Tag: Book

Prisoner of Tehran by Marina Nemat, Book Review

~ Veselin ~ 10 Comments

Prisoner of Tehran is an autobiography by Marina Nemat about the abrupt end of her childhood. She was arrested by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard at the age of 16, imprisoned, tortured, and sentenced to death without trial. Some of her friends and schoolmates were executed and she escaped death by accepting a forced marriage to her interrogator.

Marina is quite calm and angelic in the book. She tries to do what’s best to never hurt anyone other than herself. What happens to her and her friends, however, triggers more rage than the top five X influencers combined.

I rated it 5*/5 despite the anger the book induces. Knowledge sometimes hurts. This book is a painful read. I need a book by Janet Evanovich next to flush my brain, to forgive and forget.

Crash Course – Matthew Reilly

~ Veselin ~ 2 Comments

This is a simple book and part of a series I hope to finish. It comes with promises – there will be races with fighter-jet fast homemade cars. Whatever happens in the race will be decided milliseconds before the finish line. There will be crashes, of course, with speeds that would make the F1 cars look like they don’t move.

This book will teach you nothing. Not even a grain of rice of usefulness. Not a grain of anything that could possibly happen. It’s fantastic, pure joy. 5/5

Goodreads

How to climb K2 and Everest – Silvia Azdreeva’s journey

~ Veselin ~ 1 Comment

I read “To Conquer Yourself” by Silvia Azdreeva yesterday. A woman who likes hiking goes to the Himalayas and climbs Ama Dablam, with no prior high-altitude experience. It’s 288 pages of captivating insanity and by far the best book I had a chance to read in 2024. Makes “Into thin air” sound sane or rookie, with its mild insanity levels, and lack of ambition or real achievement.

You can’t turn a page without thinking that this couldn’t possibly be happening, that it’s made up, that she’s going to give up, or even die. But the evidence is clear – it did happen, and a series of difficult adventures were endured by a woman made of steel, blood, tears, vomit, and a gigantic bowl of emotions. Reading it made me cry several times and then enthusiastically promote it to friends and family, although it looks like mountaineering is not exactly a hot topic out there.

The book is not yet available in English but it should be because it’s powerful and unusual. 5/5.