Terminator Genesis,, A fun and entertaining movie that lost its sight..

I wanted to write an article about Paper town's and it's shocking box office performance but I decided to put that aside til I see the movie. Instead, I will talk about something else, Terminator genesis and the idea of rebooting or remaking every single movie franchise from the past. To be honest I was really looking forward to see this movie and finally I got the chance today after I decided to go to the cinema alone and give this movie a shot and see if it was worth the wait. I had fun watching movie and I was entertained but here is the thing that I asked my self after watching the movie, did they have to make this movie?? was it worth the existence?? Was it groundbreaking like the old ones?? 

The shitty parts 

The John Conner spoiler: 

Somehow, some where, some one though that spoiling the movie's biggest plot twist in the trailers and the movie's promotional posters was a really good idea!! Who the fuck does that?! For those who don't know, John Conner is supposed to be the man who saves humanity from the robot in the future, this time the team behind the movie decided to add a new twist and make Conner the bad guy and instead of keeping it as a surprise or a shock value they decided to throw it all away. So while I was watching the movie, I was just counting the minutes till they ''reveal'' the big twist, which ruined a huge part of the watching experience. 

Imagine that instead of watching star wars to find out that Darth is Luke's father, they give it all away in the trailers, that would have pissed a lot fans off.  

Lack of chemistry:

Arnold did a great job in the movie so let's put him aside for now. Now if you are a fan, you will know that Kyle Reese is supposed to save Sarah Conner's ass and bang her to bring John Conner to life so yeah he is an important part of the franchise. By god there was no chemistry between Emilia Clarke (Sarah) and Jay Courtney (Kyle Reese), we were supposed to care about them and wait for them to blend in and have some character development to make them fall in love but instead I just didn't give a fuck about whatever these two were doing, the chemistry wasn't there and the development between those two was nil to the point that when they kissed each other at the end of the movie you could feel how forced this whole scene is, heck the whole love thing felt forced. As if the whole thing happened because it should happen, the goddamn dude should fall in love with the goddamn heroine, even if there is no chemistry. 

Brain dead:

In order to revive the movie and work as if the last two squeals didn't exist a new plot line was needed and somehow they tried to tie Genesis with the first two movies and create a new timeline add some twists to the movie by going back and forth in time. The result was one confusing plot to follow and some big ass expressions about time travelling that at some point you'll have to ask yourself '' What the fuck is happening here??'' It was a lot to absorb and made the plot a bit confusing and hard for a lot of people to follow. I remember someone sitting behind me telling his friend how confused he was. They talked a lot about time travelling and shit and at some point I had this feeling that they wanted to follow interstellar's footsteps but in an inferior way. 

PG - 13

Terminator is supposed to be an R rated ruthless action film and that's the core of its fan base but in our case they decided to take the PG-13 route which watered down the whole movie and it might be a big reason for the backlash that it faced in the united but to be hones?? That wasn't a big problem, I didn't have a problem with this which takes me to the good parts of the movie:

The good parts

The John Conner twist

Some fans didn't like this but I loved it!! It brought a new element to the movie, what if the one who we considered the savior is now the bad guy?? What if he is now preparing to destroy humanity?? Turning Conner into the threat was a nice twist ruined by the trailers. Jason Clarke played a nice role here though I really did want to see more out of the evil Conner. 

Emilia Clarke

I really did like her and how she played the role. Unlike her wooden relation with Jay, she and Arnie did have a nice thing going on. I did like how she played a huge role in the movie and kicking some ass around.

Arnold VS Arnold 

The best part of the movie was seeing the old Arnold taking on the new one. A fight between the first terminator who was sent back in the 80s to destroy Sarah Conner vs the one who was sent to protect her. A holy shit moment in other words, it was one of the things that made me say on hell yeah I'm entertained. I got goosebumps when I saw this scene, It's the simplest things in life that makes you happy. And to be honest, Arnold is the best damn thing in the whole movie... 

And this guy:

The verdict 

Unlike a lot of people think, this movie is really entertaining. I had fun watching it, and I think the whole new timeline thing was smart but got lost with its confusing time travelling shit. By all means it's a fine squeal and this is it's biggest problem, it doesn't feel like a new movie that could start a new trilogy because it lacks what made the first two movies unique and groundbreaking. Watching this makes you feel that it was made to revive Arnold's career like what they did with rise of the machines and use the whole back to past trend that showered the market this summer. And if you guys are into the numbers you will find out that the last two Terminator movies revenues started to diminish and people were having enough so to bring those people back to watch the Terminator back to action again, the production team had to come up with something new like what Jurassic world did or the Mission impossible franchise is doing, and the tried to do so but it just didn't workout plus the marketing was terrible and made people stay away from the movie in the USA.Te movie is doing great in the overseas market. Thing is the movie didn't have what it takes to bring new fans on board especially that Arnold's star power isn't that strong anymore though he did a good job in the movie. They just didn't any strong faces to support the aging star. Jurassic World's Chris Pratt is on fire because of his last year's hit guardians of the galaxy so it made sense to make him the new face of the franchise, Terminator didn't do that especially it was released in a tough time especially with the surprising strong performance of Jurassic world. It was a fun and entertaining film that lacked what it takes to make it the next big thing. It felt more of a squeal more than a franchise starter with a good idea of a plot but got of hand and got really confusing and head scratching. Not the worst movie in the franchise, I like it, but I guess unless they find a miracle or something huge to add, we really don't need another sequel, though I will watch the new one if the decided to green light any squeals but this will depend on how it will perform overseas. Give it a try but don't take it seriously or don't expect another terminator 2...

#‎Lionesses‬: Women who inspire us (the unpublished article)

A month ago I took part in a competition to get a chance to work in a magazine. I won the first stage but lost in the semi finals, and boy was it ugly!! During the competition I had an article on my mind that I wanted to write if ever made it into the finals but since I failed to do so I decided to publish it here, on my blog,  since I can write anything here. Today's article won't be about books, instead it's going to be about women. 

But I won't talk about women in your good old stereotypical way, no I won't talk about boobs, how to deal with them as if they are some sort of third rated animal or whether or not the belong into the kitchen. No, I am going to talk about heroes or in our case heroines.I talked about the fact that we might need good examples, bright ones to make us feel inspired so I'll talk to you guys about women who inspired me to do something or helped me at some point in my life. Some of these women might be a bit famous and some might be ordinary women who you meet everyday like your teacher (in a good way you perv), or may be a manager of yours or even your mum, so let's start the damn thing. 

1) Horrible bosses?? Nop,,,

I worked in 3 different places, two of them I was managed by women and by god they are two of the best people I've ever met in my life. The first one, I met her back in summer 2012 during my summer internship at a public institute. Thing about internships is that they suck and you get bored really fast because most of the time or at least here in Egypt the most exciting thing you will do is copying papers and discover how white the fluorescent lamps are. So I wasn't having any high expectations until I met my manager. She taught me a lot of things, new things that I didn't know. She promised me that by the end of the internship I will have new skills that I could add to my C.v so with her help I knew more about planning and new softwares that I had no idea how they worked.  She even let me help out in some of the institute's projects, I was so happy and excited that I stayed till the end of summer so thank you where ever you are.

Let's be honest, working in a retail is a shitty experience. You almost work everyday, you are underpaid, you deal with dickheads and don't forget the asshole aka the mystery shopper and as time goes by you die a little from the inside. But for me, there was always this light at the end of the tunnel. Imagine you arrive in the morning to find out that your boss is giving a hand and helping you with the display? This woman I'm talking about was more than a boss, I consider her a friend. If we wanted to discuss stuff like having other careers she won't act like a manger, instead she will act like a friend. I remember when she  encouraged me to buy a bike (ehich I eventually did) my mum was against the idea but my boss was like ''do it, you idiot!! don't waste time!!''>I also love the fact that every time I run she writes something to encourage me  and I won't forget that she was the only one at work who asked me about I did when I took part in my first half marathon a year ago and she was really excited for me and my friends. She also used to give us days off or vacations if we needed to do something besides work that might help us in the future. Believe me it is things like these that made me and my friends forget about the shit that we face and stay at work. 

2) Lionesses 

Back in 2012 I used to be fat, and I didn't like it. I wanted to change but I didn't know how but two things inspired me 1) Jessica Ennis and 2) Women's football. Women's football is an inspiration by itself. A lot of people used to make fun of women's football but nowadays women make people proud of their teams. England's women's football team managed to make people including me get excited for their country's team. People finally are proud of their team. They managed to win the bronze medal for the first time in their life and the first time England reached that high in a world cup (even the men's team couldn't do that with all of their money and fame). The English women team weren't household names but I bet your ass that they are now. Finally People started to give attention to women's football, people are actually proud of this team and what they did!! Even in the USA players like Alex Morgan are household names and helped to make football famous in the USA. THE USA team made me get into women's football in 2012 at the Olympics and I was in love but England's team made me proud, thank you ladies. You have to admit that these women are passionate and that's why people started to get behind them. The don't get paid much like the men, some of the women players don't have clubs to play for but I think they like what they do and they want women's football to be recognized me and for this you should feel inspired. 

3) the mysterious N

I love running, and I found out that Instagram is a great way to get inspiration. My friends don't run that much, fact is most of them aren't that active. But thanks to groups like Cairo runners I don't miss a run plus I lost weight but I've to thank the mysterious N for her help. I don't know her and she doesn't know me but I follow her account on instgram. She talks about her runs, her equipment, her recent achievement she might not be famous but I have to thank her for the boost that she gives to me before I run. You don't have to be famous to become a hero. 

As for my biggest inspiration, my mum, she did a lot to help me but an article won't be enough to describe how my mum played a huge role in my life. Thank you mum... 

Some people might not realize this but women play a huge part in our lives and it's a matter of time in countries like Egypt that people will start to realize that women deserve to be treated equally to men, that women don't have to end up getting married and having children. That women aren't about what they wear or how they look like. That women have the right to do the stuff that other men do like running without hearing shitty words from the passer bys, that they could walk safely in the street without being looked at as a way to satisfy sick sexual fantasies, I hope that I will be able to see this when I'm alive. But on the other hands some women should stop acting like victims and start doing something about it and as Pearl Jam said before:

The North is to South what the clock is to time
There's east and there's west and there's everywhere life
I know I was born and I know that I'll die
The in between is mine
I am mine

Time Remaining One Hour: Part I

Time Remaining One Hour

After Anna getting her french kiss with ST.Clair, I needed to get away from the world of YA for a while and continue exploring the great and magical world of Naguib Mahfouz. The first thing that caught my attention is the location of the story, Helwan (part of greater Cairo). Thing is according to Mahfouz's description, Helwan seems to be beautiful or used to be a beautiful and peaceful city.    

I've never been to Helwan before but I really do want to see the places that he described in the novel like the Japanese Garden. The author managed to describe the Egyptian society through 3 generations from the 1920s till the 1970s. So the 3 generations in the story represent the main ideas and ideologies that represented the Egyptian society and that's the great thing about this book, that Mahfouz managed to describe all of these ideas through this family, in other words, this family here represented the Egyptian society with its changes and evolution in the period between the 1920s till the Yom Kippur war. What's really frightening is that if you compare what happened in the novel and what's happening in the Egyptian society you'll realize that history does repeat it self. It's novels like that one that gives you true indications about history in general, as important history books are but things like cinema, songs and novels give you an idea of how the society looked like in the past. Our main character is an old woman called Sania and her sons, daughters and grandsons. At first, we get to see Sani's marriage to a nice guy called Hamid and how she overcame that she wasn't highly educated by reading and keeping an eye on the latest news and political developments. We then go to see her children as the grow up and everyone start their own political ideas and identity. The most notable case is Mohamed and his involvement with the Muslim brotherhood and as the novel goes by he starts to get deeper and deeper into the group and their ideas till he reaches the conclusion that Islam might be the real answer to Egypt's problems especially after the 1952 Coup. The MB were hopeful that Nasser's regime might give them the chance that they were waiting for and start to take a bigger part in the political life but Nasser eliminated them completely from the society and tore the group down leaving them broke, beaten but a bit more determined and Mahfouz put all of these elements into Mohamed. As much as I don't like the Muslim Brotherhood but Mohamed was a well written character that really loved his group and ideas more than anything else. 

Unlike Mohamed the rest of the family supported Nasser and what he stood for, and till now you will find those who believe in Nasserism as an ideology so in a way the novel describes how most Egyptian turned Nasser into a cult figure and an ideology more than a person. And that't what made the part about the 6 days was really important because it showed how much people were shocked when their idol suddenly fell down and that the strong and powerful leader clashed down. People believed Nasser and his media whrn they told the people that they were attacking Tel Av-iv instead Egyptians woke up in the morning to find out that Israel was in Egypt and defeated the Egyptian army in a humiliating way. As much humiliating the defeat was, what made things worse is how stunned and shocked people were as they saw how weak and unrealistic their leader was, Nasser was no god as people saw him. Thing is the 1967 defeat was so crucial and disastrous that till now you might feel its results, fact is it ended Nasser and his regime in the worst way possible. 

My dad once told me that finding out that the whole Nassersim thing was a big lie made me understand and get what did Mahfouz tried to say through his characters. The ones who were satisfied were the MBs or in our case Mohamed. Mohamed hated Nasser for what he did to him and his group and unlike the rest of the family who loved Nasser, Mohamed hated him and hated his ideas but didn't say this loudly to protect himself and family, it wasn't until Sadat;s era that the MBs started to get what they really want.  Nasser gave people high hopes but after 1967 people found out that they gained absolutely nothing and till now we are still suffering from Nasser's misjudgments. So did Mahfouz hate Nasser?? I don't know the guy but from his novels Mahfouz was really critical to Nasser and his era and I guess what he really hated is how people change their minds and tend to forget or in other words how hypocrite people are but lets talk about this in part 2...

Anna Got Frenched

For me to write this, I had to listen to the God of fuck himself ''Marilyn Manson'' ton concentrate and get my shit together after finishing this novel (I wrote this to piss a certain someone, she'll kill me, I know). 

Here the thing about this book, it's full of cliches and stuff that doesn't make sense plus it's pretty predictable, you weren't expecting Anna to get fingered by ST. Clair, were you?? On the other hand, the story is colorful, it has this happy feeling to it, watered down to make you feel happy and sucked in but once you finish it and give yourself the time to think you'll see what is wrong with the story. So let's put Anna and her french kiss under the knife and let's start the damn review. 

So Anna is teen whose father decided to ship the France to complete her education and the first thing you'll realize that the author has some daddy issue, like for example Anna's dad reminded me of Nicholas Sparks, god damn it!! I hate Sparks, his books and his movies and tbh Perkins made a great job in making the guy look like a total prick though I found nothing with shipping Anna to France, she is a bit annoying. And to prove my theory let's take a loot at ST. Clair and his dad, the guy is a walking asshole, he is this god of assholes as if Perkins wanted us to hate the guy so much. He treats people so well but acts like a total douche with his son and wife. 

On the other hand, the Mum figures in this novel are the opposite. Anna love her mum, ST. Clair has a great bond with his mum, so strong that his Dad is jealous of this strong bond between them that he even prevented him from seeing his mum when she was sick. I somehow can relate to this, I understand where are these guys coming from. I have a shaky relation with my dad but I've a strong bond with my mum so yeah I like this part, I can relate to it. 

Another great thing was the way Perkins described Anna's home sickness and how she was freaked out in Paris. Being away from your family and friends isn't easy. What make me say that because it's how I felt when dad decided to ship me from London to Cairo to stay with mu family and peers. It wasn't an easy move, I was young yes, I was 7 I guess?? But for me everything was weird, the people, the streets, and the fact that Cairo doesn't have public libraries (they aren't that common in Egypt), the whole thing was confusing and it affected me in a lot of ways as the years went by. 

I like how Perkins described Paris, I've never been there before. It reminded me of how John Green described Amsterdam in the Fault in our stars, they both described the cities in such a beautiful and colorful way that makes not visiting them a crime by it self. Though I think Anna should have spent more time checking out Paris but thing is choosing Paris was a great idea to make whoever reading the story feel more charmed and wait for the predictable happy ending with its cliches. 

Now let's start with Anna, she has a serious hair fetish. Throughout the story all she does is smelling St Clair's hair with its shampoo, at some point I expected Anna to masturbate on his hair!! At some point she even inhaled his shaving cream and shampoo. She also has some weird shit to say like when she describe how she loves his hands and that they are the right size, now what will you do with his hands?? Fact is, Anna is so turned on that at some point she wanted to eat and drink him. 

Jokes aside, the whole thing wasn't about the looks though ST Clair is really hot to make the girls connect with the guy but ST Clair cares about Anna, he listens to her, he takes her out, he doesn't want her to feel alone in Paris plus he wants to connect with by showing how interested is he in movies. As much as I felt that there aren't much of common things between them but he tried to connect with her and make her feel a bit safe and secure. I can tell by how Anna acts that her she has self esteem issues, she is beautiful but she doesn't realize that. She doesn't want to look bad in front of her friends so she avoids ordering food though she is in an American school so it'd make sense if who ever runs the Cafe speaks English. Anna has a lot of issues but ST Clair loved that and tried to deal with it. The fact that she feels alone made her make a lot of bad choices and choose the wrong people to date, '' We accept the love we think we deserve'' - Perks of being a wallflower. Toph is a jerk but Anna didn't see that or at least she tried to ignore it until he gave her the finger and started to date her best friend. Anna has a good personality but she has issues with her emotions and feelings. She also knows what she really wants but how the fuck she calls her self a movie critic when she doesn't know that France is the holy Mecca of cinema!! It's like going to England pretending to love football without knowing that they have the premier league. 

And as caring and cliche ST Clair is he has a big issue, he loves Anna but doesn't want to leave his Gf because he is afraid to be alone. That's really fucked up it's like as if she is a back up plan!! and this is a big issue here. Plus he is an idiot, it's obvious that Anna is so much into him and his shampoos but he still feared that she might not be interested!! Plus I think he is one big wimp, his dad wants to enroll him in a certain school?? Tell him to fuck off, the English dictionary is full of swear words to piss the guy off. And the thing is?? As good looking and cute as he is he does have some self confidence issues which makes the whole thing good, these two aren't perfect by all means. 

So as predictable and cliche the plot is but without a doubt it's a nice read with some positives. It wasn't like twilight with it's fucked up and abused relation plus the character development and the step by step build up to the grand finale made the whole thing readable and entertaining. It isn't the best book I've ever read and it isn't the worst. It's a nice and light book that will leave you with a smile on the face...  

Goosebumps... beware! You're in for a scare!

Back in the 1990s Goosebumps was something big, a phenomena, it was so big that it became a brand by itself. I remember when I used to drink Goosebumps' weird fizzy drink while visiting Woolworth (RIP my friend), and till now I remember the Goosebumps pajamas that my mum brought to me, in other words the book series was so successful that they made pajamas out of them!!! 

I started to read Goosebumps when I was 8, and I was addicted to them. I fell in love with the series so much and I vowed to finish them all. What made things cooler is that I found out that there was a Goosebumps' TV series, I used to borrow them from the library. 

I was hooked up that I even read the damn series in arabic, in other words I was really obsessed with them (till now to be honest). So since this year we are expecting a goosebumps movie why don't I talk about my 10 favourite Goosebumps books!!  

1- Phantom of the auditorium

One hell of a book!! Some what inspired by phantom of the opera, the novel is about Zeke who got a role in the school play, The phantom. And as usual get ready for a hell of a twist at the end of the story. 

2- Say cheese and die

Imagine having a camera that takes photos of your future but not in a good way, yup that was one hell of a disturbing story, it's a Goosebumps classic, an essential book to read. I remember while watching final destination 3 when they used the photos that they took at the fun fair to see who will death attack and how, guess they were inspired by this book (maybe) and if you have no idea what am I talking about then watch the movie. 

3- Ghost beach 

God, I love this book!! I read the book in both Arabic and English, that's how much I love this novel. If you are into ghost and hunted caves then give this one a try, it's one of my personal favourites. I love the cover so much!! A kick ass cover, I love it.....

4- The haunted mask

One hell of a story!! Imagine wearing a mask that turns out to be alive and wants to take over your body. Creepy?! Yes but a damn good one, the TV episode was really good as well. I really don't know what is wrong with Halloween masks?? Even halloween 3's plot was about creepy masks and shit. 

5- Stay out of the basement 

This book sealed the deal to me, I was officially hooked after finishing this book and at some point it even gave me nightmares!! The plot is simple, daddy is working on an experiment, daddy doesn't want you any where near the basement, daddy is actin weird and well you were foolish enough to get into the basement, didn't daddy tell you to stay away?? The twisted ending was really epic, it's underrated though. 

6- One day at horror land!! 

So imagine going to an amusement park that is actually managed and ran by real live monsters!! Yeah, not a really good thing especially if they are trying to kill you. The TV episode was really great, give it a try. 

7- Don't go to sleep

Who would think that sleeping in the attic is a bad idea?? Poor Matt, he only wanted to have a bigger room, but sleeping in the attic proved to be a decision that he will regret later. Imagine that every time you wake up, you live in a brand new nightmare??? A life of never ending nightmares!! Poor Matt...

8- Night of the living dummy III

Slappy is one of R.L Stine's best characters, it's creepy, disturbing and yeah it's alive. Buying a talking dummy isn't a good idea, especially when it's Slappy. Out of the 3 main night of the living dummy books, the third one is my favourite. 

9- Vampire breath 

Imagine having a secret room in your basement that contains a bottle of vampires breath, now I guess that you are foolish enough to open the bottle, if so, congratulations!! Now you have a real ass vampire in your basement. God, I really love this one, I have it in Arabic and English. Not the strongest book out of the bunch but it's an interesting one.

10- Welcome to camp nightmare

that ending, that weird ass ending!!! 

Those are my top 10 favourite books with their covers, there are other Goosebumps series like Give yourself Goosebumps and Goosebumps 2000 so I might write other posts and entries about them. The guy wrote like a gazillion Goosebumps titles, hope you like my picks and if you haven't read them before then give em a try.... 

We can be Heroes, just for one day,,,,

Dear Friend...

I don't really know you and you you don't really know me but I just needed someone to tell him about this really great novel that a good friend friend of mine gave to me a couple of weeks ago. A couple of weeks ago I was going through movies to see what to watch and I decided to give ''The perks of being a wallflower'' a chance. I cried, I laughed, and I was speechless by the end of the movie. I didn't tell anyone about me feelings at the time, but I was in this dark place and this movie gave me this nice feeling that I haven't felt in a while especially when David Bowie's heroes played ad the end of the movie. I've heard that you are a great listener so I decided to tell you all of this. I love music and I love David Bowie so the whole movie was a great experience. 

After watching the movie I wanted to read the book so a friend of mine decided to give it to me and she told me that you'll be shocked but I wasn't sure why, what could be different?? And to be honest with the book did shock me, this might be one of the saddest novels I've ever read. The novel is so raw and sad and I felt sorry for the hero, Charlie. I know you might think that I am mad but I hope you understand what I want to say. The book is so well written that I felt Charlie's emotions and confusion throughout the book. What made me love Charlie is that he loves to read like me and he wants to be an author. I want to be a writer one day, may be one day I'll write my first ever novel with my future wife or girl friend or may be I'll be able to work in an online magazine or something. 

Now you might ask me, why would I recommend this book to you?? I will assume that you love reading plus the novel has a lot of interesting themes. The novel discussed the meaning of true friendship (the relation between Charlie, Sam and Patrick). I also like that Charlie wasn't your stereotype teenager who hates his parents, on the contrary Charlie loves his mum so much and his whole family and on every occasion he just wants to make them happy. And this might be Charlie's problem that he wants everyone to be happy and this leads to him neglecting himself, it is really sad don't you think?? It made me sad and I think you might be sad as well. So I guess happiness might be the real theme here, how everyone of us sees happiness and how to pursue it.

I don't really want to spoil the story for you but I guess denial might be another theme here. You might love someone but you don't want to admit it, you might have experienced a bad experience when you were young that affected you badly but you just deny the whole thing and forget it. But the thing is such things might lead to a snowball effect that might take it's toll on you and destroy you. Denial isn't a solution, you have to face your problems and conquer them (sorry, I'm being corny here).

Love is also one of the novel's main themes and like what Bill said to Charlie ''We accept the love we think we deserve'' I love this quote and so do my friends and I really hope you like it too, you will understand how strong it is when you read the book. I think the author here doesn't only mean love as in a relationship but he talks about love in general. Family love, friends love, and yes love between two different people. ''We accept the love we think we deserve'' Sometimes you think that you have chosen the right person to love and care about while in reality this person doesn't suit you, and I've been there before but it's something that I'd rather keep to my self.

So I don't really want to bother you more, I know you have things to do so let me wrap this up. The novel is raw, simple and has really great characters who got developed really well to a point that you could relate to them. Charlie's words are simple, his feelings are so mixed up and sometimes you might be disturbed by what he is writing, poor kid. After finishing the novel my feelings were so mixed up and I was feeling really emotional that I decided to tell somebody about them. Was the ending happy or sad?? I think it was an open one, you'll have to draw you own conclusions but I hope Sam, Patrick, Charlie and others are living great lives and are happy. I'm not making any sense now so I should stop writing. Oh, the author has a really great taste in music, I loved his choices of songs in the book.Hope you won't be annoyed by this long letter or mail, okay Now I've to end this, thank you for reading this...

Love always..

- Sam,,, 

Farida's mirror...

  So last week I decided to write about the wonderful world of Naguib Mahfouz which gave me this nice idea, let's dedicate this month to Egyptian authors. I took sometime to think about who should I talk about??? until I found a post on my time line that talked about Riham Rady's signing session at Alef book store so I told my self, well why not?? Lets talk about Riham Rady and her novel ''Farida's Mirror''. 

Working at a book store gives me the chance to know about the latest releases and new authors to check out and read. And that's how I came across the novel, the cover and the novel's overview made me want to read it and see how good the novel is. The plot is really simple yet it was an interesting read and showed me how talented Riham is. The novel talks about a young journalist who goes by the name Pinar?! (Hope this is how you pinar in English, not a common name tbh) and her life after her mother's death. The turning point in her life came when her boss asked her to make a new and interesting report for the magazine that she works with. The thing is Pinar is more into celebrities than making serious reports and interview but after a while she decides to take on this new challenge and come out of her comfort zone by making a report about an Egyptian slum area,  and how this report will be the key to changing her life. The interesting thing is that Riham decided to talk about Al- Dwika and make it the center piece of Pinar's report. When made me relate to this part is the fact that I went to this area when I was a political sciences student. I had this projects about slum areas and the culture of poverty and we were asked to go to a slum area to study it and apply what we have studied on our projects. It wasn't an easy experience, I was really shocked of what I've seen there. As they say, you have to see it to believe it. I couldn't imagine that people could live in such places. 

Imagine living your life in a house that could kill you at any time, no electricity, dirty water and having your whole family to live in one room without a bathroom so the question that the author tried to answer here ''can we make a difference to these people?!'' Yes, it's the government's duty to provide better lives to such people but we as citizens have a role towards these people and that's what Riham tried to prove through Pinar and her report. The thing is the whole experience was a life changer to Pinar, it made her question her life, her goals and aims. There are other sub plots in the novel that contributed in changing pinar's life but I don't want to spoil it for you guys. But I found Pinar's relationship with her boy friend really interesting, Stephen Chbosky was right when he said that we accept the love we think we deserve, it's a common problem that we choose to love and date the wrong people. I think what Riham wanted to say the love isn't everything, you might love someone so much but he isn't treating you right or just doesn't care but still you just keep hanging on to him/her which reminded me of Chbosk'y quote. So as a whole the novel is really simple, depressing a bit but the ending was happy and satisfying. I really do believe that Riham is a really talented author with a great gift in her hands, I liked the novel so much and it is one of my favourite novels in 2014. By god, I was so happy when I met Riham this year in her signing session at the book fair.

So yeah, give this book a try. It's simple, interesting and yes uplifting. It covered a wide range of topics like family relations, slum areas, love and women in the Egyptian society, I really liked how Riham tied all of these topics together without making it long. Hope you guys like the novel, and here is Riham's facebook page so check it out: 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/%D8%B1%D9%87%D8%A7%D9%85-%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%B6%D9%8A-Riham-Rady/458077604294084?ref=ts&fref=ts 

About the author:

- Born in 1987.

- Graduated from the Faculty of mass communication science. 

- Farida's mirror is her first novel as an author. 

- Besides being an author she works as a business developer as well...