#shokoofeh azar

[quotelr]

It's life's failure and its deficiencies that make someone a daydreamer. I don't understand why prophets and philosophers didn't see the significance in that. I think imagination is at the heart of reality, or at least, is the immediate definition and interpretation of reality.

Shokoofeh Azar, The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree

[paullovescomics]

Fiction and Poetry that I read in the second half of 2023

That's it! Those are very different novels, but they don't go in any of the other categories. I've enjoyed reading poetry again after so many years. It's not easy to find the stuff I like, but thankfully the local bookstore downtown has a large selection.

[thepainsofyearning]

“And love, only love

carried me to the expanse of life's sorrow

delivered me to the places to become a bird.”

The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree -Shokoofeh Azar

[litandroses]

2022 Notable Reads

In no particular order! Books included here does not necessarily mean I rated them highly or that I rated them at all. These are the ones that pleasantly surprised me, that had me thinking, made me feel (scarily) seen, and for some the lasting impact (on me) was simply inexplicable sadness.

Should you choose to read whichever book seems interesting to you or one that is not yet familiar to you, I hope you enjoy too.

You may also find this list here <3

[faithsbookdiary]

BOOK LIST + MOVIE LIST

POST EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE*

BOOKS

The unread/in-progress books on my shelves include:

HARUKI MURAKAMI

Kafka on the Shore (finished)

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (finished)

IQ84 (in-progress)

Underground

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

A Wild Sheep Chase

Killing Commendatore

After Dark

SHOKOOFEH AZAR

The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree (finished)

BAE MYUNG-HOON

Tower (finished)

BORA CHUNG

Curse Bunny

JOKHA ALHERTHI

Celestial Bodies

KAREN TEI YAMASHITA

Through the Arc of the Rain Forest

ABE

The Woman in the Dunes

BANANA YOSHIMOTO

kitchen

YAN GE

Strange Beasts of China

WU CH'ENG-EN

Monkey (in progress)

ROYALL TYLER

Japanese Tales

MOVIES

The movies I'd eventually like to talk about include:

Belle (2021)

The Boy and the Beast (2016)

Summer Wars (2009)

Mirai (2018)

Anthem of the Heart (2015)

My favorite Kdrama list: https://mydramalist.com/list/4a6NkMm1

(last updated 02/03/2022. Any recommendations can be sent via asks. Thank you!!)

*Frequency of posts tbd as I start out. Thank you for your patience!!

[universitybookstore]

New from Europa Editions and one of Iran’s rising literary stars, The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree, by Shokoofeh Azar. “ Using the lyrical magic realism style of classical Persian storytelling, Azar draws the reader deep into the heart of a family caught in the maelstrom of post-revolutionary chaos and brutality that sweeps across an ancient land and its people. “ -- from the Stella Prize citation. (Read the interview with the author here.)

[left-handlibrary]

Making a start on The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree. There are a few on the Stella Prize longlist I’m excited to get to, though it’s unlikely that I’ll make my way through many before the shortlist, or even the actual award itself, is announced. This novel is set just after the Islamic Revolution in Iran (1979) which, as the blurb says, ‘draws the reader deep into the heart of a family caught in the maelstrom of post-revolutionary chaos and brutality that sweeps across an ancient land and its people’.

[bookishluna]

Reading Challenge | Reading a Shortlist 2021

Reading Challenge | Reading a Shortlist 2021

Hello and welcome to one of the first posts where I go through some of the goals I have for myself in 2021. One challenge I have for myself is reading a shortlist. This past year I did the Man Booker Prize, which is not just the Booker Prize. I will be posting a wrap up to that tomorrow, so keep an eye out! This year I decided I am going to read the International Booker Prize 2020 Shortlist. I…

[bookjotter6865]

Winding Up the Week #110

Winding Up the Week #110

An end of week recap

I ventured out between downpours this week to join Barmouth Library in the hope of tracking down an English-language collection of Caradog Pritchard’s poetry for the Wales Readathon (having failed to detect any such thing on the Internet). Alas, it appears none of his poems have been translated and I must turn elsewhere for a suitable introduction to Dewithon 2020, which…

[morshiberna]

tagged by @songsfromfakemovies thank you caro 🫶🏻🫂

last song: disco tits by tove lo

last movie: Нелюбовь (2017)

currently reading: i will soon start reading ‘the enlightenment of the greengage tree’ by shokoofeh azar!

tagging @weiwuxian @sehnis @katesharmasheart @harubirus @deppixelated @vanillalipstick66 🥰🥰🥰

[bookclub4m]

21 Books in Translation by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) Authors

Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcasts chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here. This is our retrospective book list for Episode 006 - Books in Translation.

Mama Hissa's Mice by Saud Alsanousi, translated by Sawad Hussain (Arabic)

Mirror of the Darkest Night by Mahasweta Devi, translated by Shamya Dasgupta (Bengali)

Invisible Planets: An Anthology of Contemporary Chinese SF in Translation, edited and translated by Ken Liu (Chinese)

Beijing Comrades by Bei Tong, translated by Scott E. Myers (Chinese)

The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar, translated by Anonymous (Farsi)

Ru by Kim Thúy, translated by Sheila Fischman (French)

Tram 83 by Fiston Mwanza Mujila, translated by Roland Glasser (French)

Three Strong Women by Marie NDiaye, translated by John Fletcher (French)

Last Night in Nuuk by Niviaq Korneliussen, translated by Anna Halager (Greenlandic/Danish)

Beauty Is a Wound by Eka Kurniawan, translated by Annie Tucker (Indonesian)

Beyond Babylon by Igiaba Scego, translated by Aaron Robertson (Italian)

Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo, translated by Jamie Chang (Korean)

Your Republic is Calling You by Young-Ha Kim, translated by Chi-Young Kim (Korean)

The Lonesome Bodybuilder by Yukiko Motoya, translated by Asa Yoneda (Japanese)

Ghachar Ghochar by Vivek Shanbhag, translated by Srinath Perur (Kannada)

The Sun on My Head by Geovani Martins, translated by Julia Sanches (Portugese)

Good Morning Comrades by Ondjaki, translated by Stephen Henighan (Portugese)

Time Commences in Xibalbá by Luis de Lión, translated by Nathan C. Henne (Spanish)

La Bastarda by Trifonia Melibea Obono, translated by Lawrence Schimel (Spanish)

Poonachi: Or the Story of a Black Goat by Perumal Murugan, translated by N. Kalyan Raman (Tamil)

Doomi Golo: The Hidden Notebooks by Boubacar Boris Diop, translated by Vera Wülfing-Leckie and El Hadji Moustapha Diop (Wolof/French)

[vera-dauriac]

6, 12, 18 for the books meme

6 newest release of the year?

I read a few things released this year (which is what I think the question is getting at).

The Lost Pianos of Siberia by Sophy Roberts

The Bright Lands by John Fram A Beautiful Crime by Christopher Bollen

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell The Trouble with Peace by Joe Abercrombie

The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall

Common Goal by Rachel Reid

The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

Cleanness by Garth Greenwell

The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar, translation Adrien Kijek It Would Be Night in Caracas by Karina Sainz Borgo, translation Elizabeth Bryer

Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann, translation Ross Benjamin (Which is this year if you count when it was translated into English)

The Kingdom by Jo Nesbo, translated by Robert Ferguson (Which is surely the most recent release—November 10 in English.)

12 what book was the most out of your comfort zone?

The Bright Lands by John Fram. I usually don’t read horror.

18 what books did you reread?

Emma by Jane Austen

Howards End by EM Forster

A Little Hatred by Joe Abercrombie

Thanks so much for asking Nonny! Other folks should feel free to ask more from this list.

[abiskitap]

Posted @withrepost • @nazz_nal 🖇️Yaban Eriği Ağacında Gelen Aydınlanma Shokoofeh Azar Çeviri: Okan Özler Alıntılar🖇️ *“Evler ve hayaller o kadar küçüldü ki kelebekler bile şehri terk ediyor.” *Her şey derin bir uykuya geçmiş. *“Tek çare gökyüzüne bakmak.” Olağanüstünün de ötesinde bir eser, ısrar ile tavsiyemdir. ##bookstagramturkey ##bookstagram #bookslovers #abiskitap https://www.instagram.com/p/ClQ-VvUNtOa/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[litandroses]

Boosting a message:

Shokoofeh Azar is the author of The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree which I have recently read and enjoyed immensely. Shokoofeh Azar author made use of magical realism to express the plight of Iranian people, for some the indirect implications may not work, but in my case, I was left devastated; a part of me will stay in Razan.

Synopsis:

From the pen of one of Iran’s rising literary stars, The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree is a family story about the unbreakable connection between the living and the dead.

Set in Iran in the decade following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, this moving, richly imagined novel is narrated by the ghost of Bahar, a thirteen-year-old girl, whose family is compelled to flee their home in Tehran for a new life in a small village, hoping in this way to preserve both their intellectual freedom and their lives. But they soon find themselves caught up in the post-revolutionary chaos that sweeps across their ancient land. Bahar’s mother, after a tragic loss, will embark on a long, eventful journey in search of meaning in a world swept up in the post-revolutionary madness.

Told from the wise yet innocent gaze of a young girl, The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree speaks of the power of imagination when confronted with cruelty, and of our human need to make sense of trauma through the ritual of storytelling itself. Through her unforgettable characters, Azar weaves a timely and timeless story that juxtaposes the beauty of an ancient, vibrant culture with the brutality of an oppressive political regime.

[partlysmith]

On architectural horror— there’s this fantastic book I recently read called “The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree” by Shokoofeh Azar. It’s a beautiful and complex book set following the Iranian Revolution and the Iran-Iraq war, and it covers many things, including the traumas of war. A content warning for related topics if you decide to read the book. 1/2

thanks, I'll look into it!

[faithsbookdiary]

The First Entry

I just got the email: I've officially earned a degree in Cinema and Television Arts (shoutout to that minor in Illustration)! I've got four weeks until it shows up in the mail. I'm moving on to the rest of my life, and that means (for now) job applications and financial insecurity and burning questions from my mom asking what I'm going to do now that time is at my disposal, and not having an answer.

I am on job application 15 and counting. The process is reminding me of the internship applications I had to do back in September, and that was already borderline traumatic (20+ applications, one response). It's making me realize how late I am to the game- how a pandemic and some crappy moments and the dwelling on both has really held me back from being that "perfect candidate" for the writing positions I want.

I have to rebuild my portfolio from scratch. I have to figure out what people are looking for, and if I have that certain something. I have to find out that all of the writing positions I'm looking at require 3+ years of experience, so how am I supposed to get experience if all the jobs need experience.

I'm working on personal projects until someone bites. I'm talking to people. I'm trying to prevent myself from feeling the stress of the Revelation: Hey Faith. It's looking like your education isn't helping you like you thought it would.

But that's not what this post is about. That's the teaser.

I decided to start a book diary for two reasons:

ONE, I took a Comparative Literature Class in my final semester, and it changed my life. The topic was an introduction to Asian Lit, which was something I was interested in because at that point in my life I was years down the rabbit hole of Asian Dramas and Kpop and Chinese web novels, and I wanted to explore different mediums. This class was amazing. Our professor was passionate and knew what she was talking about. We weren't being talked to, like a lot of college courses I've had to sit through- we were actually learning. I'm not much of a public speaker (aside from that anxiety of sitting in a classroom of silence when a teacher asks a question, and everyone refuses to answer), but I found that my ideas were easy to deliver in that room.

And the books. THE BOOKS. We sat with the Monkey King (who I was already hanging with long before the class started) and watched Ghibli and explored Korean poems and short stories from the Philippines and excerpts from China and Shokoofeh Azar and Murakami. Let me say that again. Murakami.

This class also placed a name on something that I've long been in love with: Magical Realism.

I used to get the genre confused with Urban Fantasy. I'd explain to my friends and readers and classmates that I loved writing personal stories in normal settings, but magic was alive and inexplicable and treated as if it was always there. Because I believe it is. Magic is around us in small doses if we look for it. Miracles happen. Intuition is correct. Sending best wishes work.

Knowing the True Name™ to what I'm passionate about let me explore its rap sheet. Murakami is bolded up there for a reason. I was assigned Kafka on the Shore and everything shifted. I couldn't stop talking about it. I had to show up to class with a discretion warning: I will not shut up. Beware me. JOHNNIE WALKER NEEDS TO BE TALKED ABOUT. I needed to find a platform to express my thoughts. I considered (note: considered) a Masters in English. Remember the degree I announced in the first sentence of this post? Yeah, a film degree's not gonna help me get into a program, but it won't stop me in the near future when all of my job search options have been exhausted.

I asked for more recommendations for magical realism books from my professor, as The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree hit a similar chord. The list I received had another Murakami. I went from there. I now have 7 Murakami books waiting for me on my shelf, with an 8th on its way.

The second reason I'm starting this book diary arrived during my ongoing job search. When I look up writing positions on LinkedIn and Indeed and Glassdoor I get journalism and copywrite posts. I can write. I need to write. I don't mind taking time to build that portfolio, as frustrating as that is. But again, I don't have that experience. When I'm asked to link examples of my work, my pickings are slim. This book diary will help me get experience in blog writing, if anything. It's more of a personal pleasure project, but I'm not going to admit that.

I'm passionate about analysis, as proven in several of my film and art and screenwriting classes. I got nervous halfway through my Comp Lit course thinking that I was talking too much, and blamed it on being embroiled in an amazing internship that involved analyzing movies (I love you Katch). I don't mind expressing my opinion. I'm actually quite excited to. If I can find a job analyzing and recommending Kdramas I'm there. It's me. I will fight for that job.

So. This is a lot of talking. What are my goals for this book diary?

I'm going to get through those Murakamis and every time I find something interesting, I'm gonna talk about it. I'll keep going after I get through the Murakamis. That's my hope. My first few posts will probably be me ranting about Kafka on the Shore and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle since I've finished those, and after I'll move onto IQ84 as I plow through it.

I love these books so passionately. Every time I read them, I'm inspired to write. I'm working on a radio play right now that encapsulates the magical realism I've learned through them, and I've never been so excited to work on a project. It just feels right. Like I'm supposed to be here.

Despite being typical Murakami (See: Johhnie Walker, Boris the Manskinner, Nakata's white blob, Aomame's ice pick, the Rice Bowl Hill incident, Manchuria, parallel worlds, alcohol, classical music, taxis, paragraphs of clothes, cats, invisible birds, incest, boobs, sex, sex workers, bald men, wells, a library, a forest, a teenager, a dream), these books open up my world a little wider when I turn a page. I'm so excited to explore what he has to offer, as well as the other books waiting in my shelf and perhaps the occasional Kdrama I haven't gotten over. This blog is for me. Let's get reading!