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 A while back Juka sent me a copy of her book To Each Her Own, which is now published and on the shelves of bookstores in Egypt and will soon be available from Amazon too.
All this goes back to November 2008, or at least for me it does when she posted her bucket list of things she would like to do and one of them was publishing a book.
The story or should I say the story line because it is not like a conventional story with a beginning and an end but more like looking into the lives of a group of young Egyptian women on a timeline in their lives. It leaves you with the feeling that the girls are now your friends and that you will pick up the phone and check on them.
A book by a young woman for young women, well men can read it, but I think it touches women more. Six young women who are ambitious and live purposeful lives are always a great example for other women. The characters are so real and that is not a surprise since they are based on real people.
A lovely read, yet it might leave you inspired to find yourself, embrace it and move full speed ahead in your own life of purpose. It should also make you reach for the phone and call your friends because the feeling of friendship and camaraderie in the book is quite high and heart warming.
Juka, I wish you all the best and hope that this debut book is just the beginning of a long list of bestsellers and I want a signed copy of this one too.
If you are interested there’s also a book launch and signing event at the Sherouk Bookstore tonight at 7 pm.
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I watched Mecano last weekend with my husband and loved it. It was heart warming and moving or maybe I was in an emotional mood.
If you haven’t watched the movie and don’t want a spoiler than go check out another post and come back when you have seen it. It really is a great movie worth watching.
In 2 minutes the movie is :
Khaled is a freelance architect who creates amazing work and also had a tumor removed from his brain and keeps losing his memory. Waleed is his brother who helps him out. Amira is a marketing guru and is marketing the project Khaled designs. Amira meets Khaled, they fall in love, he tells her, her ex-husband wants her back, he finds out about Khaled, tells the owner of the company Waleed works for, gets them fired, Khaled loses his memory, Amira decides to stay.
To keep a secret, you must not tell anyone
Seriously, if you don’t want people to know stuff don’t tell anyone. Just because you told your friend who promised she would not tell anyone does not necessarily mean she won’t. Amira confided in her friend because she trusted her and her friend went and told Amira’s ex-husband about Khaled’s condition thinking she was doing the right thing.
People are fickle
You might be indispensable now but if people think you are a threat to their well being they will drop you like hot coal. Even though Khaled’s designs were fantastic, the boss didn’t want to loose his credibility if the world found out about his condition so he fired Khaled and Waleed.
The trailer is not the movie
Just because you have seen a trailer doesn’t mean you have seen the movie. The same goes for people, just because you have met someone once or twice does not really mean that you know them.
Blood is thicker than water
Waleed, Khaled’s brother chose to stand by him because that is what family does. Be grateful for your family.
Even the toughest people need breaks
Waleed rode his bike every night to take a break from the stress. We all need a hobby or some sort of interest that can take us away from the daily grind so we can keep going.
Sometime, you need to choose to make tea
Nearing the end of the movie, Khaled chose to be honest with Amira, Amira chose to stay with him and Waleed chose to make tea. Sometimes you need to let people make their own decisions even if you disagree with them. We can not control every aspect of life and we can not believe that we can tell people what the right thing for them is, everyone has to make that choice on their own and bear the consequences.
Random thoughts:
Nour and Tayem Hassan are non Egyptians playing the leading roles in an Egyptian movie. It is nice to see this kind of collaboration in the movie industry.
It is cool to see ‘freelancer’ being used in a movie.
I thought the building blocks he used were generic Legos why does he call them Mecano?
Spicy popcorn is awesome.
Caramel popcorn is even more awesome.
A smart lady buys lots of pop corn just in case.
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 Reclaim Your Dreams
practical
mind to
compare facts. Use
your heart
to make choices.Jonathan Mead the author of Illuminated Mind was looking for bloggers to review his new book Reclaim Your Dreams I jumped at the chance for two reasons. First, I really love the blog and thought the book would be valuable and second I would be doing what I really love reading and reviewing a book.
I wasn’t dissapointed. I am at a phase in life where I am searching for a new purpose, a new dream and trying to figure it all out. I was never really a cubicle prisoner. I had a job which I loved and enjoyed greatly, then I got married, moved to another country, had a baby and suddenly found everything that I had always known, changed.
In my case, I am not just looking out to reclaiming my dreams, I am trying to redefine them. The book was a great help. I’ve read many ebooks but mostly they were not originally meant to be eBooks and the layout is not usually interesting. This book is beautifully designed and layed out. It might seem unimportant, but trust me when something is nice to look at, it’s inviting to read. Books used to have a smell, a texture and a feel to them that invited readers to keep going. Ebooks don’t have that so they need to compensate in other areas.
The buildup is logical and straight forward. You have to read the ebook like a workbook. With paper and pencils, take notes and draw maps so you can draw your dreams and then make them come to life with the tips and resources, which are plentiful in the book.
Each chapter ends with an exercise which you have to do and “points to meditate on”. You find yourself stopping, thinking and really meditating on these ideas.
The book really is common sense in an uncommon context. I would definitely recommend it. It would be a perfect gift to anyone you know who needs a push into the right direction for realizing their dreams.
Get the book here.
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 I just finished reading Accidental Branding: How Ordinary People Build Extraordinary Brands
by David Vinjamuri. It is a book about how ordinary people built extraordinary brands. They were people who needed a product, built it themselves, marketed it and built huge businesses; all without no formal business education at all.
The book tells the stories of these entrepreneurs. Even though they come from different backgrounds they have common traits which have made these businesses work. Vinjamuri says that the rules for brand building are:
- Do sweat the small stuff
- Pick a fight
- Be your own customer
- Be unnatural persistent
- Build a myth
- Be faithful
His chosen entrepeneurs vary from people who started out as a camper (Roxanne Quimby of Burt’s Bees), cyclist (Gary Erickson of Clifbar), two housewives (Julia Aigner Clark of Baby Einstein and Gert Boyle of Colombia Sportswear), someone who wanted to shave (Myriam Zaou and Eric Malka of the Art of shaving), a man with a coat (John Peterman of J.Peterman) and someone who sent emails to his friends (Craig of Craigslist). I loved the way he just describes his interviews with them and how they tell there stories. It is not a get rich quick book or even a book explaining how you can become an entrepeneur, but rather an inspiring book about truly inspiring people and their work. The rules can be applied ot anything in life that you want to succeed in. Sometimes in life we need a simple reminder that no matter what we aspire to do there are people out there who have done much greater just by believing and persevering in what they wanted to do.
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 Poison Tree I just finished this book by Marwa Rakha called The Poison Tree – planted and grown in Egypt and still can’t decide on what I think of it. The first few pages were tedious, boring and felt like I was reading a teenage girl’s hidden diary; full of anger, frustration and hate towards her mother, men and society. I stuck through and it is as if you can feel the teenage girl grow and mature as you go along. Still every few pages you find her again, voicing her anger and feeding her frustration.
Marwa Rakha was the relationships expert on OTV and I always felt her ideas were balanced, fair and quite mature, perhaps that was why I felt the book was not what I expected.
I did enjoy reading it once I got past the first quarter. Although I don’t agree with the over generalization that men are bad, life is unfair and women get the short end of the stick all the time; I do agree that our society needs lots of change. I do agree with her ideas on not settling and doing our best by choosing happiness.
I am not pleading for drastic measure like divorce, imigration, the great escape or 180 degree career changes; I am defending our human right to choose. Our lives do not have to come to a standstill if we are in the wrong job with the wrong boss or in the wrong house with the wrong partner. We do not have to settle! We do not need to settle! We should not settle!
 Jerks Until Proven otherwise She also talks about dating, online dating, divorce, marriage and prostitution among many other things. I’ve always hated the over generalization that men suck. I’ve always disliked negative generalizations in general. I don’t believe all men are out there to cheat, double cross, abuse and be in control of women. Yes, there is a number of those out there, but as usual those are the ones that are the most talked about. Do your friends usually come and say “My guy is wonderful”? No, you usually just hear the “he is trying to control me” or “he won’t take me out” or “he doesn’t do whatever”. As a society is it because “ben5af men el 7asad”, we always want people to only know the bad things to protect ourselves from “the evil eye”? Or is it because we are not used to changing things we do not like. I don’t think Egyptians like change. We like things to stay the way they are, the way they have always been, even if that means we are not happy. In the current crazy economy why are we still so insistent on holding on to things like expensive weddings, large apartments and unnecessary furnishing? I sometimes think that the main problem with marriage is that men are unable to financially make a marriage work. But this does not explain why many marriages fail even though they do not have financial problems. I am sure that like every problem it is caused by the two people involved. Even if one person is the main reason, then the other partner was passive, definitely it takes two to tango. When a woman complains that all the men that she has met in her life are losers, I am compelled to think maybe she is looking in the wrong place. People who call themselves “loser magnets” are usually just making the same mistakes over and over. I am not trying to judgmental but we can all fall into that trap of attracting “losers”, the losers could be men, friends, financial decisions, careers, or whatever. Accountability is very important, and we all need to understand that before we move forward we need to know who has ownership of what and who will be accountable for what. I think i went off on a tangent there.
The thing I disliked the most was the book’s cover, it looked childish and I didn’t get it , what’s a huge chocolate bar doing on top of the female symbol? Women are chocolate? Compared to the illustrations which are inside the book it is just rubbish, the illustrations inside were fantastic, funny and quite artistic, so I don’t really understand why they didn’t have the same style on the cover?
Overall, the book is interesting and is worth the time if at least for starting conversations in your head. Even though I didn’t agree with the general gist of the book I have to say the author put lots of effort and emotions into it.
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 Book Cover I asked my sister to get me this book from Egypt when she was coming because I had read a couple of reviews and was interested in what she had to say. I am always interested when young Egyptian female writers get published. I’ve always thought that the younger generations have lots of things to say especially the women. Amy, a senior editor at Enigma wrote a column that became a book.
I was sort of surprised that the book was only 94 pages, to me that’s more of a booklet, it is shorter than our washing machine manual. Nevertheless I read it all in a couple of hourse. It has been called Cairo’s “Sex and the City”, but I have to disagree. The book is about Amy’s trials at dating, Amy having to deal with what she calls Cairo’s elite society and Amy’s writer’s block. To be fair, the book was funny, light and entertaining but has no depth whatsoever. I always hope that once I put a book down it leaves a lingering aftertaste in my brain that I can think about. Once you put it down it is over. Again, to be fair her writing style is funny and very personal and you can clearly see her character and soul in it and you sort of feel that she must be a fun bubbly character you would enjoy having coffee with. It is more like a diary than a book.
So if you are looking for something to read at the beach or perhaps on a train ride then this might interest you. If on the other hand you were expecting deeper insights into Egypt’s society than go look someplace else.
Other people’s opinions:
Middle East Times take on the book.
Daily Star Egypt’s take on the book.
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 45 Days Movie Poster Ahmad Ezz El Deen (El-Feshawi) is a rich kid, convicted of killing both his parents and is sent to a mental institute for 45 days to confirm the state of his mental health. I am not a fan of Arabic movies in general. I don’t like silly comedies (El Limby style) but sometimes watch out of sheer boredom when there is nothing useful to do. But everyonce in a while an Egyptian movie truly impresses me. This was one of those times. The story was strong and deep. The characters were real and portrayed superbly by the actors. The direction of the whole thing was the cherry on top of the cake.
As the story progresses the boy tells his story to his doctor (Hesham Selim) who is having problems of his own in his personal life. As he flashes back to times of abuse and turmoil, you can not but help feel sympathetic towards this alleged murderer, angry towards his abusive violent father and frustrated with the passive mother.
It is a complex story told very beautifuly and simply and the ending was a huge surprise. I was half expecting a cheesy cliche ending and was surprised when it wasn’t there.
I am not sure why the movie didn’t do so well in box office terms but I think it was bad timing or maybe just that the general Egyptian population does not enjoy movies like this. It is a shame because we really do need better movies. Movies are entertainment but are also part of our culture and heritage and are a reflection of societies. Apparently we are a Limby society and will be for some time to come.
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Imagine a book that tells the tale of four girls’ lives, loves and losses. The setting is in the city Riyadh of Saudi Arabia. Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea, is like Sex and the City without the sex and in Riyadh instead of New York. Gamrah, Sadeem, Lamees and Michelle are the girls who we follow through a series of emails that were written by one of them which tells their stories.
At the beginning of the book you start reading the emails of one of the girls, you don’t know which one who has decided that she will tell their story, using a Yahoo group called “Seereh Wenfada7et”. Immediately you are drawn into their lives. Perhaps it is general curiosity of how other people live their lives especially young women. Maybe it is the setting, Saudi Arabia, which is very different than any other country.
Coming from a different world where freedom is a taken for granted, it was strange to think about how different my life would have been like if that freedom was taken away. What kind of person would I have been if I did not have the chance to experience all of the things that I have? Then again I was very lucky, my parents, even though they are religious people and that is where they have always drawn the line (Halal and Haram) where probably the most open minded parents around. They encouraged education, intellect and culture. They wanted us to learn, to read and to explore. Before them, my grandparents did the same for their children. So perhaps it is a mindset more than anything else.
The book is rich with culture and tradition. The author is very descriptive and makes you feel that you are a welcome yet slightly perverse voyeur into their lives.
I liked the story and would recommend it as light reading. Maybe because the author is still young I felt that it lacked a certain depth to it but I can’t exactly put my finger on it, or maybe it is just the fact that the book was originally written in Arabic and something is always lost in translation. What I didn’t like was the naivety of the girls, but that is not the author’s fault that is how growing up like how they did would do to them. They did sort of grow up on the pages and some of them matures.
Have you read this book? What did you think?
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Last week I went to Cairo for a short weekend trip and stopped at On the Run, a little green book with a white bride caught my eye and I bought it. Titled “Ana 3ayza atgawez” meaning I want to get married, the book is the funny stories that Ghada has been through meeting different potential grooms. I had no idea that the book was originally a blog, my husband pointed that fact to me and then my mother. Obviously the book was all over the news and I was just the last to know. I went out and got the other two books in the series by Shourouk publishing “Orz Belanaban lesha5sein” and “Ama hazihi faraksati ana” and was definitely impressed.
I’ve always thought that the blogging medium is a superb outlet for young Egyptians especially girls because it was a place where they could write, be creative and let it all out.
I instantly fell in love with (3ayza atgawez). Ghada’s style is hilarious, the stories are just so Egyptian and everything about the book is fresh and refreshing.
Orz Bellaban, is more about little stories that Rehab writes. Some are sad, some are funny and some are on the verge of crazy, but all of them grouped together point out very clearly that Rehab is talented and definitely on her way to a literary future.
The shortest book and in my view the simplest is Ama Hazihi faraksati Ana. Simple it might be but, shallow it is not, the book has lots of depth and is very easy to relate to, or maybe I related to it on a very strong level. Ghada (a different one) is obviously a very down to earth girl who’s head lives in the real world but has a very romantic heart.
Apparently the blogging trend is here to stay so definitely kudos girls!
You can visit the original blogs:
Ma3a Nafsi >> Ama Hazihi faraksati ana
Orz Bellaban lesha5sein >> Hawadeet
Wanna Be a Bride >> Ana 3ayza atgawez
You can also part of the interview the girls did with Mona El-Shazly on El 3ashera Masa2an here:
El 3ashera interview
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I just read Persepolis: The story of a child and The story of a return, by Marjane Satrapi the Iranian Author/Artist. I am not sure if author is the right words here because the books are more of a graphic novel than a book. In just black and white graphics Satrapi tells her story of childhood through the Iranian revolution, the Iran-Iraq war and going to school in Austria and the coming back to Iran and doing the rest of her growing up.
It was enjoyable to read and it was a different perspective on Iran, women there, the Iran-Iraq war and the Iranian revolution. Probably becuse in the first book you feel like you are experiencing it through the eyes of a child and then a turmoiled troubled teenager in a strange land all by her self. In the sequel, you can sort of sense the growing up that has happened and is happening to the author along the pages.
The story was adapted into a movie last year using Satrapi’s signature graphic style. I haven’t seen it but I am hoping to see it soon. The Iranian government aren’t very happy with it and complained to the French Embassy.
Here is a clip from the movie.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPrPPg56_zA&rel=1]
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