A book Review

Books have been always my best companions. When I am sad, when I am happy, when I am tired … and when I am sleepless. Most importantly, books are my refuge when reality becomes too painful to bear. In the coming days, I will introduce you to my escorts that helped me last couple of months to go through some difficult times of heartbreak, failure, loss, and disheartening.

The diary of a young girl by Anne Frank

I assume most of you have already read or heard about this book. The story of the little Jewish girl who wrote her diary while in hiding during World War II. The book was on my to-read list for more than 3 years until last February. In addition to messy days I was going through, I had a serious sleeping issue and I wanted to stop taking the sleeping pills that seemed to drag me to depression. To avoid overthinking about my own troubles, I thought reading a memoir would keep my mind busy with someone else’s struggle. So, I went through my "Memoirs and Biographies" shelf on Goodreads. I saw this book title, and I immediately chose it. What can ban negative thoughts better than a real story from WW II can do? However, every time I picked up my e-reader to read my eyes hurt badly (I only had free time at night), and I couldn’t read more than few pages. That was expected after spending more than 7 hours working on a computer. As the story captivated me, I wanted to go faster with reading it. Thus, I switched to the audio version of the book. It was narrated by Susan Adams, who had a nice calm voice that brought Anne to life in my imagination.

Sex Object: A Memoir by Jessica Valenti
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

The beginning of this book was nice. I felt she, somehow, was telling my story ... And this was the trick in this book: a common story. Too common that it became boring chapter after chapter.
Once i got to the second part of this book, I realized it is not as informative as I thought. And in most cases, she made herself " a sex object". She didn't care much about anything but drinking and having sex. How can she blame men for anything?
Yes, there are bad rape and sexual harassment stories out there, but I don't think this book is about any serious case.
On the other hand, the title of the book was misleading. Especially in the last part, when she focused only on her marriage and daughter .... Her life seems to be perfect compared to what other women are going through. At some point, I called her "selfish spoiled woman".
I do fight to get some women rights ... But not about bullshit women (and men alike) put themselves in.
By the way ... She made me hate NY city. It seemed full of perverts and pedophiles. And for the first time I felt i live in a very safe place (in a third world country).
After all, I can't judge her. I just didn't like the book and I don't think it is worth reading.

View all my reviews

Into the remarkable memoir: “When Breath Becomes Air”

by Paul Kalanithi

“If I had some sense of how much time I have left, it’d be easier. (…) Tell me three months, I’d spend time with family. Tell me one year, I’d write a book. Give me ten years, I’d get back to treating diseases.”

Most people (me among them) live their lives procrastinating their dreams for next month, next year or even next decade. Unfortunately, death take most of them by surprise before realizing those dreams. Paul had a plan to spend two decades of his life in neurosurgery, then the next two decades as a writer, not realizing that death is going to pay a visit much earlier than he could ever imagine. 

“When Breath Becomes Air” is a memoir about dreaming, working hard, and facing death with courage and a final touch. After the tremendous effect this book left on me, I consider it a life-changing book, and I recommend it to EVERYONE.

Continue reading the review on our Idea Magazine .

     

                                                                                                                    Merry