The 15-Minute Book Club

Week 25: Midaq Alley

A historical realist novel  by Nobel Laureate, Naguib Mahfouz. Set in the 1940s, the novel revolves around various characters who live, trade and beg in a bustling alley in the backstreets of Cairo. Through this microcosm of broader society, Mahfouz reflects the changes that were taking place in Egyptian society at the time.
 
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Film mentioned:
The Alley of Miracles 
 
 

Week 24: Angela's Ashes

Frank McCourt was an Irish-American writer and Teacher. He recounts a childhood of utter destitution and extreme poverty, between the early 1930s until the late 1940s. When they were in New York his family struggled quite a lot as the great depression had just started, but things took a turn for the worse when they moved to Limerick in Ireland. 
 
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Books mentioned:
‘Tis by Frank McCourt
Teacher Man by Frank McCourt
Article about Angela’s Ashes: https://www.irishpost.com/entertainment/angelas-ashes-7-things-may-not-know-pulitzer-prize-winning-memoir-author-169766#:~:text=Paddy%20Malone%2C%20a%20schoolmate%20of,'misery'%20of%20Limerick%20city.

Week 23: The Power of Women

Dr. Denis Mukwege is a gynaecologist from The Democratic Republic of The Congo, he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018 for his incredible services to survivors of rape, and his global campaigns to end the use of rape as a weapon of war. In his book, he recounts his experience in treating women with injuries caused by sexual violence. He named the book The Power of Women as a tribute to the thousands of women he has treated over the years who have confronted some of the darkest circumstances imaginable but still find the courage to carry on and find meaning in life. 
 
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Oprah’s interview with Dr. Mukwege: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dr-mukwege-the-power-of-women/id1264843400?i=1000542177023 
Panzi Foundation: https://panzifoundation.org/

Week 22: The Anxious Generation

Jonathan Haidth is a sociologist, and in this book he examines the decline in mental health among adolescents around the world. He observes the link between the rise in depression, anxiety, self-harm and suicide with the introduction of smart phones in 2010. He offers plenty of evidence and statistics that suggest this rise in mental health issues among people is in large part due to, what he calls, ‘the great rewiring of childhood’.
 
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Book mentioned:
Stolen Focus by Johan Hari
 
Further materials: 
anxiousgeneration.com 
The Online Supplement: anxiousgeneration.com/supplement
The After Babel Substack: afterbabel.com 

Week 21: Educated

Educated is Tara Westover's memoir. She grew up in a super conservative Mormon family in Idaho in the United States. She details a very unusual upbringing. Her family had a deeply seeded distrust towards the government, they didn’t believe in modern medicine or the public school system. The book is essentially a story of her metamorphosis, how she leaves the bubble she was brought up in and goes out into the real world, only to have everything she’s ever known challenged. Without a formal education, Tara ends up attending university at the age of 17, and then goes on to attend Harvard University, as well as Cambridge University where she obtains her PhD. 
 
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Tara’s interview with Oprah: https://podcasts.apple.com/jo/podcast/super-soul/id1264843400?i=1000437295457 

Week 20: Stolen Lives

Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail is Malika Oufkir's first memoir. It is a full account of her unlawful and unjust political incarceration at the age of 19, along with her mother and five siblings, in various squalid desert prisons across Morocco. For over two decades, they suffered from starvation and diseases in isolation as punishment for their father's attempt to overthrow King Hassan II in 1972.
 
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Ahmed Marzouki’s ten part interview on Al Jazeera: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFF3C67C9E43201CA 
Malika’s interview with Oprah: https://www.oprah.com/oprahsbookclub/after-the-show-with-malika-oufkir-transcript/all 
Books mentioned:
Tazmamart: Cellule 10 by Ahmed Marzouki
Tazmamart: 18 Years in Morocco’s Secret Prison by Aziz BineBine
Freedom: The Story of My Second Life by Malika Oufkir 

Week 19: The End of Eddy

The End of Eddy by Edouard Louis is a memoir that sheds light on a part of French society that are unseen by those in the political centre; people who have been actively excluded from art, film and literature. By revisiting his childhood, Edouard is also trying to unpack the socioeconomic context that he was brought up in.
 
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Edouard Louis on The Guardian Books Podcast: https://www.theguardian.com/books/audio/2017/feb/28/fact-or-fiction-autobiographical-novels-edouard-louis-books-podcast 
 
Ken Loach and Edouard Louis in conversation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J89RTrx1_eM&t=1737s 
 
Mentioned films: 
I, Daniel Blake
Sorry We Missed You

Week 18: Man's Search For Meaning

Man's Search for Meaning by Dr. Viktor E. Frankl is one of the most famous accounts of The Holocaust, it also encompasses a basic exploration of the parameters of Logotherapy. Originally published in German in 1946, Dr. Frankl asks why those who have experienced great suffering don't commit suicide. He tries to answer this question through Nietzsche’s assertion that: “He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how”, and the existential notion that “to live is to suffer and to survive is to find meaning in the suffering.”
 
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Week 17: Revolutionary Road

Revolutionary Road is a classic mid-twentieth century novel by Richard Yates. It's a critique of American suburban life in the 1950s and the lies we tell ourselves, and each other, in maintaining a picturesque family life. It raises questions about the nature of insanity, and what happens when our inner selves start to revolt against our forced conforming to the collective norm. 
 
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Week 16: The White Tiger

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga is a witty and deeply cynical narrative. Our first person narrator, Balram, is under no illusions of righteousness. He understands that he has been born into a broken system, where one needs to be ruthless in order to thrive and prosper. He has awoken from the fallacy of the master and servant dynamic, and takes his destiny into his own hands. 
 
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