B- Reviews / Book Reviewsautobiography / bookseller / bookselling / Business woman / Egypt / independent booksellers / Middle East / Misogyny / non-fiction / POC / POC author3 Comments
The warm and winning story of opening a modern bookstore where there were none, Shelf Life: Chronicles of a Cairo Bookseller recounts Nadia Wassef’s troubles and triumphs as a founder and manager of Cairo-based Diwan The streets of Cairo make strange music. The echoing calls to prayer; the raging insults ... more >
B Reviews / Book Reviewsancient-Egypt / Egypt / photographyComments Off on REVIEW: Ancient Egypt by Peter Mavrikis
From the Neolithic cave paintings in Wadi Sura – created long before it was a desert when the region was savannah grassland – to the Valley of the Kings to the rock-cut temples at Abu Simbel, and from the vast temple complexes at Karnak and Luxor to the funerary mask ... more >
B Reviews / Book Reviewsancient-Egypt / cats / dysfunctional family / Egypt / family relationships / female agency / female leads / healers / health care / Historical / Historical fiction / immigrant / POC / politics / religionComments Off on REVIEW: Daughter of Sekhmet by Sally Watson
A paraquel to “The Next Pharaoh.” General Horemheb is confident of becoming Pharaoh when Ay dies childless. Over-confident? He understands men. But not, alas, women, who are as unpredictable and disobedient as cats. The gods, possibly offended, challenge him with plots, pretenders, disappearances, assassins, magic, and willful women–not to mention ... more >
B- Reviews / Book Reviews / C+ ReviewsAfrica / Alternate History / djinn / Egypt / Fantasy / Historical / LGBTQIA+ / Middle East / POC / POC author / steampunk6 Comments
Forty years ago in Egypt, the mystic and inventor Al-Jahiz pierced the veil between realms, sending magic into the world before vanishing into the unknown. Now in 1912 Cairo, humans brush elbows with djinn in crowded tramcars and airships sail the skies. In this new world the Egyptian Ministry of ... more >
A- Reviews / Book Reviews / Recommended ReadsAlternate History / djinn / Egypt / Fantasy / Historical / Middle East / novella / POC / POC author / steampunk6 Comments
Cairo, 1912: The case started as a simple one for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities — handling a possessed tram car. Soon, however, Agent Hamed Nasr and his new partner Agent Onsi Youssef are exposed to a new side of Cairo stirring with suffragettes, secret societies, and ... more >
B Reviews / Book Reviewsancient-Egypt / cats / dysfunctional family / Egypt / family relationships / female agency / female leads / Historical / Historical fiction / POC / politics / religionComments Off on REVIEW: The Missing Queen by Sally Watson
King Tutankhamon is dead. The possibly-divine ivory cat Nefru is still (perhaps) putting a paw into royal Egyptian affairs.Lord Ay wants a royal wife-Tut’s widow, actually-to give him the blood-right to the throne. She flees marriage with him and finds long-lost relatives. Princesses Baketamon and Meri have both longed to ... more >