For The Book Obsessed
[ad_1] Very early in my spiritual education, I was taught by my elders to be cautious about making claims. One reason for this caution—particularly when it comes to making claims about oneself—is that claims are often rooted in the ego. They betray the fact that so much of what we claim about ourselves can be … Read more
[ad_1] The thing about longing is that it could take any form, really. Though vastly different on the surface, everything from going on walks or reading poems, to forged marriages for the sake of securing permanent legal residence, skipping meals, or crossing borders can be powered by an ineffable call towards something, someone, that emanates … Read more
[ad_1] This past July, the German literary organization Litprof announced that Palestinian writer Adania Shibli won the 2023 LiBeraturpreis award for her novel Minor Detail and would receive the award at a ceremony on October 13, 2023 at the 2023 Frankfurt Book Fair. As is well known by now, the Frankfurt Book Fair decided to … Read more
[ad_1] Chicago was a tinderbox. In 1871, the city was packed with wood-frame houses, wooden sidewalks, and hay-filled barns, nestled alongside lumber processing mills, paper factories, wood-frame churches, and saloons. Thirty-four years since its municipal incorporation, Chicago was now home to over 300,000 people, roughly half of them immigrants who journeyed to the city seeking … Read more
[ad_1] In 1907, an unrelenting rainstorm hit the fictional town of Hosh Hanna, triggering a massive flood that swept through its streets. The flood took everything with it: houses collapsed, livestock died, and all but two people, who desperately clung to a walnut tree, drowned. The story of the flood that swallows this small Syrian … Read more
[ad_1] I am not so audacious as to claim there’s a single quality that weaves together all of us who love literature—readers, writers, booksellers, publishers, librarians, to name just a few. But whatever list of qualities we may come up with to describe everyone under the umbrella of books, high on that list would be … Read more
[ad_1] While Ramadan is most commonly known as the month during which Muslims abstain from eating and drinking from dawn until sunset, it is also a month of increased contemplation and reflection. This month-long spiritual retreat brings with it an opportunity to get a better understanding of one’s self and spiritual state, and to rejuvenate … Read more
[ad_1] By most accounts, one is considered a wild success if he grows up in poverty in a rural village in India and then overcomes the obstacles imposed by those circumstances to become become a surgeon in London, then a senior department leader in a hospital, and then retires in a riverside penthouse—the type of … Read more
[ad_1] Any time I ask my mom about the Lahore of her childhood, the present moment glitches for a split second, and she disappears to some place within herself. Upon return, the edges of her lips curl into a sly smile, and—each time, without fail—she prefaces her answers with a single phrase: “Lahore Lahore hai” … Read more
[ad_1] A trained sociolinguist, and the author of two novels, a short story collection, and three collections of poetry, Dipika Mukherjee has been exploring languages, cultures, and places since she was a young girl, as the child of an Indian diplomat. In her most recent poetry collection, Dialect of Distant Harbors, Mukherjee paints scenic pictures … Read more