Archives

The Bastard of Istanbul

Post date 30/08/2020

(2015) One rainy afternoon in Istanbul, a woman walks into a doctor’s surgery. ‘I need to have an abortion’, she announces. She is nineteen years old and unmarried. What happens that afternoon will change her life. Twenty years later, Asya Kazanci lives with her extended family in Istanbul. Due to a mysterious family curse, all the Kaznci men die in their early forties, so it is a house of women, among them Asya’s beautiful, rebellious mother Zeliha, who runs a tattoo parlour; Banu, who has newly discovered herself as clairvoyant; and Feride, a hypochondriac obsessed with impending disaster. And when Asya’s Armenian-American cousin Armanoush comes to stay, long hidden family secrets connected with Turkey’s turbulent past begin to emerge

Forty Rules of Love

Post date 30/08/2020

2015 Ella Rubinstein has a husband, three teenage children, and a pleasant home. Everything that should make her confident and fulfilled. Yet there is an emptiness at the heart of Ella’s life – an emptiness once filled by love. So when Ella reads a manuscript about the thirteenth-century Sufi poet Rumi and Shams of Tabriz, and his forty rules of life and love, she is shocked out of herself. Turning her back on her family she embarks on a journey to meet the mysterious author of this work. It is a quest infused with Sufi mysticism and verse, taking Ella and us into an exotic world where faith and love are heartbreakingly explored…

Emotional Agility

Post date 30/08/2020

The General in His Labyrinth

Post date 30/08/2020

The General in His Labyrinth (original Spanish title: El general en su laberinto) is a novel by the Colombian writer and Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez. It is a fictionalized account of the last days of Simón Bolívar, liberator and leader of Gran Colombia. First published in 1989, the book traces Bolívar’s final journey from Bogotá to the Caribbean coastline of Colombia in his attempt to leave South America for exile in Europe. In this dictator novel about a continental hero, “despair, sickness, and death inevitably win out over love, health, and life”. Breaking with the traditional heroic portrayal of Bolívar El Libertador, García Márquez depicts a pathetic protagonist, a prematurely aged man who is physically ill and mentally exhausted. The story explores the labyrinth of Bolívar’s life through the narrative of his memories.

Architect’s Apprentice

Post date 30/08/2020

(2015) Sixteenth century Istanbul: a stowaway arrives in the city bearing an extraordinary gift for the Sultan. The boy is utterly alone in a foreign land, with no worldly possessions to his name except Chota, a rare white elephant destined for the palace menagerie. So begins an epic adventure that will see young Jahan rise from lowly origins to the highest ranks of the Sultan’s court. Along the way he will meet deceitful courtiers and false friends, gypsies, animal tamers, and the beautiful, mischievous Princess Mihrimah. He will journey on Chota’s back to the furthest corners of the Sultan’s kingdom and back again. And one day he will catch the eye of the royal architect, Sinan, a chance encounter destined to change Jahan’s fortunes forever. Filled with all the colour of the Ottoman Empire, when Istanbul was the teeming centre of civilisation, The Architect’s Apprentice is a magical, sweeping tale of one boy and his elephant caught up in a world of wonder and danger

Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone To Take Action

Post date 30/08/2020

One Hundred Years of Solitude

Post date 30/08/2020

One of the world’s most famous novels, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, blends the natural with the supernatural in one of the most magical reading experiences on earth. ‘Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice’ Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s great masterpiece is the story of seven generations of the Buendia family and of Macondo, the town they have built. Though little more than a settlement surrounded by mountains, Macondo has its wars and disasters, even its wonders and its miracles. A microcosm of Columbian life, its secrets lie hidden, encoded in a book, and only Aureliano Buendia can fathom its mysteries and reveal its shrouded destiny. Blending political reality with magic realism, fantasy and comic invention, One Hundred Years of Solitude is one of the most daringly original works of the twentieth century. ‘Dazzling’ The New York Times

Digital Minimalism

Post date 30/08/2020

(2020) Digital Minimalism is the Marie Kondo of mobile phones’ Evening Standard ‘An eloquent, powerful and enjoyably practical guide to cutting back on screen time’ The Times ‘An urgent call to action for anyone serious about being in command of their own life’ Ryan Holiday, author of The Obstacle is the Way ‘What a timely and useful book’ Naomi Alderman, author of The Power Learn how to switch off and find calm Do you find yourself endlessly scrolling through social media or the news while your anxiety rises? Are you feeling frazzled after a long day of long video calls? In this timely book, professor Cal Newport shows us how to pair back digital distractions and live a more meaningful life with less technology. By following a ‘digital declutter’ process, you’ll learn to: · Rethink your relationship with social media · Prioritize ‘high bandwidth’ conversations over low quality text chains · Rediscover the pleasures of the offline world Take back control from your devices and find calm amongst the chaos with Digital Minimalism.

Diary of An Awesome Friendly K

Post date 30/08/2020

-2019

All the Bright Places

Post date 30/08/2020

(2020) Now a major film starring Elle Fanning and Justice Smith on Netflix.

A compelling and beautiful story about a girl who learns to live from a boy who wants to die.

Theodore Finch constantly thinks of ways he might kill himself, but each time something good stops him.

Violet Markey exists for the future, counting the days until she can escape her Indiana town and her aching grief for her late sister.

When they meet on the ledge of a tower, what might have been their end turns into their beginning.

It’s only with Violet that Finch can truly be himself – a funny guy who’s able to find the joy in life.

And when Violet’s with Finch, she forgets to count away the days and starts to live them.

But as Violet’s world grows, Finch’s begins to shrink. He’s trying to cling on to all the good things in his life, but will it be enough this time?

‘If you’re looking for the next The Fault in Our Stars, this is it’ – Guardian

‘This book is amazing – I couldn’t put it down’ – Zoe Sugg

‘A searingly honest and heartbreakingly poignant tale about the power and beauty of love’ – Heat

‘Sparkling’ – Entertainment Weekly