Gaza Weddings (Paperbook)
Author: Ibrahim Nasrallah
⭐ 5/5
Thoughts 💭
First of all, I really love this volvet-liked book cover, it provides a nice and warm texture, as if it tries to give you a comfort before what it might take you later.
I got this book when I went on a short trip in Dubai. There's a Japanese bookstore called Kinokuniya in the well-known Dubail mall. When I was standing there, thinking about what kind of gift would be meaningful to me as a suvenior, I started looking for Middle East bookshelf section.
I didn't want to add too much extra weight to my usual light packing lugguage, so I only focus on thin books. This definitely had filtered out quite a number of books and simplified my selections. And then, "Gaza" this word on the book spine caught my attention on the bookshelf.
Middle East countries are actually not too far from Asia, and yet not to close in terms of how little we know about it. In the year of 2023, I've heard "Gaza" this word way more than the past years, so I decided to pick this book up and brought it home with me.
Before buying this book, I had only read the synopsis on the back cover. I expected a kind of tragicomedy, something touching on hardship but told with a slightly lighter, more hopeful tone. However, I quickly realised it was much deeper and more sobering than I had imagined. I found myself only able to read one chapter at a time, needing space to digest what I'd just read throughout the the rest of the day.
Life is not easy, and it certainly isn't fair. Everyone carries their own burdens. This book offers a powerful glimpse into daily life in Gaza, where marriage seems to be one of the few highlights that brings joys and a brief escape from the relentless conflict that surrounds them.
It made me think about this land people often call sacred. If we still consider ourselves descendants of those once called the people of God, I wonder, how would God view what has become of this promised land? A place where bullets and missiles fill the sky, and the earth is soaked in blood and suffering...
In fact, humans believe in no gods. If we truly did, we would be constantly mindful of our actions. We would not harm each other, and would strive to respect different opinions rather than using power imbalances to control others.
When humans holder power through money, authority, or weapons, they no longer feel fear. These things become their gods. They worship dominance, not divinity. The rest of powerless can only passively accept their fate and hope that a true power, one with mercy, might come to save them one day.
Highlights 📑
> It's a bummer to have a little head in a country that's full of big sticks and people who point gun berrels at you all the time.
> well you told them all directions meet here, on the ground, so whoever is on the ground owns all the directions, too.
> with life been so hard and all, how do you explain the fact that our dreams have never gotten any smaller? Our dreams have never gotten any smaller because they were so small from the start.
> They were born small and they have stayed that way and that's why we go on taking care of them all our lives. If dreams were big they would be the ones taking care of us.
> and you know why it happens? It's because we don't trust the world anymore. We have trained ourselves not to expect good things so that when they happen, we can experience the pleasure of feeling awed and amazed.
> they all know the secret. so do the snipers stationed in their towers. It's that simple. They don't aim at us to kill us. No, they aim at us to kill the freedom that's hidden inside us, the freedom that we keep chasing all our lives.
> The loss itself is bad enough, but what makes it even worse is the timing. It comes exactly when you expected it to be since there isn't a single moment when you don't expect it, but it always takes you by surprise.
> The boy is obsessed with digging graves. I hope for the day when we don't have to dig extra graves anymore.
> make the graves big enough to give the martyrs lots of room. You don't want them to feel cramped in there and make them deep enough that the rockets they drop on the cemetery won't get to them. Don't worry when I dig a grave, I do it as if it were for me.
> we only learn life's lessons when we work, whether the work we do is digging graves or building mansions.
Music / Audiobook for this book 🎧
Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/live/jhESJwuON_0?si=t9gsyafz81K9POAe
The Wonderful Wizard of OZ (Hardcover)
Author: L. Frank Baum
⭐ 5/5
Thoughts 💭
After watched the movie produced by Disney picture, I decided to pick up this book, which has been stored in my bookshelf for a couple of years. I'm really glad that I completed this book and read it with an audiobook that I had found on a YouTube channel. The voice dubbing of each charactor was perfectly portrayed with AI technology. Especially all the contents are exactly the same as the book, it's more engaging to the story while appreciating the illustrations of the book. I've heard of the translated chinese name in my childhood, but not sure if I ever read it before. However, I know this type of adventurous trope is always one of my favourite genres. As I had expected, it didn't dissapoint me at all!
Middle grade books always have a place in my heart given the messages they deliver are often enlightening and inspirational. In this story, it seems like each charator represents a quality of personality, together they will form a better man. It's not about how perfect we are physically, but more about how mindful we are mentally. Having a brain and a heart doesn't make a good person, what forms a real good man is their thoughts and behaviour. Some of the lines in the book really resonated to me, because they can easily reflect to real experience that have happened around us. Overall, it will be my all time favourite classic book and I'm sure that I'll keep this physical book on my shelf as one of my book collections.
Highlights 📑
> All the other animals in the forest natually expect me to be brave, for the Lion is everywhere thought to be the King of Beasts.
> Whenever I've met a man I've been awfully scared; but I just roared at him. If the elephants and the tigers and the bears had ever tried to fight me, I should have run myself-I'm such a coward.
> It seems to me they must be more cowardly than you are if they allow you to scare them so easily.
> The Tin Woodman knew very well he had no heart, and therefore he took great care never to be cruel or unkind to anything.
> You people with hearts, he said, have something to guide you, and need never do wrong; but I have no heart, and so I must be very careful. When Oz gives me a heart of course I needn't mind so much.
> I've always thought myself very big and terrible; yet such little things as flowers came near to killing me, and such small animals as mice have saved my life.
> "I thought Oz was a great Head." "No, you are all wrong, I have been making believe."
> "I'm supposed to be a Great Wizard." "And aren't you?" "Not a bit of it, my dear; I'm just a common man."
> "You're more than that, you're a humbug." "Exactly so!, I'm a humbug."
> "I think you are a very bad man." "Oh, no, my dear; I'm really a very good man, but I'm a very bad Wizard, I must admit."
> "Can you give me brains?" "You don't need them. You're learning something every day. A babe has brains, but it doesn't know much. Experience is the only thing that brings knowledge, and the longer you are on earth the more experience you are sure to get."
> I will stuff your head with brains. I cannot tell you how to use them, however; you must find that out for yourself.
> "How about my courage?" "You have plenty of courage, I'm sure. All you need is confidence in yourself. There is no living thing that is not afraid when it faces danger. The true courage is in facing danger when you are afraid, and that kind of courage you have in plenty."
> How can I help being a humbug. When all these people make me do things that everybody knows can't be done? Because they imagined I could do anything.
> If Oz had taken a dose of the same courage he gave me, he would have been a brave man.
> I'm thankful I am made of straw and connot be easily damaged. There are worse things in the world than being a Scarecrow.
> "If you had known their power you could have gone back to your Aunt Em the very first day you came to this country." "I'm glad I was of use to these good friends."
Vocabulary / Phrases 📝
#️⃣ Vex - the pretty milkmaid was much too vexed to make any answer; yelled with vexation.
#️⃣ A chorus of boisterous laughter.
#️⃣ Mishap - the lion became quite angry at the laughter caused by the Scarecrow's mishap.
#️⃣ Deprive - it would be a shame to deprive the people of so wonderful a ruler.
#️⃣ Engaged in deep thought.
#️⃣ Meekly - "very well," answered Oz meekly.
#️⃣ In high spirit - they agreed to say nothing of what they had learned, and went back to their rooms in hight spirits.
#️⃣ Dominions - I may become as much a man as any other in your dominions.
Music / Audiobook for this book 🎧
Audiobook: https://youtu.be/56vG_ex6U8U?si=yZ8EFeJ3qBo3MAEa
Sources 🔍
Baum’s own comments on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz:
The Cleaners
Author: L. Frank Baum
⭐ 5/5
More Posts
Gaza Weddings
First of all, I really love this volvet-liked book cover, it provides a nice and warm texture, as if it tries to give you a comfort before what it might take you later.
The Wonderful Wizard of OZ
After watched the movie produced by Disney picture, I decided to pick up this book, which has been stored in my bookshelf for a couple of years.
The Cleaners
Test