Alaa Qui

Hello Beautiful people,  I first came to know about Frida Khalo, through my studies in University. I had to write an essay about Surrealism, and she was one of the artists that popped up during my research. When I read about Khalo online, I have become interested in her artworks and in her, the artist. To know more about Frida Khalo, I decided to read this biography about her life, art and country. The biography also tries to show a spiritual side to Frida Khalo and her artworks, although she was an atheist. The writing in this biography is fun to read through, and I simply found myself flying through it. I am always worried I might not end up finishing a nonfiction book, because of the writing style, however, in this one, all my worries were gone. The writer manages to hold my interest and make me enjoy reading the book. Although it is a biography about Frida Khalo, it also covers the political situation of Mexico (and the world), and relates it to Khalo's beliefs a...

Hello beautiful people,  Recently I have just finished reading 'Design Handbook' by Charlotte Fiell and Peter Fiell, and here are my thoughts about it.  I flipped through this book in the library, and it looked pretty interesting, so I picked it up. The Design Handbook is a beginner's guide to design, and it covers various concepts, materials and styles through time (mainly modern time). The writing in this book is clear and easy to read through. Non-fiction books can be boring for me, and I didn't find this one boring (almost). Moreover, the topics in this book are quite interesting, however, multiple topics are repeated a lot through out the book, making it a little irritating. I don't want to re-read about the same topic. I am personally not well-knowledged about design, design trends and materials, so this book is an eye-opening read for my case. Nevertheless, I was hoping to receive more from this book (which didn't happen), and...

Hello Beautiful people,  I have just finished reading a thriller, and here are my thoughts. "The Last Thing She Ever Did" is a mystery thriller that revolves around the disappearance of Charlie, a three years old child. Liz is our protagonist, and we are introduced to her when she is a young kid and then we continue with her in her adulthood. The characters in this book are all horrible. None of them are good in the slightest. Even the "good guy" is extremely negative (salty 24/7). At some instances I do align with the characters' stances, but then they have to do, say or think something extreme. I didn't mind the morally wrong character, but I can't deny that they made me wanna smash my phone or wish they are just a tiny bit grounded. I wouldn't recommend you this book if you can't handle straight out appalling people.  I like Detective Esther and Jake. I am all up for reading a book with this duo (they reminded me with the ...

I had to read this book for one of my classes, but decided not to do so, until today. I am very interested in the topics McLuhan delves into in his book, and I felt eager to finally read it. 'The medium is The Massage' delves into the concepts of the global village, globalization, mass media and how we perceive media. I appreciate how straight to the point the book is, and it delivers its ideas clearly. The concepts in this book are most applicable in the current century, as they perfectly align with how the internet has totally transformed our lives. The book uses graphic elements to support the content, this created a more engaging and fun read. Moreover, each time a concept can be applied in text form, the book illustrates the effect of that topic. For example; when the effects of rhythm and font style, size and colour are discussed, in that paragraph certain words have different fonts and sizes; and some were underlined too. In the very first pages, McLuhan explai...

Hello beautiful people,  I feel Happy. I feel an immense amount of happiness. 'An Artist of the Floating World' is a beautiful novel about the aftermath of war, and the life of people before and after the war. This story revolves around Masuji Ono, a well-known painter, and his journey to come to terms with what he has done in his past. The story takes the span of three years, however, Ono would always take us back to his past - Childhood, youth and adulthood. He paints us, the readers, an image of his life and we really get to see the world from his perspective and fully come to understand him and the decisions he has made. "For indeed a man who aspires to rise above mediocre, to be something more than ordinary, surely deserves admiration, even if in the ends he fails and loses a fortune on account of his ambitions." The story handles topics surrounding war, loyalty, regret, ambition and success with great care. Through out the book, we see On...

Hello Beautiful people, Recently I have read 'Lost Treasure of the Emerald Eye', the first book in the Geronimo Stilton series, after I have received an ARC through Net-Galley. I had so much fun reading the book, more than I expected! Title:  Lost Treasure of the Emerald Eye Author:   Geronimo Stilton ( Elisabetta Dami)  Genre: Children, Adventure, Mystery Synopsis:  Geronimo Stilton: respected journalist, family mouse … well-seasoned traveller? No thank you! But when Geronimo’s sister Thea finds a mysterious map of a secret treasure on a faraway island, Geronimo just can’t say no. Before long, Geronimo and his family are on the high seas, getting into enormouse trouble! Rating: (5/5) stars Review: Reading this book made me realise how much I missed Geronimo Stilton. I used to enjoy watching the cartoon show and I didn't know the books are as fun as the show. The plot revolves around Stilton and his adventure with his sister Thea, cou...

Hello Beautiful people,  Today I am going to discuss the books I have read in the month of February. This past month I haven't read a lot, only two books. I gave one of the books five stars and the other one, well... I DNFed it.  I try to avoid DNFing books as much as I can, but the writing didn't work for me at all. So far this year, I have DNFed two books, a fiction and a non-fiction book. This is new for me, as I barely DNF books and we are still in the third month of 2018. So who knows, I might give up on even more books as the year passes by.  The book I have DNFed, is a novel I personally received from the author (e-book). It is not an ARC; it is a published book, so if it interests you, you can fetch it from Amazon. I won't share much of my thoughts, however, I will let you  know what the book is about.  Title: A Flare of Hope Author: Elodie Colt  Synopsis:  She represented his own personal hell, yet she was his only c...