A beautifully written story spanning several decades and generations, between Egypt and New York. I may not wish to trade this away but would be happy to make it available for book rings.

RELEASE NOTES:

This book is on its way to Oriane temporarily staying in Geneva. So far it's a mini-ring
after Oriane,
it goes on to Dubly in Luzern.
Anyone else interested?

So, now some more interest and then it will go international! what fun...


MemberList:
#01 Oriane/France
#02 dubly/Switzerland
#03 bluejazzyfish / UK
#04 okyrhoe / Greece (will post overseas)
#05 enigmachick/ USA
#06 Rrrcaron / USA
#07 indygo88 / USA
#08 istop4books/ USA (will post to Canada)
#09 jessibud/ Canada
(#10 karinalyssa/ Canada (please skip))
#11 Geishabird / Canada (will post int'l)
#12 Dei / Singapore (will post int'l)
#13 Mallary / France <--it's here

The book arrived by post just before I`m going on holiday. Great! It`s part of a book ring started by penelopewanders and I`m quite curious how far it will travel.

This wonderful bookring book is now on its way to bluejazzyfish in the UK. I really enjoyed it and I hope everyone too.

oh my! sorry for stalling ring- I did get the book a few weeks ago and forgot to journal it- also I have a few books still ahead of this one- so I will have to send it on now so as not to further delay the ring.

hi- I have sent this nook off finally to okyrhoe- my i have been so busy with studying and life that I didn't even make the time to read it- : ( hope to do so one day. thanks for letting me take part- sorry for having the book for so long.

Arrived in my p.o.box today. Thanks penelopewanders for including me in the ring and bluejazzyfish for posting the book to me!

I liked this book! Thanks again penelopewanders!

This is one of the few novels set in the Arab world that I enjoyed reading. I often find stories set in the Middle East to be overly sentimental or overly shallow, as far as the culture and the temperament of the people is concerned. This narrative is balanced in that respect. Soueif's familiarity with the British temperament and the Victorian literary style merges almost seamlessly with the Egyptian tendency to imbue magical/mystical elements into historical accounts and personal storytelling.

In some instances the editorializing (blatant commentary on the historical & political situation) began to irritate me. On the other hand, the insinuations regarding women's issues in Arab & Victorian society are quite subtle, and I enjoyed the underhanded jibes about women's "verbal veiling."

I speak sufficient Arabic to be able to understood most of the words and phrases the author incorporates into the text, and I am fascinated by the associations Soueif/the narrator makes regarding the etymology and usage of certain Arabic terms. But I'm still trying to determine why Soueif omits explaining "baksheesh" in the glossary!

~~~~~~
Ahdaf Soueif
Chapter 8 in English or Arabic translation.
Reading Group Guide
The Writer’s Room
~~~~~~

Got this a while back and thought I journaled it but have been busy taking care of my mom so I failed to check and send it on. I apologize for the delay.

I thought that I sent this book on months ago and realized that I still have it. I will be sending it on today to the next person in the ring. My sincerest apologies for holding up the ring.

I received this book in the mail the other day. I hope to get to it soon. Happy New Year!
Ruth

Sending this book on to it's next reader. It's been great participating in these rings over the years. My apologies for slowing things down. It's on the move again!
Ruth

Got it today -- thanks Ruth! This one will be up next, after my current read!

4/4/08 -- Starting book today.

Though I did enjoy this book, I felt like it took me forever to finish it. I really had trouble keeping track of all the names & though the glossary in back was helpful, there were also words that were not translated that I think probably should have been for those of us not at all familiar with Arabic. I found the changing points of views a bit confusing at first, and it took me a while there at the beginning to really orient myself as to time & place as it changed back & forth. But once I was finally comfortable with that, I began to enjoy the novel more. I really liked the intertwining of stories set a century apart, although I had trouble following much of the political unrest & I found myself skimming those sections more as I approached the latter part of the book. And I was a little bit confused by the very last page. Did it mean what I thought it meant, or was I trying to read too much into it?? Hmmm....

Thank you, penelopewanders, for initiating this bookring! I have the next person's address & will be mailing this out either tomorrow or after the weekend.

Arrived safe and sound today. Will get to it shortly. Thanks for sending it on!

First off, thanks so much Penelopewanders for being so understanding of my delay with this book. It's been a bit of a rough summer and my mind just wasn't on reading for the longest time.

But now that I've finished it, and it did take the better part of 3 weeks to finish it (with a short book club book in the middle) I am very glad that I did because I loved the story. I especially found Anna's journal entries to be very moving. I didn't particularly care for the digressions into Egyptian politics as I found these hard to follow, but the basic storyline was quite beautiful.

I've PM the next in line and will send the book out as soon as I have the address.

It's here! I should finish up my current book in the next day or two, at the very latest then this one will be next. Interestingly, the book I am currently reading is also about a woman from Cairo who emigrated to Canada with her family when she was 14. What makes it particularly fascinating for me is that she and her family were my next-door neighbours when I was a little girl. She and my mom recently met up again and she gave her this book,which she wrote about her life and the story of her family. It was published just last year. I think The Map of Love will be a very interesting follow-up book to the one I am reading now and I look forward to it.

Thanks, istop4books, for the fabulous postcard and *goodies*!

Sigh. I am in that sad state of things where, although I started this book almost as soon as it arrived, and was really loving it, my work at school started piling on and I somehow got buried under it all.

I don't see myself emerging and getting back to the book for at least several more weeks so I will pass it along to Geishabird tomorrow in order to keep it moving. I do look forward to will finding myself another copy to read at a quieter time in my life.

Sorry to have held this bookring up.

Jessibud very kindly hand-delivered the book to me yesterday - what service! Thanks very much; I'll get started on it as soon as possible.

Well, overall I did enjoy this book, although there were a few things that began to bother me about it. For one - I discovered that I absolutely could not stand Isabel! I found her astonishingly self-absorbed and her fixation on Omar was obnoxious and even disturbing. She seemed obsessed with tying everything into their "relationship" and proving that it was all "meant to be". Now, I don't happen to believe in fate, or destiny, or whatever others may call it, so my irritation with this aspect of the story might be my own personal issue. If Soueif had intended to portray Isabel as a neurotic, unattractive character, that would be something different altogether, but I don't get the impression that this was her goal. I felt that we were supposed to like and sympathize with Isabel, and I did not. So this left a bad taste in my mouth after I finished the book.

The rest of the book I found pretty enjoyable. Interesting to read all the details about modern Egyptian history - most of us are only aware of its ancient history, I imagine. I enjoyed the Anna/Sharif storyline quite a lot and the book is beautifully written, intermingling the past and present storylines very well. Thanks very much for sharing it.

I've contacted Dei and will send the book along as soon as I have an address.

UPDATE: Mailed to Dei on Nov 22.

Sorry for the tardy response. Thanks so much to geishabird for sending to me. i just arrived back to Singapore and will journal it as soon as i can

Thanks Mallery for the prompt reply in giving me her mailing address. Ufortunately i was not able to bring myself to read this book, find it tough to focus on it as it is confusing to me. Sent to Mallery today after stalling it for ages

Arrived today, many thanks!

I hope not to hold onto it for too long but I have 2 bookring books before it. I will get to it as soon as I can, I promise!