Mandela, Nelson "Long Walk to Freedom"

Mandela, Nelson "Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela" - 1994

This has been on my list for a long time but it took another book club to put it on their list until I finally got to touch it.

I have always admired Nelson Mandela for how he coped with his life, for his struggle with oppression, for his fight for freedom. I mean, who wouldn't? He is one of the great heroes of our lifetime and the world would be a better place if everyone had just a little bit of Nelson Mandela in them.

The book hasn't changed my mind about him. If anything, it has enhanced my admiration. I have learned so much from this man just by following his thoughts in his autobiography. I hope I can use at least some of it in my life.

How does anyone cope with being imprisoned for almost thirty years. And not just being imprisoned, the situation in those jails was not exactly ideal, not what you can expect if you have to do time for any crime you would commit in our Western countries, time for a crime you actually committed, not for fighting for some of the basic rights any human being should be granted in the first place.

From his childhood living with an African chief to his studies of the law and the beginnings of his dedication of eliminating the cruel effects of racism in his country, this man has stood up to any injustice caused to the innocence. He was granted the Nobel Peace Prize and there probably has never been anyone more deserving for this.

What more is there to say than: Everybody should read this book.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

From the back cover:

"Nelson Mandela is one of the great moral and political leaders of our time: an international hero whose lifelong dedication to the fight against racial oppression in South Africa won him the Nobel Peace Prize and the presidency of his country. Since his triumphant release in 1990 from more than a quarter-century of imprisonment, Mandela has been at the center of the most compelling and inspiring political drama in the world. As president of the African National Congress and head of South Africa's antiapartheid movement, he was instrumental in moving the nation toward multiracial government and majority rule. He is revered everywhere as a vital force in the fight for human rights and racial equality.LONG WALK TO FREEDOM is his moving and exhilarating autobiography, destined to take its place among the finest memoirs of history's greatest figures. Here for the first time, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela tells the extraordinary story of his life - an epic of struggle, setback, renewed hope, and ultimate triumph."

Nelson Mandela received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1993 "for ... work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa".

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

Movies recommending books

Movies recommending books

I love movies but don't always like them when it's a book I've read (and loved) turned into a movie and have already mentioned that in my blog "Never judge a book by its cover?"

However, there is one thing I don't mind at all, and that is if they talk about books in a movie. If I've read them before, I love to hear what the character (or author) has to say about them, if I haven't read them, it's a good recommendation.

There are certainly a lot of books I heard about in a movie but one that always comes to my mind is "Ballet Shoes" by Noel Streatfeild, a book so vehemently recommended by Meg Ryan in "You've got mail". I must admit, I hadn't heard about the book before that movie, either, but I was just there with "Kathleen Kelly" condemning that book salesman for not knowing it. After all, I didn't grow up in an English speaking country and I don't earn my living with selling books. However, I read the book because Kathleen loved it so much, I just had to read it.

I will try to add more books to this list once I will think about more and/or see more movies that mentione books I read but if any of my readers likes to add some of their suggestions, I'm happy to add them.

Austen, Jane "Persuasion" in "The Lake House"Austen, Jane "Pride & Prejudice" in "You've Got Mail" and "Fahrenheit 451"
Brontë, Emily "Wuthering Heights" in "The Proposal"
Conrad, Joseph "Heart of Darkness" in "King Kong"
Dickens, Charles "David Copperfield" in "Gone With the Wind"Dickens, Charles "A Tale of Two Cities" in "On Golden Pond" and "Up the Down Staircase"
Dickens, Charles "The Pickwick Papers" in "Fahrenheit 451"
Forster, E. M. "Howards End" in "Educating Rita"
Franzen, Jonathan "The Corrections" in "The Holiday"
Hosseini, Khaled "The Kite Runner" in "The Holiday"
McEwan, Ian "Atonement" in "The Holiday"
Rowling, J.K. "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" in "The Holiday"
Salinger, J. D. "Catcher in the Rye" in "The Good Girl" and "Annie Hall" 
Shelley, Mary "Frankenstein" in "Paris When It Sizzles" 
Stevenson, Robert Louis "Treasure Island" in "On Golden Pond"
Stowe, Harriet Beecher "Uncle Tom's Cabin" in "The Other"
Tolstoy, Leo "Anna Karenina" in "The Shop Around the Corner"
Tolstoy, Leo "War and Peace" in "Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation"

Murasaki, Lady Shikibu "The Tale of Genji"

Murasaki, Lady Shikibu "The Tale of Genji" (Japanese: 源氏物語 Genji Monogatari) - early 11th century

A highly interesting but tough read. How was life a millennium ago in a completely different part of this world.

This book is often considered the first novel ever written. That was partly the reason I was interested in it.

And I didn't regret reading it. The story of Genji is about a young prince in Japan and his life at court. Very different from any life nowadays, this first hand narrative concentrates on the relationship between Genji and the many female members at court, from older ladies to young girls.

Is there a better way to find out how people used to live than reading about them in a book? This is the best way of time travel.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

From the back cover:

"Completed in the early 11th century, The Tale of Genji is considered the supreme masterpiece of Japanese prose literature, and one of the world's earliest novels. A work of great length, it comprises six parts, the first part of which (also called The Tale of Genji) is reprinted here. The exact origins of this remarkable saga of the nobility of Heian Japan remain somewhat obscured by time, although its author, Lady Shikibu Murasaki, presumably derived many of her insights into court life from her years of service with the royal family.

The novel centers on the life and loves of the prince known as 'the shining Genji.' Far more than an exotic romance, however, the tale presents finely drawn characters in realistic situations, set against a richly embroidered tapestry of court life, Moreover, a wistful sense of nostalgia pervades the accounts of courtly intrigues and rivalries, resulting in an exquisitely detailed portrayal of a decaying aristocracy.

Vibrant in its poetry and wordplay, subtle in its social and psycho logical observations, this work ranks in stature and significance with such Western classics as Cervantes' Don Quixote and Proust's Remembrance of Things Past . This inexpensive edition, featuring Arthur Waley's splendid translation of the first of the six-part series, offers readers a memorable taste of one of the world's first and greatest novels."

Rutherfurd, Edward "Awakening"

Rutherfurd, Edward "Awakening: The Rebels of Ireland" - 2006

I rarely read the sequel to a book right away, I usually take a little break from the story. But this time, I could not resist. After reading "Dublin", I just had to carry on reading about all those Irish families that witnessed the history of this interesting country first hand.

This novel picks up in 1597, right after the first one finishes, we follow the descendants of the brave characters from book one carrying on the struggle of their ancestors, we follow them through the occupation through the English with the various trials of erasing all Catholicism from the island through the famine to the Easter rising until the declaration of the Republic. What a vivid history.

One thing this book teaches us more than ever, any religious war or dispute is not really about religion but about power and money.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

From the back cover:

"Edward Rutherfurd’s stirring account of Irish history, the Dublin Saga, concludes in this magisterial work of historical fiction. Beginning where the first volume, The Princes of Ireland, left off, The Rebels of Ireland takes us into a world transformed by the English practice of 'plantation,' which represented the final step in the centuries-long British conquest of Ireland. Once again Rutherfurd takes us inside the process of history by tracing the lives of several Dublin families from all strata of society ' Protestant and Catholic, rich and poor, conniving and heroic.

From the time of the plantations and Elizabeth’s ascendancy Rutherfurd moves into the grand moments of Irish history: the early-17th-century 'Flight of the Earls,' when the last of the Irish aristocracy fled the island; Oliver Cromwell’s brutal oppression and confiscation of lands a half-century later; the romantic, doomed effort of 'The Wild Geese' to throw off Protestant oppression at the Battle of the Boyne. The reader sees through the eyes of the victims and the perpetrators alike the painful realities of the anti-Catholic penal laws, the catastrophic famine and the massive migration to North America, the rise of the great nationalists O’Connell and the tragic Parnell, the glorious Irish cultural renaissance of Joyce and Yeats, and finally, the triumphant founding of the Irish Republic in 1922.

Written with all the drama and sweep that has made Rutherfurd the bestselling historical novelist of his generation, The Rebels of Ireland is both a necessary companion to The Princes of Ireland and a magnificent achievement in its own right."

I also highly recommend  "London" and "The Forest" by the same author.

Find a link to all my reviews on his other novels here.

Strobel, Lee "The Case for Christ"

Strobel, Lee "The Case for Christ: A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus" - 1998

An atheist journalist is trying to find the truth behind Christ and his resurrection. He travels all across the United States of America to talk to specialists in several fields, science, religion, history, law, philosophy. They all put a case before him and underline how they achieved their evidence.

It is amazing with how many facts these men come up but in the end, they still say it is down to the individual to see whether they believe or not. Interesting book, great for discussion.

From the back cover:

"If you were a journalist, how would you handle a news story so big it would utterly eclipse all other world events? How thorough would your investigation be? How many hard-hitting questions would you ask? How carefully would you consult with top experts to get detailed, accurate answers? 

Lee Strobel knows firsthand. It was as an award-winning reporter for the Chicago Tribune and an avowed atheist that he first investigated the greatest news story of all - the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, in The Case for Christ, he presents compelling evidence and expert testimony for the claims of Christianity. As a seasoned journalist with a Yale law background, Strobel systematically tracks down his leads and asks the blunt, tough questions you would want to ask - questions that can make or break the Christian faith. He refuses contrived, simplistic answers. Instead, he pieces together hard facts through interviews with a dozen of the country's top scholars. 

Written in the style of a blockbuster investigative report, The Case for Christ is a provocative and spellbinding read, marshaling expert testimony and persuasive evidence. With unerring instincts, Strobel ferrets out: Historical evidence: Do we possess reliable documents concerning the life, teachings, and resurrection of Jesus? Scientific Evidence: Is there archaeological substantiation for the historical accounts about Jesus? Did Jesus perform miracles? Psychiatric Evidence: Did Jesus really claim to be God? What evidence is there that he fits God's profile? Fingerprint Evidence: What does prophecy have to say about Jesus? Other Evidence: Jesus' death, the missing body, eyewitness accounts, and claims of personal encounters. The Case for Christ reads like a captivating, fast-paced novel. But, it's not fiction. It's a riveting journey to the truth about the most remarkable event in history: the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And it's a revealing, personal testimony to his power to transform people yet today - even the most case-hardened, cynical journalist."

Buck, Pearl S. "East Wind: West Wind"

Buck, Pearl S. "East Wind: West Wind" - 1930

This was one of my first Pearl S. Buck novels. I came to adore her, read a lot of her books during my teenage years, probably because they were easy to read, yet so informative. I still love them and still read a book of hers from time to time.

I love the way Pearl S. Buck can explain the life in China, life in China during her lifetime, of course, I am well aware that it has changed a lot again. She has a wonderful way of explaining the Chinese way, almost in parables.

But this is history, life in Asia seen through the eyes of an American. The title already tells us about the divide between the East and the West, how people believe that they cannot be mixed. For example, the protagonist of the story, Kwei-Li, lives in a modern style house and is amazed by a lot of the features. Her brother brings home an American wife who is not accepted by the family. Lots of explanations about the different kind of life in the two different continents. This book achieves to portray this so wonderfully.

The biggest subject of the novel is the custom of arranging marriages. Kwei-Lan is married to a doctor, an educated man, who starts caring for her when she asks him to unbind her feet. Her brother refuses to marry the wife his parents have chosen for him and gets disinherited. A subject, most of us in the modern West are completely unaccustomed to.

Certainly one of Pearl S. Buck's books where we see the difference between our lives and that of the ancient Chinese most, where she serves it to us on a silver platter. I would probably recommend anyone to start with this book if they haven't read one by this great author.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

From the back cover:

"'East Wind: West Wind' is told from the eyes of a traditional Chinese girl, Kwei-lan, married to a Chinese medical doctor, educated abroad. The story follows Kwei-lan as she begins to accept different points of view from the western world, and re-discovers her sense of self through this coming-of-age narrative."

Find other books by Pearl S. Book that I read here.

Pearl S. Buck received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938 "for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces".

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

Morrison, Toni "Home"

Morrison, Toni "Home" - 2012

Toni Morrison is one of my favourite authors. I love her writing so much. She manages to describe anything in a way that you feel you've been there, you know the characters in her book.

Like Frank Money, the protagonist in this novel. He has survived the Korean War, well, physically. After a more than difficult childhood, he and his sister don't continue to have an easy adulthood, you find almost any form of abuse and problem in this novel.

I know I will still think about this novel for a long time.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

From the back cover:

"When Frank Money joined the army to escape his too-small world, he left behind his cherished and fragile little sister, Cee. After the war, his shattered life has no purpose until he hears that Cee is in danger.

Frank is a modern Odysseus returning to a 1950s America mined with lethal pitfalls for an unwary black man. As he journeys to his native Georgia in search of Cee, it becomes clear that their troubles began well before their wartime separation. Together, they return to their rural hometown of Lotus, where buried secrets are unearthed and where Frank learns at last what it means to be a man, what it takes to heal, and -- above all -- what it means to come home."

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2022.

Toni Morrison "who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality" received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993. 

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

Read more about other books by the author here.