LeBor, Adam "City of Oranges"

LeBor, Adam "City of Oranges. An Intimate History of Arabs and Jews in Jaffa" - 2006

Israel and its history was always of great interest to me, I can't remember how long, I grew up with it. I have visited this very historical and tormented country and therefore couldn't help but read this book. It's great! I had been to Jaffa and therefore could picture a lot of the descriptions in the book. But even if you haven't been there, I'm sure you would enjoy this book. The author describes every different ethnic people living in Israel and has a deep understanding for their problems.

To give you a little flavor from the conversation, here are some of the topics/terms that came up:
•    What's the solution?
•    Hague, Palestine's status in the U.N. and the voting results by nation
•    51st State (USA)
•    U.S. churches that pray for Israel
•    Yasser Arafat
•    People who believe what they want to believe because they are not sure what to believe?
•    Arrogant, defensive attitude (Zionists / some people in Israel)
•    More of a documentary than a book club read, not a fan of the writing
•    Good journalist (Adam LeBor is Jewish), unbiased
•    British and French hands in Israel
•    Demonstrations yesterday
•    Tough read, back and forth of retaliations
•    Guilt and reparations
•    Colonists of Hebron
•    Too many characters, all middle class, would have been better if characters were made more interesting/developed
•    Funds requested from Germany for care of aging Holocaust survivors in Israel
•    Natives in Canada
•    Orthodox Jews, Muslim Brotherhood
•    Intifada
•    Some don't want peace
•    Haves vs. Have-nots
•    Ireland
•    Arabs concede in the book that they have a more comfortable life in Israel than in many Arab nations 

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

From the back cover:

"The ancient city of Jaffa was for centuries the main port of the eastern Mediterranean, a city of traders, merchants, teachers and administrators, home to Muslims, Christians and Jews, while the produce of its orange groves was famed throughout the world. It was in Jaffa that Peter the apostle was said to have raised Dorcas from the dead, and where Richard the Lionheart defeated Saladin. It was here, too, that Napoleon stormed ashore in 1799, while from 1920 the British administered the city under the Mandate. It is in 1920 that City of Oranges begins.

Through the stories of six families - three Arab and three Jewish - City of Oranges illuminates the underlying complexity of modern Israel, telling the story from the Ashkenazi as well as from the very different Sephardic point of view, and from Christian Arab as well as from the Muslim perspective. Through the eyes of these families we understand how the founding of the state of Israel was simultaneously a moment of jubilation for the Jews, and a disaster - the Naqba - for the 100,000 Arabs who fled Jaffa in 1948, most of them never to return.

Adam LeBor goes beyond the daily news and political rhetoric to break down the media stereotypes and recount a moving story through the prism of Jaffa and its inhabitants. From the Christian Arab car-dealer, the Jewish coffee-and-spice merchant, the Arab baker who made bread for the whole community and the Palestinian exile who tried to bring modern business methods to the Arafat era, to the Jewish schoolgirl who befriended an Arab drug dealer, we see people striving to make a life in a country born of conflict." (You will find more information on Adam LeBor's homepage.)

We discussed this in our international book club in January 2013.

Another interesting book on this subject:
Tolan, Sandy "The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East"

Brown, Dan "The Da Vinci Code"

Brown, Dan "The Da Vinci Code" - 2003

I read this book because a couple of friends from church were reading it. Not my type of book. I'm not into crime or mystery. And that's what this is all about, no matter how many allusions are made about the Catholic church. But I think even if I would enjoy this kind of writing, his style isn't very appealing and his clues are rather too easily found by his characters. What a waste of time. Needless to say, this was my first and will be my last Dan Brown book.

Apparently, the author is at the top of the Oxfam chart for most donated books which says it all, I think.

From the back cover:

"A fascinating and absorbing thriller - perfect for history buffs, conspiracy nuts, puzzle lovers or anyone who appreciates a great, riveting story.

While in Paris on business, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon receives an urgent late-night phone call: the elderly curator of the Louvre has been murdered inside the museum. Near the body, police have found a baffling cipher. While working to solve the enigmatic riddle, Langdon is stunned to discover it leads to a trail of clues hidden in the works of Da Vinci - clues visible for all to see - yet ingeniously disguised by the painter.

Langdon joins forces with a gifted French cryptologist, Sophie Neveu, and learns the late curator was involved in the Priory of Sion - an actual secret society whose members included Sir Isaac Newton, Botticelli, Victor Hugo, and Da Vinci, among others.

In a breathless race through Paris, London, and beyond, Langdon and Neveu match wits with a faceless powerbroker who seems to anticipate their every move. Unless Langdon and Neveu can decipher the labyrinthine puzzle in time, the Priory's ancient secret - and an explosive historical truth - will be lost forever.The Da Vinci Code heralds the arrival of a new breed of lightning-paced, intelligent thriller utterly unpredictable right up to its stunning conclusion."

Shalev, Zeruya "Husband and Wife"

Shalev, Zeruya (Tseruyah) "Husband and Wife" (Hebrew: ‏בעל ואישה‎/Baʹal Ve-Isha) - 2000

Na'ama is married to Udi whom she knew since childhood. One morning, the husband wakes up not able to move his legs. Doctors don't find anything wrong with him. But the problem is not physical, further in the book you realize that it's the marriage that is sick. The author has a wonderful way of describing the couple's different ways of trying to deal with this. There is hardly any conversation in this novel, so quite a different read. A lot of thoughts and reflections. I love how there is no finger pointing, no right or wrong in this complicated ailing relationship.

An interesting book.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

From the back cover:

"With Love Life, which The Washington Post Book World called 'a brutally honest and often brilliant tour of individual and family psychology,' Zeruya Shalev achieved international literary stardom.
In her newest offering, Husband and Wife, she takes us into the heartbreak and compromise of a diseased marriage that may or may not be capable of healing.

The quiet rhythms of the family life of Na'ama and Udi Newman suddenly screech to a halt when Udi, a healthy, active man, wakes up one morning unable to move his legs. The doctors can find no physical explanation for his paralysis, and soon it becomes painfully clear that it is a symptom of something far less tangible and far more insidious. This one morning sets in motion a series of events that reveals a vicious cycle of jealousy, paranoia, resentment, and accumulated injuries that now threaten to tear the small family apart. Na'ama, always intent on upholding the structure of her marriage regardless of its rotting foundation, is now forced to see it for what it is and deal with the consequences.

In a rush of hallucinogenic imagery, Husband and Wife brilliantly captures the vulnerability and deceptive comforts of lives intertwined, as well as the near impossibility of setting out to disentangle them without any casualties. With this novel, Zeruya Shalev is sure to gain the renown here in the United States that she already enjoys around the world."

't Hart, Maarten "The Sundial"

't Hart, Maarten "The Sundial" (Dutch: De zonnewijzer) - 2002

From time to time, I read a Dutch book by a prominent author. Seldom was I as bored as with this one. A woman dies of hyperthermia, has no relatives, her best friend doesn't believe that she could just die and tries to find the real reason. Not only is the writing style boring but the amount of stuff this author comes up with in order to try to write an exciting crime story, well, it doesn't work that way. I don't think I'm going to attempt another book of this writer, even though he seems to be quite well liked in the Netherlands.

From the back cover:

"A taut thriller built on murder, intrigue, and false identity, this atmospheric crime novel opens as Leonie Kuyper attends the funeral of her best friend, Rose. Rose has died of sunstroke and named Leonie her sole heir. Leonie, an impoverished translator, gratefully moves into Rose's former apartment and former life. As she assumes her late friend's wardrobe, she begins to resemble Rose and as a result begins to feel Rose's life, and the growing mystery of it and its end, closing in around her. Was Rose, a pharmaceutical chemist, involved in drug manufacture? Was she privy to the falsification of research findings? Was her death indeed accidental? These questions beg answers, and as Leonie becomes a detective into her friend's past life-the life she now inhabits-she and the reader are pulled toward a chilling denouement."

Bryson, Bill "Troublesome Words"

Bryson, Bill "Troublesome Words" - 1997

Somewhere I read that this book was an amalgam of reference and humour. I can't think of any other author who fits this description better than Bill Bryson. Let's just look at “Troublesome Words”. A great reference book for any questions you might have about the English language, even if it is your mother tongue.

This book is almost a dictionary that gives you so much to look at - on any questions you might have about written English. Bill Bryson is well-known as a travel book author but he is just as great with his language books. He quotes both British and American newspapers - as an American lived in Britain and married to a Brit, he is certainly an expert on the differences between those two "languages". You can also find a glossary on grammar and punctuation. But, even if you're not interested in that part, this book is worth reading in any case, it's hilarious.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2023.

From the back cover:

"Why should I avoid discussing the 'weather conditions'?

Can a woman be 'celibate'?

When can I use 'due to', or should I play safe and always use 'because of'?

What's wrong with the way I'm using 'crescendo'?

This book provides a simple guide to the more perplexing and contentious issues of standard written English. The entries are discussed with wit and common sense, and are illustrated with examples of questionable usage taken from leading British and American newspapers.

No familiarity with English grammar is needed to learn from this book, although a glossary of grammatical terms is included and there us also an appendix on punctuation.

Journalists, copy-writers and secretaries will find this an invaluable handbook, and it will also be a highly enjoyable book for the word-buff."

I love all of Bill Bryson's books. Find a link to my reviews here.

Bryson, Bill "Neither here nor there. Travels in Europe"

Bryson, Bill "Neither here nor there. Travels in Europe" - 1991

After having read a few books by this great authors about other parts of this world, I just had to see what he had to say about the part of this world that I know best, Europe. He visits Norway, France, Belgium, Germany, The Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Turkey, so quite a few countries to give you an overall view about this continent. If you know Europe, it's an interesting tour to take with an outsider, if you don't know Europe, you can discover it with this book.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2023.

From the back cover:

"Bryson brings his unique brand of humour to travel writing as he shoulders his backpack, keeps a tight hold on his wallet and heads for Europe.  Travelling with Stephen Katz - also his wonderful sidekick in A Walk in the Woods - he wanders from Hammerfest in the far north, to Istanbul on the cusp of Asia.  As he makes his way round this incredibly varied continent, he retraces his travels as a student twenty years before with caustic hilarity."

I love all of Bill Bryson's books. Find a link to my reviews here.

Bryson, Bill "Made in America"

Bryson, Bill "Made in America: an Informal History of the English Language in the United States" - 1998

I love Bill Bryson, simply love him. His travel books are hilarious and informative. But he hasn't just written travel books. He has also written books about other subjects, e.g. the English language. After explaining in "Mother Tongue" how the English language got the way it is, he informs us here about the difference between the British English and the American English and how it got the way it is. Again, in his own unique and funny way but with a lot of information.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2023.

From the back cover:

"Bill Bryson turns away from the highways and byways of middle America, so hilariously depicted in his best selling The Lost Continent, for a fast, exhilarating ride along the route 66 of American language and popular culture.

In Made in America, Bryson de-mythologises his native land - explaining how a dusty desert hamlet with neither woods nor holly became Hollywood, how the Wild West hasn't won, why Americans say 'lootenant' and 'Toosday', how Americans were eating junk food long before the word itself was cooked up - as well as exposing the true origins of the G-string, the original $64,000 question and Dr Kellogg of cornflakes fame."

I love all of Bill Bryson's books. Find a link to my reviews here.