Monday, December 26, 2016

أفضل عشر روايات قرأتها في سنة 2016

تشارف هته السنة على النهاية لنرحب بسنة أخرى جديدة، لن أقول الجملة الشهيرة " كم مرت هته السنة بسرعة ؟" لأني ببساطة اكره هته الجملة التي لن يقولها إلا شخص لم يقم بشيء أتناء سنته وإذا كنت تحس بأن السنة مرت بسرعة اقرأ بعضا من يومياتك أو شاهد الفيديوهات على اليوتوب التي تعرض أهم  أحدات السنة إدا كنت لا تكتب يوميات ستلاحظ أن السنة مرت بسرعتها الاعتيادية فقد حدث الكثير و الكثير استثمارنا للوقت هو الذي يعطينا ذلك الإحساس  أن السنة قد مرت بسرعة على ما أظن، على أية حال مرت بسرعة أو ببطء الشىء الوحيد المتأكد منه الآن هي أنها شارفت على النهاية لكن قبل أن أودع سنتي أردت أن أشارك معكم أفضل عشر روايات قرأنها هته السنة.

قرأت هته السنة ستة و ثلاثين كتاب بين روايات و قصص مصورة، أنا جد فخورة بهذا الرقم فعل القراءة ليس بالشيء السهل بالنسبة لي مع وجود كل تلك المغريات الأخرى كم هو سهل أن ترمي الكتاب و تشاهد مسلسل كوري آخر أو أن تتصفح إلى مالا نهاية تمبر أو انستغرام أو فيسبوك أو ببساطة أن تتأمل سقف غرفتكمل ...مع دلك سأحال السنة المقبل أن أقرأ أكثر إلى ذلك الحين أقدم أفضل عشر روايات قرأتها في سنة 2016:

-      _ Les justes de Albert Camus:


_ Le jour du roi d’ablellah taia:


-      _  Une mélancolie arabe de abdellah taia:

       
 _ السوق الداخلي لمحمد شكري:


   : اكره الحب لطه عدنان


-       _ Bel ami de Guy de Maupassant:





-       _ La métamorphose de Kafka:


-      _ Kafka sur le rivage de Haruki Murakami:


  
_ تاكسي لخالد الخميسي:


-       _ What I talk about when I talk about running  by  Haruki Murakami:


-        
 هته القائمة ادن هي قائمة أفضل عشر كتب قرأتها و التي أنارت طريقي و رافقتني هته السنة، القائمة تنقصها القصص المصورة والتي سأخصص لها المقالة المقبلة إن شاء الله. أتمنى أن تكون السنة المقبلة مليئة بالكتب الجيدة و ان اتوفق في تحقيق ولو جزء من الاهداف التي سطرتها لها.









Thursday, December 22, 2016

My last reads for 2016

My last reads this year are two books that I was super excited to read: 


                    1.    What I talk about when talk about running by Haruki Marukami



      The book is a memoir by the author himself, an author that I love reading for so I wanted to know more about him, the book’s main subject is the interest and participation of the author in long distance running but also about how he became an author, so writing and running are what the book’s about, reading the book made me admire the author even more, and here are some quotes from the book that touched and inspired me.

“Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.”

“Emotional hurt is the price a person has to pay in order to be independent.”

“Running every day is a kind of lifeline for me, so I’m not going to lay off or quit just because I’m busy. If I used being busy as an excuse not to run, I’d never run again. I have only a few reasons to keep on running, and a truckload of them to quit. All I can do is keep those few reasons nicely polished.”
“On the body of the bike is written “18 Til I Die,” the name of a Bryan Adams hit. It’s a joke, of course. Being eighteen until you die means you die when you’re eighteen.”

“Even if my time gets worse, I’ll keep on putting in as much effort— perhaps even more effort—toward my goal of finishing a marathon. I don’t care what others say— that’s just my nature, the way I am. Like scorpions sting, cicadas cling to trees, salmon swim upstream to where they were born, and wild ducks mate for life.”

“I started to run—simply because I wanted to. I’ve always done whatever I felt like doing in life. People may try to stop me, and convince me I’m wrong, but I won’t change.”

“No matter how long you stand there examining yourself naked before a mirror, you’ll never see reflected what’s inside.”

“One by one, I’ll face the tasks before me and complete them as best I can. Focusing on each stride forward, but at the same time taking a long-range view, scanning the scenery as far ahead as I can. I am, after all, a long- distance runner.”

“I dedicate this book to all the runners I’ve encountered on the road—those I’ve passed, and those who’ve passed me. Without all of you, I never would have kept on running.”

The book is amazing anyone that loves Haruki Murakami’s books and want to know more about the author himself should read this book.

    2.    Nomidia by Tarik Bkari




A book that I heard a lot about, since it was selected to win the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, but what made me actually read the book was its story that centers around the amazigh culture, the book was a huge disappointment, I didn’t like it at all, the story so depressing and the characters so boring. I just wonder if the people who reviewed this book had actually read it, the book is the first work of the author and you can sense that, there was a lot of mistakes and repetition sorry Tarik Bkari but it’s just my opinion.









Sunday, December 18, 2016

"Le mauvais genre " a graphic novel review

Hi friends;

Today’s post is a review of a graphic novel I have read a month ago, a book that got me thinking a lot, and helped me clarify a notion that I had little information about; I wanted to share also the little research I did about the subject mainly because of a video that went viral awhile now and showed how ignorant a lot of people are about that notion just like I was, so let’s get started.


The graphic novel’s name is “mauvais genre” the bad gender by Chloé Cruchaudet, what made me pick this book was its cover, which presents a women dressing a man a bra it looked like the story would be interesting which was the case, the story is the true story of Paul a soldier who would no longer stand his job during world war two and goes back to his city Paris, in order to not get recognize by authorities he would starts dressing up as a women, Paul will became Susanne for 12 years, after the amnesty he would go back to his old life as Paul yet nothing is as it used to be. The story’s main theme is gender and it was a term that I have heard about before but I never really paid attention to it, I just considered it as a synonym of sex while it’s not, gender is way complicated than sex.

Sex is just a biological classification, if a body produces ovals it’s classified as female if it produces sperm it’s classified as a male, the bodies that produces both or none are considered as intersex. While gender which took me longer to understand what it was is the person’s self representation as male or female, or how that person is responded to by social institutions based on the individual’s gender presentation. This is the simplest definition I could find, yet it’s still complicated, this video helped me understand more.


Back now to the book, so Paul was male by sex, yet his gender after 12 year of living like society wants or waits from a female to act, was torn between two genders beside the fact that he discovered that he was bisexual which is a different thing his sexual orientation wasn’t what made him go crazy by the end of the book, it was his gender he couldn’t accept nor understand that he was now after 12 years of being a women a transgender; this book made me realize that our gender isn’t like our sex that we are born with but is chapped by our society and the experiences we go through in our lives. 

What made me write this article was because one, I wanted to share a review about a book that I found so interesting, and well written and drawn, but also because of a video that have been getting a lot of buzz lately on facebook made by Adam lhlou or adouma like he calls himself, the video is either him acting or him being himself in both cases nothing justifies all the hate he got, all he’s doing is acting in what our society calls talking and acting a feminine way, which means he is different and that is something not well received by most people in this country, it’s like we all should be like this mental model they have in their mind to get their respect, any one with different gender than the usual would have some really hard time on this country, I’m not saying that this adam is transgender he could be like he couldn’t be a trans, but in both cases he’s hurting no one and a little research on the web and you would find out that he is normal or she is normal there is a lot of people just like him or her all around the word, gender is really complicated and no one has the right to judge others just because he belongs to the people considered normal according to society.

The problem is that some people or at least the ones commenting those really hateful comments on Adam videos are afraid to do that small research that would get them a bit knowledgeable and more tolerant and prefer to stay ignorant in that comfortable zone of ignorance, a really sad fact to end my post with but it’s the truth. 
 
Peace.

Sunday, November 27, 2016

Just thinking out loud


أول محاولة لي لكتابة مقالة باللغة العربية عادة أفضل الكتابة باللغة الانجليزية لا لإتقاني لهده الأخيرة لكن لأنها رابع لغة تعلمتها، فمن العادي أو المتوقع أن اخطأ و أنا اكتب بها، بل اسمح  لنفسي باقتراف تلك الأخطاء لأنها ببساطة جزء من رحلة التعلم، لكن ما يكون عذر إقترافي لأخطاء أكتر و أنا اكتب باللغة التي تعلمتها لأتني عشرة سنة في المدرسة بل أقرا بها و اسمعها يوميا، لدلك ربما أتحاشى الكتابة باللغة العربية خجلا من أن اخطئ، لا ادري مادا تغير اليوم لكن رغبة ملحة تدفعني للكتابة بها كيف سأحسن مستواي إدا لم اكتب بها إنها الطريقة الوحيدة فلا مجال للتحدث باللغة العربية في حياتي
اليومية

المهم لندخل في صلب الموضوع فرغم أهمية اللغة إلا إنها فقط وسيلة من بين وسائل أخرى لإيصال أصوتنا و أفكارنا للآخر، أردت أن اتحدت عن النضوج و دخول عالم ما بعد التخرج، العالم الذي ولجته هده السنة، العالم الذي كانت لدي فكرة انه لن يكون بالسهل، وفعلا أعيش حاليا أتعس أيام حياتي كيف لا و أنا اشعر بإحساس تائه في الصحراء بدون بوصلة

ابتدأت القصة يوم حصلت على تلك الورقة المسماة بالباكالوريا، و بدون أي سبب وجيه اخترت توجها في كل يوم يمر كنت اوقن انه ليس التوجه المناسب  لي، مرت أربع سنوات لطالما قاومت خلالها دلك الإحساس لأتمكن من التخرج، وها أنا أحقق دلك وأتخرج حاملة نفس الإحساس الذي بدأت به الدراسة بدون أي هدف أو توجه

 البحت عن عمل في المجال الذي درست فيه أشبه بكابوس لا ادري ما الأسوء البحت في حد ذاته ام عندما تأتي فرصة وأجدني ابحث عن أي سبب أو مبرر لأتهرب منها كثرة الأوراق المطلوبة أو لن استطيع تحمل الضغط أو بعد المسافة عن المنزل بالطبع اندم بعد دلك لأني أضعت الفرصة التي لم تأتي بسهولة

غدا سأجري امتحانا كتابيا لاجتاز مباراة التوضيف لأصبح معلمة، كالعادة يجتاحني دلك الإحساس بالضياع، ما الدي افعله الضبط؟ لا ادري.  أنا معلمة لم يخطر ببالي أن أصبح واحدة من قبل لكن فرص الشغل قليلة لدا يجب أن أجرب و سأبدل قصار جهدي في المباراة، لم يكن هناك الوقت الكافي للاستعداد لكن لا باس دائما ما ادرس في الساعات الأخيرة على أية حال. المباراة متكون من ثلاث مواد اللغة العربية، الفرنسية و العلوم، اغلب ما أراجعه الآن درسته في الابتدائي أو الإعدادي، لكن ما أتذكره جد قليل كأن كل تلك السنوات من الدراسة كانت فقط مضيعة للوقت، لطالما كرهت النظام التعليمي أن أكون الآن استعد لاجتياز مباراة لأصبح حلقة فيه يدعو فعلا للسخرية، فرصة اخرى يبدو أني سأضيعها بكثرة التفكير

 سأعود للمراجعة الآن، كان لابد لي من كتابة هته الكلمات، و فعلا أحس بارتياح اكبر بعد كتابتها، على الأقل املك هته الوسيلة لأنفس بها عن ما بداخلي، و تعرفون ما شيء الآخر الذي يرحني نفسيا هي هته  الصور لأناس يتأملون لوحات في متاحف على تمبلر كم أتمنى أن أكون مكانهم








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Tuesday, November 22, 2016

recent reads #9




Those are not so recent reads but I didn’t know what to name the post, the books I read during August September and October would be more correct but that’s too long don’t you think that too? ANYWAY even though I wasn’t writing a lot lately I have been reading and a lot and those are the books I had the honor to read in the last three months:

_ Four graphic novels: 



MAUS by Art Spiegelman: the story is about the holocaust, the author is actually the son of a man who survived the genocide, so the book tells the surviving story of the dad, the thing that I liked about this book is that it goes back and forth between the past and the present showing that even though that man survived he didn’t really survive he carried with him scars from that war that neither time nor doctors would ever heal,  a five star book all the way.

L’espion de Staline by Isabel Kreitz: another true story about a double agent who was working as a journalist for Germany and spying on it for Russia, the story seemed interesting and took place in Japan during world war two this book had all the potential to be a great read yet the drawing was so bad I couldn’t figure out who was who, while reading I kept looking at the last pages of the book were there was the pics and the names of the characters, and that was so tiring, I gave the book two stars because of the poor drawing.

The stranger by Albert Camus a graphic novel adaption done by Jacque Ferrandez: the story is really famous but I didn’t read it before and I think I should have read the actual book then read its graphic novel adaptation but it’s ok I’m definitely going to read it one day, I think the graphic novel was great the drawing was good, the story is just strong and the idea behind is so deep but still I should read the book to give a solid opinion about it.

Pyongyang by Guy Delisle: the book is a carnet de voyage of the author in his business trip to North Korea, it’s a really interesting read for someone who knows nothing about how it is like to travel to that country either for tourism or work, the book is nothing more than that, I wished that it would held more. since I already watched documentaries about north Korea there was nothing new for me in this book but still the book was good. reading about north Korea makes living in a third world country in Africa look not that bad after all.

_ Classic short stories by Kafka and Chekhov:


If you ever read for those two authors you are really missing a lot they are just geniuses, reading for them isn’t easy the plot can be so slow but once you finish the story it’s going to stay with you for the rest of your life and I’m not exaggerating.

_ More of Mohamed Choukri and discovering Abdellah Taia:


I read my forth book written by Mohamed Chokri, Wojouh or faces which the third book of the author’s autobiography; but it’s really different from the two books before it you can’t tell if it follows a chronology it’s more about people Mohamed Chokri met through his life, I don’t know if I like this book as much as the first ones but certainly it’s an interesting read the last part of the book was SO good.

I also read 3 books by Abdellah Taia, and they were all amazing, this author has a really simple smooth style; I wasn’t exepecting to like his work this much I wished they weren’t that short, I read l’armée du salut, le jour du roi and une melancolie arabe and I’m willing to read every single book written by this author, if I have to choose a favorite among the book I read I’d choose le jour du roi it was amazing I don’t know if it’s right to compare  authors but reading that book made me think of haruki murakami’s style and I don’t mind that since I love so much haruki marakami.

_ Other books that I couldn't put in a category:


Finished reading the Millennium series and I have to say I don't consider this book from as part of the series for it's just fanfiction the series has only three books and that's only my personnal opinion yet this book wasn't that bad.


My first book by Albert Camus it’s a play based on the true story of a group of Russian Socialist Revolutionaries who assassinated the Duke in 1905. A five stars book it was so deep yet written in really simple style. 


I don't know what to say about this book, maybe not as good as everyone on the net say it is maybe it's just not my style. I gave it two stars and I hardly finish it.

what a long article I wrote, I know filled with mistakes but I felt like I should write it now I feel relieved I can move with my life hhh.

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

At my grandma's

After a week at my dad’s village it was my mom’s turn to visit her village, my grandma still lives there, one of the few people who still lives there, it’s much more deserted than my dad’s village once their you would think you traveled back in time.

My aunties agreed to meet at my grandma’s for two days, and if you ask me this is the worst thing that happened to me so far in this trip, when those four women gather up nothing good will came up from it, but I had a plan just stay away from them, the less I hear about what they are talking about the better it is. 

My grandma’s house is really old, she has electricity but again no water which can make living so uncomfortable yet she insist on living there it’s her home she says, she can’t support living anywhere else, unlike her most of the families in the village decided to leave either to the cities or to other villages seeking better living conditions for them and for their children and no one can really blame them for that.

Once there, we settled down, kissed my grandma who looks smaller every time we visit her and my aunties and mom started their, how should I call it, started their rituals, I went to another room lied on the floor and started thinking about what should I do in this long endless day, just looking at the ceiling made me think of all the fun things we used do in this house, when we were children and then negative thinking started about how when we grow up all the fun already ended, I heard a lot of people say that, but no I’ll never be one of those nostalgic people, I refuse to be one of those losers, the fun just started.
I took my camera and started taking photos of anything and everything one day all this would be lost like all the memories from the past, better document it, I started with the ceiling which is already a masterpiece did you ever sow ceilings like those:




I sneaked outside, and strolling in the empty streets it caught my eyes how beautiful the old doors of some abandoned houses were, I know that a lot of those houses are not abandoned but it seemed so cool to say so, sorry about that, anyway those are some of them:








While rereading what I wrote it seems like I complained too much about my aunties, they are not that bad, it’s just that we are different, like if we belong to two different worlds, we only have one small thing in common,  our love to amazigh jewelries.
I asked once my aunty zayna to make for me Tajbadt which is an amazigh necklace made out of 39i9 and jouher ( I don’t know how to translate those to English), it’s usually worn during celebrations with the whole set of silver amazigh jewelries and according to mom only old women wear it daily, I was so happy that my aunt zayna didn't forget about it and finally made one for me, I’ll wear it daily I have an old soul so I don’t care that only old women wear it daily.



 Thanks aunt zayna, you are the best.

Monday, August 22, 2016

Anywhere but here



You know that movie starting Natalie Portman and Susan Sarandom, about that teen girl who would do anything to just run away from her mom but for some mysterious reason she can’t, this is how I felt when my parents decided that we are going to spend two week at dad’s village, I wanted to just say no I won’t go, but I couldn’t it’s not like I hate going to that place it’s just that they have been controlling my every move since summer started, my plans what I think about isn’t that important they have bigger plans and they assume I should accept them and follow their steps, I kept calm all those days and I added another two weeks of shutting my mouth, I didn’t want to ruin their mood yet since soon things will change and I need energy for that.

So this is how I ended up coming where, against my will, and since I’m here better enjoy it. my parents village is located in the south of morocco between Tiznit and Sidi Ifni, we have our own house here, it has electricity but water we need to bring it from the outside, no television and I’m ok with it I’m not a fan of it anyway, instead we have a radio that only catches Spanish stations and the local amazigh station, good for me more time to read and write, outside we have a garden that looks nothing like a garden, dad takes care of it once a year so what should I expect. during the night it gets really dark it took me awhile to get used to it and I grow to really love it, if you look at the sky you would be amazed by how bright the stars shine. I have cousins who live nearby but we don’t have much in common to talk about, I bet they find me the most boring girl ever and it’s ok since the feelings are mutual, I spend my day between reading, helping in the house, going to the beach if dad feels like taking us there and taking photos.


This is where I spend most of my day




This Argan tree has a million year I guess even grandpa played under it.



It’s really beautiful in here, so calm and peaceful, but when you are young with all those ideas and plans in your mind and no one seems to care about them and keep blocking you, life can get a bit hard. Dad, mom  I love you so much and I’m so grateful about all the things you did and keep doing for me but it’s only those two weeks and I’m going to take control of my life and end this play so please enjoy your time like I do.


Tuesday, August 2, 2016

My Spanish progress + my current favorite spanish songs #6 :


Hi friends ; 

Learning a new language can get really hard, at some point you lose motivation to continue, and even if you force to continu you don’t feel any progress, and I kind of feel like that with me learning Spanish lately, it’s like a hit a wall but I’m trying be positive again and chase all the negativity, I have a lot of free time those days, so I’m going to consecrate some of it even if only an hour in my day to Spanish.

Currently I'm reading this book named "La Ciudad de las Bestias" by ISABEL ALLENDE, it's a YA novel which made me think I can handle reading it, but no it's a bit hard for me to understand what’s happening, I use the dictionary and it helps a lot, I’m also planning to do on this blog some Spanish tags even film videos of them, I already did one before and it was so much fun, it's just me answering some questions and they can be book related my favorite subject, I'm excited about the tags, and to make this plan work and more fun I’m now exclusively listening  to music in Spanish let’s cross fingers that I would stick to this plan and improve even a bit my level.

Talking about music, I love summer because during this period a lot of hits are in Spanish, and it’s not always easy for me to find music in Spanish that suits my taste, so those are five of my favorite songs that I really enjoy listening to lately:

#1 Carlos Vives, Shakira - La Bicicleta:


Lleva, llévame en tu bicicleta
Óyeme, Carlos, llévame en tu bicicleta
Quiero que recorramos juntos esa zona
Desde Santa Marta hasta La Arenosa

#2 Chino y Nacho - Andas En Mi Cabeza ft. Daddy Yankee: 


Andas en mi cabeza nena a todas horas
(No sé cómo explicarte)
El mundo me da vueltas, tú me descontrolas
(No paro de pensarte)
Por tí me la paso imaginando que
(Imaginando que)
Contigo me casé
(Oh Yeah)
Y por siempre te amé
(Love you girl, girl, girl)

#3 Romeo Santos - Yo También ft. Marc Anthony:


Quien eres tú
Para sentirte superior dueño de ella
A ti te quiso a mí me amo algo de veras
Como Colón yo navegue toda su piel

#4 Enrique Iglesias - DUELE EL CORAZON ft. Wisin:


Con él te duele el corazón
Y conmigo te duelen los pies
Con él te duele el corazón
Y conmigo te duelen los pies

And I saved the best for the last my Prince

#5 Prince Royce - La carretera:


¿Dónde estarás? ¿Dónde estarás?
¿Todavía piensas en mí?
¿Dónde estarás? ¿Dónde estarás?
Yo sigo pensando en ti

Thursday, July 28, 2016

My summer reading list



Hi friends; 


How’s your summer so far? mine not so bad, just resting and trying not to think about the after summer, living every day to the fullest and I can say I’m good at doing that, I made a huge list of books I wanted to read since ever and I challenged myself to read it during summer and so far I’m doing well.

My list consists of four novels, two graphic novels and two magazines, let’s start with the novels:


Three are classics: 

- Oeuvres I Théâtre complet, Récits 1882-1886 by Anton Tchékhov : This book is scary, it contains a lot of Tchékhov’s work and it’s the first time for me to read any Russian literature so I don’t know what to expect but I have a feeling it would be great.
- La Métamorphose et autres récits by KAFKA: I already read la metamorphose and it was more than amazing, this author held a special place in my heart since I read KAFKA on shore by HARUKI MURAKAMI.
- Les justes by Albert Camus: I have never heard about this author before, but a youtuber that I really like mentioned one of his works “ the stranger” as one of her favorite books, and since I couldn’t find that specific book at the library I borrowed another one by the same author instead, I wish I won't get disappointed.


The last novel I chose to be a contemporary book;
- L’armée du salut by Abdellah Taia: Abdellah taia is a Moroccan author, I got to know him through a interview he did on TV5 monde, he is famous because of his works but also because he is one of the few openly gays Moroccans, I liked the way he was talking on TV and got really curious to know what he writes about.


The two graphic novels are:
- L’espion de Staline by Isabel Kreitz: I know nothing about this book beside that it’s translated from German and that the story has something to do with Stalin which is already enough for me to plan on reading it.
- MAUS by Art Spiegelman: again no information about this graphic novel, from the back cover I concluded that I would like it because graphic novels and world war two happen to match well from my experience till now.


And finally the two magazines are Le Magazine Littéraire and DIPTYK both some 2014’s editions, I usually don’t read magazines, the last one I read would be WITCH a teen magazine that I used to LOVE when I was in middle school, I’m adding those magazines to the mix because why not and also I just got to know that we are allowed to borrow them from my library.

So those are my summer reads or my library haul since all of the books are from the library, I already started some of them and I’m going to try to stick and finish reading them all by the end of this summer, wish me good luck!