Je voudrais que quelqu'un m'attende quelque part - Anna Gavalda

“Quand j'arrive à la gare de l'Est, j'espère toujours secrètement qu'il y aura quelqu'un pour m'attendre. C'est con. J'ai beau savoir que ma mère est encore au boulot à cette heure-là et que Marc est pas du genre à traverser la banlieue pour porter mon sac, j'ai toujours cet espoir débile [...] Je voudrais que quelqu'un m'attende quelque part... C'est quand même pas compliqué.”
―Anna Gavalda - Je voudrais que quelqu'un m'attende quelque part

Hygiène de l'assassin - Amélie Nothomb

"-Du sang dans l'eau.

-Juste ciel, c'est exact. Imaginez mon choc: l'intrusion brutale de cette couleur rouge et chaude au coeur de tant de lividités - l'eau glaciale, la noirceur chlorotique du lac, la blancheur des épaules de Léopoldine, ses lèvres bleues comme du sulfate de mercure, et puis surtout ses jambes dont les imperceptibles épiphanies évoquaient, par leur lenteur insondable, quelque caresse hyperboréenne. Non, il était inadmissible qu'entre ces jambes-là, il puisse y avoir la source d'un épanchement répugnant."

Hygiène de l'assassin - Amélie Nothomb

Quand souffle le vent du nord - Daniel Glattauer

"Mon premier rendez-vous était une sorte de défi à votre adresse, Emmi. Mais ensuite, j'ai vite compris ce qui faisait la différence entre elle et vous. Vous, Emmi, vous n'osez même pas décrire votre piano, car elle n'a rien à faire dans mon monde. Mia, elle se penche à cinquante centimètres de moi au-dessus d'une minuscule table, et enroule des spaghettis au pesto autour de sa cuiller. Quand elle tourne la tête sut le côté, je sens le souffle d'air qu'elle provoque. Je peux la voir, l'entendre, la toucher, la sentir. Mia est matière. Emmi est imagination. Les deux ont des avantages et des inconvénients. Je vous souhaite une agréable soirée, votre Leo."

Quand souffle le vent du nord - Daniel Glattauer

RainyMood.com: Rain makes everything better.

RainyMood.com: Rain makes everything better.

Le Turquetto - Metin Arditi

Se pourrait-il qu’un tableau célèbre – dont la signature présente une anomalie chromatique – soit l’unique oeuvre qui nous reste d’un des plus grands peintres de la Renaissance vénitienne : un élève prodige de Titien, que lui-même appelait “le Turquetto” (le petit Turc) ?
Metin Arditi s’est intéressé à ce personnage. Né de parents juifs en terre musulmane (à Constantinople, aux environs de 1519), ce fils d’un employé du marché aux esclaves s’exile très jeune à Venise pour y parfaire et pratiquer son art. Sous une identité d’emprunt, il fréquente les ateliers de Titien avant de faire carrière et de donner aux congrégations de Venise une oeuvre admirable nourrie de tradition biblique, de calligraphie ottomane et d’art sacré byzantin. Il est au sommet de sa gloire lorsqu’une liaison le dévoile et l’amène à comparaître devant les tribunaux de Venise…
Metin Arditi dépeint à plaisir le foisonnement du Grand Bazar de Constantinople, les révoltes du jeune garçon avide de dessin et d’images, son soudain départ... Puis le lecteur retrouve le Turquetto à l’âge mûr, marié et reconnu, artiste pris dans les subtilités des rivalités vénitiennes, en cette faste période de la Renaissance où s’accomplissent son ascension puis sa chute.
Rythmé, coloré, tout en tableaux miniature, le livre de Metin Arditi convoque les thèmes de la filiation, des rapports de l’art avec le pouvoir, et de la synthèse des influences religieuses qui est la marque particulière du Turquetto.
Né en Turquie, familier de l’Italie comme de la Grèce, Metin Arditi est à la confluence de plusieurs langues, traditions et sources d’inspiration. Sa rencontre avec le Turquetto ne doit rien au hasard, ni à l’histoire de l’art. Car pour incarner ce peintre d’exception, il fallait d’abord toute l’empathie – et le regard – d’un romancier à sa mesure.

Monsieur Ibrahim et les fleurs du Coran - Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt

"Tous les jours je fixais les yeux de monsieur Ibrahim et ça me donnait du courage.
Après tout, c’est qu’un Arabe !
- Je ne suis pas arabe, Momo, je viens du Croissant d’Or.
J’ai ramassé mes commissions et je suis sorti, groggy, dans la rue. Monsieur Ibrahim m’entendait penser ! Donc, s’il m’entendait penser, il savait peut-être aussi que je l’escroquais ?
Le lendemain, je ne dérobais aucune boîte mais je lui demandais :
- C’est quoi le Croissant d’Or ?
J’avoue que, toute la nuit, j’avais imaginé monsieur Ibrahim assis sur la pointe d’un croissant d’or et volant dans un ciel étoilé.
- Cela désigne une région qui va de l’Anatolie jusqu’à la Perse, Momo.
Le lendemain, j’ajoutai en sortant mon porte-monnaie :
- Je ne m’appelle pas Momo, mais Moïse.
Le lendemain, c’est lui qui ajouta :
- Je sais que tu t’appelles Moïse, c’est bien pour cela que je t’appelle Momo, c’est moins impressionnant.
Le lendemain, en comptant mes centimes, je demandai :
- Qu’est-ce que ça peut vous faire à vous ? Moïse c’est juif, c’est pas arabe.
- Je ne suis pas arabe Momo, je suis musulman.
- Alors pourquoi on dit que vous êtes l’arabe de la rue, si vous êtes pas arabe ?
- Arabe, Momo, ça veut dire « ouvert de huit heures du matin jusqu’à minuit et même le dimanche » dans l’épicerie.
Ainsi allait la conversation. Une phrase par jour. Nous avions le temps. Lui, parce qu’il était vieux, moi parce que j’étais jeune ? Et un jour sur deux, je volais une boîte de conserve."

Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt - Monsieur Ibrahim et les fleurs du Coran

Stop What You're Doing and Read This!

In any 24 hours there might be sleeping, eating, kids, parents, friends, lovers, work, school, travel, deadlines, emails, phone calls, Facebook, Twitter, the news, the TV, Playstation, music, movies, sport, responsibilities, passions, desires, dreams.


Why should you stop what you're doing and read a book?


People have always needed stories. We need literature - novels, poetry - because we need to make sense of our lives, test our depths, understand our joys and discover what humans are capable of. Great books can provide companionship when we are lonely or peacefulness in the midst of an overcrowded daily life. Reading provides a unique kind of pleasure and no-one should live without it.


In the ten essays in this book some of our finest authors and passionate advocates from the worlds of science, publishing, technology and social enterprise tell us about the experience of reading, why access to books should never be taken forgranted, how reading transforms our brains, and how literature can save lives. In any 24 hours there are so many demands on your time and attention - make books one of them.


Carmen Callil - Tim Parks - Nicholas Carr - Michael Rosen - Jane Davis - Zadie Smith - Mark Haddon - Jeanette Winterson - Blake Morrison - Dr Maryanne Wolf & Dr Mirit Barzillai

Atatürk ve Kitap

Always forgive your enemies - nothing annoys them so much - Oscar Wilde

The Casual Vacancy - J.K. Rowling

Little, Brown Book Group announces that the new novel for adults by J.K. Rowling is entitled The Casual Vacancy.  The book will be published worldwide in the English language in hardback, ebook, unabridged audio download and on CD on Thursday 27th September 2012.

The Casual Vacancy

When Barry Fairweather dies unexpectedly in his early forties, the little town of Pagford is left in shock.
Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war.
Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils...Pagford is not what it first seems.
And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?
Blackly comic, thought-provoking and constantly surprising, The Casual Vacancy is J.K. Rowling’s first novel for adults.

( link:  http://www.littlebrown.co.uk/TheCasualVacancy)

Paul McCartney - My Valentine

What if it rained?
We didn’t care.
She said that someday soon
The sun was gonna shine.
And she was right,
This love of mine,
My valentine

As days and nights,
Would pass me by

I tell myself that i was waiting for a sign
Then she appeared,

A love so fine,
My valentine

And i will love her for life
And i will never let a day go by
Without remembering the reasons why
She makes me certain
That i can fly

And so i do,
Without a care

I know that someday soon the sun is gonna shine
And she’ll be there
This love of mine
My valentine

Paul McCartney - My Valentine

A.Ş.K Neyin Kısaltması? - Tuna Kiremitçi

" 'Izmir kizlarinin güzel olduklarini zannetmemizin nedeni, Izmir'deki kadin-erkek iliskilerinin Türkiye geneline göre daha normal olmasidir. Yani Izmir kizlari iletisim kurmasini bildiklerinden bize fiziksel olarak daha güzel görünürler.'
Hâlâ arkasindayim sözlerimin: Izmir'de kadinlarin kadinliklarini özgürce yasamasinin, onlarin güzelligine ciddi katki sagladigini düsünürüm çünkü.
Bir kadini güzel kilan en önemli unsurlardan biri, kadinligini doya doya yasayabiliyor olmasidir. Yoksa Dogu Anadolu sokaklarinda da nefes kesen gözler çikar bazen karsimiza. Ama siz ne oldugunu anlayamadan gölgelerin içinde yitip gider hep. Cünkü kadinligiyla arasina dinin, törelerin ve yazginin kalin duvarlari girmistir o gözlerin.
Kadin olarak dogdugu için ölene dek özür dilemeye mahkûm edilmistir."

A.Ş.K Neyin Kısaltması? - Tuna Kiremitçi

Aleph - Paulo Coelho

“Travel is never a matter of money but of courage”

 “Don’t be intimidated by other people’s opinions. Only mediocrity is sure of itself, so take risks and do what you really want to do.” 

 

 "In magic - and in life - there is only the present moment, the now. You can't measure time the way you measure the distance between two points. 'Time' doesn't pass. We human beings have enormous difficulty in focusing on the present; we're always thinking about what we did, about how we could have done it better, about the consequences of our actions, and about why we didn't act as we should have. Or else we think about the future, about what we're going to do tomorrow, what precautions we should take, what dangers await us around the next corner, how to avoid what we don't want and how to get what we have always dreamed of.” 

 “If you conquer yourself, then you conquer the world”
― Paulo Coelho, O Aleph

 

The Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins

“Peeta,” I say lightly. “You said at the interview you’d had a crush on me forever. When did forever start?”
“Oh, let’s see. I guess the first day of school. We were five.You had on a red plaid dress and your hair . . . it was in two braids instead of one. My father pointed you out when we were waiting to line up,” Peeta says.
“Your father? Why?” I ask.
“He said, ‘See that little girl? I wanted to marry her mother, but she ran off with a coal miner,’” Peeta says.
“What? You’re making that up!” I exclaim.
“No, true story,” Peeta says. “And I said, ‘A coal miner? Why did she want a coal miner if she could’ve had you?’ And he said, ‘Because when he sings . . . even the birds stop to listen.’”
“That’s true. They do. I mean, they did,” I say. I’m stunned and surprisingly moved, thinking of the baker telling this to Peeta. It strikes me that my own reluctance to sing, my own dismissal of music might not really be that I think it’s a waste of time. It might be because it reminds me too much of my father.
“So that day, in music assembly, the teacher asked who knew the valley song. Your hand shot right up in the air. She stood you up on a stool and had you sing it for us. And I swear, every bird outside the windows fell silent,” Peeta says.
“Oh, please,” I say, laughing.
“No, it happened. And right when your song ended, I knew— just like your mother — I was a goner,” Peeta says. “Then for the next eleven years, I tried to work up the nerve to talk to you.”
“Without success,” I add.
“Without success. So, in a way, my name being drawn in the reaping was a real piece of luck,” says Peeta.
“You have a . . . remarkable memory,” I say haltingly."

The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins

Iskender - Elif Safak

"Aşkı Aramadan Evvel, Düşün Bir, 

Ya Benden Nasıl Bir Âşık Olur? 

 İnsanın Sevdası Karakterinin Yansımasıdır.

 Sen Kavgacı İsen, Ha Bire Öfkeli,

 Aşkı Da Bir Cenk Gibi Yaşarsın. 

 Gönlü Pak Olanın Sevgisi De Saf Olur. 

Şu Hayatta İnsan En Çok Sevdiklerini Acıtır. 

 En Derin Yaralar Ailede Açılır, 

 Kabuk Tutsa Bile Kanar Hikâye, İçten İçe...

 Attığımız Her Adım, Yaptığımız Her İşte 

Kendimizi Yansıtırız. 

Budur Çözülmesi Gereken Bilmece..." 

Iskender - Elif Safak

A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini

“One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs,or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls.” 

 “A society has no chance of success if its women are uneducated...” 

 “Marriage can wait, education cannot.” 

 “A man's heart is a wretched, wretched thing. It isn't like a mother's womb. It won't bleed. It won't stretch to make room for you.”

 “You changed the subject."
"From what?"
"The empty-headed girls who think you're sexy."
"You know."
"Know what?"
"That I only have eyes for you.” 

 “Nine-year-old Laila rose from bed, as she did most mornings, hungry for the sight of her friend Tariq. This morning, however, she knew there would be no Tariq sighting.

- How long will you be gone? - She’d asked when Tariq had told her that his parents were
taking him south, to the city of Ghazni, to visit his paternal uncle.
- Thirteen days
- Thirteen days?
- It’s not so long. You’re making a face, Laila.
- I am not.
- You’re not going to cry, are you?
- I am not going to cry! Not over you. Not in a thousand years.

She’d kicked at his shin, not his artificial but his real one, and he’d playfully whacked

the back of her head.

Thirteen days. Almost two weeks. And, just five days in, Laila had learned a fundamental truth about time: Like the accordion on which Tariq’s father sometimes played old Pashto songs, time stretched and contracted depending on Tariq’s absence or presence.”

― Khaled Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns

Jeunes Turcs - Moris Farhi

"Et si j'offrais un autre thé à la Mort? Croyez-vous qu'elle pourrait...? Oui, dit-elle, volontiers. Et elle aimerait bien une deuxième cigarette... Parfait, j'ai encore un peu de temps. 

    Bon. Vérité numéro un: L'identité turque, dans le vrai sens du terme. Elle est à des lieues de la soi-disant turquification prônée par les soi-disant kémalistes. (Atatürk doit enrager dans sa tombe chaque fois qu'on trahit et qu'on avilit ainsi son nom.) Laissez-moi vous dire en quoi consiste réellement le kémalisme. Il s'agit de construire une nation sur des bases solides comme la justice sociale, la liberté de culte et l'égalité pour tous, y compris les femmes. Il s'agit d'offrir santé, éducation, prospérité et bonheur à tous nos citoyens, quelles sue soient leurs origine ou leur foi! Il ne s'agit pas d'exclusion ou d'élitisme! Il ne s'agit pas de spolier les Juifs, les Arméniens et les Grecs par des impôts scandaleux comme en 1943! Il ne s'agit pas de persécuter les Kurdes, les Lazes et nos autres minorités en raison de leurs cultures et de leurs langues différentes! Il ne s'agit pas d'adopter des notions démentes comme cette nouvelle folie panturque qui cherche à rassembler les peuples turcs d'Asie centrale pour créer un empire ethniquement pur, ultra-nationaliste et ultra-islamiste! La véritable identité turque implique de se réjouir de l'infinie pluralité des peuples comme nous nous réjouissons de l'infinie multiplicité de la nature! Il s'agit de rejeter tous les "-ismes" et toutes les "-ités" - identité turque comprise. Il s'agit de renoncer à une seule culture, à un seul drapeau, à un seul pays, à un seul dieu afin d'embrasser - et de préserver - chaque culture, chaque peuple, chaque religion, chaque drapeau, chaque pays, chaque dieu pour ce qu'il a de différent et d'unique. Il s'agit d'être à la fois turc et citoyen du monde, à la fois un individu et le monde entier! 

   Tu pourrais me dire que l'idéalisme m'est monté à la tête. Que les Ottomans avaient des idées similaires et ont échoué. Ainsi qu'Alexandre le Grand - et qu'il a échoué lui aussi. Tu as peut-être raison. Mais si tu avais tort? Si c'est moi qui avait raison? Et si, comme toi et moi le pressentons, la possibilité du pluralisme existait? Pouvons-nous la laisser mourir juste parce que nous avons des doutes? (...)

   La Mort recommence à s'agiter, mon enfant. Son portail luit de rosée. Quelle vision splendide! D'un instant à l'autre, moi l'âsik, moi l'amoureux, je vais voir Dieu.

   Elle me laisse prendre une ultime cigarette. C'est le moment des dernières paroles. 

   Vérité numéro deux: Ne te laisse pas berner quand les gens te disent que leur culture et leur civilisation sont supérieures à la tienne. Cette paranoïa affecte souvent l'Europe et les Etats-Unis. Souviens-toi juste que chaque culture, chaque civilisation et chaque littérature a sa propre splendeur. 

  Vérité numéro trois: Rappelle-toi que tes racines, tu ne peux ni les changer, ni les transplanter. Sois-en donc fier. Savoure-les. 

  Vérité numéro quatre: Sois un homme aimant. Toujours. Et envers tout le monde. 

   Vérité numéro cinq: Tu es parti comme l'eau qui coule. Maintenant reviens comme l'eau qui coule.

   Ma cigarette est terminée. Elle enroule ses jambes autour de moi...

   Adieu, mon enfant, mon cher, cher enfant..."

Jeunes Turcs - Moris Farhis

The Bastard of Istanbul - Elif Shafak

“The Iron Rule of prudence for an Istanbulite Woman: If you are as fragile as a tea glass, either find a way to never encounter burning water and hope to marry an ideal husband or get yourself laid and broken as soon as possible. Alternatively, stop being a tea-glass woman!” 

 “Ways of loving from a distance, mating without even touching-Amor platonicus! The ladder of love one is expected to climb higher and higher, elating the Self and the Other. Plato clearly regards any actual physical contact as corrupt and ignoble because he thinks the true goal of Eros is beauty. Is there no beauty in sex? Not according to Plato. He is after `more sublime pursuits.' But if you ask me, I think Plato's problem, like those of many others, was that he never got splendidly laid.” 

 “We're stuck. We're stuck between the East and the West. Between the past and the future. On the one hand there are the secular modernists, so proud of the regime they constructed, you cannot breathe a critical word. They've got the army and half of the state on their side. On the other hand there are the conventional traditionalist, so infatuated with the Ottoman past, you cannot breathe a critical word. They've got the general public and the remaining half of the state on their side.”
― Elif Shafak, The Bastard of Istanbul

The Caster Chronicles - Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

“It was like being born in Germany after World War II, being from Japan after Pearl Harbour, or America after Hiroshima. History was a bitch sometimes. You couldn't change where you were from. But still, you didn't have to stay there. You didn't have to stay stuck in the past, like the ladies in the DAR, or the Gatlin Historical Society, or the Sisters. And you didn't have to accept that things had to be the way they were, like Lena. Ethan Carte Wate hadn't, and I couldn't either.”
― Kami Garcia, Beautiful Creatures

La cité de la joie - Dominique Lapierre

This is the story of living saints and heroes-- those who abandoned affluent and middle-class lives to dedicate themselves to the poor. ( via http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/204126.La_Cit_De_La_Joie )

The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

“Don't you think it's better to be extremely happy for a short while, even if you lose it, than to be just okay for your whole life?”
― Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler's Wife

One Day - David Nicholls

“What are you going to do with your life?" In one way or another it seemed that people had been asking her this forever; teachers, her parents, friends at three in the morning, but the question had never seemed this pressing and still she was no nearer an answer... "Live each day as if it's your last', that was the conventional advice, but really, who had the energy for that? What if it rained or you felt a bit glandy? It just wasn't practical. Better by far to be good and courageous and bold and to make difference. Not change the world exactly, but the bit around you. Cherish your friends, stay true to your principles, live passionately and fully and well. Experience new things. Love and be loved, if you ever get the chance.”
― David Nicholls, One Day

The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

“Hassan and I looked at each other. Cracked up. The Hindi kid would soon learn what the British learned earlier in the century, and what the Russians would eventually learn by the late 1980's: that Afghans are an independent people. Afghans cherish customs but abhor rules. And so it was with kite fighting. The rules were simple: No rules. Fly your kite. Cut the opponents. Good luck.”
― Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner

Norwegian Wood- Haruki Murakami

“You’re wasting your life being involved with me.”
“I’m not wasting anything.”
“But I might never recover. Will you wait for me forever? Can you wait 10 years, 20 years?”
“You’re letting yourself be scared by too many things,” I said. “The dark, bad dreams, the power of the dead. You have to forget them. I’m sure you’ll get well if you do.”
“If I can,” said Naoko, shaking her head.
“If you can get out of this place, will you live with me?” I asked.
“Then I can protect you from the dark and from bad dreams. Then you’d have me instead of Reiko to hold you when things got difficult.”
Naoko pressed still more firmly against me.
“That would be wonderful,” she said.”
― Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

"Inspired, in equal measures, by Hurricane Katrina, Buster Keaton, The Wizard of Oz, and a love for books, “Morris Lessmore” is a story of people who devote their lives to books and books who return the favor. The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore is a poignant, humorous allegory about the curative powers of story. Using a variety of techniques (miniatures, computer animation, 2D animation) award winning author/ illustrator William Joyce and Co-director Brandon Oldenburg present a hybrid style of animation that harkens back to silent films and M-G-M Technicolor musicals. “Morris Lessmore” is old fashioned and cutting edge at the same time." (via https://www.facebook.com/morrislessmore/info)

Home- A Dome of Books

                                      http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2012/04/a-dome-of-books/