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Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

Azar Nafisi

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 362 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Memorable 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

The title of this memoir/literary criticism hybrid delivers exactly what it promises. A teacher dares to challenge an unimaginably oppressive Muslin regime, by reading "Western" classical fiction at a time when all thing "Western" was either illegal or openly despised. As Azar Nafisi strives to educate her students, we get a unique perspective on some of our beloved novels. How do you teach Lolita about the disturbing rape and forced captivity of a 12 year old, when the legal age for marriage in Iran is nine? How do you approach Gatsby when adultery is a crime, western excess is shunned and of all things you have to be worried about your veil slipping off when your gestures become too animated?

Nafisi handles all this in stride. Finding courage in her favorite heroines, and instilling passion in her students as all great teachers become accustomed.

The literary criticism, moments and theories alone are enough to make the book a worthwhile read for fellow lit junkies. The book is full of relatable moments as the students grapple with the literature and characters. A standout scene involves a stringent Islamic Revolutionary using an EE Cummings poem to woo his unrequited lady love. This setting is Tehran however so not all scenes are so light, there are doses of executions, rape, and shameless brutality, but Nafisi masterfully balances the tone; keeping the reader enthralled through several genres of storytelling.

You'll want to read this one as your favorite authors and novels inspire so many different women to pursue their own dreams even if at tremendous costs. In a word memorable.

Editorial Review:

Every Thursday morning for two years in the Islamic Republic of Iran, a bold and inspired teacher named Azar Nafisi secretly gathered seven of her most committed female students to read forbidden Western classics. As Islamic morality squads staged arbitrary raids in Tehran, fundamentalists seized hold of the universities, and a blind censor stifled artistic expression, the girls in Azar Nafisi’s living room risked removing their veils and immersed themselves in the worlds of Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James, and Vladimir Nabokov. In this extraordinary memoir, their stories become intertwined with the ones they are reading. Reading Lolita in Tehran is a remarkable exploration of resilience in the face of tyranny and a celebration of the liberating power of literature.

Michelle Obama: First Lady of Hope

Elizabeth Lightfoot

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

There is no one quite like her. Michelle Obama. This is the first book to tell the astonishing story of a woman whose intellect, verbal flair, and poise are certain to make her one of the most influential First Ladies in history. A woman whose remark, “For the first time in my adult life I am really proud of my country,” did her husband’s campaign no good. A woman whose impassioned speech to the Democratic National Convention may have helped win him the Oval Office. A woman touted as a future presidential candidate herself.

 

Readers are given a revealing and intimate look at Michelle Obama’s remarkable life—from her Chicago childhood to her education at Princeton and Harvard, from how she first met Barack Obama at the prestigious law firm where they were the only African-Americans, to her role as his closest adviser, and to her own political beliefs. For Michelle, family comes first, and—like so many women who struggle between family and career—she seriously weighed her husband’s presidential ambitions before giving her stamp of approval. Apparently she struck a hard bargain: he had to give up smoking.

 

 

 

The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley (MAXNotes Literature Guides) (MAXnotes)

Anita J. Aboulafia

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 297 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Important book of self discovery, resemption, and vindication 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I read this book along time ago and still retain alot of what I learned from it. There is no beating around the bush in this from the beginning he tells of his life as it happened. He tells of an early career in crime to his time in prison and he does not attempt to sugarcoat anything. He does explain his reasoning for having done what he had done in his youth, but he does not claim to be innocent.
He did manage to find a better way to fight his enemies during his incarceration, and anyone who has ever seen any footage of Malcolm X will understand what I mean. The man was a very acticulate and confrontational speaker. He was the spark that ignited the engine of the civil rights movement in many respects. The civil rights movement began as far back as pre-civil war and was slow to develop with minor progress for each generation. Malcolm was the man brave enough to say enough and to make his voice heard over the many voices of the nation that tried to rise over him.
Here is a man that took it upon himself to correct a society that had become accepting of the crimes of their ancestors and simply ignored them. It is only a stonesthrow back in time if you think about it and yet it is painful to imagine people could be so cruel.
I recommend this to anyone who hasn't read it as it is an excellent book and is a document of the life of a man who managed to play a pivotal role in changing the way America viewed itself.

Editorial Review:

MAXnotes offer a fresh look at masterpieces of literature, presented in a lively and interesting fashion. Written by literary experts who currently teach the subject, MAXnotes will enhance your understanding and enjoyment of the work. MAXnotes are designed to stimulate independ ent thought about the literary work by raising various issues and thought-provoking ideas and questions. MAXnotes cover the essentials of what one should know about each work, including an overall summary, character lists, an explanation and discussion of the plot, the work's historical context, illustrations to convey the mood of the work, and a biography of the author. Each chapter is individually summarized and analyzed, and has study questions and answers.

Resilience: Faith, Focus, Triumph

Alonzo Mourning, Dan Wetzel

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Resilience. It’s not just the title of Alonzo Mourning’s stirring memoir; it’s the stuff he’s made of. Whether petitioning himself into foster care as an eleven-year-old, tirelessly studying his way onto the dean’s list at Georgetown University, making it as an all-star center in the NBA, or returning to peak form after organ-transplant surgery, Mourning has shown enormous inner strength. His faith, his determination, and his courage are what have driven and sustained him throughout his extraordinary life.

In 2000, Mourning was on top of the world: He had a fat new contract, an Olympic gold medal, and a second beautiful child–all that and the fame and wealth he had earned playing the game he loved. But in September of that year, he was diagnosed with a rare and fatal kidney disease. Over the next couple of years, as his health faltered, he retired, unretired, and retired again–and sought to make sense of the rest of his life.

Finally in 2003, after a frantic search for a donor match, Mourning had a new kidney and a new outlook. He vowed to make this second chance count by dedicating his life to others. He resolved that he would consider the disease a blessing, a revelation of God’s plan for him.

Although he battled his way back to the NBA, winning a championship with the Miami Heat in 2006, Mourning believed that the most important and fulfilling part of his life still lay ahead. Basketball, it turned out, was just the vehicle that would allow him to devote his talents and energies to a greater cause.
Alonzo Mourning’s return to basketball glory, already familiar to sports fans and non-sports fans alike, has inspired millions of patients suffering from kidney disease and living with dialysis, as well as organ donors around the world. By sharing his experiences of the physical, emotional, and spiritual roller coaster of illness and recovery, Mourning hopes to deliver a message of faith and fire, hurdles and hope, trust and triumph. Resilience is a story about the meaningful everyday lessons that he longs to share and about the things that truly matter in life.

Lemon Tree

Sandy Tolan

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 64 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

floored by this book 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 3 people found this review helpful.

yes, after 1948 there were many conflicts between jews and arabs, but what some reviewers here fail to highlight is the very critical timeline of the conflict: no arab ever had a problem with jews prior to 1948, prior to when israel took what was without any interpretation arab land and declared itself a country. did the reviewers even read what they wrote? the grouping of the arabs against the jews was nothing other than solidarity with their kinsmen for losing their land to a newly-, arbitrarily-created country. imagine if a group of muslims joined the significant muslim population in an american city, suddenly declared themselves a country, then cried about the injustice of "all the american states unifying against them"...ludicrous to expect otherwise. Of course this book doesn't portray EVERYTHING, but if it portrays the conflict somewhat favorably towards palestinians, it is because that's the way the facts played out. Some israelis think that an unbiased report means a neutral report, most are willing to accept some fault for starting the whole mess.

Editorial Review:

In 1967, not long after the Six Day War, three young Arabs ventured into the town of Ramla, in Jewish Israel. They were on a pilgrimage to see their separate childhood homes, from which their families had been driven out nearly twenty years before during the Israeli war for independence. Only one was welcomed: Bashir Al-Khayri was greeted at the door by a young woman named Dalia.

This act of kindness in the face of years of animosity and warfare is the starting point for a remarkable true story of two families, one Arab, one Jewish; an unlikely friendship that encompasses the entire modern history of Israelis and Palestinians and that holds in its framework a hope for true peace and reconciliation for the region.

Long Walk to Freedom: Autobiography of Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela

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Total reviews: 133 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Read by Danny Glover, with an introduction by Kofi Annan.


Nelson Mandela is one of the great moral and political leaders of our time: an international hero whose lifelong dedication to the fight against racial oppression in South Africa won him the Nobel Peace Prize and the presidency of his country. Since his triumphant release in 1990 from more than a quarter-century of imprisonment, Mandela has been at the center of the most compelling and inspiring political drama in the world. As president of the African National Congress and head of South Africa's antiapartheid movement, he was instrumental in moving the nation toward multiracial government and majority rule. He is revered everywhere as a vital force in the fight for human rights and racial equality.


LONG WALK TO FREEDOM is his moving and exhilarating autobiography, destined to take its place among the finest memoirs of history's greatest figures. Here for the first time, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela tells the extraordinary story of his life--an epic of struggle, setback, renewed hope, and ultimate triumph.

The Color of Water 10th Anniversary Edition

James McBride

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 28 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Better than expected 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I think this story trancends race. It's really just a story of a mother who made choices and gave her all in an extremely trying environement. I was moved. I read this after reading Miracle at St. Anna which was great!

Double standards 1 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Lets imagine that a Jewish author writes a book that features all the well known evil racist stereotypes of Afro-Americans. Everyone would be up in arms (justifiably) and condemn the book. Here we have a book penned by an Afro-American that contains many anti-Semitic stereotypes supposedly related to the author by his mother who pathologically rejected her Jewish roots, and everyone praises the book. I am both puzzled and offended. In addition if his mother had used the same child rearing practices 20 years later her children would have been sent to foster homes.

First rate memoir 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I started to write first rate mixed-race memoir, but hell, this is just plain first rate writing no matter how you slice it. As one of 12 kids in desperately poor conditions, McBride survived and triumphed, as apparently did all 11 of his siblings. And they owe much of this to their mother, who did her best for them. This is a "double memoir," being the story of both the author and his mother, a Jewish immigrant who survived an abusive and nearly loveless childhood, but finally found love - twice - and somehow successfully raised all those kids, the products of two good matches with men who took their parenting responsibilities seriously. I wonder if Barack Obama has read this book. There are undoubtedly personal and racial identity problems here to which he could relate. If I could call him up, I'd certainly recommend it to him. I'm also recommending it to another author I know, Stella Suberman, who wrote the warm memoir of growing up Jewish in the south, THE JEW STORE. But hey, I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to know a little more about the nature of being a human being. - Tim Bazzett, author of Reed City Boy

The Complete Quincy Jones: My Journey & Passions: Photos, Letters, Memories & More from Q’s Personal Collection

Quincy Jones

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Editorial Review:

Everything you love about American popular culture is Quincy Jones. As an artist and impresario Quincy Jones has been the creative catalyst for over 50 years of American cultural phenomena orchestrating the sounds of Frank Sinatra, setting the ambiance for Steven Spielberg, cultivating the talent of Michael Jackson, and introducing the world Oprah Winfrey and Will Smith--to name a few. The Complete Quincy Jones examines the diverse virtuosity of Quincy Jones, celebrating his prolific contribution to American art and culture. Comprised of personal interviews and recollections with Jones, this collection peers behind the veil of
celebrity, with extraordinary access to his creative inspirations and labors. Through private notebooks, correspondence, and photographs Jones offers unprecedented introspection into the depths of his creativity and the histories of his ventures. From the volumes of his memorabilia, Jones emerges as a contemplative and dynamic maestro, thriving on intuition and ceaselessly pursuing the soul of his art.

Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story

Ben Carson, Cecil Murphey

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 129 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Inspirational, Uplifting a testament to what GOD can do! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This is an excellent read for young adults onward. Interwoven in all of Dr. Carson's stories is a testament to what GOD can do. Dr. Carson was child by societal standards was not supposed to succeed. He was raised in a single parent home with a mother who battled mental illness yet he overcame struggles by focusing on what he could do as opposed to what he couldn't do. This book will truly inspire you to be the very best in your God led profession. Awesome!!!

Interesting 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book is not well written--it's irritating how the order of happenings is jumbled, particularly concerning Dr. Carson's earlier life--but it's an interesting read about a fascinating person and his work. For those who think Dr. Carson comes across as arrogant--I think anyone who does what he does has to have a certain amount of arrogance!

Editorial Review:

This is the mass market edition of the popular book by Dr. Ben Carson whose inspiring story tells of a frustrated inner-city kid whose faith in God helped him become director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University Hospital.

The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography (Oprah's Book Club)

Sidney Poitier

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Total reviews: 256 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

"I have no wish to play the pontificating fool, pretending that I've suddenly come up with the answers to all life's questions. Quite that contrary, I began this book as an exploration, an exercise in self-questing. In other words, I wanted to find out, as I looked back at a long and complicated life, with many twists and turns, how well I've done at measuring up to the values I myself have set."
—Sidney Poitier

In this luminous memoir, a true American icon looks back on his celebrated life and career. His body of work is arguably the most morally significant in cinematic history, and the power and influence of that work are indicative of the character of the man behind the many storied roles. Sidney Poitier here explores these elements of character and personal values to take his own measure—as a man, as a husband and a father, and as an actor.

Poitier credits his parents and his childhood on tiny Cat Island in the Bahamas for equipping him with the unflinching sense of right and wrong and of self-worth that he has never surrendered and that have dramatically shaped his world. "In the kind of place where I grew up," recalls Poitier, "what's coming at you is the sound of the sea and the smell of the wind and momma's voice and the voice of your dad and the craziness of your brothers and sisters...and that's it." Without television, radio, and material distractions to obscure what matters most, he could enjoy the simple things, endure the long commitments, and find true meaning in his life.

Poitier was uncompromising as he pursued a personal and public life that would honor his upbringing and the invaluable legacy of his parents. Just a few years after his introduction to indoor plumbing and the automobile, Poitier broke racial barrier after racial barrier to launch a pioneering acting career. Committed to the notion that what one does for a living articulates to who one is, Poitier played only forceful and affecting characters who said something positive, useful, and lasting about the human condition.

Here is Poitier's own introspective look at what has informed his performances and his life. Poitier explores the nature of sacrifice and commitment, price and humility, rage and forgiveness, and paying the price for artistic integrity. What emerges is a picture of a man in the face of limits—his own and the world's. A triumph of the spirit, The Measure of a Man captures the essential Poitier.