タグ: London_ENG

★★★★★ Love letter to London that’s disappearing. We all have different opinions, skin colour, age, roots, culture, education, faith, or lack of any or all of it, but we try to survive this thing called life as a community.

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White Teeth
Zadie Smith, 2000
464 pages
Read 2024.7


🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
The most talked about book ever since I arrived in London, for over 2 decades now.
And only now reading it.
Somehow I thought it be more, coarse or rough, but it was surprisingly heart warming and this really is the London I loved, the mess and how Londoners coped.

But I lived mostly in Islington, more clearly a Turkish area, but it is what you'd seen even in 2003 when I arrived, then slowly disappeared, or put under the carpet.

We all have different opinions, skin colour, age, roots, culture, education, faith, or lack of any or all of it, and it's ok you are not the same, or not in agreement, but we try to survive this thing called life as a community. 
The struggle to survive as a community, as a component of something big and messy, it's the fun, it's worth it.

🔽 Where to buy 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

White Teeth: A Novel

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
White Teeth: The iconic, award-winning modern classic celebrates its 25th anniversary

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
Denti bianchi (Italiano)

★★★★★ Who doesn’t know Dracula? But so the threat is in the town and awakens intelligence and sexuality in women, and men go out to destroy. Definitely playing with female sexuality and empowerment.

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Dracula 
Bram Stoker, 1897
352 pages
Read 2024.8


🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
The classic of the classics, who doesn't know Dracula?

The entire novel is written as if it were collection of diaries, notes and letters.
In a way surprisingly to me that it was full of pure adventures, good guys chasing the bad guy to save woman.
But it is the woman who became the victim because of the men's heroism and she saves their asses.
Also if you read between the lines, it's sexual, or bisexual even. Dracula likes the blood of young beautiful women, but he also imprisoned Jonathan and attempted to attack him also.

So, the threat is in the town and it brings about the awakening of women to their intelligence and sexuality, so the 4 men go out to hunt. That's one way to look at it but certainly it's playing a lot with the idea if female sexuality and empowerment. 

🔽 Where to buy 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

Dracula (Penguin Classics) 

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
Dracula: Stoker Bram (Penguin Classics)

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
Dracula (Italiano)

★★★★★ Nuns with good intentions in the isolated hills out of Darjeeling, which used to be a harem. If that doesn’t promise the hysteria and darkness. As expected they slowly went mad.

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Black Narcissus 
Rumer Godden, 1939
258 pages
Read 2024.8


🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
Nuns with good intentions in the isolated hills out of Darjeeling, which used to be a harem.
If that doesn't promise the hysteria and darkness, I don't know what does. 
As expected they slowly went mad.

It's in a way stereotypical, how can they dare to go out to someone else's back garden to preach, when the locals have been living perfectly fine. 
How could the women, with different tempers expect to live peacefully, when they're not welcome.

It's the dark side of living in Darjeeling hills, as the young General said, people go mad when they stay too close to the mountain Kanchenjunga, God.

Sexual tensions, the struggle between white supremacy and Christian philanthropy, the end of British Empire.
And it did make it into a rather successful film and series.
In the final days of the Imperial rule, some British also thought it was good and made a film out of it, too. I must watch it.

🔽 Where to buy 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

Black Narcissus: A Novel

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
Black Narcissus: Now a haunting BBC drama starring Gemma Arterton (Virago Modern Classics Book 158)

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
Narciso nero (Italiano)

★★★★☆  Comedy written 100+ years ago but still very British, the awkwardness, pretentiousness, and he really tries to show his dignity but everything goes wrong, so awkward.

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The Diary of a Nobody
George and Weedon Grossmith, 1892
176 pages
Read in 2022.01


🔽 Book review and notes 🔽

One of the books I randomly picked up, and it turned out to be a book of British comedy of a man who lived in Holloway, where I also lived for a while, though it was written over 130 years ago.

It's very British, the awkwardness, pretentiousness, and he really tries to show his dignity but everything goes wrong, so awkward.
You can't help but feel sorry for Mr. Pooter, the Mr. Nobody, and be charmed by his gentleness.

🔽 Where to buy / Summary and more info 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

Diary of a Nobody (Wordsworth Classics) 

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
Diary of a Nobody

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
The Diary of a Nobody (English)

★★★★☆ People come with hope for a better life, and soon enough realise there is no such thing. London is a place for rich to rule. The money, the power, the evil. And what is the shared feeling? the loneliness.

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Caledonian Road
Andrew O'Hagan, 2024
657 pages
Read in 2025.11


🔽 Book review and notes 🔽

If anyone asks what today's London is like, I'd say read this book.
It has all the problems the city is experiencing in the last few years.

People come with hope for a better life, and soon enough realise there is no such thing.
London is a place for rich to rule, it's something we ordinary people have difficulty seeing, but it's always in the background. 
The money, the power, the evil.
And what is the shared feeling? the loneliness.

This sense of "us" vs "them".
We the people, they the evil things.

An exciting book that contains a lot of aspects of today, traditional rich, Russian rich, rich kids, rich kids who are Eco warriors, young gangs, illegal immigration, the class struggles - it depicts different points of view from different class and communities.

Lastly it was nice to read a story about Islington where I lived for more than 10 years, it's a big borough with all the essences of London.

🔽 Where to buy / Summary and more info 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

Caledonian Road: The Sunday Times bestseller

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
Caledonian Road: The Sunday Times bestseller

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
Caledonian Road (English)