The Agony and the Ecstasy: A Biographical Novel of Michelangelo by Irving Stone

Page 40:

"But you have to agree that the work of art becomes noble in the degree to wich it represents the truth? Then sculpture will come closer to true form, for when you work the marble the figure emerges on all four sides."

Page 41:

"Painting is perishable: a fire in the chapel, too much cold, and the paint begins to fade, crack. But stone is eternal! Nothing can destroy it. When the Florentines tore down the colosseum, what did they do with the blocks? Built them into new walls. And think of the Greek sculpture that is being dug up, twoo, three thousand years old. Show me a painting that's two thousand yers old. Look at this Roman marble sarcophagus: as clear as strong as the day it was carved..."

Page 74:

Michelangelo mets Lucrezia at the Sculpture Garden.

Page 89:

"Now what is sculpture?....it is the art which, by removing all that is superfluous from the material under treatment, reduces it to that form designed in the artist's mind.." - Bertoldo quoting Donatello

Page 150:

Madonna and the child

Page 426:

The rivalry against Leonardo's paintings starts to bother Michelangelo.

Page 442:

After 3 years carving David, Pope Julius II ask Michelangelo to come to Rome,to carve 40 statues for his tomb in the center of St Peter's Basilica.

Palace Walk (Cairo Trilogy #1) by Naguib Mahfouz

Page 56:

"The important thing is to rid ourselves of the nightmare of the English and for the caliphate to return to its previous grandeur. Then they will find the way prepared to us."

Page 322:

"Amazing news is spreading among the students. A delegation or "wafd" composed by the nationalist leaders Sa'd Zaghlul Pasha, Abd al-Aziz Fahmy Bey, and Ali Sha'rawi Pasha went to the British Residency in Cairo yesterday and met with the High Commissioner, requesting that the British protectorate over Egypt be lifted and independence declared."

Page 325:

Tell me, brother, what can Sa'd do against a nation that now considers itself the unrivaled mistress of the world?"
The mother nodded her head in agreement, as though he had been addressing her. She stated: "The revolutionary leader Urabi Pasha was one of the greatest men and one of the most courageous. Sa'd and the others are nothing compared with him. He was in the cavalry, a fighting man. What did he get from the English, boys? They imprisoned him and then exiled him to a land on the other side of the world."

Page 353:

"If we don't confront terrorism with the anger it deserves, may the nation never live again. It's unthinkable for the nation to be at peace when its leader who has sacrificed himself for it suffers the torments of captivity."

Page 358:

"Down with the Protectorate!"
"Our fathers have been imprisoned. We don't study law in a land where the law is trampled underfoot."

Page 373:

A revolution was raging in all areas of the Nile Valley from the extreme north to the extreme south. Fahmy recounted what he knew about the railroads and telegraph and telephone lines being cut, the outbreak of demonstrations in different provinces, the battles between the English and the revolutionaries, the massacres, the martyrs, the nationalist funerals with processions with tens of coffins at a time, ant the capital city with its students, workers, and attorneys on strike, where transportation was limited to carts. He remarked heatedly, "Is this really a revolution? Let them kill as many as their savagery dictates. Death only invigorates us."

Olivia and Jai by Rebecca Ryman

How to describe such magnificent book except by saying that : it MUST be read.

It is not a love story in the strictu sensu, on the contrary, it shows how love is close to hate.

The plot engages us into the story of India still under British rule where a lot of social conventions and prejudice among other factors.

The end still brings big and unexpected surprises, I won't spoil this fabulous end.

There is sequel to this book, The Veil of Illusion.

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

In my opinion, the main issue of this book is not about the proper choice (or not) of a child's name by his parents when they try to keep a Bengali tradition.

The author's challenge was to show how different cultures can collide to each other in very simple questions. First, Gogol denies his background by refusing his father simple explanation for their name's choice. Only when he reaches his full maturity, he finds the real motivation for his namesake.

I personally didn't like the character of Moushumi Mazumdar who is totally disconnected to her own identity.


A magnificent book, no doubt about that.

A very interesting movie The Namesake (2006) was adapted to this book.

A Capital Crime (DI Ted Stratton #3) by Laura Wilson

I absolutely loved this book and the plot is based on the true story of Timothy John Evans, who was hanged in 1950 for the murder of his daughter who was 14-years old, and that of Reginald Halliday Christie who was also hanged in 1953 for the murder of his wife. Another book Ten Rillington Place by Ludovic Kennedy also deals with the trial of both murder cases since both murderers lived at this address in London.

According to Laura Wilson, due the controversy surrounding the related Evans case among other factors contributed to the abolition of capital punishment in Britain.

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand

This is the story of Louie Zamperini, an olympic medalist who became a B24's bomber during World War II. When his plane crashes into the Pacific, his terrible saga begins until he became one of the thousands POWs captured by the Japanese.

While not a big fan of non-fiction books, I really admire the extensive research performed by Laura Hillenbrand who collected an impressive amount of material during a period of 7 years about Louie and his friends.

The books is a page-tuner since the author managed to give the right tone to the narrative. After reading this book, I must read her first book, Seabiscuit: An American Legend which movie Seabiscuit directed by Gary Ross (2003) was lovely.

I'm already looking forward to next book of this brilliant writer. Laura, keep going, please!!

Pirate King (Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes #11) by Laurie R. King

This copy was kindly sent by NetGalley.


Russell is called to go undercover to Lisbon and then Morocco as a director's assistant of the silent movie based on The Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert and Sullivan. Her job is to investigate strange troubles wit the team and the disappearance of the last assistant's director.

This idea is not so original since François Truffaut wrote and directed his famous movie La nuit américaine in 1973.

The plot made by laurie King is quite boring except by the appearance of Fernando Pessoa into the story, the famous Portuguese poet, who acts as a Portuguese translator. By coincidence, I've been recently to Lisbon and the author brilliantly described the real ambience of this town even at that time.

The main concern is the absence of Sherlock Holmes who reappears into the plot only in the last part of the book.

I hope the next book by Laurie King will be better than this one.