tamara_mousa's reviews
135 reviews

Lost Horizon by James Hilton is a short story narrated by Rutherford to his friend Green while meeting in Berlin with their other British friend, Wyland. This fiction is about the adventure of three British and an American who tried to run away from the violence in Baskul (India), but became prisoners of the mystical Shangri-La monastery in the Tibetan Himalayas, after the hijack of their plane. This sensational story highlighted that decision-making is mainly dependent on the individual's way of seeing things. That is the individual's choice (based on his perspective that can make the impossible possible) shapes his destiny and life!
There is a summary about it in my blog - https://www.tamarayousefmousa.com/

Mark Sullivan's Beneath a Scarlet sky vividly depicted that wars cause tremendous destruction, leaving handicapped and deeply scarred survivors. This is the true story of the WWII brave man Pino Lella, who narrated his family's role in fighting the Nazis and Fascists in Italy, specifically in Milan, to help him heal his wounded soul. Between 1943 and 1945, WWII has turned this 17-year-old boy into a grown man! The WWII is an example that wars only destroy nations and squash humanity by the name of claiming power and retaining it. Sadly, humans did not learn from this horrible tussle and still fight with each other; though, I hope they stop before wars put an end not just to mankind but also to nature!
There is a summary about it in my blog - https://www.tamarayousefmousa.com/

The Gardener of Baghdad is one of a kind story that portrayed the life of Iraqis during the monarchy, and compared it with the present situation. Ahmad Ardalan elegantly linked the story of Ali (the Gardener of Baghdad) with that of Adnan (the owner of a bookshop), revealing the role of politics in dividing Iraqis since the early 20th century! Reading this love story made me feel like watching a B/W Egyptian movie, where love conquers all and that sometimes people meet, but life separates them just to reunite them again (when they are stronger)! This story also illustrated the current life of Iraqis who live in the horror of daily bombings and the hazy future, and that the tyranny of leaders and greed of foreigners (for power and petrol) are the major sources of Iraqis' misery!
There is a summary about it in my blog - https://www.tamarayousefmousa.com/

Take What You Can Carry is kind of a sequel to the previous post - The Gardener of Baghdad by Ahmad Ardalan. Gian Sardar's novel is based on true historical events, which profoundly describes the chilling life of Kurds in Iraq in 1979 - a few months before Saddam's reign. This absorbing book is about Olivia, a secretary in a newspaper desiring to be a photographer, who plunged into the unknown for the sake of understanding her Kurdish boyfriend, Delan. Regardless of living in fear and being attacked, tortured, and killed by the ones who should protect them, the Kurds faced daily abuse with courage and by showing kindness to each other. They rise from the ashes and move with since no one can forget nor stop living because of misfortunes! This story also stressed on appreciating what we have, and valuing the people in our life in spite of who they are!
There is a summary about it in my blog - https://www.tamarayousefmousa.com/

The Island of Missing Trees is a captivating novel narrated by a Ficus carica. It sheds light on the Cyprus war in 1974 that divided the island into a Northern Turkish and Southern Greek lands! By reading Elif Shafak's love story that ignited between the Greek Christian Kostas and the Turkish Muslim Defne, I traveled in time to another epoch. I lived the hurt that the soldiers, rebellions, politicians, and sometimes friends or neighbors inflicted on nature and islanders. I also sensed the bitter feelings that the homeless, immigrants, runaways, and displaced go through trying to forget the past, settle in a new place, and the difficulty to adapt to a different culture. This novel also touched on numerous vital topics including the desire to live on our terms without being judged, climate change, bullying, introverts, and feminine topics (gender norms).
There is a summary about it in my blog - https://www.tamarayousefmousa.com/

Velvet was the Night is a noir book about the political situation in Mexico, particularly in Mexico City. Silvia Moreno-Garcia beautifully schemed the government's attempt to abolish students' protests and stop communism spread in a template of complicated affairs in 1971. It describes how governments cover their dirty tracks by releasing false reports, glorifying their killers and cleaners, who assist the leader in clenching his fist over his people! This tale also highlighted that people sometimes make bad decisions but this doesn't mean they are bad people, and that it is never late to fix one's self!
There is a summary about it in my blog - https://www.tamarayousefmousa.com

A Woman is No Man is a heartbreaking novel about discrimination against Arab women, esp. these who live in the US, and the feelings of shame they are fed just because of being born a woman. Despite reading many reports in local newspapers about domestic violence and crimes against women by the name of honor, Etaf Rum craftily made me live the pain of the protagonists while leafing through this real-life events chronicle! The solution resides in woman's education and intellectualism, which empower her by strengthening her self-confidence, thus making her financially secure and independent. A woman also can change her path ONLY if she wants to, and by never failing herself, even if the world failed her!
There is a summary about it in my blog - https://www.tamarayousefmousa.com

Ariel Lawhon beautifully weaved I was Anastasia in a sequential order. This historical drama sheds light on the lavish life of Anastasia when her father was the Tsar of Russia, and the Russian and Bolshevik revolutions, which landed them into imprison. This book also described in a reverse chronological order the story of Anna Anderson, the Polish woman who claimed to be Tsarevna Anastasia Romanov.
But to give every woman's life its right, the stories of these women will be posted separately. So the current post will present the life story of Anastasia Romanov.
To the author, thank you for alerting me not to read the author's note as it would have spoiled my reading of this novel!
There is a summary about it in my blog - https://www.tamarayousefmousa.com

American Dirt is a novel by Jeanine Cummins that sheds light on the rough life of Latinas in their own land, forcing them to leave via choosing the death journey. They run away from the cartels violence to the land of the free, where they are not welcome! This results from discrimination, which must be uprooted by educating people that the only difference between humans is their actions (being a vile or a good person), not color, religion, and race that don't reflect the individual's personality. Thus ‘To deny people their human rights, is to challenge their very humanity - Mandela’ and ‘Helping someone else through difficulty is where civilization starts - Margaret Mead.’
A summary is available in my blog: www.tamarayousefmousa.com/

A Walk across the Sun is a tragic novel about human and sex trafficking that starts in India, and spreads to Europe (mainly in Paris) and the Mid-Atlantic and South Eastern regions of the US. Corban Addison describes the rough journey of Ahalya and Sita, two Indian teenage girls who were abducted and sold as sex objects, and their role in emancipating the American lawyer Thomas and saving his marriage from Priya! To sex traffickers, this is business, which makes a global annual profit of $99 billion. So sex trafficking only will stop when men stop buying women, and when good people act in the face of suffering by calling out on mainstream entities that facilitate or profit from sexual abuse.
A summary is available in my blog: www.tamarayousefmousa.com/