The Hunger Games (trilogy) by Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games (2011) by Suzanne Collins
Catching Fire (2011) by Suzanne Collins
Mockingjay (2011) by Suzanne Collins

Read: June 2012

I rattled through these and really quite enjoyed them so was greatful to have been loaned them by a friend.  At first I had though they were going to be trashy a la Twilight, but there was a lot more to them and I am glad that I didn't dismiss them.  I really want to see the movie now to compare it to the books and I'd like Scott to read the books too, as I think he might like them being a bit sci fi.

To the Baltic with Bob by Griff Rhys Jones

To the Baltic with Bob by Griff Rhys Jones (2005)
Read: May 2012

Scotty read this book quite a while before me, and we bought it in a charity shop spending-spree quite a while before that too. Scotty was not too impressed with it, but persevered through. I think I enjoyed it more than he did, but it wasn't the rip-roaring adventure that the cover promised.

I was prepared for the wit and self-deprecating humour of Griff having followed his adventures in the Three Men In A Boat specials on TV. This definitely featured in the pages, along with his knowingly poor nautical knowledge being made up for by enthusiasm and determination (read as sometimes pig-headiness). So I was prepared for the book and liked this aspect of it - it reminded me of what I enjoyed about the Three Men in a Boats.

As with the Three Men in the Boats, there were very different personalities on the boat and there were differences of opinion (apart from in the case of Griff, who always had a high opinion of himself). I am sure that Griff intended most of the humour to be self-deprecating, but it often turned out to also appear condescending to his crew mates on board. The weird dynamic between the crew becomes clear about half-way through the book when it transpired that Griff was going to have to start paying Bob & co. to join him. It was never clear where the relationships really stood - friendships or professional?

For a travel book though there wasn't enough about the interesting places they visited - most of the action stayed on the boat. What I might have liked would have been a photo of the boat to help me as a non-nautical type get an idea of what Griff was writing about. But maybe that would have taken the emphasis off his descriptions.

Save Way Book Corner

Save Way is the small corner-shop-cum-supermarket where we do nearly all our shopping. It's very 'local' which means it doesn't have five different flavours of Betty Crocker icing like the more expat stores (well it doesn't have any Betty Crocker icing come to think of it) but it does have what we need day to day; bread, eggs, veg and water.

Sometimes we do go to other places to get our veg, but we keep coming back to Save Way for the main items because although it doesn't have the range (you can be sure to get potatoes, tomatoes, onions and courgettes or carrots there all the time, most of the time you can get peppers too, but anything else tends to be short-run), the veg is much better quality than anywhere else.

In the front corner of Save Way when we first moved in they used to have a newspaper and magazine rack, but that gradually faded out of use about two years ago (possibly because the kiosk on the other side of the Grand Mall started selling papers).  Since then the area has been used as a storage area piled high with boxes of crisps or crates of soft drinks. Last week though I noticed that they were starting to clear part of it up.

What has sprung up is a small book store! It's all new books and imported titles (apart from a small AUC Press section) but it looks very good.  As the guy was arranging the books I took a look around and they had an 'Egypt' section which I browsed. Since finishing the Matt Rees series that I loved, I have been on the look out for something else to read that might be similar. On Amazon I managed to find an author with a similar character/setting, Barbar Nadel's series set in Istanbul.

Then by chance I noticed that in the stands was one of her books, quite reasonably priced I thought at 65LE. It was a random book from the mid-series and so I asked the guy if he might be able to get the first in the series. I've asked at bookstores for them to order me books, but not had much luck, so I wasn't holding out too much hope - I knew I could always pick it up from Amazon in the UK in the summer if I wanted to.

So imagine my surprise and delight when I went in to Save Way to pick up some things for lunch today and he came up to me to say he had the book! Well, he didn't actually say he had the book. He actually held another of her books and said to me '10 minutes' and then he dashed off. Ten minutes later (I'd already paid for my shopping so was just browsing his books again) he did indeed come back with the book I'd asked for. Brilliant!

Beer in the Snooker Club by Waguih Ghali

Beer in the Snooker Club by Waguih Ghali (1964)
Read: April 2012

I picked this book up at the Diwan book fair at work. I know I'm not meant to buy any new books until I've finished the ones I've already got on the shelves (!) but I couldn't resist buying a book with the word 'beer' in the title (and picture on the front cover) that was on sale in a school!

This is the only book by the author who died young and it had some rave reviews on the back about the potential of this writer and comparisons in style to some other literary greats. The book follows a young man as he is trying to make his way in life, discover women and continue his love of beer (and general lounging at the snooker club).

I would have liked more of the novel to be set in Cairo, the middle section is set in England, but this does offer an alternative view on the situation in the middle east at that time and British perspectives on Egypt to come through also which I must admit was interesting. Even those who had visited Egypt, as part of the army deployment there, were still unfamiliar with life there and came back with the preconceptions that they had started with at home.

Wicked by Gregory Maguire

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire (1995)
Read: April 2012

People rave about this musical and so when I saw the book on the shelf at work (we have an 'open library' in the staff room with books of varying age and quality!) I thought I'd pick it up.  Ironically when Lis and the kids came over on holiday she was reading it too!

The premise of the book is that it is a side-story from the Wizard of Oz tale as it tells the story of where the Wicked Witch of the West came from.  It follows her birth and growing up as she goes to school and is a young woman. The story though jumps about a bit and the exact purpose of the tale is hard to follow at times. It doesn't provide as clear an introduction to her back story as I'd expected. Maybe it would have helped my understanding if I'd swatted up on the Wizard of Oz again, but I thought my general knowledge would have been enough for the story to make sense.

Maybe this is what the Lord of the Rings books are like - that as you have to create a whole fantasy world you have to work hard to follow the story and the rules of this new world that the characters inhabit. It's a lot more than just following the characters because you actually have to introduce the characters and the setting to the reader. I coped with the 'other world' of Harry Potter, but maybe that is an unfair comparison!

There are others in the series / style by the same author, but I think that fantasy is not my genre.

Playing Cards in Cairo by Hugh Miles

Playing Cards in Cairo: Mint Tea, Tarneeb and Tales of the City by Hugh Miles (2004)
Read: March - April 2012

This book came courtesy of DaddyP and the cover looked strangely familiar, but on reading the blurb is wasn't one that I had heard of before.  I really enjoyed this book though and it felt like I whizzed through it. I've actually already passed it back to DaddyP as I think he should take a read of it and it will definitely be going in our 'keeper' collecting of Egypt books.

The book is a biography is sorts in that it follows Hugh's time living in Cairo. He was in Cairo as a journalist, but on returning to a rainy UK decides that he wants to be back in Cairo - and besides, he's just met a girl he'd like to get to know more.

What follows is sort of a Cairo-based version of the Girls of Riyadh. It is told from Hugh's perspective which shows his struggle to get to know this Egyptian girl better and overcome the restrictive views on male/female interactions.  But what he does see is more about how the lives for young Egyptian women are shaped by the society they live in and how they shape their lives to cope with their families and the city.

There are some great tales of trying to stay out late or trying to snoop in on each others dates, and what makes this such a great book is that it is all so every-day and so real.

Dreamers of the Day by Mary Doria Russell

Dreamers of the Day by Mary Doria Russell (2008)
Read: March 2012

I was sent this book by a UKN friend who had read it and wanted to pass it on to me.  There are two UKN links within the book which made me smile - the most obvious is that the story focuses on a lady visiting and discovering herself in Cairo, Egypt and the Middle East. The second link is that the protagonist (and the author) lives in Cleveland, Ohio - where another fellow UKN lives!

What was interesting about the book was that TE Lawrence appeared again - this time being called Teddy. he had the same character of someone who was passionate about the area and the people, as well as showing it to those who were interested. In this case it is Agnes who is interested and he takes on various adventures.  These are 'adventures' for her, coming from small-town America with very limited outside experience, but nothing compared to those I read of in Empire of Sand. 

It is this that is meant to be the attraction of the book I think; that you emphasis with this lone woman traveller as she discovers the Middle East and her herself.  It is a dreamers dream that they too hob nob with Teddy, Churchill, and the like, then find companionship with a German spy. My imagination and desires go beyond this slightly and so this book definitely left me wanting more.