Book Review: Reading Lolita in Tehran, A Memoir in Books: Author, Azar Nafisi

Book :Reading Lolita in Tehran

Author: Azar Nafisi

A Memoir in Books

The characters in this book are real innocent people who unfortunately happened to be raised in a country where the word freedom did not seem to exist especially for women.

I often wonder why there is such a strict rule about covering ones head. The women in this story were not in favor of it. Can you believe they were flogged imprisoned even killed because a strand of hair of a girl or woman was visible, and to the authorities this was the worst possible crime a human could commit.

The author was expelled from her job because she refused to wear the veil. While one country punishes their women for not wearing the veil, there are others in the world who detest the veil. It’s all against the women.

My question is why is there so much restriction against women?

Before I lose track of what the book is about, I must rein in my thoughts and stick to the story of this book.

After losing her university job, the author selected seven or eight women students to her house to talk about literature. It was a fun way of learning ,it also gave the students an opportunity to talk about their life and the characters in the novels the author taught. She mentioned Nabokov’s novel Lolita more than others, among the novels they discussed were :Fitzgerald’s  ,  The great Gatsby, Austen’s  Pride and Prejudice, and there were others.

The girls and their teacher had a great time. The best was when they had coffee and pastries, every time they met. I think it was once a week on Thursdays. Pastry brings back fond memories of my childhood , there was a  man who visited us  once a week with his huge trunk of pastries, Dad would call us to pick our favorite.

This gathering of the teacher with her eight students was a time when I did not have to read the horrors of war, or missile attack from the neighboring country which lasted for eight years.

There are pages in the book where I felt as if I was part of the characters in the book. I remember feeling awful when one of the girls told her teacher that one of their classmate and friend was shot to death.

This was the way of life for them, although it pained me to read what they were going through, I could not stop reading it, I had to know whether the teacher and the students were all right in the end.

Azar Nafisi the author mentioned the novel, ‘Lolita, ‘ very frequently. I was curious to know what it was about. I went to the local bookstore and bought Lolita to satisfy my curiosity. You guessed it I’m planning to start reading it today, God willing.  🙂

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Book Review,Far From The Madding Crowd: Author Thomas Hardy

Wikipedia image

Today I put the finishing touches to the book titled “Far From The Madding Crowd,”I was reading, after The Da Vinci Code. Like the latter it had some interesting episodes but they were different. It kept me interested, as I could not tell how the story will end.

Far From The Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy is very different from Tess in, Tess of the d’Urburvilles by the same author. Unlike Tess, Bathsheba the main character in “Far From The Madding Crowd”,had a much stronger personality. She took care of her farm which she inherited from her uncle without much problem. The men in the area respected and feared her.

The appearance of one Sergeant Troy changed the whole scenario. One would never think Bathsheba would fall for a character like Troy, which is what exactly happened, after a  lot of twists and turns, Bathsheba was able to make the  right choice.

It’s made into a movie, I haven’t watched it yet.

The main characters are: Bathsheba a female farmer

Gabriel Oak : a male farmer

Boldwood: another male farmer

Sergeant Troy: A Stranger

The book has 434 pages and has a  soft cover.

I found the book entertaining and interesting. I think it will be well received by the  readers.

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Book Review: The Da Vinci Code

Book Review: The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

I finished reading this book on February 7th. I do not want to say too much, I rather not spoil the fun of reading it by writing any part of the novel. I say this much I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

There are many twists and turns, just when you think you know what’ll happen, a completely different thing happens. There are characters in it who  give the reader a good feeling for a little while, but  turns out they are not so good after all.

What I’ve learned from it is I must be careful who I trust.

I found out about the characters after reading the whole book. It’s full of suspense and mystery. It’s the first time I read a book where I couldn’t tell what will happen or how it will end.

Author ,Dan Brown was remarkable.

The book with illustrations helps.

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Daily Prompts: Second Time Around

Tell us about a book you can read again and again without getting bored- what is it that speaks to you?

The book I can read more than once is, ‘A Long Way Home,’ By Saroo Brierley. I’m re-posting my book review which I wrote in 2014.

https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2014/08/06/book-review-posted-by-ranu/

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Book Review: Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

Atlas Shrugged is a book I finished reading yesterday. I started reading it more than a week ago. I entered the challenge of reading 25 books this year.

The above was my second book. It has 1168 pages, there are more than 588 words on each side. The spaces between the lines are very narrow, as a result I read the same line twice. You could say it’s my mistake and not the author’s .

I found there was a lot of repetition and there were long speeches in the book which were almost more than ten pages.  No one recommended this book to me I heard about the writer and was curious. I bought the book and felt the only way I’ll make myself read it was  if I enter a challenge.

Now that I’ve finally read the book, I’d be honest and admit I will never read a book which took so much of my time, in return I learned very little from it.

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DP Daily Prompt: BFFS

When I think of “BFFS”, I see my mother in my mind’s eye. She has taught me a lot of lessons. I talk about them,think, and write whenever the opportunity presents itself.

One of the lessons she taught me and wanted me to follow strictly was never say anything bad about any one. If you don’t like someone whatever the reason may be strike those names off your head. Do not think about them at all. You can achieve a lot with your mind. read a book .Think of the characters. Write about them. Pick one you liked most. Write a short paragraph explaining ,what was special about him/her.

When you’ve done that. Write a book review,your review may or may not help your reader, but you’ve used your time well. You will forget about people who rub you the wrong way.

You can also help your siblings with their homework. They can certainly use it.

Keep your brain occupied with things that can help you and others.

When I’d listened to her, I’d think “what a neat way to occupy my brain.”

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2014/01/28/daily-prompt-friends/