A heart-wrenching one, if you dare to read. “This posthumous translation of Rosales, a Cuban-American writer who committed suicide in 1993, delivers a raw, powerful story set in a Miami home for the mentally ill… It’s a frightening, nihilistic cousin of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest .”― Publishers Weekly Never before available in English, … Read more
I have to admit, I cannot always take fiction written by feminist authors personally, but this got me. Different protagonists, different modes and perspectives in the stories, but there is something very humane common to all that captured me. So I wanted to share it with you. Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo In case … Read more
I just came across this book of stories. A very clever idea! Rewriting the fairy tales with a “politically correct” style! Makes it very funny. “Red Riding Hood screamed, not out of alarm at the wolf’s apparent tendency toward cross-dressing, but because of his willful invasion of her personal space.” ― James Finn Garner, Politically … Read more
I stopped complaining about the hot and humid summer days of İstanbul. I am, of course, thankful that I did not need to go out. I mean not out of the office. Tomorrow I will have to attend a funeral. So I will be out, but on this super hot day, I stayed indoors. Undeterred … Read more
With an increasingly busy schedule (May will be overwhelming) and CIV 7 playing, I could not find much time to unbox for a while. There is also the problem of storage. Where will I put the boxes? I am redesigning my office space and also our apartment. In the meantime, here are some findings: 1988 … Read more
After a long hiatus, here is the second post in my unboxing series. Now that we are back in İstanbul, I can start looking around the boxes with a touch of nostalgia. 2006-2008 Milli İstirahat I have spent many evenings in coffeehouses playing cards until the pandemic! I guess until 2013, I spent more time … Read more
We, Sinem and I, have decided to celebrate the second anniversary of our marriage in Kars. Kars sounds magical, especially in winter. I have had my eyes on Kars since reading Orhan Pamuk’s Snow, which takes place in Kars. So far, Kars did not disappoint us at all, even though there is no snow! We … Read more
Despite being a star academic, he was kind enough to return my emails when I was an MA student. His Weapons of the Weak was influential in political thinking, and his Seeing Like a State was a major source for me retreating from a particular radical politics. In my Rice years, my research focus changed, … Read more
Just finished Barbara Kingsolver‘s Demon Copperhead. It grasped my soul while reading it. Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, this is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father’s good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce … Read more
A former graduate student of mine published a book on “White Slaves.” These were mostly Circassians (and many Caucasian region people labeled as Circassians), and although slavery was banned in the late Ottoman Empire, slavery continued until the 1940s in Anatolia albeit in a a very smaller scale! This is quite an awakening moment for … Read more
I am reading a nice book A Social History of Ottoman Istanbul. One chapter deals with the fires. It was the most damaging disaster for centuries. Mavi Boncuk listed major fires: Major Named Istanbul Fires Mavi Boncuk | The period with no organized Tulumba Fire Crews until 1714. Important fires of this period; 1510 It … Read more
When I began to read The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos by Judy Batalion, the Hamas attack and the subsequent massacres in Gaza by Israel hadn’t happened yet. Right now I am reading how Jewish women fighters led the resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and how … Read more
It is Christian who introduced me to Theodor Fontane. A year ago, we were walking through the places where Fontane described in his novel. I finished heartbreaking Effi Briest while staring at foresty mountains in Trabzon. I have fallen in love with Abdulrazak Gurnah and recently finished his Afterlives. Here is an accidental find. A … Read more
Although “companion” may sound like a long textual content Patricia Seed had collected 100 relatively less known maps from the history of map making and added short informative and enjoyable texts to invited the readers to a journey in world history and map making. The Oxford Map Companion: One Hundred Sources in World History I … Read more
They are not in my immediate research interests, but I enjoyed and benefitted from reading them: Critiques of Everyday Life: An Introduction A very informative summary of major schools of thought and thinkers on the everyday life. Before Orthodoxy: The Satanic Verses in Early Islam One of the most informative pieces on the issue of … Read more