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#Bahrain
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Bookwormjillk
The Meeting Point | Lucy Caldwell
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Once again trying to read while Not-My-Cat tries to send me subliminal messages about tuna fish.

dabbe Hello, Nifty Not-My-Cat! 🖤🐾🖤 9mo
kspenmoll Not-My-Cat has adopted you. Sorry!!!😻 9mo
TheBookHippie I have two “not my cats” a black one and a grey and white one 😂🤷🏻‍♀️ 9mo
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CoverToCoverGirl Tag! You‘re it!😻🐈‍⬛ 9mo
Bookwormjillk @TheBookHippie it‘s mildly embarrassing when his human comes to collect him at the end of the night. 9mo
TheBookHippie @Bookwormjillk 😂😂😂Winifred is quite put out that they lay on the stoop 😂🤷🏻‍♀️🐶 but she allows it. 8mo
76 likes6 comments
review
CRR
Samuel Zwemer: The Burden of Arabia | Janet Benge, Geoff Benge
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Pickpick

Biography of Christian missionary Samuel Zwemer who served in the Arabian Peninsula for many years, then in Cairo, and later at Princeton University. Zwemer was often quoted in a recent book I read and I didn‘t know anything about him. This was a good resource that told his story and helped me start to know more.

review
Hooked_on_books
The Meeting Point | Lucy Caldwell
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Mehso-so

Ruth and Euan travel to #Bahrain so that Euan can preach at the local church. Ruth is a bit bored and lonely, as is neighboring teen Noor, but what each is searching for the other ultimately can‘t provide. This book initially bashes you over the head with religion without warning (unless you read @squirrelbrain ‘s review, thanks Helen!), but then backs off that a bit to explore these two lost women. Not bad, not great.

#ReadingAsia2021

squirrelbrain Great review Holly, and I‘m glad that it wasn‘t as bad as we feared! 3y
Librarybelle Great review! 3y
48 likes2 comments
review
squirrelbrain
The Meeting Point | Lucy Caldwell
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Bailedbailed

I‘m still counting this for #readingasia2021 #bahrain,as I made it just over halfway before bailing! 😁

The blurb gives no clue (other than the word ‘faith‘ hidden away) that Euan is a Christian going to Bahrain to convert the local Muslims, and to smuggle Bibles. The book is full of preaching and bible quotes and seems to strongly infer that Christianity is good and Islam is bad. It‘s also set in expat Bahrain so no feel for the country at all.

TrishB Helen bailed again 😱😱 3y
TrishB I‘m definitely not picking this one up. 3y
squirrelbrain I know @TrishB - what is the world coming to?! 🤪 3y
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BarbaraBB Lol! Reading Asia is pushing our boundaries 😉 (edited) 3y
Megabooks This is a big no! 3y
Librarybelle Totally counts! 3y
rockpools Oh no! Also, congrats on bailing 🥳. Sometimes it‘s entirely necessary! 3y
Hooked_on_books Oh no! I just bought this one and that sounds awful! 😩 Well, I‘ll still try it since I have no other Bahrain options on my radar. 3y
squirrelbrain At least you‘re pre-warned Holly! @Hooked_on_books Let me know if the second half is any better and I might give it another go…. 🤷‍♀️ 3y
Hooked_on_books Will do. If I make it that far! 3y
Hooked_on_books I started this one last night and have read maybe 20 pages so far. Holy cow, bible, bible, bible! Why would the publisher mischaracterize this so badly in their description?!? It serves no one! I‘m really glad for your review, since it prepared me much better than they did. 3y
squirrelbrain I know Holly @Hooked_on_books - I just couldn‘t understand why the blurb was so misleading… hopefully you‘ll make it further than I did! 3y
Hooked_on_books I haven‘t posted my review yet, but I finished this a couple days ago. Ultimately I didn‘t think it was bad, but didn‘t love it, either. In the end, I felt like the characters who were more militantly religious were depicted in a negative light, so even though this felt at the start as though it was going to be a super religious book, it wasn‘t. I don‘t really think you missed much by bailing, though. 3y
squirrelbrain I don‘t think I‘ll try to finish it still, even though the second half sounds a bit better than the first! @Hooked_on_books 3y
62 likes14 comments
review
Butterfinger
The Pearl Thief | Noor Al Noaimi
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Pickpick

A short story that captured the culture of an island in the Arabian Sea very well. I think it could be easily crafted into a novel with the death defying exploits of pearl divers fully explored.

#Bahrain #ReadingAsia @BarbaraBB @Librarybelle

#PopSugar2021 gem, mineral, or rock in title

Librarybelle Sounds interesting! 3y
33 likes1 comment
review
TorieStorieS
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Pickpick

I am running a bit behind on the #ReadAroundTheWorld challenge (in the move I have even totally misplaced April‘s book!), but my #Bahrain selection is on Audible! I don‘t know if I would‘ve picked this one up otherwise and I quite enjoyed Amrou revealing his own story from a childhood crush on an animated fox (haven‘t we all been there?) to growing up with challenging relationships to his family, his religion and even his own mind. Well-performed!

38 likes1 comment
review
BookwormM
Diving for Pearls | Jamie OConnell
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Pickpick

#ReadAroundTheWorld #Bahrain

Well looks like I totally forgot to review my May book here...life.

Very short story about a poor boy in Bahrain who decides to risk it all by becoming a Pearl diver a well paid job due to the high fatality rate. Do things work out or not.

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rockpools
Untitled | Anonymous
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Ah well. I‘ve only added one book to my #ReadingAsia2021 total this month, but it was really excellent nonfiction.

Karachi Vice by Samira Shackle for #Pakistan

I also read a short story for #Bahrain - I‘d already logged a book, but this was #ownvoices, enjoyable and short - so it wins! The Pearl Thief by Noor Al Noami.

That takes my total to 16/44. Eek! I wonder if I can read 6 in June to get me to the half-way mark 😬

charl08 Looks good to me! Any top reads I should pick up? 3y
rockpools @charl08 It‘s been a real mixed bag - the things I‘ve enjoyed the most have either been completely predictable (Before the Coffee Gets Cold for Japan) or so out-there I‘m not sure I‘d recommend them to anyone else. Karachi Vice was excellent nf, I really enjoyed The Corsair for Qatar, in a very blokey adventury piratey kind of way, and I‘m sure you‘ve already read Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 for S Korea. 3y
charl08 @rockpools nope, not read any of those! To many books! 3y
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rockpools @charl08 There really are (she says, merrily bailing on her next Reading Asia book)! In that case, I think you‘d like Kim Jiyoung, and Before the Coffee is very Japanese time-travel. 3y
charl08 @rockpools thank you! I am thinking of doing a read my own shelves (personal) challenge for June, but always willing to stick more on the wishlist! 3y
Q84 You can do it! As for me, I've been slacking altogether on this one. I really need to set some books on a TBR and make a plan. 3y
rockpools @charl08 That‘s a challenge I will take up - one day! Good luck 😉 3y
rockpools @Q84 Aw, thank you. Yes, I think the planning is where it all falls apart for me too - especially with this challenge where the books aren‘t that easy to find. If I don‘t have the book in front of me, I end up wandering off and reading something totally different! 3y
Librarybelle You‘re still doing very well! 3y
54 likes9 comments
review
BookwormM
The Pearl Thief | Noor Al Noaimi
Pickpick

#ReadAroundTheWorld #Bahrain

Sweet short story about a poor boy trying to look after his parents by becoming a Pearl diver a dangerous career as many drown.

I enjoyed the descriptions of the sea, the diving and the bustling market place.

rockpools 😊 Me too! 3y
Currey @BookwormM What are you reading for Palau? 3y
rockpools I‘m not sure your autocorrect is doing too well here! Hope you‘re doing ok! 3y
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BookwormM @rockpools well spotted I have corrected 🤣🤣. Had steroid jab Thursday feeling a lot better. (edited) 3y
BookwormM @Currey Palau is a nightmare to find anything at the moment it looks like I can‘t find an author from Palau so my worst case book is South Sea Tales By Jack London (edited) 3y
Currey Have not read Jack London for a long time…might be the time 3y
36 likes6 comments
review
rockpools
The Pearl Thief | Noor Al Noaimi
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Pickpick

Just a short story this time, as, due to my spectacular planning skills, I read Two Old Fools (meh), which was set in #Bahrain, last month.

This is a very slight story, by a Bahraini author, which left me smiling. A young man joins a pearl diving crew, largely out of desperation - and unexpectedly settles his future. It‘s not a great work of literature, but is enjoyable, atmospheric and exceedingly short!

Currey @rockpools You seem to be the winner in this very difficult Bahrain month. Actually written by a Bahraini author, readable, and SHORT… 3y
rockpools #readaroundtheworld @Currey 😆 I wasn‘t expecting to find anything at all this month - Bahraini authors are very thin on the ground - or drowned out by visiting ex-pats 😕 3y
Simona Stacked! ... just for challenges in the future 😘 3y
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rockpools @Simona You never know when it‘ll come in handy! @Currey @BookwormM Any thoughts on Palau? I think next month will be even harder! 3y
Simona My pick is ... available on Scribd🤷‍♀️ (edited) 3y
rockpools @Simona 😂😂 I think my options are re-subscribing to Scribd or reading war stories. Scribd it is! 3y
Currey Yes, all I have found is war stories….🙁 3y
53 likes7 comments