Showing posts with label egypt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label egypt. Show all posts
Nov 17, 2018
Apr 1, 2014
Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos - R.L. La Fevers
Series: Theodosia Throckmorton
Summary: Twelve-year-old Theo uses arcane knowledge and her own special talent when she encounters two secret societies, one sworn to protect the world from ancient Egyptian magic and one planning to harness it to bring chaos to the world, both of which want a valuable artifact stolen from the London museum for which her parents work.
Booklist Reviews
/*Starred Review*/ "You'd be surprised by how many things come into the museum loaded with curses--bad ones," says 11-year-old Theodosia, whose parents run London's Museum of Legends and Antiquities. The twentieth century has just begun, and Theodosia's mum, an archaeologist, has recently returned from Egypt with crates of artifacts. Only Theodosia can feel the objects' dark magic, which, after consulting ancient texts, she has learned to remove. Then a sacred amulet disappears, and during her search, Theodosia stumbles into a terrifying battle between international secret societies. Readers won't look to this thrilling adventure for subtle characterizations (most fit squarely into good and evil camps) or neat end-knots in the sprawling plot's many threads. It's the delicious, precise, and atmospheric details (nicely extended in Tanaka's few, stylized illustrations) that will capture and hold readers, from the contents of Theodosia's curse-removing kit to descriptions of the museum after hours, when Theodosia sleeps in a sarcophagus to ward off the curses of "disgruntled dead things." Kids who feel overlooked by their own distracted parents may feel a tug of recognition as Theodosia yearns for attention, and those interested in archaeology will be drawn to the story's questions about the ownership and responsible treatment of ancient artifacts. A sure bet for Harry Potter fans as well as Joan Aiken's and Eva Ibbotson's readers. This imaginative, supernatural mystery will find word-of-mouth popularity. ((Reviewed May 1, 2007)) Copyright 2007 Booklist Reviews.
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Mar 1, 2014
The extraordinary adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec (DVD)
Summary: In 1912, author Adèle Blanc-Sec journeys to ancient Egyptian tombs to find a mummified doctor to help heal her ailing sister.
Video Librarian Reviews
Inspired by Jacques Tardi's European comic book series, director Luc Besson's Edwardian special-effects-laden whimsical fantasy set in 1912 stars Louise Bourgoin as a one-woman, uh, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Adèle Blanc-Sec is a fearless French Nellie Bly-style globetrotting reporter, who travels to Egypt in order to steal the 4,000-year-old mummy of ancient Egypt's greatest physician. Her ultimate objective: revive the long-dead doctor to help heal Adèle's comatose twin sister. Unfortunately, the eccentric old professor who is actually able to resurrect the trussed-up dead Egyptian is stuck in prison, although he is psychically bonded to a newly-hatched pterodactyl that is terrorizing Paris. Elements of Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, the Brendan Fraser Mummy romps and Warren Beatty's Dick Tracy (makeup distorts many character's faces into funny-papers dimensions) combine here to make for a giddy, lighthearted, comedy-fantasy family-fare bonbon. Highly recommended. (C. Cassady)Copyright Video Librarian Reviews 2011.
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Oct 1, 2011
Akhenaten dweller in truth - Najib Mahfuz
After the death of Akhenaten, a young man searches for the truth about the "heretic pharaoh," interviewing Akhenaten's closest friends, most dangerous enemies, and even his enigmatic wife, Nefertiti, about the remarkable leader of ancient Egypt, in a fictional portrait of the eighteenthdynasty pharaoh by the Nobel Prizewinning author of Palace of Desire. Original. 20,000 first printing. - (Baker & Taylor)
Booklist Reviews
In a novel set during the eleventh century B.C., Mahfouz details the story of a young boy, Meriamum, who seeks to uncover the "truth" about the titular character, the recently deceased pharaoh. Akhenaten, Egypt's first monotheistic ruler, endured a controversial reign, during which he struggled to impart his divine vision to an unwilling nation. Armed with a letter of introduction, Meriamum is granted interviews with those closest to the pharaoh: a diverse array of characters that include the high priest, childhood friends, soldiers, a harem member, and finally Nefertiti, Akhenaten's wife. As Meriamum pieces together the disparate accounts, both he and the reader are given a fascinating glimpse of Akhenaten, a man compelled to follow his faith no matter how disastrous the consequences. Mahfouz populates his engrossing novel with characters that are believably human and flawed; their conflicts with religion and politics have a timeless quality to which readers will respond. Although some might complain that the content of the interviews often becomes repetitive, readers interested in ancient Egypt will find this book immensely appealing. ((Reviewed March 15, 2000)) Copyright 2000 Booklist Reviews
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Aug 1, 2011
Adrift on the Nile - Najib Mahfuz
Summary: For the thousands of devoted readers of Naguib Mahfouz's The Cairo Trilogy, Adrift on the Nile--first published in Arabic in 1966--will be an exciting and dramatic change of pace. In elegant and economic prose, Mahfouz creates--out of the simplest of plots--a telling commentary on human nature. It is the late sixties, and for the group of friends who meet night after night on a houseboat moored along the banks of the Nile, life is not what it used to be. Nasser has ushered in an age of enormous social change; responsibility is the watchword, and there is no time for the frivolous or the absurd. In this serious world, the theory of "art for art's sake" has been usurped by the concepts of committed theater, social realism, and art with a message for the people. These middle-aged and middle-class sons and daughters of the old bourgeoisie are left high and dry, to gather beneath the moonlight, smoking and chatting, hoping to re-create the cozy and enchanted world they so dearly miss. Their witty sallies are as inconsequential as the midges that weave around the lamp. They wistfully hark back to the High Middle Ages of the Mamluk sultans. Their constant companion is the pipe, filled with kif or hashish, whose heady smoke provides oblivion from their existential terror and despair. But one night, art and reality collide--with unforeseen consequences. At once thrilling and deeply serious, Adrift on the Nile is a tale that exposes the crisis of man--and artist--in modern times.
Library Journal Reviews
In Nobel Prize winner Mahfouz's newly translated work, a houseboat on the Nile is a nightly diversion for a small circle of friends. Careers in the arts, business, law, and civil service are forgotten as the waterpipe makes its rounds, the intoxicating kif erasing all sense of responsibility. Anis, the ``master of ceremonies,'' tends the pipe and drifts in his narcotic dreams while the others extol the absurdity of addiction. Their tranquility ends, however, when Samara, a young journalist, comes to study the group. She is the grain of seriousness that irritates them in their escapist shell, and around her swirls a nightly dispute over purpose, duty, love, and morality. A car accident crystallizes the argument, shattering the group as each confronts inescapable responsibility. The houseboat is a consistent metaphor in Mahfouz's writing, the vessel of escape in a complex and changing society. Adrift on the Nile skillfully dissects this metaphor but sacrifices the rich narrative and vibrant life that mark his other works.-- Paul E. Hutchison, Bellefonte, Pa. Copyright 1993 Cahners Business Information.
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May 1, 2011
Palace walk - Najib Mahfuz
Series: The Cairo trilogy
Summary: The engrossing saga of a Muslim family in Cairo during Egypt's occupation by British forces in the early 1900's.
Library Journal Reviews
This extraordinary novel provides a close look into Cairo society at the end of World War I. Mahfouz's vehicle for this examination is the family of al-Sayyid Ahmad, a middle-class merchant who runs his family strictly according to the Qur'an and directs his own behavior according to his desires. Consequently, while his wife and two daughters remain cloistered at home, and his three sons live in fear of his harsh will, al-Sayyid Ahmad nightly explores the pleasures of Cairo. Written by the first Arabic writer to win the Nobel Prize, Palace Walk begins Mahfouz's highly acclaimed ``Cairo Trilogy,'' which follows Egypt's development from 1917 to nationalism and Nasser in the 1950s. This novel's enchanting style and sweeping social tapestry ensure a large audience, one that will eagerly await the English translation of the entire trilogy. A significant addition to any collection. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 9/15/89.-- Paul E. Hutchison, Fishermans Paradise, Bellefonte, Pa. Copyright 1989 Cahners Business Information.
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Jul 1, 2010
The Alexandria quartet - Lawrence Durrell
Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive, and Clea - Durrell, Lawrence
Series Title: The Alexandria Quartet
Summary: Series of four novels by Lawrence Durrell. The lush and sensuous tetralogy, which consists of Justine (1957), Balthazar (1958), Mountolive (1958), and Clea (1960), is set in Alexandria, Egypt, during the 1940s. Three of the books are written in the first person, Mountolive in the third. The first three volumes describe, from different viewpoints, a series of events in Alexandria before World War II; the fourth carries the story forward into the war years. The events of the narrative are mostly seen through the eyes of one L.G. Darley, who observes the interactions of his lovers, friends, and acquaintances in Alexandria. In Justine, Darley attempts to recover from and understand his recently ended affair with Justine Hosnani. Reviewing various papers and examining his memories, he reads the events of his recent past in romantic terms. Balthazar, named for Darley's friend, a doctor and mystic, reinterprets Darley's views from a philosophical and intellectual point of view. The third novel is a straightforward narrative of events, and Clea, volume four, reveals Darley healing, maturing, and becoming capable of loving Clea Montis, a painter and the woman for whom he was destined. -- The Merriam-Webster Encylopedia of Literature
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