Review of Language and Power by Andrea Mayr

Language and Power: An Introduction to Institutional Discourse by Andrea Mayr

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Disclosure:
Actually I am not a fan of those heavy linguists, but this book was a task for me to search the relation between Power and Discourse. the result of my research was positive, but I didn't understand much of the run. I have an eBook copy of it if you want it.

Overview:
Andrea Mayr, as a Linguist, tries to make a distinction between Language and society in several situations, in the first chapter she speaks about Power, Discourse and institutions. in this part the writer make a gap of difference between the three elements in accordance to Language, The second part discusses the matter of Higher Institutions in relation to Language. after these relations, Andrea makes a shift and this time she put in Light the Prison discourse, followed by News discourse Part one and Part two. In the last part the writer sheds light on Defense discourse within two parts. following by a conclusion, between Andrea Mayr and Tony Bastow.

Positive and Negative Aspects:
The book is actually designed to students and specialist in the subject of Linguistics and Critical discourse analysis. at least those these audiences have some special tools to decode the meaning inside the book. For me as a literary reader, I didn't understand much of the meaning. The book was written in a simple language but most of the synonym have affiliation to a certain field in Linguistics, and that's the main obstacles behind my lack of Understanding this Book.

My Personal View:
I would not be so negative to criticize the book, actually I use much of its chapters in order to flourish my Project in critical discourse analysis. And I got some new information about the forefathers of Critical Discourse Analysis. and the relations between Language and Institutions, Though I would be grateful to the writer for being so clear in most of her Ideas.

Recommendations:
This book was actually a reference for my presentation in the subject of Pragmatics, though if you are a literature fan I don't recommend you to spend time reading it, otherwise Linguists are the only audience who can understand most of the ideas inside it.



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Review of The Land of Israel in the Bible by Jacques Van Ruiten

The Land Of Israel In Bible, History, And Theology: by Jacques Van Ruiten

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Disclosure:
I get this book free from charge from a Professor who advice me to read about the Land of Israel, I have an eBook format written in English, with a nice quality script.

Overview:
The Book of the Land of Israel in the Bible consist of two parts, the first part investigate the scope of Israel from a religious point of view, so the writer in this part is taking out texts from the old bible of Aramaic and explaining it in accordance to the existence of Israel as a land. In fact most of the chapters of the first part discuss the Land of Israel from religious perspective and main reference for the first part Is Joshua and some parts of Old Testament in Greek and Hebraic. the second part of the Book discusses the Land of Israel from a Historical perspective meaning that most of the reference in the second part are historical accounts on mainly in German language. in which they extract the geographical shape and the dimensions of the Land of Israel.

Positive and Negative aspects:
The Book as a Historical investigation tries to convince the reader and to give them a general background about the Historical facts and Figure of Israel as a cultural entity. In fact the reference and vague and various, but what inspires me the most was the manner used to translate every single information to the reader.

My Personal Reaction:
Actually I get much information about the main topic, and I get inspired by the methods used to convince the reader, in fact the contributors were skilled to represent a subject that long have been a matter of violence and differences, I really been amazed to explore these mass information about the main topic. I face some difficulties to understand the second part especially the German part of the Book, Apart this, all went OK.

Recommendations:
I really have a funny time reading this book, so I recommend it to everyone who want to explore the history and the cultural entity of the Land of Israel, Actually it is a verification to every single part of Jewish anthropology. The Book contains some German and Hebrew texts in addition to some Old Greek texts, so I recommend people to bear this in mind before start reading.




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Review of Awrak by Abdellah El Aroui

Awrakby Adellah El Aroui

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


Disclosure:
I got this copy of "Awrak" from the national library in Morocco, and the celebration was a presentation of the works of "Abdellah El Arwi" as a Moroccan historical and theorist, I own a copy of it, the book is written in Arabic.

My Plot:
I was confused whether to classify this book as an autobiography or as a historical investigation, the fact is that the whole story turns upside down to one Character in General. "Idriss" the main Character or the Writer himself in some respect, had been died and left some "Papers" and the burden of his friend was to organize the papers of Idriss and give birth to a story of the Dead Idriss. The beginning of the story start with some recollections of Idriss and the death of his mother, he was obliged to live with his father and mother in law. this passionate boy choose to look for his way, he studied in the Public high school and gets his Baccalaureate, after this hard initiation he choose to complete his studies in France. and from France he continues to write down papers narrating about his experience with life and culture in France as a foreign cultural entity. The Protagonist was devoted to Cinema and most of the time he choose to write down about movies that he washed in France or in Morocco during his life.

Positive and Negative aspects:
Actually the reader will get confused who was the speaker inside the story, that's the main problem I face during my reading of this work, I hardly understand some symbols that the writer used inside this Novel, in addition to the mass references that he implement during his process of writing. Actually I blame the Moroccan analyzers for being so lazy to let this work out of understanding. Sometimes the writer make use of some symbols that are hard to understand their expressing meaning. Even if the work was introduced to a vague audience of Arabic speakers, the writer ignore the possibility that readers may not understand some of the entities used inside his book. Without forgetting the heavy focus of Nationalism of the Moroccan Identity that the writer used so much in his text. Speaking of techniques of writing, the Book was a heavy work full of new techniques in the world of literature, actually it was meant to introduce the new movements of free literature.

My Personal Reaction:
I admit that this was the second time I vote with one out five, or in an expression it was the second book that I would like to punch in the face according to Richard Van Holst. I get really pissed off reading Arabic literature of this kind. Unorganized events, a lot of Flash backs, confusion of who is the speaker inside the story. Actually I may class this book as an unsuccessful try to the new movement of literature. I really feel angry to gossip to the life and the death of an imaginary Character, so summing up all, I generally say that I didn't enjoy the Book at all.

Recommendations:
I would like recommend this book to the lazy Moroccan analyzers who didn't attempt to make a clear copy of this work, Besides I may recommend this book to the so called Fans of New Literary Movement. The book require more understanding so I suggest relying to every single information of it.



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Review of The Piano Teacher by Elfriede Jelinek

The Piano Teacher by Elfriede Jelinek

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Disclosure:
I have come across this Novel during a search for Austrian Feminist Literature, I pick the Piano Teacher as a winner of Nobel Prize for literature. I own an eBook of this version, translated in English.

My Plot:
The story happened in Vienna, a grown up girl from France teach the Piano lessons in the Vienna conservatory. Our Protagonist called Erika, and lived together with her controlling mother in a moderate apartment. The relation of Erika with peoples differ from several aspects. Her relation with her mother get worse and some time a big change took place in their relation. Erika's relation with her student get tougher. Her sexual orientation and her psychological depressions were the main obstacles behind her relation. Erika decided one day to befriend one of her students called Walter. this latter was a punctilious student inside her class. Erika invited him one day to her house, and told him the truth that she is a Masochist girl, and love the self mutilation, Waler grow uncomfortable in his relation with Erika especially with the heavy control that was imposed upon him, One day Walter visited Erika in her apartment and raped her even with the presence of her mother. The following day Erika conducted a celebration in the Theater of Vienna, for her surprise she found that Walter was satisfied with what he did to HER. Erika stuck herself with a knife in the shoulder moving out of the theater.

Positive and Negative Aspects:
The main positive entity in the whole story is that "the Piano Teacher" was a combination between psychological and material elements in the events of the whole work, in fact it was the first work I read where the protagonist suffer from psychological depression. Reality was that the writer get lucky to make the readers lived and feel the problems of all Characters inside the story, it was amazing to explore the Phobias and Paraphilias of each Character. but the amazing thing was that Protagonist was in the center of scope to all these problems. "the Piano Teacher" may represent the new form of the 21 century novel due its newly Characteristics. Concerning the nature of Language I admit that I read the Novel in English, so I didn't get the chance to review it in its original language.

My Personal Reaction:
Personally this was the first Novel I read about the Protagonist suffering from psychological depression, I really enjoyed the techniques that the writer used to expose the fear and the psychological reactions of all the Characters, actually it was far more better than the Techniques used by D.H. Lawrence. The events in the story were amazing and expressing, besides, simplicity of the narration dominates more than complexity. anyway I enjoyed reading this story, and that's the reason behind voting it with 5 out 5.

Recommendations:
This genre of Literature is new born, so I recommend people to take caution especially when reading some sexual arousing scenes inside the story, I don't recommend minors to read it.



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Review of L'aigle by Ismail Kadaré

L'aigle by Ismail Kadaré
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Disclosure:
I have got this Novel just temporally from the Library during a competition held for the Book lovers, I spend three days reading this French Political novel and blow was the outcome.

My Plot:
First of all, the story happens in Albania during the communist government period. Max the protagonist was getting out to get some cigarette, he met the Bar boss; and both they engaged in an obscure discourse of being in "the High" and how to get there. Max at this moment begin the process of intoxicating his mind, he was unsatisfied with several incidents that happens in his environment, especially the runaway of the serpent from the zoo and the death of the crocodile, these events happened during the reduction of government from the fund that was allowed for the zoo. One day Max was sitting in "the Bar of Liberty" and accidentally wrote in the Glass of the windows the name of his Fiancée Anna, at this moment a girl was passing by the road, and saw her name written in the reverse, she came in the Bar and they acquaint each other. During their intrigue Max was revealing to annA that they should go outside the country and flee for their life from the revolution that was coming. The girl annA was satisfied with her situation and she did not gave much attention to what he said. Max inspiration' to the Eagle was deep, so one day he get to the zoo, and ask the Zoo keeper about the Eagle's cage, he was shown the Eagle place but the Zoo keeper tell Max that the Eagle stay in hunger each day and that it is the last to eat after all animals. Max grab no attention to these recommendations. The day after Max feels a high temperature in his head, annA gave him some aspirin to calm down the temperature, but Max was eager to flee from this country, so the end was like this. Max went to the butcher to have some meat, he get some extra meet as a gift from the Butcher, and stole his big knife. Max was heading toward the Eagle's cage to feed him and to let the Eagle fly with him to the land where there is no darkness, in the morning the citizen of the city woke up with a horrible news, Max was killed by the Eagle, the latter gets out both his eyes, in response the Eagle was killed by Max too due to the sharpness of the Butcher's knife.

Positive and Negative Aspects:
The story events were the most entity that make the reader wonder about what's going on the story. The positive aspect in this work was that the events were interrelated, so it was hard for me to give simple plot to this work, Besides, the style used in this work were simple and understandable. Concerning the negative aspects, I would simply say that Kadaré attacked violently the Communism and all its aspects inside this work, he was trying to refer that Communism was the main horror that all Characters suffer from, in fact his imaginations were far fetching from reality, The writer in this work tried to implement the same method that George Orwell did in 1984. Most characters in "L'aigle" were suffering from horror of government and from the ghost of Communism, he was really trying to implement a bad image of Communism and Bureaucracy inside the Albanian state.

My Personal Reaction:
Reality is that I am not a fan of Politics at all, Politics for me is a dirty game. But by reviewing this Novel I am opposed to take part in it. First Kadaré choose the name "Eagle" as a title to his work, in fact the Eagle itself was the symbol of Albania, so speaking about this Eagle is mainly a comment to the state directly, Inside the story we hear that the Eagle was the last one to eat and that it was kept in hunger even since it is the symbol of that state. the End of the protagonist against the Eagle also was symbolic. so summing up all these aspects, we simply say that Kadaré was trying to depict an obscure image of Communism against the State of Eagles "Shqiperia", and that the death of the Protagonist was in fact a fight for freedom and dignity of Albanian self. Personally I use much effort to understand the meaning of this work but I really admit that the meaning was vague inside the story.

Recommendations:
This book is simply recommended to Albanian citizens first of all, and to the fans of Ismael Kadaré. I recommend readers of this work to focus on each single detail inside the story in order to accomplish the process of understanding this Political novel.

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Review of The Rainbow by D.H. Lawrence

The Rainbow by D.H. Lawrence
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Disclosure:
I come across this Novel while I was exploring the page of D.H. Lawrence, I thought it would be amazing to explore the style of this writer but the result was that I am disappointed.

My Plot:
First the story begin with the description of the Place, Brangwen Farm where most of the events have happened, the writer say that the farm has been isolated from the main village due to roads and rail ways that was build during the industrialization of the region. The focus began with the family of Brangwen in General, than the focus turns back to be on Tom Brangwen the noisy and lazy boy, after the death of the main family members, Tom leads an unsuitable life, according to the writer, he was looking for love; with someone who wants to share with him this feeling. Now the focus begin on Tom Brangwen and Lydia Lensky; the Polish refugee who came to the village with her daughter Anna. Tom Brangwen get married with Lydia and took Anna as his step daughter. After the long run, Anna grow older, and begin to explore her womanhood. Than the focus changed to Anna Brangwen and William Brangwen, both couple leads a happy life in the House near the Church, Anna gave birth to Ursula and Gudrun, through all the chapter after Ursula's birth, the Writer was coming back and passing by the narration times, to mention the death of Tom Brangwen the Father in the flood, and to mention the Death of Lydia Brangwen after several years from her husband's death. and after that, came the focus to Ursula Brangwen and her love affair with Anton Skrebensky, the writer in this moment combines between the love affair and the teaching experience that Ursula has been experimenting in Saint Philip elementary school, the end was somehow tragic, Ursula break up her relation with Anton, the latter get married to a colonel daughter and sailed to India to live a happy life. Ursula stayed in England suffering from her weak dependency of herself. Lawrence finish the story by saying that Ursula have seen a Rainbow which symbolize that life is still going on, even with the gloom that Industry has made inside her.

Positive and Negative Aspects:
Let get the positive aspects first, The Rainbow was an exploration of the physical and psychological aspects of all its characters, actually I wasn't fond of this style that D.H. Lawrence have tried, but I see it not my burden to criticize his methods in writing. Passing now to Negative aspects, I would say that D.H. Lawrence was so much heavy in depicting the natural sides of life inside England including Forests, Rivers and all that follows. Besides, his psychological depiction of the Characters' feelings was not successful. The fact is that I was annoyed to keep reading deep description of Characters. Lawrence was trying to implement the Technique of Psychological Depiction that was lead by Dostoevsky, but the result was that he didn't make the readers enjoying; rather he keep annoying them. And that's the reason I vote with just one Star over Five.

My Personal Reaction:
I guess that this is the first time I admit something I didn't like, Reading for two weeks continuously the life and the Death of the Brangwen family without stating something special, for me it was a waste of time, that person was criticizing the Industrialization of his country with the help of his Characters, and I was like a dog with a red nose discovering his thoughts. Generally I didn't enjoy reading this heavy serial of the Brangwen Family. as you see, I am planning to read the sequel of his work, and I hope to find that "Women in Love" is something more interesting than "the Rainbow".

Recommendations:
First of all you need to have a dictionary with you each time you read a chapter from this book, because you may encounter several new words that Mr. Lawrence used in his work, the fact is that he was trying to show up that he is able to explore Language from all its aspects.
Second, the Rainbow is full of sexual description of Characters, than I do not recommend to audience under the age of 18. Third note is that I recommend none native speakers of English to spot all the villages inside the Rainbow, because I am sure they will get confused.

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Review of Son of Hamas by Mosab Hassan Yousef

Son of Hamas by Mosab Hassan Yousef
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Disclosure:
I am not a fan of politics, but I hear some friends who told me about a Book that was amazing to read. I pick "Son of Hamas" in order to discover the Truth, but what I found was mostly mysterious. I have an eBook copy of that book in English, and a free copy in Arabic too.

My Plot:
The story began with Mosab riding his car after the IDF arrested him, after this process Mosab start recollecting in a sort of Flash-Back all the events that happens to him or to his family starting from his childhood, when his father Hassan Yousef was arrested by the Israeli Authority for political reasons, and how everybody ignore the family for no sin. Mosab said that he was charged to sell home made sweets in order to support the family, he really reveal an obscurity that dominate the Arab society especially Palestinians. Mosab feels a kind of relief when his father came back home again and how the society changed their treatments toward them. Mosab at this moment was patient to spend the hard moment without the help of the sick society that long suffer from the plague of Political corruption. Than the story goes when Mosab bought some unused riffle to start killing Israeli's as any motivated young did. After this incident, Mosab was caught by the Chin Bet, they offer him to work with them in order to stop the flow of blood, after the period of Custody and prison, he was reluctant to choose that offer, but finally he accept to be a double face agent, In fact he did his job with a nice efficiency, by stopping most of the terroristic attacks. Mosab leads a hard life by doing this job in a most extreme dangerous environment. He was taking all the risk to save the life of both Palestinians and Israeli's. He really fight for the humanity. But the end for me was sad enough. After the work with "the American Agency" and after "the Geek Squad" that Mosab build up with his friend, Our hero choose to live outside the country, and to live with a new religion, and a new ideology.

Positive and Negative Aspects:
First of all this book represent a nice ideology of a modern man, and how humanity should be in this 21 century, I really enjoyed the writing style of Mosab, and his nice story of converting to Christianity, and how he was ordered to love his enemies even if they treat him bad. Mosab in his book opens our eyes to the Truth, a truth that Arab mass media never revealed, that Hamas and the Palestinian Authority were using the Palestinian blood for their benefit, and that they are the main reason why Peace have never reach in the region of Middle East. I really owe more thanks for Mosab for being so daring to reveal these black secrets; of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. Reality was that we were blind with lies that make a gloom in ourselves, until Mosab came to enlighten the truth. Mosab was so frank to reveal in the end that he was in no need of money or authority. He choose Freedom which is a right for everyone, he choose to live his life far from the horrible ideas of Terrorism and hatred of other. Inside his book he told the reader several incidents that Arab Mass Media never told to its viewer. I really congratulate him for this nice sacrifice.

My Personal Reaction:
I was chocked personally to follow all the events that Mosab spoke off. Actually I wasn't fan of Politics but Mosab made me change my view, Even if I read the whole book in two days due the nice style, I was feeling sad to read that Hamas is torturing Palestinians inside "the Majdou Prison" in accordance with Hamas high raking personals. I was even annoyed to hear that simple and poor Palestinians are a nice target for both Hamas and Fath, and that their life and blood are only a way to gain personal profit from the Arab aids. I really thanks the writer for awakening us from the long nightmare we have been living in long time ago. And I would tell him that he did a noble job no matter the outcome is.

Recommendations:
I would recommend this book to any Arab who was living in the long nightmare of Politics, the book is so clean and out from immorality, and thus I hope that everyone who feel sorry for Palestinians to read it once or twice just to discover what going on inside it.

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