Well folks, landed safely in Amman, Jordan after a lovely easy flight. Touched down at 3am local time and by the day's end had sat down to a local dish of Mansaf (an absolute must and totally heavenly food) after which I headed off to watch 'Cirque de Glace- Evolution' at Amman's Al Hussein Youth City (Cultural Palace). 

A dazzling performance by a strong cast of 40 skaters from Russia, all Olympic winners going at such high speed that at times was a bit too frightening especially when one takes into account the size of the stage they were performing on. But the cast done good (despite a few trip-ups here and there) and it was an enjoyable performance that earned the skaters a standing ovation throughout the full-house!

That was yesterday and today I did what I do best which is browse through the aisles of bookshops.  I visited the Reader's Bookshop located on the Ground Floor of Amman's Cozmo shopping centre. The staff were very friendly and the layout modern and easy to navigate through. If left to my own devices I could have bought much more than I did, but I still have a week here and more book haunts to visit and so will hold out a bit longer. Here is what I bought:

1. A Bride's Gift by Ulla N.G. Khraisat: this is a love story between Anna, Swedish and unmarried, and Ahmad, Jordanian and married. It takes place in Jordan, Amman, Irbid, Umm Qais, and Sweden, Stockholm, between 1989 and 1991, in the shadow of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and the following war. For Anna, marriage is not necessary while Ahmad insists on marriage. A divorce is for him immoral. He wants Anna as his second wife. Will Swedish Anna accept to be wife number two? Anna meets Karin, a Swedish woman living in Irbid with her Jordanian husbands Ali. A deep friendship develops between the two women. (synopsis from the cover).

2. Twice Shy by Samar Salfiti: Sara lacks confidence, but finds it very plentiful in her friends, brothers, and parents. She  struggles, however, to find comfort in her older sister, who is always turning her away. When a new friend, Amelia, enters Sara's life, things become complicated. Amelia is a strong character who goes after what she wants, at any expense. The two girls hit it off and Sara cherishes her friend until Amelia's behaviour changes and makes her question how much of a friend she really is. Struggling through the seventh grade, Sara learns about boys, coping with her sister's deviant behaviour, and how to deal with different friends.

3. On Love & Death by Hisham Bustani ( عن الحب و الموت): Short stories in Arabic.

4. Black Suits You Well by Ahlam Mosteghanemi (الاسود يليق بكِ)

Well, I'm off to Amman, Jordan tomorrow night and that is where my posts will be dispatching from all of next week. I am really looking forward not only to getting together with family and friends but also to nosing around the capital's bookstores and getting my hands on some of the Arabic written books I have been coveting for a while. Up there on my list is Jordanian writer and author Hisham al-Bustani. I became aware of Hisham's story 'Nightmares of the City'  last year translated into English by translator Thorayya El-Rayiss and have since been really looking forward to reading his prose in Arabic. Will let you know how that gets along but until then you can watch a video of him reading -in English- an excerpt of on of the stories from his latest book "The Perception of Meaning" by clicking HERE.

Of course, due to my trip, I won't be in London this weekend so I will be missing London's Children's Bookswap annual event taking place this Saturday Feb.9 at various locations around London. I was due to go to the one being held at London's Southbank Centre. For those of you unfamiliar with the event, this is a giant book swap where children aged 5-11 bring along their books to swap for other ones. Great for mums and dads looking to have a clear-out as well. The event is free and for more information about this particular venue, click HERE and click HERE for all other participating venues.

Remember folks, it's Valentine's Day tomorrow (this lady is flying all the way to the Rose City for it) and if you're wondering what to give that someone on this special day, I suggest books, books, books.  Think 'The Dark Side of Love' by Rafik Shami, 'Anna Karenina' by Tolstoy, 'Wild Swans' by Jung Chang, and my favourite 'Birdsong' by Julian Faulks. And if you'r wondering what to write in that blasted blank but too cute not to get card then this website should help you!

Have a fab day everyone!

Shrove Tuesday, also known as Pancake Day in the UK, or Mardi Gras in the US and France, is the best day of the year in our house as far as we're concerned. It's the only day we can justify having obscene amounts of chocolate spread slathered in wanton abandon on pancakes for not one, not two but for three meals of the same day. And before you pass judgement, I draw your attention my dear readers to the fact that the name given to this day in Iceland is 'Sprengidagur' which literally means "The Day of Bursting". I rest my case!

Shrove Tuesday is the last day before Lent which is considered the beginning of the build-up to Easter. Long time ago, people would go to church on this day and confess their sins for which they would be 'shriven' or forgiven. They would celebrate with a feast afterward. The following day is Ash Wednesday and it is when the period of Lent actually commences and serves to remind Christians of Jesus's 40 days without food spent alone in the desert. To commemorate the occasion, many Christians give up a favourite food for 40 days and give money to charity. Lent ends on Maundy Thursday, the day before Good Friday.

I actually, for the first time ever, tried a gluten-free recipe for my pancakes this year (all I'll say is that I'm on one of my diets yet again). They were brilliant and very easy to make. Click HERE for recipe.

"I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;
I lift my lids and all is born again.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,
And arbitrary blackness gallops in:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed
And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

God topples from the sky, hell's fires fade:
Exit seraphim and Satan's men:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I fancied you'd return the way you said,
But I grow old and I forget your name.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

I should have loved a thunderbird instead;
At least when spring comes they roar back again.
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)"

The Map of Love by Ahdaf Soueif
In 1900 Lady Anna Winterbourne travels to Egypt where she falls in love with Sharif, and Egyptian Nationalist utterly committed to his country's cause. 
A hundred years later, Isabel Parkman, an American divorcee and a descendant of Anna and Sharif, goes to Egypt, taking with her an old family trunk, inside which are found notebooks and journals which reveal Anna and Sharif's secret. 

Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick
The collapse of her brief marriage has stalled Bea Nightingale's life, leaving her middle-aged and alone, teaching in an impoverished borough of 1950s New York. A plea from her estranged brother gives Bea the excuse to escape lassitude by leaving for Paris to retrieve a nephew she barely knows; but the siren call of Europe threatens to deafen Bea to the dangers of entangling herself in the lives of her brother's family. Traveling from America to France, Bea leaves the stigma of divorce on the far side of the Atlantic; newly liberated, she chooses to defend her nephew and his girlfriend Lili by waging a war of letters on the brother she has promised to help. But Bea's generosity is a mixed blessing: those she tries to help seem to be harmed, and as Bea's family unravel from around her, she finds herself once again drawn to the husband she thought she had left in the past.

In the news:
This article in the Guardian "Library Readers Still in Love with Danielle Steel after 30 Years" put a smile on my face all day. 

Black Mamba Boy is the compelling and stunning fictionalised account of author Nadifa Mohamed's father, Jama; a Somali born to a superstitious, resilient and loving mother, Ambaro and hardened dreamer father, Guure. The book starts in Aden, where Jama and his mother live a dismal life on the roof of some relatives' home who have agreed to take them in when Ambaro had moved to the city (from Somalia) to make a better life for herself and her son. With his father gone to find work in Sudan, Jama's constant yearning is to be re-united with him once more.

When Jama's mother dies he embarks on what can only be described as an epic journey searching for a father whose face he doesn't even know. The time is the 1930's and the setting is Africa where this illiterate, uneducated ten-year-old boy, barefoot most of the time, has to travel by train, lorry, camel and bus, on his own across lands that are barren blistering desert where the beginnings of a mass famine are taking root.

But Jama is one lucky boy, his luck in stark contrast to those around him. He survives captivity on an Italian compound held in a chicken pen like an animal only for his friend Shidane to die the most gruesome of deaths. He survives malaria when others perish and emerges dusty, disoriented and yet scratch-free when a bomb detonates at one of the Italian guard posts, with him the only survivor. In one instant Jama is land owner and rich and yet suddenly he is a sailor aboard the ill-fated 1947 Exodus ship mingling with Holocaust survivors. At one point imprisoned by the Egyptians, he even manages to save the life of a Lebanese driver. But for all Jama's luck it is on the night he is finally to be re-united with his father, the man of his dreams, that his luck faces its biggest challenge.

Black Mamba Boy is a beautifully written book full to the brim with mysticism interlaced with brutal reality. The book definitely depicts the harsh political, economic and social hardships East Africa's people and those of the neighbouring countries in the region were having to face at the time Jama went in search of his father. But Nadifa Mohamed's main interest lies not in dissecting these circumstances or laying blame, in fact the harshness of the book is in its reality and unapologising attitude. The message is clear: this is what Jama had to deal with and this is what he had to do to survive. My tip would be to read a little about the history of Somalia and Eritrea particularly to get a better grasp of the effects of British and Italian presence in the region and how it translated in the daily life of the people in East Africa.

There are many stations that exude beauty, lyricism and astounding writing from the author and I found the first pages of the book to be the most magical and powerful. Throughout the book themes of exodus and a search of a promised land are very dominant and particularly evident in the manner that Mohamed chooses to end her book. The ending did seem a bit rushed and I am quite mildly surprised that since its publication in 2009 there hasn't been a sequel. But who knows?

In the end, this may be a story about a boy in search of his father but it is most certainly to do with a girl who believes her father is "the real hero, not the fighting or romantic kind but the real deal, the starved child that survives every sling and arrow that shameless fortune throws at them, and who can sit back and tell the stories of all the ones that didn't make it." This girl promised to be her father's griot and has well and truly succeeded!

February is African American History Month in the US and Canada. The month, more famously known as Black History Month, is dedicated to remembering all the men, women and events involved in the African Diaspora. In the UK, it is celebrated in October.

It first started in the US as a week labeled 'Negro History Week' in 1926 by historian Carter G. Woodson and the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. They were hoping it would be a temporary week that would be terminated once black history became fundamental to American history. The first celebration of Black History Month took place in Kent State University in the US in February 1970 and then in 1976, the American Federal Government officially acknowledged to move it from a week to a month and thus its current status. Black History Month was first celebrated in the UK in 1987.

As one would expect, there is a lot of controversy surrounding this event one of which that it seems quite 'unfair' to have a month dedicated to a certain 'race'. Charles C.W. Cooke from "National Review Online' posted an article today with the title 'Against Black History Month'. It is a very interesting view and a very enjoyable and informative read. (click HERE to go to article).

I've always loved a good story and so I have chosen the two books below mainly for the beautiful writing and for their seriously good illustrations and of course for the poignancy of their characters in particular relation to Black History Month. So, in my opinion if to mark any occasion leads to reading a book or two, then it is an occasion to consider.

A final quick note: As someone who lives in the UK, I will post more on Black History Month and the events taking place in the UK to mark it just before October.

If A Bus Could Talk by Faith Ringgold
This is the true story of Rosa Parks who as a child had to walk for miles to get to school while white children got to ride there in a bus. It then tells how as an adult, Rosa rode the bus but could never sit in the same row with white people. This is the story of when one day Rosa Parks decided not to give up her seat for the white person and how that one single act of courage made history. It is by author Faith Ringgold.

Henry's Freedom Box by Ellen Levine
A beautiful picture book about the true story of Henry 'Box' Brown, a slave who mails himself to the North. Henry doesn't know how old he is because they don't keep records of slaves' birthdays. All he has known in life is loss. Taken away from his family, he is enslaved to work in a warehouse where he grows up, gets married and has a family of his own who are one day sold at the slave market. Devastated and resolved, he knows the time has come for one thing only: to mail himself to the North. A decision that is to change everything. The book is written by Ellen Levine and illustrated by Kadir Nelson.

For more information on Black History Month, click HERE