Mark Rizk Farag > Recent Status Updates

Razor sharp political commentary, poignant satire and a fresh perspective.

Also as someone who is terrified of bees, these book makes them seem so sympathetic and makes beekeeping sound like such a beautiful career.

This book has moments of brilliance but could have easily been 400 pages shorter and lost nothing in the process.

'The British Empire is a huge heterogeneous organization held together largely by mutual consent'

Errrm, I'm not too sure about this one chief

The first part was brilliant, the second part has absolutely stalled 😭

Well that was shocking!

In the words of Jermaine Cole 'don't save her, she don't wanna be saved'.

Nastasya might be the single best written and most compelling female character Dovstoevsky has written. She is as broken, as sympathetic and as fleshed out as many of his male protagonists.

Dovstoevsky's detailed description of the minute by minute emotions, thoughts, traumas and experiences of those who are about to be executed hit very differently when you remember he was subjected to a mock execution himself.

Thoroughly entertaining so far, but SO MANY NAMES!

The fact that a man who commited unspeakable crimes against humanity against innocent civilians is being used as an example of how trauma functions, without as much as a thought given to the victims of his murder and sexual crimes is wild.

Even in an area more devoid of social justice, you'd expect white professionals not to say the quiet part out loud.

If the main character doesn't descend into insanity in the final 25% of the book, are you even reading a book from North Africa/the Middle East?

Why do I find myself rooting for such an unlikeable main character 😭.

Thoroughly enjoyable so far, makes me feel like I am sitting with one of my older relatives who is telling me about their coming of age 😁

'by the prophet's beard' that was one of the WORST literary representations of Arabs and Arab culture I have seen 😂.

Also... Mr Gaiman would it have hurt to do a little reading into Egyptian history? We do consider ourselves to be descended from ancient Egyptians and we for the most part don't look all that different.

So it's like percy Jackson... But dark... And for adults?

Most narratives regarding the life of Hannibal go straight from him swearing to be enemy of Rome, to him fighting his infamous war against the Romans. This book takes time to examine his early life and development, which I truly appreciate.

No longer a marginal figure in Roman history, a worthy enemy who was vanquished, but one of the greatest generals in military history, deserving of focus and detail.

It's July, the 24th book of the year for me and this is the first non Sanderson fantasy book I read.. Am I getting old 😭?

The stakes are HIGH.

I was wondering how sanderson would bring this story to climax, address the many questions posed and solve mysteries.

Once again, he does so with a masterstroke of story telling, timing and genius 😭

absolutely loving this so far 😭.

Also contains the best/worst (depending on how you see it) gaslighting I've ever encountered in a book ever.

So far im getting Ghibli movie and Kimi Na Wa vibes from this, with a sprinkling of shonen anime and sleep paralysis 😅.

Loving it so far!

Loving the setting, characters and general aesthetic so far!

Yeah I give up lmao.

This is the exact kind of long winded, boring, stuffy, aristocratic novel I imagined when I was scared to venture into classics.

I'll give it another shot at some point 😂.

Loving this book so far! Also love that when describing Umm Kalthoum, the author (perhaps because of how far removed they are), does not descend into hapiographies, but instead questions some aspects of her sqeauky clean image.

Interesting also that her modesty, focus on Arabism and conservative social image won out against other stars of the time such as Mounira Al Mahdiya who lived more raunchily and extravagantly

I have always heard that Tolstoy's books were atomospherically superior to those of Dovstoyevsky in terms of setting. I wholeheartedly disagree so far.

The working class and poor urban areas of Russia and their struggling populace are far more interesting and profound than these bourgeoisie characters with their manor houses, servants, balls and other superfluous aspects of their existence.

The story of Rafiqa Al Qibtiya, legendary dancer and finesser will put a smile on my face today 😊.

I did not expect this book so get so dark. But it wouldn't be telling the story of a family living in Chile during this time period it it did not.

Simply profound so far. But now haunting rather than uplifting.

I am loving each and every page of this book.

I really wish I could find something else like this, where the characters and their stories are so emotive, vivid and meaningful.

The very occasional, subtle and unnecessary jabs at the British in the book are sensational 😂. Can't handle spice, emotionally stiff and can't handle heat - interesting how these stereotypes persist till this day.

On another not, Allende doesn't seem to have a very positive view of native south Americans....

It is one again time to read about the great ancestor.

Can't wait to play as him in the new total war game 😭🔥

So Esteban is a greedy, sexist, racist conservative, paedophile, rapist who rigs elections and has tons of children he doesn't look after out of wedlock with poor pre adolescent girls?

I would say eat the rich, but this guy is probably very expired.