[Guest Book Review] ولدت هناك، ولدت هنا

Remember the Arabic book I posted about here sometimes back? It's the same novel that I kept quoting and tweeting about. And finally, just on Tuesday, I've finished reading it and immediately bought my own copy from the book fair.

The novel got emotional at parts; made me realize the great struggle Palestinans go through while watching their country being taken away from them day by day knowing that someday they'd have it back. Only question is, when?

I knew I wouldn't do the book justice if I began reviewing it so without even thinking to try, I asked my good friend, Blogger and above all, an awesome tweep with informative tweets spamming (in a good way of course) my timeline: Salma to write a review and she kindly did so;

كيف لما كتب كسيرة مختصرة أن يختصر واقع شعب دون أن يغفل عن تفاصيل الأرض والسماء والشجر والزيتون؟
وُلدتُ هناك، وُلدت هنا.. كتاب يعطي الجواب.

يسرد الأب مريد زيارة إبنه تميم الأولى لفلسطين.. يحكي جهد السفر وشوق الزيارة والمعابر.. يعود حينا لماضيه في مدارس دير غسانة، ليرحل في المستقبل ليحكي عن إبنه تميم طالب الجامعة.. بوصف شاعري، عاطفي بسيط وصادق مؤثر.

الكتاب مزيج من قصص فردية ووقائع تاريخية وإنسانية.. مزيج يحكي واقع إنسان.. مريد وهو فلسطيني تزوج رضوى المصرية ليمنع النظام في مصر إبوته لتميم، ومن وجوده لجانب رضوى زوجته، الأديبة المصرية.

اروع ما في الكتاب هو إنسانية محتواه:

تكون اسرة فلسطينية مصرية..
كيف يعيد لإبنه "فلسطينيته" وكيف يعيد "فلسطين" لإبنه..
أسرة فلسطينية في زوبعة الشتات

رجوع خطوات في التاريخ مرة اخرى.. لحكاية التهجير سنة ١٩٤٨
وأخيرا.. النهاية.. التي كانت هي البداية..
كيف ضاع العمر؟ كيف ضاعت فلسطين؟
بعد أن كنت اجتزت شوطا كبيرا في قراءة هذه الرواية، قررت أن تجربة قرائتها ستكون أحلى، لو تعرفت على مريد، ورضوى، وتميم.. ولكم أن تجربوا هذا أيضا..

من أجمل ما قرأت

من أجمل ما قرأت

أنا أضعف شخص في هذا الاجتماع، أنا بلا حزب وبلا فصيل وبلا يد تحميني في ما تسمونه الحكومة وبلا شلة تناصرني في أي مكان لكنني أملك هذا... ورفعت قلمي بيدي اليمنى عاليا أمام عيني

ص 209 من وُلدت هناك، وُلدت هنا لمريد البرغوثي

House Rules: A Glitch?

Since I'm working on a book-review kind of presentation, I chose to write about my latest read, House Rules by Jodi Picoult. The main plot is that the lead character Jacob sufferes from Asperger's syndrome; a high functioning form of autism that enables him to understand social clues and make an eye-contact.

He's also obsessed about solving crime scenes and when his tutor is found dead, he's the one to blame. Long story short, his brother, who's perfectly fine and who had a habit of breaking into different houses, have entered Jacob's tutor house. She was surprised when she saw him and slipped, hitting her head badly. When Jacob came for his lesson, he saw her lying in her own pool of blood, cleaned the mess and properly dressed her and wrapped Jess in a quilt. All the while knowing that his brother was the one who killed her.

Now, my question is; Asperger's patients are supposed to lack the ability to show the empathy, and not totally emotionless, or am I mistaken? Jacob's act of carrying a dead body wasn't in the least bit sensitive, given the fact that he had a crush on his tutor, Jess.

Is it a glitch in the story? If not, are we left with the conclusion that people with Asperger's are a danger to community and hence should be locked away?

[Book Review] Daddy-Long-Legs

Daddy-Long-Legs, largely known to us as صاحب الظل الطويل . When I knew it was an actual novel, I borrowed it from my friend the same day because who can miss such a chance? Turned out, it's a famous classic written by Jean Webbster back in 1912.

Back in the days, I used to ADORE the cartoon show so much that I had many dreams revolving the mystery identity that is Daddy-Long-Legs. And in each time, someone from real life appeared to be him. I was forever indulged in finding who this mysterious long man was. Because, apparently Judy was in love with him as much as I was myself.

However, the book is a bit different. It is divided into two part, the first is of a narration of the incident when a trustee of the orphanage that Judy was in, came forward and offered to send her specifically to college. The second part, which is the whole half of the story is a bunch of letters sent from Judy to the trustee whom she calls Daddy-Long-Legs. She saw his long shadow when she was asked to have a word with her teacher about her future. The trustee's condition was that she writes to him, telling about her academical progress, without expecting a reply back. That she write him once every month without the knowledge of him real name, etc.

Even though she was asked not to, she still required about his real name in most of her letters, his descriptions but there was no answer back. Although there was some good gestures here and there when he sent flowers or have his secretary reply or give her permission to do several things. Meanwhile, she met Jervis, her friend Julie's uncle repeatedly. All along, she wrote to Daddy explaining every encounter and confessing about her love. It grew frustrating at times because I already know Jervis is Daddy himself and it was kind of awkward.

Either ways, at the end, Daddy agreed to meet her when he was sick and it turned out he was Jervis himself all along. The book came to an end at this point which made me curious to know more in the sequel, Dear Enemy.

Keeping the fact that it's a classic, an easy language was used to provide a high-schooler flowing way of talking and some humorous parts were added. This was a total bonus in making it a fast and enjoyable read. My rating: 8.5/10

[Book Review] Change Of Heart

The story is set about a mother (June) who lost her first husband in a car accident then married a police officer, Kurt, who raised Elizabeth, the first husband's daughter. Kurt and Elizabeth get killed by Shay, the house's carpenter.

The mystery surrounding the character Shay and his attitude struck me and I had to figure out what he truly was. He was sentenced to death and after waiting 11 years in prison for his fate things become exceedingly interesting for truth reveals it self eventually. Once inside the prison, Shay, somehow was responsible of turning water into wine, bringing back a bird from dead, healing an inmate from AIDs completely, multiplying food from one item. This whole drama caused people outside the prison and inside to mistake him for Jesus or a Messiah.

Meanwhile, Shay claimed nothing about himself of that sort that Micheal, a saint and a member of Shay's jury who convicted him years ago, struggles to heal the inmate's soul. Shay then fascinates Micheal by quoting some of Jesus' saying that is not written in any gospels of Bible but on the mysterious gospel of Thomas, written 2 thousand years ago.

Father Micheal doubted that Shay would have read such a rare book given his condition of having difficulty in speaking, writing and merely reading. Shay all the while insisted on donating his heart after his death to Claire, Elizabeth's sister and June's daughter from Kurt. An attorney, Maggie, fights along Shay & Micheal to make Shay's final wish happen by insisting on taking an alternative manner of death sentence which is none other than hanging since it only causes brain-death and keeps the heart functioning.

At this point, Jodi Picoult, captivates her reader by a thought-provoking situation when June, the mother, decides on either forgoing the past or accepting Shay's heart that will somehow ensures her daughter's Claire transplant and would give her years to live.

The ending sparks endless questions on my mind so I wouldn't ruin it for you, except that if I ever got the change of asking Judi anything it would be these;

What is Shay exactly? How could he revive the dead and do other miracles?
How can he insist on going to jail instead of someone else?
How did he know things of other people's lives?
When and why did he steal Micheal's grandfather's picture?
....

Philosophy and religions were mentioned a lot in this book that I would have skipped some pages if it weren't for the thought-provoking storyline and to admit that this book kept my insominac for three long nights isn't an exaggeration for it deserves more than just this. Give it a try, you won't regret it.

My rating: 9/10. Judi continues to amazes me.

[Book Review] عشت معها

Another story distributed by Rikaz campaign based on a true story, written by Siham Khalid AlAmer. The writer starts off explaining how badly treated she was, and how her parents gave her younger brother their full attention.

After returning from University one day, she sees both her parents in a miserable state: mother in tears and father in awe. They didn't answer her question so she went up to her room and that's when her brother came in and the fight erupted at the living room. She ran back to ask again, and this time she was determined to get an answer.

Her brother was addicted on drugs, and so, his parents decided to send him away; shut him off to get a special treatment. The writer then decided to do something different for a change and offered to take care of the situation. Both her parents were shocked but agreed, nonetheless. The writer then left her studies behind in order to help her brother in the procedure. Both siblings then lived out of town, based on the Doctor's recommendation and that's where the journey began. Her brother refused to take his medicine and wanted drugs instead. He would beg, hit his sister but she refused with all her might to do so.

It reached to a point where she had to shut him in a room so he wouldn't hurt her anymore. She stood beside him and endured his hysterical moments. A week later, his situation stabled, making him realize what he got himself into. He stayed focused on quitting on drugs and continuing with the medication.

Months later, the two siblings went back home and the parents embraced the writer with such a warm and loving heart. They praised her determination and thanked her for everything. For once, the writer felt how it is like to be needed and wanted.

The writer remarked on how good it is to be responsible of something so big and important like this. And so, she lived with the joy of this responsibility forever.

You can read the story online here.

[Book Review] حسن والمانجو

A short story I have recently read called 'Hassan and Mango' in Arabic that was distributed by the Rikaz campaign (and written by Abdulkareem Alshatti). At first, the title sounded silly and uninteresting at all, but why not? Is the question we should ask ourselves before judging the book by its cover.

There was a young man who loved visiting his rich friend, Hassan both for his friendship and the delicious mango Hassan's Dad brought from all around the world.

The writer wrote various sayings (or rather conclusions), explaining his thoughts;

(1) If your father was working late at work then know that he's earning extra cash to assist your family.
(2) Wealth doesn't necessarily buy you Mangos but it gifts it to you.
(3) When you're rich, you become useless.
(4) You have to be smart to become rich with lots of properties and this needs serious work with a respective certificate.

His role model was Hassan's Dad, who enjoyed spending his day at work, discussing topics that weren't of the writer's interest and reading intriguing books with deep meanings. Hassan's Dad behaviour was curious as the writer never understood why a rich person would benefit from socializing with people when he already has the money he needs.

Both friends entered college, and still the dream of becoming rich someday, haunted the writer so he decided to work at a restaurant as a waitress. The other day, he was surprised that Hassan did the exact same thing. The writer earned for tips, but Hassan wasted his time in helping old people, talking with this or that without getting paid. This sounded ridiculous to the writer. Why would you take an extra-time at work for nothing?

When Hassan was asked the same thing, his reply was this: This is the joy in life, it's of being responsible of anything, no matter how small or big it is…to feel the starvation of poor people or injustice that others are suffering from. If you chose to live for yourself, then selfishness would surely kill you.

The two grew old, got married and had kids. The writer was still engrossed in ways of becoming richer by the day while Hassan majored in weird, useless things (according to the writer) such as volunteer work, lectures world wide about safety, etc.

Even though, the writer felt proud of his achievements and reminded himself of how far he got to and that there is absolutely no reason to feel jealous of Hassan anymore but…

One day, the writer visited Hassan and rare types of mangos were presented. The writer could not get it. How come no one sends HIM these types of mangos from all around the world? But that's where he found his answers…

Hassan is now an educated man, who gets called to present lectures world wide…
Hassan now has lots of charity institutes that add up in his good deeds…
Hassan now is surrounded with a great deal of people that loves him…
Hassan now gains a good number of money thanks to the charity events he hosted…

'Hassan is a human being while I am just a rich man with nothing to add up on this world. I am just a consumer on this earth'.

Finally, he noted down the last and most important conclusion;

(5) To be happy, being rich isn't enough, but you have to be part of the society.

Throughout the book, the writer kept describing his special cravings to delicious types of mangos and I found it silly. I didn't like the title of the book as it doesn't give it much, but then realized that this whole thing started with mangos. If the writer wasn't so interested in tasting Mango, he wouldn't be able to connect with his situation and appreciate what he has.

You realize through Hassan's behaviour that being rich isn't everything. In order to get everything else, you have to be a human first, by acting like it.

Rating: 6/10, considering how short it was.

[Book Review] Ten Out Of Ten

Ever since 08 I was looking for the final installment of the series and while being at the book fair this year, I found it and decided to get it over with already. The next day was a holiday so I sat down and finished it in a one-sitting.

I kept wondering why the hell I wasted my time in following the whole series but the answer was perfectly clear: I was an ignorant, childish teenager who loved this type of girly-stupid books.

Turned out, J.P wasn’t Mia’s Mr.Right and that she had to go through all of this to realize that Micheal was ‘the one’ and J.P wanted to get all the fame by dating a princess.

So ridiculous, right? Yes, but I had to know what would happen as I chose to start it.

Still, the idea of people getting lots of $$$$ out of writing utter bull$hit is beyond me. And dear Meg Cabot, I give you my full approval of changing your name to Meg Babble, because you really know how to waste good 700 pages of paper in repeating the same dramatic lines zillions of time.

Ten out of ten you call it? More like -10/10, if you ask me.

[Book Review] The Time Traveler's Wife

A story of a man who suffers from a disease where he goes back to the past or to the present and future. He’s trapped in the battle of time, trying to stay put as much as he can so he could hang out with his wife, Clare.

At the beginning, he struggles to go back and meet Clare, the young version of Clare (starting from 5 years old). Henry emphasizes on how the force of love brought them together, and that nothing, not even the dislocation of time that occurs to him unexpectedly can tore them apart, but I did not think that was exactly true. Clare got to meet a man at the age of five, who claims to know every single detail about her and was obliged to be-friend him…till she was sane enough to fall in love with the older version of Henry, probably at the age of 40. It was an unusual kind of relationship between Clare and Henry considering the huge age difference in Henry’s past and Clare’s present, almost gave Henry the pedophilia impression.

Writing style wise, it was a new one. Audrey has this bold type of writing that forces you to read and blinds your eyes on the many flaws of the story plot.

A time traveler seemed like a good story as a science fiction but ruining it with a wild type of love relationship between two people was too much for me. 4/10.

I wouldn't waste my time in watching its movie because...well, just take a look at the stupid trailer.

[Book Review] Who Moved My Cheese?

An entertaining yet simple story that reveals the profound truth about change. The story talks about four characters making their way through the Maze in search for Cheese.

The four characters have different ways in finding Cheese and when it was no longer there, they showed different attitudes towards it, the same as human beings attitude towards change. The author choose the imaginary characters based on parts of all of us.

::The Mice::

Sniff: Who sniffs out change early.
Scurry: Who scurries into action.

::The Little People::

Hem: Who denies and resists change as he fears it lead to something else.
Haw: Who learns to adapt in time when he see changing can lead to something better.

Every day, the four characters enter the maze and face various obstacles in an attempt of reaching their final goal that is finding Cheese. On the their way, they find a limited amount of Cheese that satisfied their needs for the day, but when they finally discover the endless supply of it in Cheese Station C things begin to take a new course when they took the current situation for granted.

One day, the cheese disappears and the Mice immediately take action, while the Little People, Hem and Haw complains about it. It is then that Haw realizes the silliness of their action and makes a move; meanwhile Hem refuses to accept the fact and move on.

Haw brings about a fascinating approach of dealing with change and scribble down motivational sayings on the wall of the Maze.


It takes about less than an hour to enjoy and grasp the content of this book. A well written, simple and informative master piece that benefited a great deal of people (be it in their daily life or in the business world).

A movie was produced based on this book too;

[Book Reviews] Recent Read

Before We Say GoodBye by Louise Candlish

To cut it short, Louise’s story plots are very similar in every aspect. Someone loses a close family member then isolate him/her self from their normal life and get to live in a fantasy world, building up other relations elsewhere. ~ 4/10.


Thirst by Christopher Pike



Thirst #1 is divided into three books; The Last Vampire, Black Blood, Red Dice. Basically, the story is about a vampire girl, Sita, who tries her best to cover up her identify and if anything gets in her way, she takes away their lives. It was my first time getting into horror, and I enjoyed it very much. The book gets 8.5/10 from me as the ancient stories of their God, Krishna slowed me down.




Torn Apart by James Patterson and Hal Friedman

I wasn’t really interested in non-fictions after this book. It’s a story, a real one, about Cory’s lost childhood. At the age of five, he was diagnosed with Tourette's syndrome. Over the years, his Doctors struggled in finding a cure to overcome Cory’s weird tics by taking all sorts of medicines they had in mind but nothing worked. When he’s 16, he decides to get rid of every medicine that made his status worse and get involved in wilderness camp all alone, and that, apparently, was his only cure. ~ 9.5/10.

+ I'm currently rereading Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince.

My Sister's Keeper

Jodi’s style of writing is very captivating, I loved how she usually brings back old memories and how each character has a somehow different way of expressing him/her self depending on their social status and age.

The ending was unpredictable, to be honest, but I can’t deny the fact that I flipped open the last few pages to get what happens, yes, Anna dies, but how? I was under the impression that she’ll actually die in the process of transplanting her kidney to Kate, but then what really happened got me by surprise. I’d give it a 9 out of 10.

People, this is one of those books you wouldn’t want to miss reading. Give it a shot!

There are many statements that I liked, so I’ll quote a few:

‘If you have a sister and she dies, do you stop saying you have one? Or are you always a sister, even when the other half of the equation is gone?’ ~ Anna, page 168.

‘Water never stops moving. Rain falls, and runs down a mountain into a river. The river finds its way to the ocean. It evaporates, like a soul, into the clouds. And then, like everything else, it starts all over again’ ~ Anna, page 474.

‘There should be a statue of limitation of grief’ ~ Kate, page 497.

+ I'm currently reading Before We Say Goodbye by Louise Candlish.

Kitty, The Procrastinator

The 9-days holiday is coming to an end without me realizing it. I’ve spent most of it in shopping, packing and unpacking. I reached to a point where I had no idea that today’s the second of Dec. The plan was to start working on the Harry Potter FanFiction, but other distractions took place making me forget all about it; Reading the new books I’ve recently bought, for instance. I finished off Girls Of Riyadh in a matter of two days when I was supposed to be writing the epilogue. 2 Paragraphs were all I came up with. Is this procrastination or laziness, I don’t know.

‘Remember the first time we met, on this very exact station?’ He asked his wife, ‘Mhmmm’ she murmured with tears streaming down on her cheeks. Harry rubbed off Ginny’s tears with a soft, soothing finger. The proud parents walked on King Cross’ station sidewalk while remembering their own magical moments at Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft and Wizardy.

That’s all, but what I had in mind was completely different. And it’s not even an ‘epilogue’, more like, the first few lines of Chapter 1.

Something I scribbled down, which has nothing to do with Harry Potter, just me wanting to waste more time,

Sense of euphoria weren’t of help anymore, it’s like her own brand of heroin effect’s came to an end bringing back symptoms of withdrawals. She’d clutch to it till the end, and now she lays there clueless as to what’s the next step she should take to at least enter the maze of her life.

Other than this, I’m still reading My Sister’s Keeper. The author’s style of writing is very impressive and interesting. I liked the story line so much and I can’t wait to find out what’s going to happen in the upcoming chapters.

Writing this blog post while my eyes are halfway to closing shut explains the disjointed points.

Enjoy the remaining days of the holiday, peeps.

My Eid

19th Nov was the date of my final update. Soon after that day, my first term exams started giving me lesser time to spend on blogging or anything else. Things went on very smoothly, except that I’m still lacking behind in Maths (As I always did – No surprise there).

My sister and I spent the past couple of days that followed Eid at my Granny’s and I got to read more than I usually do, which is a bonus. Take this from me, isolating yourself from civilization for a while to achieve a specific task is the key to success.


It took me a long time to decide on where to stay over for the upcoming days (Starting from Eid’s night itself) and I finally settled at Granny’s (Dad’s part of the family). As usual on the first day of Eid, we were the late comers as everyone was waiting for us to join in the tiny house. My parents left early to get ready and I kissed them goodbye and made sure to tuck in my wish-list somewhere - I, amongst my siblings, am the only one who usually does this.

That evening, my uncle took all of us to Qurum City Centre based on our never-ending demands (God bless him). Entering from the food court entrance was a bonus to the whole thing as Borders Express is located next to it. The kids went crazy over the electronic games shouting how much money was needed and I found myself eyeing the books one by one looking for a catchy title.

Those caught my attention:

I finished Girls Of Riydh last night. I had a fun read, there’s no doubt about this, but I found the story plot very typical when comparing it to ‘our’ world. The things that the four Saudi girls went through are the same things girls here are going through; looking for the love of their life.

Here are some random shots I took while staring at the place's natural beauty:

Hope ya’ll enjoyed your Eid because I know I did, and it’s better late than never to say: Eid Mubarak.

[P.S This post is dedicated to my lovely Granny and her children who endured my sister’s demands and mine].

Recent Book Reviews

While trying to catch up with studies, I’m also reducing the amount of reading I get to do during weekdays. I’ve been meaning to write proper reviews about the last books I’ve read (Since September); even though I clearly know that I can never have the time to.

A Thousand Splendid Suns
The question I had in mind while reading was; why was Mariam acting weirdly when her 60-years-old husband married the16-years-old Laila? was it because of her jealousy towards Rasheed's marriage, or because of Laila's young age? I understood the bit about her jealousy of someone’s taking Rasheed from her later on. The story sounded so realistic to me, that I could admit about it being a page-turner! Though the ending makes it whole lot interesting, it truly was a tragedy, Mariam's life, I mean. It made me get to know about Afghanistan’s life after the invasion, the rules which were to be enforced on people claiming that they were 'Islamic' ones.

One of the best books I've read in a while - 10/10.

The Kite Runner
Both of Khaled’s novels has the same vibe into them; the strong relationship that involves two people. Two people who got to know each other by either coincidence or being raised with each other since childhood.

I’ve been recommended by many to read the two brilliant pieces of work by Khaled Hoesseini ages ago, and I’m really glad that I did.


The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger
Yes, I saw the movie meanwhile I was trying very hard to get it over with already, but seeing as how huge the book was, I started making up excuses so as not to read it. Laziness? I know. It's basically a work of fiction that talks about a girl who got a job at a fashion magazine, and is obeying her bossy boss to save her job. The flow of the events weren’t smooth enough for me, thus I watched the movie. Its storyline reminded me of Susanna Sees Stars by Mary Hogan, the only difference is that it was well written and HUGE.


Since I don’t Have you by Louise Candlish
Bought it last Thursday, and I’m already halfway through it (blame it on the amount of quizzes we had in the past week) - Wait for the actual post when I finish it.

I'm Me - The girl With The Pretty Face

Hayley is one of those girls who aren't comfortable with their own skin, but things turned the other way round now that she had went off to Italy this summer. Soon enough, she'd discover what real beauty looks like, and even what true amore can be.

This book is one of those books that keeps you thirsty for more, Hayley's experience in Italy had it's ups and downs and quiet naturally, an enchanting ending with the one who loved her for who she is, rather than for what she looked like, Enzo.

Our World Has Been Invaded

Science Fiction For People Who Don't Like Science Fiction

The Host is a separate novel than the Twilight series by the same author, Stephenie Meyer. Within the first 30 chapters, we’re being introduced into a new world where souls invade the planet Earth and enter the human bodies.

Melanie is a strong and devoted human girl who got caught while her fail attempt of running away with her younger brother Jamie, and the man she loved Jared. Later on, Wanderer, the soul who invaded Melanie’s body, finds herself trapped in a love triangle which involve two bodies only, hers and Jared.

And then there’s more to come, once Melanie (the human girl) refuses to fade away, and overcomes Wanderer (the soul).

More info about The Host.

The Half-Blood Prince

The Book:
The last battle was something else compared to the other events in the beginning of the book. Harry's falling in love with Ginny made it whole lot interesting, but then, I don't think Rowling did them justice.

The Movie:

It wasn't all that. And to be honest, if I hadn't read the book I wouldn't have understood a single thing. The way they made up a whole new scenario of Harry falling in love with Ginny was a disappointment, and yeah, I didn't feel the chemistry between both of them. Overall, Daniel's acting sucked. Big time. Not to mention what he has done to his hair! Emma Watson had a remarkable part in the movie along with Rupert. The movie focused on Malfoy's weird attitude more than the whole story about The Half-Blood Prince's Potions copy. Either ways, Tom Felton never disappoints. He pulled the whole 'nervous & anxious' yet 'cool & calm' attitude just fine. Kudos. As expected, the book is always far better than the movie. 5/10.

Is it just me or Alan Rickman had actually gained loads of weight?

Farewell, Sirius!

It took me more than 2 weeks to finish off The Order Of The Phoenix, as I was abroad. I desperately needed company, and the book, provided that. The beginning was boring and dull due to introducing the member of the Order, but then questions that both Harry & I had in mind had been answered. By then, Sirius got killed by Bellatrix during the fight in the Department Of Mysteries, at the Ministry Of Magic.

A New Magical World

Ever since the end of July, I started picking up with the Harry Potter series. For some odd reason, I preferred taking a break from the non-fictional world for a while, and of course, a bit of magic won't harm. The Prisoner Of Azkaban was the very first book I've read from the series, besides The Chamber Of Secrets which I've read nearly 2 years ago in Arabic. Now that I came to think of it, the Arabic translation sucked, and it is by no means can be compared with the original version, that is in English. 5 months ago, I got The Goblet Of Fire as a gift and was fantasized by the world Rowling created.

I can say that The Prisoner Of Azkaban is my third favourite due to the fact that it's where Sirius's character had been introduced to the story first. The twists of the story were unpredictable. Who knew that a serial killer who had just broke out of Azkaban (Wizard's prison) would turn out to be Harry's Godfather? I know I didn't.

Add to that, Harry's finally getting to know about his father's story with his school pals; Sirius, Lupin, Wortmail, who happened to be Ron's rat for years! And discovering that he had had a relation to his father, after all, as Sirius was the friend who both his parents had given the job to look over Harry whom of course Harry hadn't knew about for more than 12 years of his life.

Things then become utterly exciting in The Goblet Of Fire, where Harry with the help of Hermione had saved Sirius from nearly being kissed by the dementors (A soul-sucking kiss). The book was packed up with events, which I loved; the triwizard tournament, dementors attack..but at the end Cedric Diggory's death was as usual, unpredictable. He who got killed by Voldemort once he'd targeted Harry at the last task of the tournament.

--
This post is dedicated to Shanno.