As our writers and readers both continue to send us book reviews to share on our Instagram, we thought of continuing sharing the book reviews with our readers here on the magazine, and spread the love of reading even further. Who knows, maybe you can find your next read through those recommendations.
Book title: Newt’s Emerald
Author: Garth Nix
Genre: Fiction, Romance, Adventure
This novel follows the adventure of Lady Truthful in searching for her family’s stolen precious heirloom, an emerald. She dresses up as a man to search for the emerald, a difficult endeavor for a young lady. She meets Major Harnett who helps her in the quest. The emerald gives magical powers to those who possess it. Therefore they must find it! Along the way, Lady Truthful’s life changes in so many ways. But in who’s possession and how can she get it back?
Review by Mariam Khalifa
Book title: Seven Brief Lessons On Physics
Author: Carlo Rovelli
Genre: Nonfiction / Science
In my case in regards to book choices, yes, I judge by its cover, which is precisely why a reader with a background in Arts would ever pick up something unrelated to my area of expertise. The attractive cover and a quote by Philip Pullman made the decision easy: It had to be picked up.
Rovelli is an Italian theoretical physicist, and these chapters of lessons are in fact articles he had published in Il Sole 24. In reference to a book review published on NYTimes in March of this year, it brings me utmost joy to say this: Seven Brief Lessons on Physics in Italy outsold Fifty Shades of Grey (there is hope for humanity after all!).
Rovelli simplifies some of the significant physics theories, allowing readers such as myself the chance to understand: Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, the Big Bang/Bounce, before wonderfully concluding it all with a chapter on how it is all relative to us as humankind.
This book has left me inspired with an insatiable interest and admiration towards the world of Physics. I would highly recommend it, because even if this book may not be relevant to your field or interest, you will be guaranteed a great surprise.
Review by Alia AlShamsi
Book title: Forty Rooms
Author: Olga Grushin
Genre: Fiction
A powerful, creative novel. The story carries a universal message for women from all walks of life. It’s about the many rooms a woman will inhibit from birth to death.
At the age of 17, the main protagonist penned her destiny: “What I do not want is a small life – a life of mundane concerns, of fulfilled expectations, of commonplaces and banalities, of children’s sore throats.”
Review by Asma AlHameli
Book title: Zorro
Author: Isabel Allende
Genre: Adventure, Historical Novel
This novel reminds you of how as children, we admire heroes who seek justice and avenge the weak. I read a short novel “Young Zorro” by the same author first, and I loved the adventures that Zorro went on as a child.
However, “Zorro” takes the story to another level, going as far as to explore how Zorro or Diego de la Vega’s (his real name) parents met, fell in love and got married. Allende’s choice of beginning the novel even before Diego’s birth developed my understanding of the environment and the people that surround him. Alejandro, his father, is a soldier and he wants his son to follow the footsteps of the brave De La Vega men and be even more successful than his ancestors, but Diego seems like a failure and is always disappearing.
You may already see Zorro as a hero, but this novel explores his journey to becoming that hero.
Review by Mariam Khalifa
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