Insiyah’s Comments (group member since Apr 12, 2022)

Insiyah’s comments from the Nothing But Reading Challenges group.

Completion Post


Book: The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak
Date Read: 14-Jun-2023
Rating: 5 stars
Pages: 368

Mini:
Chipmunk: Solve for X

So I'm reading The Bastard of Istanbul and it making me jump. Like, Shafak is describing food using Armenian and Turkish traditional names, and I'm jumping in my seat when I google them and realise what they are. Also, this book is funny in that dry humour kind of way which is freaking awesome. (Also, I'm overhyped on caffeine).

Eldarwen wrote: "But Insiyah, do you maybe have any recommendations for local authors?"

I genuinely do not :/ I was looking up some books to see if I could find anything, and the best fiction I can find is Desperate in Dubai, #1, so if anyone wants to read it...

Eldarwen wrote: "New Chipmunk task!

50. Ten Tallest Towers 1 - Burj Khalifa - Read a book set in, or by an author from United Arab Emirates"

It would make this much easier if the task was that the reader was from UAE :D

Eldarwen wrote: "I hope the book is a good one! The title sounds good in any case"

Fingers crossed, because it's based on the Partition, and those stories are fascinating.

This ad by Google blew up when it came out nearly 10 years ago, and it's still considered an example of a great ad that really touched people in both countries.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHGDN...


Andy wrote: "it will always be there Insiyah,
waiting..."

(i know this is not Bleak House, but just seems appropriate)"

Pretty accurate anyways :D

I've to read Tomb of Sand for another challenge - it won the International Booker Prize 2022.

On the other hand, it's also 733 pages, so I can read it for the main tower if that works better.

(Poor Bleak House - it's just not getting its turn right now :/)

Alejandra wrote: "Sorry I’ve been awol.
My kid is graduating high school today !!!
Promise to post completion posts over the weekend when the celebration dies down"

Congratulations!

Completion Post


Book: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Date Read: 9-Jun-2023
Pages: 282
Rating: 3 stars
Review: I loved the writing style in this book, but got really annoyed with the characters very quickly. The end part, where the circumstances are finally made clear from an outsider's perspective, that set the 'ethics' part of my brain ringing. Loudly. '

Mini:
Rainbow tower: Yellow cover
Crayola tower:
Title: Never
Author: K, I
Characters: Kathy, Tommy, Ruth, Lucy, Emily, Madame

Completion Post


Book: The Empire of Gold by S.A. Chakraborty
Date Read: 9-Jun-2023
Pages: 812 pages
Rating: 3 stars
Review: I loved Nahri and Ali's POVs, but I could barely get through Dara's. His angst and his violence really, really threw me off this time round. That said, I liked the way the story wrapped up at the end.

Mini:
Crayola Towers:
Title: The, Empire
Author: S, C
Characters: Alizayd al Qahtani, Zaynab al-Qahtani, Darayavahoush e-Afshin, Kaveh e-Pramukh, Jamshid e-Pramukh, Hatset, Muntadhir, Nahri el-Nahid, Manizheh el-Nahid

Eurgh that's annoying.. I always get upset when a language I know is butchered..

But I thought she'd get it right at least? I thought she had roots in that part of the world, but that may just be mixing things up with another author."

From looking into her history a bit, she's originally American and wanted to become an Egyptian historian, but couldn't because of the 2008 financial crisis. But I somehow get the impression that this was less her and more editing decisions coming into play.

Completion Post


The Kingdom of Copper by S.A. Chakraborty
Date Read: 7-Jun-2023
Pages: 640 pages
Rating: 3.5 stars
Review: I keep being surprised by how violent this series is. That said, storytelling was brilliant, but I kept getting annoyed by how the Arabic words were being spelt and pronounced, considering their actual pronunciation in English.

Mini:
Crayola Towers:
Title: The, Kingdom
Author: S, C
Characters: Alizayd al Qahtani, Zaynab al-Qahtani, Darayavahoush e-Afshin, Kaveh e-Pramukh, Jamshid e-Pramukh, Ghassan ibn Khader al Qahtani, Muntadhir, Nisreen e-Kinshur, Nahri el-Nahid, Manizheh el-Nahid

Roger - president of NBR United - wrote: "For The City of Brass the kindle version which I read has 569 pages."

With the BOMs, there is a page count of one edition used for all readers that's confirmed by the mods. In the case of The City of Brass, that's 532.

I'm going to give this a shot based on 2023 books I've read.

(title, author's first or last name for each letter)

Insiyah
I - Atonement by Ian McEwan (31-Jan)
N - Open Water by Nelson Caleb Azumah (02-Jan)
S - The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick (11-Jan)
I - A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood (18-Jan)
Y - Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari (28-Sep)
A - A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon (21-May)
H - First Comes Marriage: My Not-So-Typical American Love Story by Huda Al-Marashi (14-Feb)

Hashim
H - Happy Place by Emily Henry (6-Jul)
A - Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (30-May)
S - The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon (26-May)
H - Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell (31-Jul)
I - The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey (18-Mar)
M - Maurice by E.M. Forster (07-Feb)

Rangwala
R - Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo (2-Apr)
A - All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque (9-Mar)
N - Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
G - The Giver by Lois Lowry (09-May)
W - The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (07-May)
A - The Alice Network by Kate Quinn (18-Jun)
L - Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo (08-Apr)
A

Khadija:
K - The Moth Diaries by Rachel Klein (26-Mar)
H - Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath (14-Jan)
A - Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky (07-May)
D - Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart (30-Jun)
I - The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro (13-Apr)
J - The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin (15-Mar)
A - Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson (14-Aug)

Michael wrote: "Not sure if anyone else has done the Read Your Name challenge but it was kinda fun to put together. I had already read enough this year to do all 25 letters.

Michael Read His Name 📖🤓📚"

Okay, now I'm doing this instead of working :D

Andy wrote: "hi Insiyah - just FYI - going to start Bleak House today *gulp*"

Good luck! I want to finish Young Mungo and Never Let Me Go before I start another giant classic, so I'm taking a day or two to get those done with.

I can cover them if no one else is able to

Okay, I'm so confused with the timeline now. I spent some time going through other's DQs, and people seem to assume Suleiman was the Ottoman King. It wasn't - they mean King Solomon (Suleiman is his name in Arabic). There are stories of his control over the djinn. Plus, the book is set at the end of the 18th century - the French campaign in Egypt started in 1798 or so. The djinn have been cursed around 2,000 years or so ago in the book.

Also, I've already started with the next book - I NEED to know what happens now. I'm probably going to read the entire series at this rate.

Completion Post


The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty
Date: 5th June
Rating: 3 stars
Official page count: 532 pages

DQs:
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3

Mini:
Title: City
Author: S, Chakraborty
Characters:
Alizayd al Qahtani, Zaynab, Darayavahoush e-Afshin, Kaveh e-Pramukh, Jamshid e-Pramukh, Rashid ben Salkh, Ghassan ibn Khader al Qahtani, Muntadhir, Nisreen e-Kinshur, Nahri

DQs Day 3 - Chapters 10-4

9. As he walks through the Daeva Quarters, Ali is shot by a toy arrow, let loose by one of the children playing about. Rashid suggests to Ali that he should punish the boy by taking him to be raised in the Citadel, which Ali refuses. What do you think this says about Ali, and about others in the city’s upper echelon?
I think it's a commentary on the society more than anything else. Ali has clearly been established as soft-hearted for those he deems innocent.

10. Nahri and Dara have a moment, but are interrupted. Do you like this partnership, romantically or otherwise? Is it doomed, or meant to be?
No, I don't. I feel like he's hiding too much, and she's too dependent on him.

11. We learn about the terrible conditions in the shafit orphanage and the difficult lives all the shafit are forced into. Even though he immediately refuses to help, how do you think this will influence him in the future?
More long-term reforms, I hope?

12. As Dara and Nahri cross the last illusion shielding Daevabad, Nahri has an odd reaction and ends up flat on her back on the deck of the ferry, with Dara rudely refusing anyone’s assistance. Do you think this was caused by something related to what Nahri is, or something else?
That, but I think Dara also sees her as 'his'. Which I think is really creepy, because his background is still really murky.

13. Muntadhir takes Ali to a secret room filled with dead Nahids. Do you think this room will be a turning point for Ali? Do you think Dara will discover this and his relic, and what do you think will follow if he does
I think this might make Ali's 'radicalism' worse. And I still don't understand relics.

Day 2 DQs : Chapters 5-9

5. So many groups! We had a couple of chapters in this part that described some of the tribes in Daevabad and elsewhere - the Daeva/Djinn, Ifrit, Simurgh, Zahhak and I'm sure I haven't listed them all. Where on the confusion scale are you - with 1 being totally confused and 10 being "I've got this". And are you ok with your level at this point in the book?
Still at a 5. I would have appreciated an appendix explaining all the different concepts.

6. Somewhat related to this - we learn that Suleiman curbed magical abilities because the daeva harmed humanity. I learned (thanks Google) that in the non-book world Suleiman the Magnificent was the longest-reigning Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1520 to 1566 - he ruled over at least 25 million people. Did you know anything about Suleiman and what do you think of his inclusion in the book?
Unless I'm very much mistaken, this is actually King Solomon (Suleiman is his name in Arabic) not the Ottoman king. There's a reference to Bilquis in the second book - the Queen of Sheba. It's a story that appears in multiple religious texts including the Quran.

7. We now know Dara was a slave for many years and was forced to do some things that haunt him. How does this make you feel about his character?
I'm in two minds - the kind of violence implied that he committed vs slavery...

8. Ali's father was portrayed as brutal when we first met him at the execution, and then later he seemed like a pretty good ruler as he listened to and judged people's problems. What do you think - good king or bad king?
Difficult king. He seems like the kind of king who's good when you don't provoke him.