Eastern authors. Here's my Naguib Mahfouz shelf.