عمران بتاع كتب

JFK: The CIA, Vietnam and the Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy by L. Fletcher Prouty My rating: 3 of 5 stars Being a child of the 60s, and alive albeit very young when JFK was assassinated, this book fascinates me as it goes into great detail about everything related to the assassination, what led to the decision to eliminate JFK and the military industrial complex in this country. This should be read by anyone who has doubts about the conspiracy theory. If you plan to read O'Reilly's current book, you might want to read this one as well. The author Col. L. Fletcher Prouty was portrayed by actor Donald Sutherland in the JFK movie. Prouty was in government at the time, right in the middle of it all. O'Reilly was not as he claims to interpret all the "facts." View all my reviews

Rights from Wrongs: A Secular Theory of the Origins of Rights by Alan M. Dershowitz My rating: 3 of 5 stars This was a very approachable book with satisfying answers to several questions that had been bouncing around in my gray matter for a while regarding human rights. If rights are "inalienable," why have they been alienated with such regularity? If they're "self-evident," then why are periods of freedom and personal rights the exception and tyranny the norm? If "God did it" isn't a satisfying explanation for where our rights come from, what's the secular alternative? I walked away satisfied that a theory of rights can (and must) be built upon human experience, not natural law or an appeal to the divine. View all my reviews

The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created a War Without End by Peter W. Galbraith My rating: 3 of 5 stars Galbraith's analysis of US policy about Iraq packs no punches, and reveals the distance between rhetoric and reality in the Bush administration. Obviously well informed, and unabashedly pro-Kurd, Galbraith marshals his arguments well and makes clear the fictitious nature of the Iraqui state, My main niggle is his occasional unrestrained glee and self-importance when he lets us know how he has made an incisive point to a bemused and ignorant US official, and is subsequently proved right. View all my reviews

Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam by Gilles Kepel My rating: 3 of 5 stars Kepel provides a panoramic account of various incarnations of "political Islam" across the Arab and North African world outlining how and why events have unfolded as they did. At the heart of his analysis are two main insights:1) Only when Islamist movements can united the "devout bourgeoisie", the young urban poor (the "disinherited ones") and the religious clerics can they achieve success. Such an outcome is difficult to achieve given the tension inherent between these different groups though one notable past success occurred in Iran where a broad coalition was built under the tutelage of Khomeini. However, Kepel argues, such success has proved fleeting and the Iranian revolution has stagnated ever since.2) The violence of Islamist movements which aim at political power is a sign of their weakness. They lack capacity to mobilise the masses and ...

Found Money by James Grippando My rating: 3 of 5 stars When I find an author I like I go right through all his books one after another. Found Money by James Grippando is another great read. The plot is tight, suspenseful and believable. A woman receives a box with $200,000 cash. A doctor finds $2 million in cash in his deceased father's attic. The windfalls are related and Grippando takes us on a journey to another continent and back to solve the mystery, a rape and a murder while adding new twists and turns. His style is easy to read and flows well. Recommended. View all my reviews

Lying With Strangers by James Grippando My rating: 2 of 5 stars I am so disappointed. I enjoyed reading this book so much and I get to the ending and am left FLAT! Total waste of time, it's as though two authors wrote two different parts. The momentum was there. The character development in place, solid storyline and BINGO - ending is uneventful. View all my reviews

Lady of Hay by Barbara Erskine My rating: 3 of 5 stars I really struggled to read this. Like many others, I found the historical story, that of Matilda, much more interesting than the current-day events. But the current-day storyline is what really ruined it for me. All of the characters were completely unlikable and downright psychotic.Nike brutally rapes and repeatedly attacks Jo, but he claims to love her. Jo conveniently moves past all that and they end up happily ever after.Why was Sam completely off his rocker? No good explanation is ever given, other than spirit possession.What was the point of Richard de Clare and Tim? Matilda falls in love with someone she can't have and royally screws her life up? Jo screws Tim because he used to be Richard, and then he conveniently melts away into the background to moan and rend his clothing in an appropriately helpless way?And Jo... what a weak, co-dependent, neurotic "heroine." ...

The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham My rating: 4 of 5 stars Reading this book, my first time reading Maugham, I do understand why he is no longer widely read compared to other English writers of the early 20th century. The narrative is highly character-driven, with minimal action, and most of the characters are, frankly, detestable. However, I found this novel interesting if read as a study in the genders at their very worst. The dialogue and actions of the female characters reveals an acute misogyny; however, even as a feminist, I was struck by how accurate I found many of the observations of female behavior. Of course, the men in the novel are widely despicable themselves, particularly Strickland, based closely on the notoriously misanthropic Paul Gauguin. This book is a museum of the grotesque, but I found the characters interesting because they were caricatures of both men and women's worst qualities--and not inaccurate ones. It was ...

In a Country of Mothers by A.M. Homes My rating: 3 of 5 stars i have kind of a love/like relationship with a.m. homes. sometimes i love her work, sometimes it bores the hell out of me. this one was was more in the middle. i liked it enough, but something wasn't ringing true here, and when i found out she borrowed heavily from her own story of being adopted, i figured that must be it. maybe the subject matter was too close for her to be able to write in a completely authentic way about a situation where a psychologist gets too close to a patient that she believes might be the daughter she once gave up. the story moved along pretty well, but at the end i had a hard time believing the way these characters were acting. read "this book will save your life" it's loads better. View all my reviews

Popular Magic: Cunning-folk in English History by Owen Davies My rating: 4 of 5 stars Really fascinating overall. While I can't fault Owen Davies' thoroughness, I do think the book could have been formatted a little better so that reading all this information didn't feel so much of a slog after a while. Not that the text is boring or dense, just that it was difficult to hold my attention at times because it was just all text with no breaks until you hit the end of the chapter. Give me some sub-headings, anything! Still, an interesting read, and one I can safely recommend if you're at all interested in the subject. View all my reviews

أنا والحبيب by عمرو عبد السميع My rating: 2 of 5 stars هكذا يبدأ الدكتور عمرو عبدالسميع روايته الجديدة: أنا والحبيب. والرواية كلها عبارة عن تعبير روائي فني جميل عن زمن جمال عبدالناصر. وإهداء الرواية يكتبه عمرو عبدالسميع هكذا: - إلي زمان مددت يديّ إليه حين داعبني طيفه يلاغيني، فأشاح عني مغادراً، ثم أشار - في غواية - بطرف سبابته كيما أتبعه، فهرولت في أعقابه عبر المسالك الوعرة والخطرة لطفولة وفتوة ورجولة وكهولة ومضت مشاهدها كالبرق تضوي، وتشابكت وقائعها كأغصان غابة عملاقة كثيفة تسد الطريق أمام حزم أشعة الشمس، فلا تنفذ إلا بمقدار. وحين لاح آمري من بعيد، تسارعت خطاي، وتلاحقت أنفاسي، وخلت أنني - أخيراً -سأمسك به، فلم أدرك سوي طرف ثوبه الذي أفلت من قبضتي الصغيرة، وضحكته الساخرة الفاجرة التي أطاحت معني الإمكان. والحبيب المقصود في هذا العنوان هو جمال عبدالناصر. وعمرو عبدالسميع لم يكتف بكتابة الرواية ونشرها في دار العين. ولكنه كتب مقالاً نشره في جريدة الأهرام عن جمال عبدالناصر. أعادت جريدة العربي الناصري نشره. والحبيب في هذه الرواية هو عبدالناصر وزمنه وإنجازه ا...

Of Neptune by Anna Banks My rating: 5 of 5 stars The final book in The Syrena Legacy definitely doesn't disappoint. Of Neptune picks up four months after Of Triton. Galen and Emma have graduated from high school and are finally taking that much needed vacation they spoke about at the end of Of Triton. Neither of them expected to find what they did when they take Antonis' advice and go visit the sleepy town of Neptune, Tennessee. There's more heart-stopping action and emotion in these pages than in the other two combined. There's some twists and turns and times when the reader will be furious and sad all at once. Of Neptune closes all the holes that were strategically placed in Of Poseidon and Of Triton. The only thing the reader will ask with the end of this book. "What happens now?" I would absolutely enjoy another book to this series, perhaps one a few years down the line when Rayna and Emma have fingerlings, perhaps Nalia...

The Ruby Circle by Richelle Mead My rating: 4 of 5 stars I love this story and I love that Richelle Mead was able to take the world that she built in the Vampire Academy series and continue it so well in this series. The relationship that she builds between Sydney and Adrian, especially after their marriage in Silver Shadows, is so real, and feels like it was just meant to happen all along. Who knows? Maybe it was haha. But I love the continuation of their relationship in this book. Now that they’ve got the chance to be honest about their relationship…they have the struggle of getting everyone else on board with it. But they also have the struggle of figuring it out themselves. What they are willing to do for each other, how they fight together, how they trust each other. Its a beautiful, real relationship and I enjoyed every single minute of it while reading this book. The love that Sydney and Adrian have for each other…its just beautiful. But what ...

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey My rating: 2 of 5 stars The story is interesting enough, I guess. It's funny: it's marketed as being like Ender's Game, The Hunger Games, and The Road, but it feels more like the author wanted to make it like those, so he sloppily threw together a girl wandering the wasteland here, a camp for child soldiers there. When the quasi-Twilight love triangle started to develop, I almost threw the book down entirely. On the other hand, it's fairly entertaining at times and a pretty easy read, and I think my disappointment was augmented by all of the hype and advance marketing the book got. I don't know what it is about teen books that they all start to feel the same, like they're written by the same mediocre, seventeen-year-old. Sometimes I wonder if "Teen" is just what publishers call books they've already committed to publishing that aren't good enough for the adult fiction section and h...

A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas My rating: 5 of 5 stars I have loved all of Maas' work. I will admit that first book in this series was not my favorite but this book was beautifully written. I was honestly surprised at how things happened for Feyre and friends and am saddened that I have to wait so long for the next installment since I finished this one within hours! You will never be bored when reading a novel written by Maas. View all my reviews

السيدة صاحبة الكلب by Anton Chekhov My rating: 4 of 5 stars إن التوتر الذي صوره تشيخوف في قصته القصيرة هذه، وأخلص له العظيم تشيخوف إلى أبعد مدى، يتجاوز العلاقة الحسية بين امرأة ورجل، إلى قراءة إحساسهما بصعوبة وضعهما في مجتمع تلك الفترة في روسيا. إن أسلوبتشيخوف يمكن القول عنه إنه نوع من"الواقعية التاريخية"، إذ ينقل تفاصيل الواقع كلها ومن كل النواحي مثل الملابس، الديكور، الحوار . ينجح تشيخوف هذا بتقديم صورة الإنسان الذي يعيش في قالب اجتماعي معين، غير قادر على الفكاك منه أو تجاوزه. إذ يصعب على ديمتري أن يغادر بيته ومركزه الاجتماعي وكذلك آنا .. إن وصف الاحداث بعناية ، بحيث يحس القارئ بحيرة واضطراب تفكير ديمتري، كما لو أننا في رحلة في عقل ديمتري ومشاعره. ،بالإضافة إلى نوع الإضاءة الهادئة وأداء تشيخوف الرقيق والمعبر. . View all my reviews