Last Train to Istanbul
By: Ayse Kulin

Paige’s Rating: (3) of 5
Recommended for: History Readers

When Selva falls in love with Rafael, a young Jewish man, their families are against their marriage and disown them. Together they go to live in France, but happiness eludes them there too. With the advent of the Second World War they get caught up in Hitler’s web of terror. At the same time Turkey is desperately trying to avoid being drawn in to the war, walking the tightrope between the Axis and the Allies very carefully. 

This book came highly recommended to me, and I had to admit that the history of WWII and Turkey’s neutrality seemed interesting, along with the drama of Nazi Germany. I was excited to read the book for the plot.

To be honest, the plot was good in theory. While the plot moves between Turkey, Egypt, France and Germany, the primary plot is between Paris and Istanbul and between the two sisters: Selva who has been disowned for marrying a Jewish man that she loves and now lives in France, and Sabiha who has married a Turkish diplomat and the marriage has chilled. Sabiha struggles with relationships between her husband, her daughter, and even her doctor who believes she is depressed. She is concerned greatly about her younger sister who is in France. Meanwhile, Selva is more of a fighter, struggling to not only save her family from the Nazi’s but other Jews as well. Sabiha’s story allows for the reader to see the diplomatic difficulties Turkey faced at the time of being a new and neutral republic. Selva’s story paints a more terrifying story of the Nazis invading France and beginning the round up of Jews, regardless of the nationality they held. The involvement of Turkey is fresh and interesting, something not often mentioned in the history books.

However, I found the writing completely fragmented and the ideas choppy. I know that the original story was written in Turkish, and so I can’t say if the fault lies with the author or the translator. Some of the scenes in the book seem a bit dry or cold. Other scenes seem a bit hurried, while yet others seem a bit drawn out. It was quite the mix of voice and it didn’t translate well at all.

On top of that, the editing job was disastrous. I couldn’t believe that the editor missed so many simple mistakes. On more than one occasion, the translator wrote “of” when it should have been “off.” These basic mistakes were like nails on a chalk board while reading and I felt that the thanks Kulin gave the editors at the end of the book was really undue.

So overall, I had to give the book a three. The plot had a lot of potential and was definitely interesting and creative. However, the voice given to the plot through the translation lacked a lot of continuity and emotion. Therefore, it was a bit difficult to read.

The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible
By: A.J. Jacobs

Paige’s Rating: (4) of 5
Recommended for: Humor and Spirituality

What would it require for a person to live all the commandments of the Bible for an entire year? That is the question that animates this hilarious, quixotic, thought-provoking memoir from Jacobs. He didn’t just keep the Bible’s better-known moral laws, but also the obscure and unfathomable ones: not mixing wool with linen in his clothing; calling the days of the week by their ordinal numbers to avoid voicing the names of pagan gods; trying his hand at a 10-string harp; growing a ZZ Top beard; eating crickets; and paying the babysitter in cash at the end of each work day.

I was exhausted. I had decided to not sleep the night before leaving North Dakota to head back to Istanbul and it was somewhere near 22 hours of being awake that I headed to one of the many bookstores in JFK to keep myself awake. And of course, marvel the luxury of so many English language books. After spending ten minutes browsing the books, reading back covers, and looking for nothing in particular, the store clerk approached me and asked if he could help me or recommend something to me. He handed me this book, and I dove right in.

This book is really entertaining. Jacobs does a great job at explaining the laws, commandments and suggestions in the Bible (some I have never even heard of) and the groups of Christianity or Judaism who still follow them. He then gets the groups’ interpretation of the law and justifications for following some of the more bizarre laws i.e.: not wearing mixed fabric clothing or sitting where a menstruating woman has. Jacobs follows these rules himself, and in turn, explains how he felt and what, if anything, he got from following the law. In addition, he comes across life situations that remind him of Biblical laws, and tries to apply ancient rules to today’s society. The result is generally hysterical and historical.

The book is sometimes very humorous and at other times serious and thought-provoking. I found that in this way, the book was very balanced and never too light-hearted or too serious.

The author never comes across as holy or someone who is bent on trying to convince others that God exists and we must follow His word to a tee. Rather, Jacobs is agnostic and is trying to sort through the rules in order to better understand religion and how it connects and benefits some people. As a man in search of understanding and knowledge, he never becomes preachy and that in and of itself is like a breath of fresh air.

I really recommend this book to anyone who is spiritual. The book itself is funny, and yet very enlightening. I learned some things that I had never known before and it was nice to look at the Bible objectively and see how vast and different religion is in America.

I was about to begin by writing, “we’ve all had writers block at one time or another,” and then I thought better. Besides being bad writing, reason enough to start over, that sentence presupposes that writer’s block is not supremely personal, a solitary experience that can’t be made relevant to any other’s malady. Anxiety attacks are likely a first cousin if not a sibling to that invisible barrier between the act of writing and the writer’s own psyche, and successfully grappling with one disorder can offer parallels in overcoming another.

That awful feeling of intense, yet vague dread, frequently with physical symptoms, quickly becomes self-perpetuating for either writer’s block or anxiety. When your work or studies depend upon your ability to produce written text, such as newspaper reporters or students attending an online university, this potentially debilitating disorder can spell disaster

As a college student in my mid-twenties, I began experiencing frequent, acute anxiety attacks. I was relatively happy, pursuing a bachelor’s degree and working in a job I enjoyed and had no more troubles than most, and in fact, relatively speaking, I had fewer problems than many. Again, none of that mattered to my unwelcomed guest.

Natures of the beasts

While anxiety and writer’s block have many similarities, knowing the features of these conditions that don’t overlap is instructive when considering ways to rise above either. Anxiety attacks stem from free-floating, often irrational fears that commonly defy attempts to articulate by a person experiencing symptoms. Writer’s block, on the other hand, is believed to stem from the ill effects of some inner critic developed from external sources from the person’s formative experiences. What is important to note, though, is the shared difficulty in both instances for the sufferer – and that’s truly an accurate term for anyone who has experienced either or both – of not being able to identify any one source of the problem. The good news is that overcoming either writer’s block or anxiety attacks don’t necessarily rely on knowing that source.

Turn and face the problem

For over a year, I would suddenly feel the onset of an attack. With no discernible trigger, I could feel the tingling announcing hyperventilation. At times, limbs would become weighty to the point I questioned their ability to function. Not surprisingly, I found that my schoolwork was becoming increasingly difficult to accomplish my written work. Quite by accident, though, I stumbled upon my own relief for both issues.

One morning, that familiar dread began again. In the past, my own fears fueled each attack, and presumably, every subsequent one. This time, however, my writer’s curiosity began to concentrate on each symptom. Over time, focusing on my anxiety with interest rather than distress had an unexpected, yet noticeable effect. By embracing the symptoms, my attacks became less frequent, less intense and then finally extinguished. I applied a similar bend to my writing block—again spurred on by that wonder of intrigue I suspect is fairly common among all writers.

I’ve since found articles that echo my own actions, but I’ll claim my own actions as independent at the time. Virtually unable to write my school papers at the time, I began simply journaling my own writer’s block. From free association to a stream of consciousness—I wrote, and I wrote. I wrote so much about my own writer’s block that I soon began to stray in my focus–to my coursework. Call it a trick, but the more I wrote about my writer’s block, the less frequently it occurred. While it became a standard pre-writing exercise to journal my block, after a few weeks my practice evolved into merely recalling the last time I experienced writer’s block, after which I wrote my assignments without fail.

Exorcising your doubts

Just as fear-based disorders are very personal, they all share the unwelcomed pairing of you and your symptoms. Trying to ignore or distance yourself from writer’s block tends to only stoke the problem. Using your skills as a writer, your innate wonder that makes you believe you have something worth saying in words, and your willingness to face your problem makes for a pretty potent remedy. Journaling about your writing blog may not work for everyone, but it’s a proactive means of taking charge of your issue.

The Forty Rules of Love
By: Elif Shafak

Paige’s Rating: (5) of 5
Recommended for: Love and Spirituality

Turkish author Elif Shafak unfolds two tantalizing parallel narratives- one contemporary and the other set in the thirteenth century, when Rumi encountered his spiritual mentor, the whirling dervish known as Shams of Tabriz-that together incarnate the poet’s timeless message of love.
         
FABULOUS WONDERFUL SUPERB! I haven’t been this excited about a book in a long time, so let me share with you why this one has me momentarily typing in caps and adding random exclamation points!

First, the author weaves two stories together: one of a modern day housewife, getting back into the routine of work and finding that routine is the only thing that has kept her safe and… lonely. Then, the backdrop of that story is about Shams of Tabriz, a mystic who changes the world of a spiritual leader named Rumi. The story Shafak tells of Rumi and Shams is delightful and beautiful, creating a plot based on history, spirituality and love. It was absolutely fantastic, and done from the point-of-view of the different characters involved, each one telling his or her perspective in a diary-esque way. The story of the housewife and her secret lover is less interesting, in my opinion, and done in a third-person point-of-view.

The characters are well developed, although the two characters I enjoyed reading about the most were Rumi and Shams. Both characters are dynamic and appear to be complete opposites. Yet, each are on the same path and each desperately love and respect each other in a way that never comes off as sexual, but rather spiritual: and that was the point. The character of Shams dispenses forty different rules about love, each one deep in a way that causes the reader to stop and meditate.  For example,  ”Do not fret about what your place in the universe should, could or might be. You contribute to the music of the universe by your very being. Your destiny is the level where you will play your tune. How well you play is entirely in your hands.”

Some people who have also written reviews about this book (yes, I checked), stated that the writing wasn’t very strong. I agree that the story between the housewife and her secret lover was rather dull and lacking that strong passion I have been looking for in books. The author is Turkish but I believe the book was written in English and so that could also explain a lack of desire between the two characters. However; the sub story is written beautifully and so I can’t discount that.

If you are looking for a light read, than I wouldn’t recommend this book. Rather, I would tell you that this is a book for those looking to look at themselves deeper, spiritually, and those who want to be reminded of just how lovely… well… love can be.

Seven Houses
By: Alev Lytle Croutier

Paige’s Rating: (4) of 5
Recommended for: Historic Fiction- Family Love

Seven Houses chronicles the lives of four generations of remarkable women, sweeping readers from the last days of the Ottoman monarchy to Turkey’s transformation into a republic and the present-day backlash.

After reading and rather enjoying Elif Shafak’s The Bastard of Istanbul, I thought I would try another Turkish author, Alev Croutier. Comparing both women as author’s I would have to say that Elif’s writing is more captivating but nevertheless, Alev puts up a good fight.

This book documents the lives of four generations of women through the last four ever-changing generations of Turkish history. The story is told by the point-of-view of the houses in which these women lived in and the behind-the-scenes events that unfolded within the walls. I think this works beautifully as this allows the women’s family history to be woven together. The setting is also rather perfect: the beginning of WWI and therefore, the end of the Ottoman Empire. As the women grow and one generation replaces another, the setting transitions to different cities in Turkey while still accurately detailing the history of the time.

The characters are also beautifully done as the women draw their personality and characteristics from the changing society around them. While all women are related to each other, the reader sees just how different these women are from each other due to very different situations which were presented to them in their lives. I think Alev does a fine job of making multi-dimensional characters.

The elements of omniscient narrators, dramatic history and strong, dynamic characters make Seven Houses a strong book and good read. However, I had to give it only 4 stars because some stories seemed unfinished or at least underdeveloped. There were a few instances where I had wished that the houses had said more of their inhabitants. On the other hand, there were also some stories that appeared to drag out more than necessary. Reading them, I wondered how the information was relevant to the rest of the story and in the end; I found out that some of it simply was not. Finally, some of the stories appeared more depressing than needed, but I guess that is also how life generally rolls.

Overall, this was a good book to read for the summer. It sort of reminded me of The Joy Luck Club, only a Turkish version. So if you like strong women characters and history, you can’t be disappointed.

E-books still have a hard fight ahead of them before they overtake print books, but it’s a fight they might eventually win. With Internet retailer Amazon selling more e-books than print this year, there’s a clear sign that the demand for e-books is on the rise. But for college textbooks, the fight to switch to digital is a little more complicated. The textbook industry put up major numbers with their arguably inflated prices, and a change to the paradigm could revolutionize the business, for better or worse.

Still, there’s no way to ignore the benefits of e-books in college classrooms. From possible price drops to easy access and mobility, the time will come when colleges and universities must accept—and adapt to—the electronic books in the classroom. And as the Internet makes online school and distance learning  viable alternatives to attending a traditional “brick-and-mortar” program, e-books fit perfectly into the lives of college students on the go.

The almighty dollar

Every college student has experienced that sinking feeling after receiving a class textbook list: students spend hundreds, even thousands of dollars each semester for books they’ll use for just a few months. And the sell-back prices are often just a fraction of the new or used prices charged by bookstores. Electronic textbooks could be produced for much less than their print versions—but a quick click through Amazon’s relatively small Kindle selection of textbooks reveals that prices haven’t been affected all that much. Publishers have every incentive to keep prices high, and unless instructors, school administrators and students find a way to put pressure on textbook makers, the chances of cheap e-textbooks being reality are still slim.

The new classroom?

Despite prices still being high, e-textbooks have the potential to reshape the way teachers and students interact with their texts. The versatility of a text that can be shared on computers, e-readers and tablets could allow a level of interaction that’s impossible with traditional texts.

Still, the adoption of e-texts requires that every student have a device on which to read those texts, which could put already struggling schools and students at a financial disadvantage. Further, with the frequency that new editions of texts are published, keeping a current copy of a text could cost even more money—which would benefit only the publishers.

A textbook revolution might be in the future for higher education, but there’s a host of variables that need to change before e-books become the standard on college campuses. As the world moves away from print, education will have to adjust to a new kind of text. It’s a transition that appears to be inevitable, but academia must make that transition smooth for both teachers and students.

Contributed by: Joseph Baker

Borders filed Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in February, and they recently announced that they are closing down their remaining 399 store locations. With the death of Borders book stores, many book lovers are wondering about the future of the medium. When Borders closes their stores, what will move in to fill that vacuum—other big box book stores like Barnes and Noble? Small independently-owned book stores? Nothing? Does Borders’ death represent a move away from book reading in general, or just a move away from stores like Borders?

The face of book sales in the US has been changing. Of course, with the economic troubles, book sales, like all luxury products, have been low in general. But how people are buying books has also changed significantly. For one thing, ereader sales have been increasing—an estimated 6.7 million ereaders were sold last year. Yet the ebook market is still just a fraction of the market for paper books. The more-profound change is how people have been buying paper books. Increasingly consumers are getting their books online rather than in brick-and-mortar stores.

Meanwhile Amazon has been doing fantastically well, watching their net sales grow by 51% since last year, despite the lagging economy. This is indicative of a general shift away from big box retail and towards online retail. Borders’ closing is not an isolated incident. Best Buy is also in dire straits, losing much of their business to Amazon as well. All across the board it seems that online retail is replacing the large brick-and-mortar stores.

While Barnes and Noble has not succumbed to this trend yet, if they do not reduce store sizes and increase their web presence, it seems like only a matter of time before they may have to.

Though death seems immanent for the largest book stores, there is no indication that the smaller book stores are on their way out yet. Small independent stores seem to be doing just fine. Though the profit margins for such businesses are small, savvy bookstore owners are keeping afloat.

What all this means is that people still want books (mostly physical), and people still want places to hang out. Borders’ closure doesn’t indicate that people have stopped buying books entirely; it just reflects a shift in the way people are getting their books.

Book stores need to compete with online retailers, which means having their own good online stores and/or having locations that are small and cherished enough that they can afford to keep the lights on. One way businesses are doing the former is using order fulfillment to help manage their online stores, while a way that business are doing the latter is by using social media to reach out to the community and put themselves on the map as a cultural haven.

With the coming changes in the way book stores do business, authors and publishers should take note as to how this will shift sales in the literary world. As online sales increase, sales of books that people usually look for directly via a search will likely increase, while sales of books that people usually pick up incidentally at a book store will likely decrease.

Accordingly, authors need to focus on writing books that people will seek out rather than expecting books to be able to promote themselves off of a shelf. Expect to see more in-depth specialty books pick up sales, while the lowest-common denominator, impulse buy books drop in sales. As consumers take an increasingly active role in their acquisition of media, producers of media should stop trying to reach such broad audiences and instead compete more ferociously for the attention of people in smaller sub-markets.

Atlas Shrugged
By: Ayn Rand

Paige’s Rating: (1) of 5 Stars
Recommended for: Masochists

Atlas Shrugged is the astounding story of a man who said that he would stop the motor of the world–and did. Tremendous in scope, breathtaking in its suspense, Atlas Shrugged stretches the boundaries further than any book you have ever read. It is a mystery, not about the murder of a man’s body, but about the murder–and rebirth–of man’s spirit.

This book reminds me of my last marriage:

1) The main characters are flat and linear in their thinking.
As much as Ayn Rand seems to be the champion voice for individualism, her characters over the span of 1000+ pages never seem to grow outside of their very cookie-cutter existence. The heroes are so flawless and the villains so inherently stupid, that I found them bland and waited for them to take on more complex human qualities. Yet, I found that they only remained motivated to continue on a one-track train-of-thought. How appropriate. And speaking of flat characters…

2) Even the sex is cold and completely devoid of passion.
When two of the characters have sex, one would think the book would become interesting. Yet the sex scenes were about as sensual as watching slugs mate on the Discovery Channel.

So this brings me to the plot, which one would assume must have many highs and lows in order to keep a reader’s attention during the 1000+ page journey. Yet, the entire plot is like a vicious cycle…

3) It’s repetitive as in: didn’t we have this argument before?
The main dialogues throughout the book continually regurgitate the same ideas and often use the same phrases and words but in a different scenarios. The heroes being flawless are always articulate in a common but clever Matlock way, and the villains are always about as bright as the brown crayon. I found myself seriously flipping through some dialogues that existed merely because Ayn Rand must hate trees as much as communism and socialism.

Within the plot, I also felt like Ayn Rand used her flat and flawless characters to spew her message. There isn’t much tact here and so…
4) I felt as if I was getting preached to by someone who didn’t necessarily have the credentials to preach. Ugh. Bitch please, you can probably see me giving the book “the hand” or in the case of my ex, “the finger.”

So overall…
5) Nothing is gained by “sticking it out.” You can’t really brag about finishing this book, because much smarter people (unlike me) quit dealing with this crap around page 450. You can try to justify your commitment, you can try to remember why you wanted to make such a commitment to an awful book in the first place, but at the end of the day, there must be a time when it finishes. And thank God I finally had the energy to finish it! And while I agree with the theme, Ms. Rand would have been a lot more effective in her sermon had she cut back about 500 pages.

The Bastard of Istanbul
By: Elif Shafak

Paige’s Rating: (4) of 5 Stars
Recommended for: Fiction/ Culture Readers

When The Bastard of Istanbul was published in Turkey, Elif Shafak was accused by nationalist lawyers of insulting Turkish identity. The charges were later dropped, and now readers in America can discover for themselves this bold and powerful tale. Populated with vibrant characters, The Bastard of Istanbul is the story of two families, one Turkish and one Armenian American, and their struggle to forge their unique identities against the backdrop of Turkey’s violent history.

Within the first pages of this book, I was captured at the amazing accuracy that the author had of depicting life in Istanbul. Of course, the author is Turkish and lives in Istanbul, but I couldn’t believe that she had the same viewpoints and the same thoughts about life here as I did, a foreign American. Nationalities aside, she confirmed everything I have always thought about Turkey, but never dared mention. Obviously her truth hurt enough for her to get into some trouble after publishing the book, because in Turkey, freedom of speech is limited and anyone who paints Turkey in a less-than-lovely light can find themselves in trouble.

The characters are interesting and well developed. In the Turkish family, the characters seem so dynamically different from each other. In this way, the author really emphasizes the dramatic differences of all Istanbulites, related only in the sense of the place they live. The young Turkish daughter was interesting in the sense that like other outwardly “bad-ass” Turkish girls, you realize that its just an image. I have yet to met an actual Turkish bad-ass woman. The Armenian-American family seemed stereotypical, dull actually, and the daughter was a character that was hard to attach to. Her personality doesn’t quite fit with that of a young woman.

The plot was good, but lost its appeal as the book dragged on. The Turkish family was spot on to what I have seen of Turkish families in Istanbul, and yet there were elements of mysticism that I considered saçma (ridiculous). In the end, the reader finds out about a dark secret surrounding the Turkish family, and while it may seem shocking and impossible to some, I figured it out before reading it. The plot surrounding the American-Armenian family was less than interesting, and the way they over-hyped the genocide was a bit nauseating. The cluelessness of Americans of Turkish culture; however, was accurate and I applaud Shafak’s ability to weave in the still poignant hatred of many Armenians towards Turkish people, and the indifferent attitude of Turkish people towards the Armenian genocide. She couldn’t have been more precise.

The translation was also well done, and the imagery of the book was wonderful, as readers could grasp the sights and sounds of a city as diverse as Istanbul.

While not the best book I have ever read, it certainly was enjoyable and would benefit anyone who was interested in understanding modern Turkish culture. As one of the characters asserts in the book, “Western politicians presume there is a cultural gap between Eastern Civilization and Western Civilization. If it were that simple! The real civilization gap is between the Turks and the Turks…God save me from my own people!”

The Road
By: Cormac McCarthy

Paige’s Rating: (1) of 5 Stars
Recommended for: Fiction Readers

A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don’t know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food-—and each other.

Even though this book is a 2007 Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction, I found it incredibly disappointing to read.
The setting of the book is all too common, a post-apocalyptic world in which humanity is lost to carnal desires and the basic instincts for survival. In this world, there are many snow storms, rain storms and electrical storms as a son and his father move south in the grim hope of warmer weather. In addition, they also move south in hopes of finding a culture of “good guys” like themselves, as most of the remaining humans alive have formed tribes and are on a nomadic journey for sustenance, whether it be remaining tins of food or human flesh.

The plot is flat as well. Told in third person, “the man” and “the boy” travel south on roads during the day, and camp at night far off the road, risking their lives in order to have a fire and some heat. They encounter some “bad men” whom they hide from and on occasion run and escape from. Sadly, the plot really can be told with about seven verbs. They walk. They hide. They sleep. It snows. They walk more. They search old houses. They run. They hide. They sleep. It rains.

I kept reading thinking that there must be some sort of great ending to save the flat characters and plot and elevate it to Pulitzer Prize status. However, the ending was exactly what you and I would probably guess, and I threw the book down rolling my eyes and wondering why I stuck this one out. For people who love this book, I have to question their sanity.

I gave it 1 star because even though this plot and concept is neither new nor exciting, the book can be taken metaphorically. Are we not all traveling down the road of life trying our best to survive and trying to be the “good guys?” Sure. But all metaphors and allegories aside…

This is really one road I would advise you to stay off of.