M. Gelle Abdullahi

My first time reading a Stephen King's book. I was anticipating it to be a good story but nevertheless it surpassed my expectations.

It lived up to the hype and even exceeded my expectations. The story is heavy with many players involved, but it's told in a clear and captivating way. I looked up if Don Winslow has any upcoming books and found out he's retired. This one was great, though, and I'll try to check out his other works if I finish this trilogy.

These days, I find myself praying for a ceasefire for our Palestinian people, who are enduring conditions strikingly similar to those described in this book—Gaza as one massive concentration camp and the West Bank fragmented into ghettos. Like the Syrians who recently found liberation, and so many others before them, their suffering too will come to an end soon.

I'd been dreading reading this book for weeks, but when I finally sat down with it, I couldn't put it down. It's an easy read, despite the unimaginable horrors Viktor E. Frankl recounts from his time in the Holocaust. He presents everything through the lens of the mind, offering a deeply personal and thought-provoking perspective.

The first part addresses the question: How was everyday life in a concentration camp reflected in the mind of the average prisoner? The second part explores the meaning and ideas Frankl had been developing even before his imprisonment. It's an important book—short, but profound on the subject.

When it comes to collections of essays or short stories, I've always struggled to get through them quickly—or even at a normal pace. No matter how great one story or essay might have been, jumping straight into a new one with completely different settings and characters left me feeling less engaged. That said, these essays might have just changed how I think about reading them more often.

The book has nine essays, a third of which focus on heavyweight champions: Joe Louis, Floyd Patterson, and Muhammad Ali. Each essay takes a different angle. With Louis, it reads like a fast-paced sports article—sharp and direct. With Patterson, it digs deeper, almost into the soul of a fighter. And with Ali, it shifts focus, becoming less about the man himself and more about the world surrounding him.

Just when I thought nothing could top the heated exchange between Frank Sinatra and Harlan Ellison, I hit the essay Ali in Havana 1996. It was a fascinating contrast to the former—an unusual encounter between Castro and Ali that included a magic trick.

الكتاب صغير، وفيه فوائد كثيرة، واسمه موافق لمحتواه.
مجرد نقل المقريزي وسرده للقصص في الفصل الأول لكان كافيا، وعنوانه
“في إيراد ما بمصر من الغلوات وحكايات يسيرة من أنباء تلك السنوات”

لَكِنَّه، رحمه الله، زاد وأفاد.
فإذن ليس بالناس غلاء، إنما نزل بهم سوء التدبير من الحكام، ليذهب الله غناء الخلق”“ويبتليهم بالقلة والذلة، جزاءً بما كسبت أيديهم وليذيقهم بعض الذي عملوا ولعلهم يرجعون.