Tamara’s Comments (group member since Mar 26, 2019)

Tamara’s comments from the 2025 Reading Challenge group.

51/60. The Turtle of Oman by Naomi Shihab Nye.
A charming children's story about a young boy's preparation to leave his Muscat home with his parents to spend a few years in Michigan. It's a book one can give to a child who has apprehensions about leaving home.

52/60. Goat Mountain by David Vann. Unsettling, replete with graphic violence and visceral language. Not for everyone.
My 3-star review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Blagica wrote: "You have read some very interesting books this year. Keep up the great reading!"

Thank you, Blagica.

It's been a good year for reading so far :)

50/60. Measuring Time by Helon Habila. The lives of twin boys is interwoven with the recent history of Nigeria. I thought it was very good.

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

49/60. Ithaca: A Novel of Homer's Odyssey by Patrick Dillon, told mostly from Telemachus' perspective.
Disappointing--mainly because of inconsistencies and inaccuracies.

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

48/60. Bellman & Black by Diane Setterfield. It wasn't as good as her novels, The Thirteenth Tale or Once Upon a River.

My 3-star review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

JULY READINGS

47/60. The Egyptian by Mika Waltari, a 1940s international best seller. Set in ancient Egypt at the time of Pharaoh Akhnaton, it is told in the first person point of view of Sinuhe, Akhnaton's physician. The book is long but well worth reading. Waltari's research is impressive. He paints a compelling portrait of life in ancient Egypt at a time of political upheaval.

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I have checked with the moderators and they gave me permission to post this.

The Kindle edition of A Pomegranate and the Maiden, my novel based on the Demeter/Persephone myth, is on sale until Sunday, July 7, 12:00 a.m. PDT.

A Pomegranate and the Maiden retells the Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone through first-person voices deeply rooted in the character’s psychology and gender. The characters are given a contemporary feel, providing multiple perspectives on the same event.

Demeter experiences the stages of mourning coupled with guilt and anxiety over losing her child. Through Kore/Persephone, we witness the internal conflict of a young girl wanting to cut loose from her mother’s strings while simultaneously feeling guilt and remorse at rejecting the mother. Zeus, the father, dispenses with his daughter as he sees fit without considering the mother’s right. Hades, the god of the underworld, yearns for the companionship of the young maiden he loves.

Woven within their narratives are stories familiar to readers of Greek mythology.

There are eleven speakers in all, concluding with the pilgrim who describes his experience as a participant in the Eleusinian Mysteries, the ritual based on the myth and celebrated by Greeks for many centuries.

https://www.amazon.com/Tamara-Agha-Ja...

46/60. Autumn by Ali Smith, shortlisted for the 2017 Man Booker Prize. I loved it and intend to read the rest of the series.

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

45/60.I finished The Book of Collateral Damage by Sinan Antoon about the Iraq war and occupation.

My 5-star review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

44/60. A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes, a retelling of the Trojan War from an all-female perspective.

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

43/60. So Long a Letter by Mariama Bâ, winner of the 1980 Noma Award.

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

JUNE READINGS

42/60. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, winner of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

41/60. Everything Under by Daisy Johnson.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

40/60. Border Districts: A Fiction by Gerald Murnane.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

39/60. Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi, the winner of the 2019 Man Booker International prize.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

38/60. A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

37/60.Akhenaten: Dweller in Truth by Naguib Mahfouz.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

36/60. Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

35/60. Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

34/60. A General Theory of Oblivion by José Eduardo Agualusa.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...