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!

Azul Merieme Ayad

Hi friends;

Today I’m going to talk about me, it’s my blog so obviously I would be talking mostly about me, I suck at making introductions but anyway, did you ever wonder what my blog’s name means, by you I mean people who read my blog I know they aren’t many but did that ever came to your mind! Ok even if it didn’t today I’m going to reveal the mystery behind my blog’s name, ready?

It’s not really a mystery if you know a bit of tachlhit, which is an amazigh dialect, you would easily figure it out, AZUL means hi or bonjour, Merieme is my name and Ayad means this is, so basically my blog's name is "hi, this is merieme" genius right? I know it took me forever to chose it, well my brain couldn’t find any better plus it’s in tachlhit a dialect that I love and I know because I’m amazigh, though I grow up a in city where we speak mostly in darija (an Arabic dialect) my parents used to speak tachlhit at home and I’m thankful that they did so, if not I wouldn’t have learned it.
Now that I live in Agadir, a city where a lot of people speak in tachlihit and most of my friends do, knowing how to speak it made it easier for me to connect with people here, and I grow to really enjoy speaking in it. this language is a part of a such beautiful culture which the amazigh culture, I can’t say I speak fluently tachlih I’m way far from that level but I try my best to improve it.


There is another thing that I like about being Amazigh, which is the Amazigh jewelries, Amazigh jewelries are mostly in silver and they are so beautiful, we wear them mostly during weddings, but if it was possible I would wear them everyday and everywhere, I can’t tell you how much I love them. for me they are better than jewelries in gold or even with diamonds, and I don't exaggerate I don’t know why but it’s like they tell a story and they add another charm to the person wearing them.
In the first photo I’m wearing them for the first time in a wedding, and in the second one I was just at home trying them out. they are too different sets and each one represent a region in SOUSS.

I wrote this post because I wanted to share photos of me looking all glamorous with the amazigh jewelries, but also because if there is something I learnt about me loving my culture and getting to know it every day more with its  beautiful and not so beautiful sides, is that now I respect other cultures more and I try not to hurt even with a word others because they belong to a different culture than me, plus I know what is like to get hate just because you are different. If only we could respect each other and put the fact that we are humans above any other title living on this earth would be way easier.

Peace.

Recent reads #8

Hi friends,

It was a while now that I did write on my blog, and a two hole months that I wrote a recent reads post, even though I always read even when life gets busy I manage to read something, I wish I could write with the same constancy, I think it'll came with time, at least that's what I wish. back to the books I read, for some reason half of them are in Arabic, lately I just felt like I need to read more in this language, with no further do the books were:

       : السوق الداخلي و الشطار لمحمد شكري -

Both of those books are by the famous writer of "le pain nu", after reading it I felt curious to read other books by him, and they were different the style was the same, but they hold new things, things that I didn't know about Morocco, especially Tangier, one day I'll write a detailed post about Mohamed Choukri, I'm currently reading another book by him, he is just so interesting the characters and the places and the stories make me want to read more of him.

 : تاكسي لخالد الخميسي -

I first heard about this book from a youtuber, she suggested it for her book club, since I really like her, and the story of the book happens to take place in Egypt a country that I really treasure, I joined in and started reading it, and it turned out to be so good, it was a collection of dialogues the author did with some taxi drivers in Cairo, the conversations were really interesting, for someone who don't know much about Egypt or what have been happening in the area, he want understand much, but if you know you would really like the book, some parts are frustrating since it shows how hard it become to live at that country how the daily life became so hard in Egypt for taxi drivers and people with limited resources in general.

: اكره الحب لطه عدنان -

This book is maybe my first poetry book, I like so much poetry, I write some myself but I had never read a book what we call in Arabic “ديوان” and this certainly would not be the last one, I chose this book because I thought I knew the writer, I confused the journalist and writer Yassine Adnane with his brother Taha Adnane but it’s ok, both brothers are so talented, I really enjoyed the poems, some were really deep, you can tell that he is not into globalization and he have all the right to.

The next two books are both blogs that were so interesting that got published as books;

- Beyrouth Juillet-Août 2006 by Mazen Kerbaj: 

Mazen Kerbaj a lebanese musician who is also a talented drawer, through a blog were he uploaded some of his drawing during the war against Lebanon in 2006, managed to show us what is really like to be inside a country set on fire for a reason that no one can understand, the book made me think a lot especially that I don’t remember a thing about that war yet I was old enough to remember it, maybe too much conflicts every were, made me so used to wars, the drawings were so good way better than all those TV images that no longer move anyone. 

- Vie de meuf: Le sexisme ordinaire illustré by Osez le féminisme:

Reading this book really choked me how came in a country like France, women still suffer from sexism, a daily sexism that make realizing dreams a bit harder that it already is, but when I compare their state with ours us girls who live in north Africa, I know that we are far away from them, some of the things the girls on the book call sexism where I live we call it normal life. 

- Love story à l’iranienne by Jane Deuxard and Deloupy:

A documentary graphic novel that will take you in a journey to Iran, not a fun of a journey but you get to know that living or dreaming of freedom in that kind of a country is a bit harder than you thought before, this book really depressed me it was well executed but the facts on it made me feel really sad, and angry, not that were I live I have the freedom I want but I can’t compare it to the state in Iran.  

- Bel Ami by Guy de Maupassant:  

The last book I’m going to talk about is a really famous french classic that I wanted to read forever, Bel ami is one of those books that would make you hate its characters yet you can’t hate it, first I thought that since the book is called Bel ami (beautiful friend) I assumed the main character would have a nice personality but no, a beautiful face certainly opens doors but don’t guaranty that its holder would have morals, that’s what I learned from this book.

So those were all the books I remember I read lately, and I’m so excited this summer, I’m not working or studing so all I’m doing is reading which is heaven for me, I would be glad to know what you read and what are you currently reading.

Movie review #1: FALAFEL فلافل

Falafel the Lebanese  movie directed by Michel Kammoun  would be the first movie to review on my blog, I love watching movies, all kinds of them from all countries we just need to exclude the commercial ones, I really like criticizing them even though I’m not in a position to do so but I do it anyway, so I chose to start with a movie I picked from the library, I was seduced with the fact that  it was shot in Beirut one of those cities that held a certain mysterious charm, I hopped it would turn out good and I wasn’t disappointed even though I didn’t fully get what was happening. 

The movie follows a weekend evening of Toufic’s life, a young Lebanese man strolling around Beirut, so you can expect anything, especially that Toufic has a bunch of really good friends, the movie would take you on a journey full of emotions on Toufic’s motorbike.

The rest of this review would hold some spoilers so don’t blame me afterwards, even though you would still enjoy watching the movie even after reading it;

So Falafel is a 2006 lebanise film written and directed by Michel Kammoun, Michel Kammoun would take us to discaver Toufic’s word, we would meet his friends, his family and some random people that happened to be there. I really enjoyed this movie but also got confused at some parts of it, so let’s start with:

The things I did really enjoy: 

• The random people Toufic met during that evening:

From the barber who was lecturing about how it would be profitable for the Lebanese’s economy to get use of girl’s dancing skills, to the man who got him the gun and a bunch of other who happened to cross Toufic’s road, some of them were hilarious other not so much,they just made the movie really funny.

• Toufic’s really funny and caring  friends:

if there is there something we got to really know about Toufic, is that he has some really good friends, through the movie they turned from funny to caring to really loyal, they just stood there with toufic like he stood with them when they needed him, friendship was one of the theme of this movie that made it worth watching.

• Toufic’s motorbike:

Half of the movie took place on Toufic motorbike, strolling on beirouth's roads, the main character went through all the emotions riding it happy, sad, in love, confused, angry. I felt so sad about what happened to it by the end of the movie.

• The relationship between Toufic and his brother:

The movie didn’t let us know much about Toufic’s family, but it was a really clear that he held a special relationship with his mom and little brother, especially by the end of the movie, where the brother would calm down Toufic and made him change his revenge plans by doing nothing by just being there.

The things that I just couldn't get:

• Falafel:

To tell the truth, I didn’t get the relationship between the FALAFEL and the movie’s story, first of all I didn’t even know what FALAFEL was, well through the movie I got to know that it was a popular Lebanese street food and from the talk of the the men who offered some to Toufic that it has a special connotation, but I just can't figure out the relationship between it and what happened to Toufic through out the movie, at some part of the movie it even starts raining FALAFEL, which was really odd and made me a bit confused.

• Toufic’s anger:

One of the things I also couldn’t get was Toufic’s anger by the middle of the movie, well I understand that being in an unfair situation could make a young man angry but not to the extent of buying a gun and aiming to kill, that part of the movie wasn’t fun at all, it revealed a side of Toufic's personnalité that you wouldn't think was there, and how litlle we knew about him.

To sum up I really like this movie, maybe it won’t be the case for everyone, but I enjoyed it, the movie just delivers what it promises, an evening of a Lebanese student life, if I’ll have to rate it I’ll give it B. 

This is the movie trailer: