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#iran
review
Jolynne
The Lion Women of Tehran | Marjan Kamali
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Pickpick

Friendship at its finest. Homa is a women after my own heart and so admirable. The author touched lightly on the history of Iran but mainly focused on the struggle of women.

Bookwormjillk Loved this book 1d
10 likes1 comment
quote
charl08
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He thought Tehran was also like an addict.

A city addicted to smoke, to humiliation, to poverty and torpor whose slightest effort to sober up gave rise to panic. Tehran was an addict that wanted to get clean but lacked the will, and after several days of sobriety would begin using again with even greater intensity. It was an addiction to oppression, an addiction to poverty, and an addiction to inhibition and nostalgia...

Suet624 That feels so true. 6d
45 likes1 stack add1 comment
quote
charl08
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... the flames rippled over the pages, catching first the old books with the brown paper whose smell I loved so much. I vividly remember how Danko's Burning Heart was engulfed in flames that then licked at Luce's skirt who, desperately trying to protect herself from the fire in the pages of Romain Rolland's book, held Pierre tightly to her breast...

Suet624 Gorgeous photo. 1w
44 likes1 comment
blurb
charl08
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I just want to sit and read...

39 likes1 stack add
review
IReadThereforeIBlog
Pickpick

Kim Ghattas is an Emmy Award-winning journalist born and raised in Lebanon who has spent 20 years covering the Middle East for the BBC and Financial Times. This well-researched book argues that 1979 set Saudi Arabia and Iran on a path that‘s shaped the Middle East. Ghattas has a readable style and I came away feeling but there are a lot of figures in play here and despite a useful list, I sometimes found myself confused about who was who.

review
vonnie862
The Lion Women of Tehran | Marjan Kamali
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Pickpick

Oh my goodness! I loved it!
A story of two young girls of different backgrounds becoming best friends during the 1950s in Tehran, and growing up in different worlds. Along with the themes of friendship, forgiveness, women's freedom, and learning to love, we also learn the history of how women lost their rights in Iran. I grew to like Ellie (though she got on my nerves a few times) but I loved Homa. It was realistic and bittersweet. I give it 5 ⭐️

review
BookishTrish
The Lion Women of Tehran | Marjan Kamali
Pickpick

I‘m forever looking for books featuring lifelong female friendships that speak to me the way Elena Ferrante‘s books do. This comes close.

review
RoseMallow
The Lion Women of Tehran | Marjan Kamali
Pickpick

Loved it !! Learned so much !

review
TheEllieMo
The Wandering Falcon | Jamil Ahmad
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Mehso-so

I enjoyed the first few chapters of this collection of short stories loosely linked by the character of the book‘s title. From about halfway, the book feels like it‘s lost its way a bit - which in a way reflects the loss of a way of life due to “progress”, but always makes for a less interesting read.

Meanwhile, the feminist in me is grateful she doesn‘t live in a culture that doesn‘t treat women as chattels.

review
quietlycuriouskate
Martyr!: A novel | Kaveh Akbar
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Pickpick

I know of KA primarily as a poet: always creative, always interesting, sometimes very moving, sometimes just plain baffling. This book was all of those things by turn. Or all at once.
Cyrus is colossally self-absorbed, but is aware of the fact. I wanted good things to happen for him.
Structurally, I'm not entirely convinced it worked, but KA makes for a dazzling, rhapsodic novelist. I enjoyed his book very much.

quietlycuriouskate Why the exclamation mark in the title, though? He's not Clive Cussler! 1mo
Tamra Spot on! Execution could have been tighter, but the substance & creativity is engaging. 1mo
Tamra @quietlycuriouskate re: exclamation point - I read or heard in an interview it was to lighten up the subject and/or reader expectations. To reflect that there is humor and love, etc. (edited) 1mo
See All 7 Comments
quietlycuriouskate @Tamra Ah, thank you. His intention backfired on me then! I found humour and love in the book, for sure; just not in the choice of punctuation. 1mo
Tamra @quietlycuriouskate I wondered the same. Seems an odd choice. Now I wonder if it was the publisher‘s decision or his. 1mo
Suet624 I wanted good things to happen to him too. ❤️ 1mo
sarahbarnes Great review! Looking forward to this one. I‘m in line for it at the library. 1mo
34 likes7 comments