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'At first I thought, to be a parent you have to be an idealist. Then I learnt that to be a parent is to be continually coming up against everything that is not ideal about you.'

I see now why so many people thought this was a sure bet for the Booker shortlist. This is the story of a man exiled from his homeland of Libya and living in London and his two closest friends who both share his experience but also show how uniquely alone they are all too. It was a slower, more meandering tale and let me so gently immerse myself in Khalid‘s story that I was surprised to look up and realize how deeply entrenched I was. So good.

This is a beautifully written book about Khaled and his two Libyan friends Hosam and Mustafa. Khaled is exiled in London from Libya due to political unrest. The story spans around 40 years and goes all the way to the Arab Spring. Writing, reading and language are a significant part of this story too. Long listed for the 2024 Booker Prize. Highly recommend!

I enjoyed this so much. I actually went back to the beginning to read how Matar introduced us to the story. I haven‘t read a book in a while that covers the experience of being exiled from your homeland with such melancholy and confusion. I definitely haven‘t read a book about Libya and the Arab Spring. I miss Khalid, the main character, already. #bookerlonglist

My hold for My Friends finally came in. I've waited months! But I can't read it yet because the other two are due back. 😣

Actually, I'm sure both of them are great too, so what am I complaining about? 😂

#BookwormProblems

In the library…”I would close my eyes and walk along one aisle with the tips of my fingers tracing the spines. Wherever I stopped, that book was my fate…”

Hold the phone!! I‘ve been doing this for years. I started when I was really sick with Lyme 10 years ago and could not make decisions so this was the way I decided what book to read at the library.

Ah yes, finally a Booker Banger. Initially I thought My Friends might just be a story about friendship set against a political backdrop, but quickly it proved to be much more. Its consideration of the relationship between people and place, and the concept of home is really thoughtfully executed. this novel really excels in its unpacking of how we seek to mediate a world that can be cruel or inhospitable, and leave us feeling isolated or at sea.

Our panel had mixed reviews for this one but I quite liked it. An interesting exploration of friendship, belonging and identify in exile. It was well-written and finally a book with a. plot #booker2024

Our panel reviewed it here: https://thereadersroom.org/2024/08/31/2024-booker-longlist-my-friends-by-hisham-...

My August, according to Bookly. I‘m pretty sure that 74 hours is the most I‘ve ever read in a single month. I could blame the Booker longlist, or credit Rilke, who seemed to encourage me to read more. Good books, but oddly no great ones for me.

#WeeklyFavorites

My favorite book this week is the tagged one, a very good read about living in exile and the Arab Spring in Libya.

However when I look back at these four I think my favorite of the month is The Safekeep (De bewaring in Dutch) or Cherry Blossoms, which takes me back to Japan immediately.

#Booker 8/13

Like @Graywacke described it: this book is gentle. And so moving. It‘s the story of Khaled, a Libyan boy who went to the UK to study and then can‘t return to his motherland. He has his friends, sure, but he keeps feeling displaced. It‘s fragile, a life in exile.

'Stopping every twenty feet or so, to contemplate going back. To do what, I didn't know,' he said. 'But it was so mad to keep on going as if nothing had happened. And everything around me insisted that nothing had happened. The shops were open, people utterly oblivious, as though what I just witnessed was an event that occurred only in my mind. Yes,' he said, 'that's why I wanted to return. It was the opposite of madness.

#Booker24 Image via BBC

'....Like Montaigne, you believe that the very presence of books in your room cultivates you, that books are not only to be read but to be lived with.'

#WhereAreYouMonday

Today I am moving between London and Libya, just like the narrators of this very promising book (I just started).

Please share your #armchairtraveling 🤍

Only my 3rd from the #booker #booker2024 #longlist I just finished. It‘s gentle gentle gentle. The theme of staying safe to a fault echoes through our characters, the prose, the title even. Sometimes you just really don‘t want to stumble into history. I enjoyed this, even if the end dragged a bit. I liked the characters and their flaws, and mysteries. I liked the odes to London and Libya. Not a wow for me, but an enjoyable thoughtful book.

“Friend. What a word. Most use it about those they hardly know. When it is a wondrous thing.“

A beautiful, slow moving, thoughtful selection from the #BookerLonglist. As Khaled walks through the streets of London, he reflects on three pivotal friendships and the moments big and small that shaped his adulthood. The result is a reflective meditation on home, exile, family, friendship, love, and literature.

#BookerLonglist 4/13

A story of friendship set against Gaffafi‘s rule and the Libyan Revolution. Beautiful writing but a bit too long for my taste. 4 🌟

@JenP @AnneCecilie @TheKidUpstairs @BarbaraBB @Leniverse @charl08 @rmaclean4 @squirrelbrain @Graywacke @jlhammar

#WhereAreYouMonday

In Pillars of the Earth I currently in a cave between Southampton and Winchester in the year 1123.

In MyFriends we are walking Euston Road, London while Khaled reflects on his younger years in Benghazi.

@Cupcake12

Where are you? Join the fun and share where your book has taken you.

My model is resting now. 🐾 I‘ve started my next on the #booker #longlist #booker2024 Unfortunately I‘m progressing slowly. (Need to embrace my totem 🦥)

Just picked up this one in town. 👍🏻♥️

#bookerlonglist 5/13

I borrowed this from the digital library prior to the #bookerlonglist being announced, as it was strongly rumoured, but I found myself not wanting to start it.

Once it made the list and I *had* to read it 😜, well, I just couldn‘t put it down.

Based on a real-life incident at the Libyan Embassy in London in 1984 it follows the lives of 3 friends who are exiled in the UK as a result.

It tailed off ever so slightly ⬇️

When the #Booker 2024 Longlist was announced, I showed *great* restraint by not ordering most of them (just one - Held - because the cover is pretty lol), and instead placed 4 on hold. I‘m not sure what I‘m thinking, trying to read most of them, since I‘m reading at a snail‘s pace lately, but I‘m going to try. I‘m encouraged that several are quite short. When I read the first paragraph of each, I ended up reading several chapters of My Friends.

London. A man walks home after meeting an old friend. This has him thinking about the past. How he left Libya on a scholarship to study English at the University of Edinburgh, attended a demonstration outside the Libyan embassy in London 1984 which would change his life and how he would meet this friend in 1995

I learned about Libyan history, the Qaddafi dictatorship and the Arab Spring

I loved this book about 3 friends

It is, of course, impossible to be certain of what is contained in anyone‘s chest, least of all one‘s own or those we know well, perhaps especially those we know best, but, as I stand here on the upper level of King‘s Cross Station, from where I can monitor my old friend Hosam Zowa walking across the concourse, I feel I am seeing right into him, perceiving him more accurately than ever before, as though all along, during the two decades that we

After growing up in Libya, Khaled goes to the UK for university. But shortly thereafter, an event occurs exiling him from home and family. What follows is his life in exile and the deep friendships he develops. This is a really beautiful look at the love men can have in friendship to one another. It‘s terrific. #ReadYourEbooks

https://youtu.be/ofv3V1xBVx4?feature=shared

#IllHaveWhatYoureReading

Introduction

Mystery guest

Week in Review

Wild Houses by Colin Barrett

The Family Way by Christopher DiRaddo

My Friends by Hisham Matar

Music & Silence by Rose Tremain

Season of Fury and Wonder by Sharon Butala

Anyone's Ghost by August Thompson