Re: Book Suggestion Needed
Life of Pi...Awsome book. Will lift your spirit. Perfect for you. Story written by Canadian about an Indian boy in Pondichery.
Re: Book Suggestion Needed
umm...dont remember what else i have read so far
oooo, good taste.
Re: Book Suggestion Needed
I just finished Devil Wears Prada and an autobiography of an Iranian woman, Even After All this Time.
If you liked Albom, then "The 5 people you meet in heaven" is a cute book and a simple read.
I haven't heard of Geisha: A Life. It is similar to the memoirs?
Re: Book Suggestion Needed
You can try this Book online:
http://www.al-sunnah.com/nektar/
It is originally written in Arabic by Shaikh Safi ur Rahman Mubarak Puri of Sub continent - an award winning book on the seerah of Rasoolulah:saw:
Re: Book Suggestion Needed
Wow...Anwaar! Thanks for the on-line suggestion. I got glued to it.
Re: Book Suggestion Needed
the mammals of pakistan by dr t j roberts?
the birds of pakistan vol 1 and vol2 by t j roberts?
the kite runner?
bram stokers dracula?
the duncton chronicles?
the last wali fo swat by f bart?
re: Tell us about a book!!!
I finished The Song Reader by Lisa Tucker. It was alright...
re: Tell us about a book!!!
Since we’re talking about books, here’s some contact info for buy and sell used book stores in Toronto. I haven’t been to any, but I’m sure I’ll be dropping off some books to one of these places real soon.
Eliot’s Book Shop
584 Yonge Street (at Wellesley)
3 floors of what is probably the best organized and fully-stocked used book store I’ve ever seen. Great selection of literature (and the only store I know that separates Canadian Literature into its own section).
She Said Boom
372 College Street
It’s a small shop and some of that space is taken up with used CDs as well, but the literature section always has very recent books in great condition. If I’m looking for something newer I can usually find it here.
Balfour Books
601 College Street
Right in the heart of Little Italy, Balfour Books is an absolute gem of a store. Without a doubt, it has the best selection of used design, art, and film books in the city apart from Another Man’s Poison. I never leave without buying something.
Another Man’s Poison
29 McCaul
Steps from the OCA and AGO, Another Man’s Poision is THE used bookstore for art, design, advertising, typography, architecture and visual culture. (For new books, check out Swipe Books at 477 Richmond).
Seekers
509 Bloor W
A hemp shop (that, suspiciously, is never open) appears to exist in the back end of the store, so the air always contains a medley of old paperbacks, marijuana, and incense. Seemingly run by a bunch of aging hippies, the store is brimming with new age mysticism garbage and socialist literature. But every few months they have a 50% sale, and I always grab a handful of older books from their limited literature section.
BMV Books
2289 Yonge Street (at Eglinton)
Not only does BMV have a good selection of used books, but also a lot of new books at discounted prices. Don’t forget to check upstairs for old comics and magazines.
The Beguiling
601 Markham Street
While not exclusively a used book store, the Beguiling is a godsend of independant and underground comics. There is however, a small collection of literary fiction as well as books about various forms of pop culture and media.
(http://www.robotjohnny.com/archives/2003/07/my_favourite_us.php)
Re: Book Suggestion Needed
^
Where in Lancashire are you bro?
I use to live there.
Re: Book Suggestion Needed
Best book ever: The Dancing Girls of Lahore by Louise Brown.
If you don't mind reading about prostitutes in Heera Mandi, this book is so amazing and eye opening. It chronicles the true story of an aging prostitute and her daughters entrance in to the family business. The author is a British gori who spent five years in Heera Mandi researching this. Truly phenomenal and will make you so grateful for the life you have.
re: Tell us about a book!!!
^ an amazing piece of literature.
the story (ies) are compassionately told. very beautiful piece.
re: Tell us about a book!!!
i am going to start readin this book.. it looks interesting
re: Tell us about a book!!!
Faruk...I'm a girl...
Also, I just copied and pasted that info from a blog.
re: Tell us about a book!!!
I just got Prep
We'll see how it goes. It looks to be a highly interesting story of the life of a 14 year old who is sent to a boarding/prep school. All the politics of kids' school lives.
re: Tell us about a book!!!
"The Open Society and its Enemies" Vol I & II., Karl Popper
re: Tell us about a book!!!
Blah, some of these books, if I don't get hooked by like the 10th page, I have no interest in reading it further. Prep is so far so-so. I should stick to classics - they have been tested and suceeded thru time.
re: Tell us about a book!!!
Alrighty then...Prep is about a homosexual 14 year old girl.
That book is to be returned back to the library. Jeez, I'm so tired of this homosexuality in literature. Its like, its a new fad to be writing novels on homosexual lifestyles.
re: Tell us about a book!!!
Anyone read these books?
ARTICLES: Pakistani English literature in 2005: A celebration of writing
By Muneeza Shamsie
The past year has seen tremendous activity in Pakistani English literature, with the introductory issue of a much-needed English literary journal, exciting new fiction, anthologies, translations and autobiographies. Unfortunately, with the notable exceptions discussed here, the plethora of amateur, self-published poetry volumes continues. The 2004 novels of two Pakistani-British novelists, Nadeem Aslam and Suhyal Saadi, have been longlisted for the 2006 IMPAC Dublin Award, nominated by libraries. Aslam’s Maps for Lost Lovers (Faber) also won the Patras Bokhari Award, the Encore prizes and Kiryama prize. Saadi’ s Pscyhoraag (Black and White) won the Pen Oakland Josephine Miles Literary Award and was also shortlisted for the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.
Kamila Shamsie’s new novel, Broken Verses (Bloomsbury), which has been longlisted for the 2006 Prince Maurice Award, is regarded as a work of greater maturity and emotional complexity than her earlier work. Her haunting and powerful novel revolves around the disappearance of Samina, a women’s rights activist, the brutal murder of her partner, Nazim, the revolutionary poet. Some coded notes lead Samina’s daughter, Aasmani to believe the poet is alive and her mother will come back soon.
A Sultan in Palermo by Tariq Ali (Verso), is the fourth historical novel in his Islam Quintet series, set in the twilight of Muslim culture in Sicily. Fascinating and informative, it revolves around the renowned geographer Al-Idrisi and his Norman patron, King Roger of Sicily, also known as Sultan Rujari of Siqilliya by his Muslim subjects. Despite his respect for, and involvement in, Arab culture, Rujari is compelled by political pressure to begin the slow marginalisation of his Muslim subjects.
The Projectby Sher Shah (Sama) is a thriller, revolving around a group, determined to foil Pakistan’s enemies. The politics is rather naive and the characters could have been developed more, but there is some really nice writing, too, and a good build up of tensions.
Sea Phoenix: A True Submarine Story by Mian Zahir Shah (PN Book Club) re-creates the dramatic and extraordinary 1995 rescue when a 100-ton Pakistan Navy submarine sank near Karachi with all its men on board.
There were new reprints by Sama of Bapsi Sidhwa’s novels, The Crow Eaters, The Bride, Ice-Candy-Man and The American Brat. Extracts from all four, along with work by other writers, appear in her sumptuous Lahore anthology, Beloved City: Writings on Lahore (Penguin/OUP), a collection of history, fiction, translations, though it is a pity that amid the poetry, no Pakistan English poet is represented. Bapsi Sidhwa, Sara Suleri, Fahmida Riaz, Kamila Shamsie, Uzma Aslam Khan and Fawzia Afzal-Khan are among the 24 contributors to And the World Changed: Contemporary Stories by Pakistani Women edited by Muneeza Shamsie (Women Unlimited/OUP) consisting of English language fiction and creative prose.
Fawzia Afzal-Khan has edited an excellent anthology Shattering the Stereotypes: Muslim Women Speak Out (Olive Branch) a collection of fiction, essays, poetry and drama by Muslim-American women, including Pakistanis Humera Afridi, Maniza Naqvi and Ayesha Jalal. Afzal-Khan has also written the pioneering Critical Stage: The Role of Secular Alternative Theatre in Pakistan (Seagull). She explores folk, commercial, parallel and alternative theatre in Pakistan as well as its comment on imperialism, class, feminism and gender.
The Pakistani-born Briton, Moniza Alvi published her fifth poetry collection How the Stone Found its Voice (Bloodaxe) 2005, a noteworthy collection in six parts reflects a quiet, self-contained precision even when writing about 9/11 and its aftermath. The second part which addresses Alvi’s Pakistani inheritance, “Alamgir Hashmi’s camel”, a dialogue with Hashmi’s poem “America is a Punjabi word”. Some poems are adaptations/interpretations of the French poet Jules Supervielle; another sequence is a continuation of her previous volumes, the title poem being “Carrying my wife”. Moonrising with Mavera: Poems by Ejaz Rahim (Sang-e-Meel) revolves around the poet’s relationship with his daughter. The quality varies, but many poems are filled with brilliant moments of magic, enchantment insight and wisdom that a child reveals so unconsciously.
The year was particularly rich in autobiographies. Cutting Free by Salma Ahmed (Sama) is a riveting, bold and outspoken memoir by a diplomat’s daughter who suffered many emotional traumas, until she learnt to stand on her own feet as an entrepreneur and politician. An a excellent new version of Khurshid Mirza’s 2004 memoirs, with a new title, A Woman of Substance, edited by Lubna Kazim (Zubaan/OUP) brings to life the many facets of this celebrated and much-loved actress. Roller-Coaster: My Early Years by Rao Rashid is filled with lively descriptions of pre-partition life in East Punjab and leads upto the early years of Pakistan. From Exxon to Engro by Shaukat Mirza (OUP) tells the inspiring story of an exemplary company executive, his approach to professional management and is full of insights into corporate life. The lucid and readable A Georgian Saga: From the Caucasus to the Indus by Mehrafroze Mirza Habib (OUP) excavates the 18th century history of Georgia, Russia, Iran and Sindh, in a bid to tell the story of the author’s Georgian family which settled in Sindh and produced many eminent public figures including Mirza Kalich Beg.
The reprint of Tariq Ali’s riveting Street Fighting Years: An Autobiography of the Sixties (Verso) brings alive the era of Ayub Khan, Patrice Lumbumba, Che Guevara, anti-Vietnam protests and that dramatic 1968 student revolution of which Tariq Ali was a prominent leader, across Britain and Europe. Tariq Ali’s The Nehru and the Gandhis: An Indian Dynasty (Picador) was also reprinted. He then brought out Rough Music: Blair, Bombs, Baghdad, London, Terror (Verso) in response to the the 7/7 attacks in London, while Hanif Kureishi put together The Word and the Bomb, (Faber) a collection of fiction and non-fiction which includes his story “My son the fanatic”.
For Life, Peace and Justice by Maisoon Hussein edited by Zubaida Mustafa (Piler/Pakistan Study Centre) is a fitting tribute to a remarkable journalist and brings together some very fine writing on a host of issues — from the plight of prisoners to women and the poor in Pakistan.
Mohatta Palace continues with a wonderful series of publications and historical reprints with World Enough and Time: The Memoirs of Sir Sultan Mohammed Shah Aga Khan III, Vols I & II while the The Raj Quartet set includes Karachi Under the Raj (1843-1947): Visions of Empire, edited by Hameed Haroon and Mariam Ali Baig with selections from the writings of Alexander Baillie and Herbert Feldman as well as articles on Karachi published in The Star.
Salman Rashid’s new travel book, Jhelum: City of the Vitasta received much praise. The Way it Was — Reminiscences of Syed Abid Ali edited by Hafizur Rahman Khan (Babar Ali Foundation) consists of many enjoyable articles, with glimpses of Lahore and Rawalpindi in the then newly created Pakistan, the shifting of the capital to Islamabad and personal observations of such luminaries as Patras Bokhari and Sufi Tabassum.
OUP brought to light a hitherto unpublished manuscript The Art of the Mussulmans in Spain by Shahid Suhrawardy, poet, scholar, linguist, diplomat and art critic. Erudite and informative, Suhrawardy packs in a wealth of detail about a once-brilliant culture. Culture and Identity: Selected English Writings of Faiz by Faiz Ahmad Faiz, compiled and edited by Sheema Majeed, is a stunning collection of Faiz’s speeches, reports and articles — many from View Point and the Civil & Military Gazette. There are many fascinating insights into Faiz and his writing, as well as his comments on the nature of culture and literature, its relationship with nation, nationhood and cultural identity.
Pakistan has desperately needed a good English literary journal and Shafiq Naz’s welcome initiative in publishing the Alhamra Literary Review edited by Ilona Yusuf and Bina Shah, not only provides a forum for new talent but also includes work by established writers as well as fine photographic essays. Sara Suleri’s critical book The Rhetoric of English India (Penguin) has been reprinted and provides a scholarly contemporary analysis of colonial and post-colonial narratives about the subcontinent from Burke and Hastings to Naipaul. Adrian Hussein’s slim, incisive monograph Politics and Genre in Hamlet (OUP) provides a new interpretation to this Shakespearean classic. The posthumous Shakespeare’s the Tempest: Its Political Implications and the First Colonists of America (Leo Books) by Shahzad Z. Najmuddin brings to light the links between literature and British expansionism in the Elizabethan age.
English translations continue to bring the rich literature of Pakistan’s indigenous languages to an Anglophone audience. Paradise of the Assassins: A Translation of Firdaus-i-Bareen By Abdul Halim Sharar translated by Tariq Mahmud (OUP) is a sheer pleasure to read. In this early Urdu novel, the romantic hero Hassan embarks on a quest to find his beloved Zamurrud, who has disappeared. This leads him to an entanglement with the sect of the assassins and ultimately to the famous fort at Alamoot.
Kahani: Short Stories by Pakistani Women (Saqi) edited by Aamer Hussein is new edition of an earlier anthology mostly of Urdu short stories translated into English under the title Hoops of Fire. Hussein has now added two more writers — A.R. Khatoon and Imtiaz Hijab Ali. The volume includes some truly compelling stories by other writers, too, such as Azra Abbas, Mumtaz Shirin, Fahmida Riaz and Khalida Hussain. M.U. Memon, the editor of the excellent Annual of Urdu Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has brought out The HarperCollins Book of Urdu Short Stories which has been highly praised and has work by many accomplished writers from Abdullah Hussein and Intizar Husain to Mansha Yad and Naiyer Masud.
There has been much praise for The Poetry of Rahman Baba translated from Pushto by Robert Samson and Momin Khan and for Muzaffar A. Ghaffaar’s translations of Punjabi sufi poets including Shah Husayn within Reach (Ferozsons). Meanwhile the great Sindhi scholar Dr N.A. Baloch explores the ancient culture of Sindh, its music, folklore, antiquites and much else in Sindh Cultural Studies (University of Sindh). Glimpses of Sindhi Short Fiction by Saleem Noorhusain consists of some truly powerful short stories, accompanied by a brief introduction to the writers along with salient quotes.
Captive Princess: Zebunissa, Daughter of Emperor Aurangzeb by Annie Krieger Krynicki is an excellent English translation from French by Enjum Hamid (OUP), but it has more about the era in which Zebunissa lived, rather than details about herself.
re: Tell us about a book!!!
I recently read this book called A Letter from India-- it's infact a book of contemprary short stories from Pakistan, compiled/edited by Moazzam Sheikh. These stories are translated into English from thier original Urdu and Punjabi versions, and has works of writers such as Intizar Hussain, Ikramullah, Sorraya Khan etc. My personal favourites from this collection are "The Barbarian and the Mule", a story about a young childs stance against his father's tormentors and opressors by Moazzam Sheikh and "Jungle" by Ikramullah, about how getting lost at night in a jungle lead to a man becoming insane, eventually leading to his death. This book was first published in 2004.
re: Tell us about a book!!!
Hey..can anyone recommend a good bio on Gandhi??