Rhadopis of Nubia: A Novel of Ancient Egypt

If you know me, and if you've read my blog before, you'll know that I am a huge fan of Ancient Egypt. I love the creativity poured into the somewhat restricted types of architecture of the time, and I absolutely love the mystique that the era exudes.

Though Pharaohs and using slaves are not cool. Just saying. Even their advanced civilizations (of the time) and so called 'power' couldn't save them from being wiped out.

Even so, I feel like the Ancient Egyptians had a colorful life, and a sinfully luxurious one. Granted, my feelings may be influenced solely by modern representations of the era, and only of 'royalty'. I still admire the creativity of the people and their ideas. It's a shame they were so big headed and too proud for their own good (i.e. Pharaoh during the time of Moses AS; many sins much blasphemy from the stories of that Pharoah).

Moving back on track, I recently purchased a book as I was immediately drawn to the title and cover- I am sure I am not the only one who does this. Here's what I saw, and immediately picked up:

This may be unappealing to you, but my attention was captured by that bust (?) of a woman (?) on the cover. I knew it was something to do with Ancient Egypt and sort of bought it without reading/understanding what it was about. Sue me. 

So, I've read it. And I'd give it a 7/10. I think that's fair. 

Spoilers ahead, though most quite general and available in the book's blurb.

It is about Pharaoh Merenra II, who falls in love with the enchanting and seductive and unconditionally loved (by all men who set eyes on her), Rhadopis. Fate seemingly brought them together in the form of a falcon, stealing Rhadopis' golden sandal and dropping it onto the lap of the Pharaoh. Determined to meet the owner of the sandal after finding out about her beauty and all the men who clamber to be with her- but are rejected, naturally, the Pharaoh personally journeys to Rhadopis' white marble palace on the Nile. They immediately feel chemistry between them and fall in love, not being able to resist. A whirlwind romance begins, despite the Pharaoh having a wife. They are oblivious to the rumors and the negative perceptions of the people around them. Rhadopis stops entertaining other men and her focus and her life becomes the Pharaoh. The Pharaoh inundates her palace with riches- his people's riches, and their romance takes a quick, brutal and predicted turn from there. 

Naguib Mahfouz is wonderful with his composition, I will say that. His words are so calming, and elegant. Granted this is a translation of the Arabic text by Anthony Calderbank, and to quote him "The language Mahfouz uses is distant and regal....Whereas the canons of Arabic textuality allow Mahfouz to repeat the same words many times, a variation in the vocabulary is preferred in the English." I give a good amount of credit to Mr Calderbank for choosing such fitting words to shape the story. 

Most of the story did not appeal to me as much as I would have liked it to. It was simple, and because of that, it was predictable. I suppose Mahfouz intended it to be as such, as this story is supposed to relate to the uprisings in a more modern and recent Egypt, which it does. That is probably why I found it predictable, because subconsciously my mind knew that this had happened recently, or is slowly happening now. I am not suggesting that our leaders are Pharaohs, or that they are mindlessly giving no heed to the needs of their people. I am saying that this book describes the a situation in which a leader behaves irresponsibly and faces the wrath of his people whom he did wrong by. 

To the more vivid and colorful parts of the book, the descriptions of the world, the places and the feelings felt were beautiful. It is the first time I would have ever thought to describe the dawn as something blue.

"Her senses suddenly became sharper and she remembered that she had remained awake, her eyelids not tasting sleep until the gentle blue waves of dawn washed over her."

The sky by day is definitely blue, and by night, it looks black, but the hue of blue that drapes over us in the early hours of the morning have never really occurred to me as something to notice until now.

And my personal favorite line from the book,

"Blessed is an awakening that stirs beautiful memories in the heart."

The paragraph in which this line was written just makes me feel so light and airy and like I should be wearing a white flowy dress and prancing around happily just to read it.  

Other than these two favorite lines, what I liked about this book was that the emotions existing between the Pharaoh and Rhadopis came across as very real and visceral, to me at least. The description of infatuation and passion that so strongly pulled the two together was so satisfying to read. Though their romance was fast paced and quite irrational, that was what made me believe in it even more. The surreal way that they met and immediately pursued their love affair just made me think about how hedonism was weaved into the fabric of their nature; indulging at every and almost any possible chance. 

All in all, this book was a good read. If not for the story or the plot, I implore you to read it for Mahfouz's writing, or should I say, Calderbank's translation?

Till next time,

K 

Deception Point by Dan Brown

This book is one of the only books that I can honestly say made me laugh and scream out loud. A book has never ever ever made me do that.

It's just clever. And gripping, thrilling and suspenseful. Dan Brown has this way of writing, that glued my hands to his book. I just couldn't put it down. His writing allowed me to create this amazing motion picture in my imagination that I didn't want to stop watching, despite my better intentions to put the book down and sleep!

President Zachary Herney is facing reelection and losing supporters to Senator Sedgewick Sexton because of the Senator's revelation of the harsh truths and his scrutiny over NASA's broken promises, over-budget and failed missions. The President gets Rachel Sexton (the senator's daughter), who is a gister for the NRO, involved in this amazing predicament (a serious "this will change the world" predicament) with some of the smartest people she'll ever meet, to make things right and prove that NASA is important to the country. Gisters reduce complex reports into single-page briefs, and in this case the president needs that confirmation before he broadcasts to the nation, probably ensuring his reelection. It's tricky because Rachel is the daughter of his opponent. Rachel has no choice, and joins the team, amazed to be told that a strange object had been found buried deep in the arctic ice; a meteor. And after countless tests and samples, it was proven that they had discovered fossils of organisms in that meteor; evidential of extraterrestrial life. However, Rachel Sexton and Michael Tolland (from the team), suspect something is amiss when the meteor is pulled out of its icy grave.

This book is really good. You should pick it up and read ittt! :D I will not tell you more for it will ruin everything! GOOOOO DAN BROWNNNNN! JYEAH!

The Harmony Silk Factory

Reading this book has required me to open my dictionary more times than I have ever opened a dictionary in my entire life. (Exaggerating, yes.)

But I think that's why I liked it so much. I didn't even know half of those words existed. And those words were formal, and sort of posh, which I think fit the novel perfectly because of the era it was set in. It's set in during and post WWII in Malaya by the way. The story is written through three perspectives of the notorious Johnny Lim's life, from Jasper's (son of Johnny) point of view, Snow's (Johnny's wife) point of view, and finally Peter's (Johnny's good friend) point of view. My favourite at first, was Snow's but as I read further I found Peter's side of the story more satisfying to read, as he explained the things that I was wondering about in earlier stages of the book. I think that's Tash Aw's way of writing too, he doesn't reaveal everything at the start in this book, he lets you wonder and wonder, and all of a sudden something happens, or someone comes into the picture and you find yourself re-reading previous pages to figure out what you'd missed, when in truth you didn't miss anything and it's just that frustration and curiosity that keeps your eyes glued until finally,

"Yeahhhh! I knew it!!"

or

"Ohhh! So that's who he was!".
or just plain old
"Oh My God!"

I like the way he described the setting, especially when he described it from an Englishman's view, because everything seemed so exotic, so warm and so vivid.

My mother didn't like this book because she felt it was a bit draggy, so when I wanted to read it I did have my doubts, but I really did enjoy it :) Good good read.

Well, for me at least.

Next on my 'to read' list, is another book by Tash Aw, Map of the Invisible World.

I'll let you know what it's like :)

Woohoo Tash Aw!

Nefertiti; A Novel

The most amazing book I've ever read. Hands freaking down.

Happiness, hatred, anger, sadness. I felt all of these emotions while reading this first novel of Michelle Moran's. I fell in love with so many characters, they all came alive.

The story is about Nefertiti, one of the most remembered Pharaoh's of ancient Egypt. Most remembered by the bust she had made of herself. The story is told through the eyes of her sister Mutnodjmet or more fondly known as Mutny. Simply put, the story revolves around the reign of Nefertiti and the influence she had over the people of Egypt at the time. How she and her husband, Pharaoh Akhenaten had created a new religion and had built a new city from scratch where no other Pharaoh had built before. The city of Amarna.

Here's a link to a review, because I don't really want to spoil it. But my gosh. I can't tell you how good it was to read!

http://novelreviews.blogspot.com/2007/06/michelle-morans-nefertiti-novel.html

These are some pictures of the famous bust that Nefertiti had made of her.

You can see the an eye is missing a pupil and iris; it was never finished.

Below is a picture of Nefertiti's mummy. Her face and chest were smashed when thieves broke into her tomb for the gold, so the story goes.



After discovering the mummy, the experts scanned it and managed to reconstruct the face of the mummy based on its skull. So, this is what Nefertiti might have really looked like:



And these are statues of her husband, Pharaoh Akhenaten. He had statues made to specifically depict himself. Others before him had the same kind of pictures and statues just to let everyone know they were Pharaohs, but not Akhenaten, he had his statues made to look like him, with sharper and stronger features. He also made the statues look feminine and masculine, with the face being long, and the hips wide and curvy.

So there you have it. The story of Nefertiti, the self proclaimed reincarnation of the goddess Isis.
Beautifully immortalized for eternity; as she had wished.

The Anatomy of Deception

Let me just start off by saying, yes, I have nbeen reading this book ever since I put its picture in the Unputdownable section of my blog. I think it has been there for almost a year. The thing with reading with me is if I put a book down for too long, i lose my momentum, and require a sufficient amount of force to push be back on the reading rails. haha.
But, as expected, I picked this half-read book up last night, and finished it today :)
So, here's my take on it.

As for it being dubbed a thriller by Tess Gerritsen, i beg to differ. My idea of a thriller is when a book leaves you sitting on the edge of your seat in shock but with anticipation and with the hairs on the back of your neck standing. But maybe that's too much to ask for a book. Haha, but still.
Despite the fact, this book was very interesting because it's based on medicine, physicians in the 19 century to be exact, where modern medicine was at a turning point.
It was nice to read about medicinal practice in that era; without anesthesia and how surgeries were performed with lack of hygiene, but also how physicians worked with medical advances at the time. It had a strong main character, Ephraim Caroll who was a great learning physician, that comes into contact with great men, some of which he looked up to, and eventually being forced to choose whether he should spare the life of one man and deprive the world of a medical genius, or let him die and save thousands in the years to come. Quite a predicament to be in, haha :D

There are two important characters that did exist, and some true parts of their lives incorporated in this book. Makes it more interesting I think.
William Halsted(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Stewart_Halsted) who invented surgical gloves, and William Osler (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Osler) who wrote The Principles and Practice Of Medicine, were both great figures in the history of medicine. It was so awesome to have read about real historical figures incorporated in a piece of fiction.

The mystery in this book revolves around a young and beautiful girl who's body ends up in the Dead House where Ephraim, Dr. Osler and others perform autopsies, of course ignoring the Philadelphia League Against Human Vivisection. Later on a collegue of Ephraim Caroll is murdered and Ephraim sets out to find the killer, finding out that there is a connection between the dead young woman and his murdered friend. I shall say no more, for you will have to read it to find out, haha.

So all in all, this book was a great read! Compelling and greatly interesting. Very happy it caught my eye.

Hope

My friend Nadia had recommended the book Hope by Lesley Pearse for me to read, telling me that it was an extremely good book. I have to admit that I was skeptical about it being good, and my skepticism had only been further supported when I laid eyes on the book. IT IS MASSIVE. 658 pages long, it looked to be - to quote Georgia from the movie Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging, in a different context- beyond the valley of thickness and impossible to be read. But I put my doubt and laziness to one side and opened the book for the first time; I was almost immediately engrossed.

Every page got more and more intriguing and I found it very hard to let go of the book let alone shut it, however tired my eyes were.

Hope is about a child, living proof of her mother, Lady Harvey's adultery. It was her fate to die a stillborn. But soon, Lady Harvey's maid Nell Renton, discovered that the baby was not dead at all. Since it was to be kept a secret from Lady Harvey that the baby, who Nell named Hope, was alive, Nell brought the child back to her Mother, Meg for she knew Meg would provide Hope with love and care. As predicted, Meg took Hope in like one of her own and brought her up as a Renton.

The story goes on to tell how Hope, unaware of her true identity, was brought up in the Renton family, how she was blackmailed to leave her home and never come back and her tough struggles in life. Even as a nurse while there was a terrible cholera epidemic and later on in the battlefields of the Crimea, in such unfavourable conditions, she proved to be a woman with remarkable strength and determination. Showered with heart-warming, heart-breaking, exciting, sometimes gloomy and suspenseful moments, this book is an awesome read that doesn't bore. You feel like you are able to see Hope growing throughout the book and how mature and intelligent she was well before she became an adult.

All in all, Lesley Pearse definitely did not disappoint, and Hope is indubitably a character that I will never forget. A truly wonderful read :) Thanks Nadia.