What is the measure of a great book?
Perhaps the best articulation of what books do for the soul comes from one of the most influential writers of the 20th century; Franz Kafka, who said: “… we need the books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us. That is my belief.”
Books contain pearls of wisdom. Above are ten great ones. Dive below for more.
According to The New York Times, Noam Chomsky is “arguably the most important intellectual alive.” But he isn’t easy to read … or at least he wasn’t until these books came along. Made up of intensively edited speeches and interviews, they offer something not found anywhere else: pure Chomsky, with every dazzling idea and penetrating insight […]
After over 100 years of mandatory schooling in the U.S., literacy rates have dropped, families are fragmented, learning “disabilities” are skyrocketing, and children and youth are increasingly disaffected. Thirty years of teaching in the public school system led John Taylor Gatto to the sad conclusion that compulsory governmental schooling is to blame, accomplishing little but […]
The suffering of the world is spoken of in terms of wars, starvation, hatred, competition, and the struggle of the survival of the fittest. Yet all the suffering of the world originates in the human heart. Every crime committed, every act of oppression, every callous cruelty, and every injustice to the self or others emanates […]
Keeping the social conscience burning through six different models of African-American leadership. Spurred by the election of the first black president and the subsequent eruption of the Occupy Wall Street movement, accomplished, outspoken African-American scholar West (Pro+Agonist: The Art of Opposition, 2012, etc.) and fellow academic Buschendorf held several conversations between the summer of 2009 […]
Many opportunistic books on the Arab spring have been published in recent months. Tariq Ramadan has wisely avoided using the phrase “Arab spring” in his title. Several Arab countries that are experiencing turmoil are likely to proceed from winter to winter without any intervening spring or summer. Ramadan makes a persuasive case for caution, even […]
Heritage Day seems an apt moment to reflect on the life of Imam Abdullah Haron, murdered by Apartheid police in 1969. Mention the name Imam Haron in the Muslim community of Cape Town and one is bound to receive a nod of recognition of his service and sacrifice in the face of the Apartheid Goliath […]
THEN AND NOW: KIRKUS REVIEWS OF ROOTS Starred Review A feat of research and imagination, this long-awaited, much-publicized effort is as exceptional as promised. Haley took the essence of a family story told on summer nights and traced his roots back to Kunta Kinte, an African captured while gathering wood and brought to American in 1767. Haley sensitively […]
John Pilger is one of the world’s renowned investigative journalists and documentary filmmakers. In this classic book, with an updated introduction, he reveals the secrets and illusions of modern imperialism. Pilger tackles the injustices and double standards inherent in the politics of globalisation and exposes the terrible truth behind the power and wealth of states […]
This publication is an award-winning 1983 biography of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). It provides a new account of the sira or the life of the Prophet Muhammad, with details that had not been elaborated in other accounts. It is based primarily on old Arab sources that go back to the 8th century, of which some passages […]
Muhammad: Prophet For Our Time is a 2006 publication by the British writer Karen Armstrong. It is part of the “Eminent Lives” series, which are short biographies of famous people by well-known writers. It is Armstrong’s second biography of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). Her first biography Muhammad: a Biography of the Prophet earned her the Muslim […]
From the heaven’s blue to the parched sand dunes, Revelation descends Down through Muhammad and through his story …the way back up again. – Majid Mohiuddin For 13 years, Meraj Mohiuddin has meticulously recreated the life of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ in an innovative format that speaks to a new generation. The fruit of this work, “Revelation: The […]
Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) is a satirical novel by Kurt Vonnegut about World War II experiences and journeys through time of Billy Pilgrim, from his time as an American soldier and chaplain’s assistant, to postwar and early years. It is generally recognised as Vonnegut’s most influential and popular work. A central event is Pilgrim’s surviving the Allies’ […]
Jane Eyre was first published in 1847. It follows the emotions and experiences of its eponymous heroine, including her growth to adulthood. In its internalisation of the action – the focus is on the gradual unfolding of Jane’s moral and spiritual sensibility, and all the events are coloured by a heightened intensity that was previously […]
The God of Small Things is an ambitious work that addresses universal themes ranging from religion to biology. Roy stresses throughout the novel that great and small themes are interconnected and that historical events and seemingly unrelated details have far-reaching consequences throughout a community and country. Immediately recognized as a passionate, sophisticated, and lushly descriptive […]
To Kill a Mockingbird was published in 1960. It was immediately successful, winning the Pulitzer Prize, and has become a classic of modern American literature. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view … until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” Atticus Finch in […]
This book has turned history on its head for an entire generation of readers, telling the nation’s story from the viewpoints of ordinary people – the slaves, workers, immigrants, women, and Native Americans who made their own history but whose voices are typically omitted from the historical record. Howard Zinn’s body of work is particularly […]
“The world of 1984 is a perfect metaphor for today. People want to understand the nature of the type of power which is wielded in this story and how it relates to our own society.” Michael Futcher, Director We look the other way when Google is watching us, but when the government is watching us it […]
This book is now an established classic of modern America, a book that expresses like none other the crucial truth about our violent times. The most important book I’ll ever read. It changed the way I thought; it changed the way I acted. It has given me courage that I didn’t know I had inside […]
Orientalism is a 1978 book by Edward Said, in which Said studies the cultural representations that are the basis of Orientalism, the West’s patronising perceptions and fictional depictions of “The East” — the societies and peoples who inhabit the places of Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East. Orientalism, the Western scholarship about the Eastern […]
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