Authors and books Archives - Books by Patricia Furstenberg

August 31, 2020July 5, 2020

Love For Books

It must be running in your bloodstream, the love for books.

I don’t believe that it is something you acquire over time. It must be in your DNA code, something you’ve born with, like the color of your eyes or that moll on your cheek. You’re born with, blessed with, then it runs through your blood, like a virus.

When I say love for books I do not mean enjoying books and reading, that’s love of books, fondness, liking the way you like something you glance at. By love for books I mean needing books. Needing to read them, to hold them, to own them, to surround oneself with them. Like an addict.

I hear people saying, ‘I like to read, but I don’t have enough time so I read just a bit.’

Those with the virus, with love for books, don’t have to make time. And you see them every day, nights too. Mornings are the best, surprising them with a book in hand. They don’t need an ideal reading spot, or silence or background music. They can read everywhere, in the subway, the bus, the train, in a crowded room, and sometimes even during in class.

And you do know how their homes look like too. I don’t mean bookshelves, but stacked with books.

People with a love for books always carry a book with them the way others hold their cellphone or fashionable ladies carry their emergency cosmetic bag. But those with a love for books are fearless. They do not worry that they will miss a call, or a message, or a Tweet, or that their beauty will smudge during the day. They do fear, though, that the thin paper layer protecting their souls will get damaged throughout the day, exposing them to noise, to wickedness, to mental pollution.

You see, people with a love for books, those who carry that book virus in their bloodstream, need a periodic shot, call it chronic medication, of reading. Of living elsewhere for a short while so that they can survive in the present. Of accumulating life experience so that they can share it with the rest. Of laughing or crying elsewhere, so that they can compare it to the laughing and the crying from the real world and clarifying, once and for all, how original life can be.

For only when life is conveyed into a book will that book be cradled and read by someone with a love for books, and afterwards explained to others.

You see now why writers need readers with a love for books just as much as those with a love for books need books.

‘Literature is the most pleasant way of ignoring life.’
Fernando Pessoa

You might also enjoy reading:

A Love Letter to Coffee and What Coffee Is Best Paired With
Secrets Hidden in a Book Cover
My Life in Books Read during 2019
A Resultant Force, Women Writing about War
Read the opening pages of Silent Heroes by Patricia Furstenberg
Symbolism in Silent Heroes, the Story behind it

hope readers books Furstenberg — Find all my books on Amazon.

August 12, 2020August 19, 2020

C’est le printemps. Este primăvară. Dit is lente. It is spring.

printemps, primavara, spring, herfs, apricot blossoms

The fruit trees start blossoming and the sparrows begin chirping at the break of dawn. The sunlight grows warmer and glows with care. Its fingers graze the small, pink flowers that are abuzz with bees.

C’est le printemps. Este primăvară. Dit is lente. It is spring.

The rebirth of nature, after the long icy months, is enough to open your mind to the beauty that nature seems to paint so effortlessly.

The warmer air is filled with the sweet scents of flowers and the promise of renewal.

Our hearts open hopefully to new sentiments and romance.

The seasons are not usually linked to the months of the year, but rather by the appearance of flowers on trees, or astronomy. ‘Equinox’ comes from the Latin words aequi (meaning equal) and noct (meaning night). Natural time is unstable and the lengths of day and night are usually not equal, yet on the spring equinox and autumn equinox-the angle of the Earth’s axis is positioned in such a way that daytime and night-time are equal. Spring is mostly thought of as the time between the spring equinox and the summer solstice. During the spring equinox; the sun is directly over the Earth’s equator at midday. The equal lengths of day and night (well, nearly equal) are due to the fact that the sun’s rays refract (bend) when they hit the Earth’s atmosphere.

printemps primăvară herfs spring, sun-earth relationship

This refracting causes the sun to appear that it is still above the horizon, when it has actually already set. Hence, the daytime is lengthened by roughly seven and a half minutes at the equator (countries like Brazil, Gabon, Kenya, Somalia, Maldives and Indonesia), eight minutes at 30 degrees latitude (places such as South Africa, southern Australia, Argentina and southern Brazil) and sixteen minutes at 60 degrees latitude (like in Sweden and Russia).

The summer solstice is the longest day of the year-this year (2020), it is on the 20^th of December in the Southern hemisphere and on the 20^th of June in the Northern hemisphere. So, if you don’t live on electronic time (like I do)-those are the perfect days to spend outside in the sun. Well, 20^th of June was the perfect day. If you know how to build a time machine, then you know where to go!

I have always been fascinated by Egyptian history and have read up on as much as I could find on the subject since I was first introduced to it ten years ago. In those ancient times, seasons (and most things that are now explained with Science) were often explained with mythical tales. Spring often symbolised rebirth and resurrection-something which the Egyptians held at the core of their belief system. Osiris (the Egyptian god of fertility, agriculture, the afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, and vegetation) was brutally murdered by his brother, Seth (the god of war, chaos and storms). Osiris was the first-born son to Geb (god of the earth) and Nut (goddess of the sky). As first born, he was considered the ruler of Egypt. He taught the Egyptians the proper ways to worship the gods, provided them with laws and taught them agriculture. He later took Isis (his sister) as his wife and she gifted the Egyptians equality and compassion. The paradise ensured equality among all and abundance of food. Set was jealous of his brother’s power and success. When his wife (Nephthys) became pregnant by Osiris-after disguising herself as Isis-Set’s resentment turned bitter.

printemps primăvară herfs spring, Egyptian mythology

He decided to eliminate his brother and had a beautiful casket made, tailored to Osiris’ exact measurements. A huge party was thrown and Set invited his brother-but with sinister motives. Set revealed the magnificent casket to the guests and told them that whoever’s body fit most perfectly inside could take the treasure home. As you can guess-Osiris’ fit perfectly. Set immediately slammed the lid shut and threw the casket-and his brother-into the Nile. Of course, this is only one version of how Set murdered his brother. Now you’re probably wondering where Spring comes in. Well, Osiris’ wife-Isis-found his body and buried him-which re-birthed Osiris as the judge of the underworld. Hence-rebirth, resurrection and the arrival of spring (with Osiris’ role as the fertility god-giving life to plants) was created in Egypt. Of course, this story also explains the annual flooding of the river Nile, as when Osiris’ casket was thrown into the river-it flooded, as it does every year since then in the spring.

Spring symbolises new beginnings: baby birds begin chirping in nests and the trees start making new leaves and beautiful blossoms.

printemps primăvară lente spring, apricot blossoms

The world is renewed and the air filled with hope. Maybe change is not as bad as everyone makes it out to be. The flooding of the Nile in Egypt still provides farmers with water for their crops-and therefore food. The changing seasons all over the world provide us with new perspectives and opportunities.

It is up to you to jump in the flood and let yourself be renewed to a more powerful version of yourself.

© Lysandra Furstenberg, 2020

You have seen photographs taken by my daughter, the writer of this post, in Dualism, a Square in Travel Photography and Black and White, Square Moon Trees. Lysandra’s poetry was featured by lovely Florence of Miscellany Pages in Poetry, Comedy & The Modern World and you can discover her poetry book, Right to Life, on Amazon.

Sources:

Rebirth and Resurrection: Spring Myths of the Ancient World
Symbols of Spring
Spring: Season of New Beginnings
Earth’s Orbit
The Seasons, the Equinox, and the Solstices

August 5, 2020August 19, 2020

Heatwave? Read These 6 Books to Cool You Down

The best way to forget about the monster heatwave and scorching, hot temperatures outside is to read books set in a chilly location guaranteed to cool you down. Looks like summer won’t give us a moment of respite this year either. With lock-down and social distancing to consider, there is one sure way to cool off during the warmest months of the year and to keep safe from the torments of the heat.

Reading. Chilling crimes, Scottish or Nordic Noir; books set in frozen settings are perfect for cooling off and de-stressing.

One chilling place to start is In a House of Lies by Ian Rankin, just for its hard-hitting storytelling blended with humor. When everyone has something to hide and nobody is innocent, when all trails lead to John Rebus, will he be able to prove his innocence? This book is an ideal heatwave read as it asks for a full attention to keep up with its twists. The 22nd book featuring former detective John Rebus, it deals with two cases; a missing persons’ cold case and a recent murder. A complicated, complex and very satisfying read dripping with banter and some lighthearted humor bouncing between the two main characters. An instant No.1 Amazon Bestseller, shortlisted for British Book Awards, Crime & Thriller Book of the Year.

Summers are for keeps even when the possibilities for outdoor chilling are slashed, forcing us to focus on social media. So I’m looking next at another read, classic humor mixed with chilling crime, All That’s Dead by Stuart MacBride because the victim was a Twitter addict. So when he disappears, what are the chances that it was only an innocent act? Logan McRae, here in book 12, is faced with a perplexing case to solve while the story, spun by a master storyteller, is anchored in the present political issues from a master storyteller and a No 1 bestselling author.

For a play of words and on what to read during a hot day, dare touch Smilla’s Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg. The book pulls us in a Copenhagen covered by snow where a scientist who lives in a world numbers and science and is faced with solving a murder. If the clues leading to Greenlander are not enough to chill you, read it for the explosive secret that lies beneath the ice. Welcome to Nordic Noir, the bleakest of the bleak crime fiction and a book that won too many awards to even count them.

We remain in the territory of horrors, because they prove to be the best option for a hot day. Read The Shining by Stephen King. Can you say no to the prospect of a luxury hotel in Colorado, snowy and full of ghosts? Surely at least the minus something degrees will already seem bearable, by comparison to the heat outside your window. Danny is a five-year-old with paranormal powers, his father, Jack, is an alcoholic writer, and his mother Wendy is a bundle of nerves. What could go wrong? The book, published in 1977, turned King into a master of the horror genre, but also one of the best-selling writers of all time.

The day’s still too hot for you? How about Moscow, in the middle of the Russian winter? I’m thinking of one of the best crime novel set in Russia, Martin Cruz Smith’s Gorky Park. The book successfully contrasts both Soviet and American societies, as well as the methods of Soviet and American detectives. Police investigates a triple murders set in Moscow’s Gorky Park in the middle of Russian winter and all clues point to a KGB hit. Arkady Renko, the Moscow homicide investigator, finds himself pulled into a web of intrigues connected to powerful American business interests. Chilling and atmospheric, the Arkady Renko series now includes eight gripping novels.

And if everything else fails, a hot drink on a hot day can also cool you down – or a read set in a hot location, temperature hot, action hot, politically hot: Afghanistan.

If you wish to survive through what seems to be the hottest summer in recent memory of the world, conventional wisdom says that you can cool down by drinking a hot beverage. But if you wish to forget the nagging heat outside your window, then escape in a book: Silent Heroes.
Chosen one of 5 Books Everyone Should Read in Their Lifetime.
As vivid as a movie, you will share the life of the Marines deployed in an Afghan military base; climb the breathtaking Hindu-Kush Mountains to a secluded Taliban camp; dive in the belly of ancient Qala-e-Bost fortress in the middle of a battle, and experience the culture of the Afghan people. Silent Heroes is a race against time, “an emotional rollercoaster of a read,” a page-turner, a thrilling contemporary story with a vivid sense of the place, history and politics that shines a light on the humanity of the Marines and their special relationship with their canine buddies. The utterly thrilling war fiction read inspired by true events from a Historical Fiction bestselling author – it will keep you gripped until the final page.

Silent Heroes: When Love and Values Are Worth Fighting for Patricia Furstenberg

Start with any one. You won’t be disappointed and not even the heat will seem oppressive anymore.

August 3, 2020July 10, 2020

Quotes on the Importance of Reading

We, the writers, are sure that you, the readers, do not need a special invitation or inspiration to read, to lose yourself into a book. As a reader, you are certainly aware of the importance of reading throughout your life. If you’ve been bewitched a long time ago or not, if you’ve known times abundant in glorious novels or battled with dry spells, you surely felt that reading will always remain a defining part of your life.

For writers, however, reading is an absolute necessary, a sine qua non condition of the very life of an author. For the invaluable influence that great writers have on our subconscious mind; for the steady flow of ideas that fill the well we only glance into, on a moon-less night; for the dull technique… writers read.

And not only…

I believe that all visual arts are, to some extent, influenced by literature, thus complementing one other. Architecture or a painting can be the perfect backdrop for poetry or a literary work whose author, in return, was influenced by a work of art.

Below I have gathered, for readers everywhere, a series of quotes about the essential act of reading. Some you will recognize for sure; some I hope will become your favorites. Others, I hope, you will return to again and again, like I do.

‘When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes.’ Erasmus of Rotterdam

‘It is a great thing to start life with a small number of really good books which are your very own.’ – Arthur Conan Doyle

‘The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest (people) of the past centuries.’ – Descartes

‘There is no Frigate like a Book To take us Lands away.’ – Emily Dickinson

The 1598 edition of John Manwood’s Lawes of the Forrest

‘Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another’s skin, another’s voice, another’s soul.’ Joyce Carol Oates

‘You should never just read for ‘enjoyment.’ Read to make yourself smarter! Less judgmental. More apt to understand your friends’ insane behavior; or better yet, your own. Pick ‘hard books.’ Ones you have to concentrate on while reading. And for God’s sake, don’t let me ever hear you say, ‘I can’t read fiction. I only have time for the truth.’ Fiction is the truth.’ John Waters

‘For some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you. Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die.’ Anne Lamott

‘I still love books. Nothing a computer can do can compare to a book. You can’t really put a book on the Internet. Three companies have offered to put books by me on the Net, and I said, ‘If you can make something that has a nice jacket, nice paper with that nice smell, then we’ll talk.’ All the computer can give you is a manuscript. People don’t want to read manuscripts. They want to read books. Books smell good. They look good. You can press it to your bosom. You can carry it in your pocket.’ Ray Bradbury

‘ A novel worth reading is an education of the heart. It enlarges your sense of human possibility, of what human nature is, of what happens in the world. It’s a creator of inwardness.’ Susan Sontag

‘Knowing you have something good to read before bed is among the most pleasurable of sensations.’ Vladimir Nabokov

‘By reading the writings of the most interesting minds in history, we meditate with our own minds and theirs as well. This to me is a miracle.’ Kurt Vonnegut

‘We should read to give our souls a chance to luxuriate.’ Henry Miller

‘To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.’ W. Somerset Maugham

‘From the reading of ‘good books’ there comes a richness of life that can be obtained in no other way.’ – Gordon B. Hinckley

‘Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.’ Harper Lee

‘You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.’ C.S. Lewis

‘You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.’ Ray Bradbury

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July 26, 2020July 26, 2020

Poetry, Comedy & The Modern World — Miscellany Pages

Yes, we need fun poetry and comedy in today’s modern world and talented Florence of Miscellany Pages understood the necessity and created an anthology titled ‘Poetry, Comedy & The Modern World’.

Twelve poems and a bonus, Lysandra Furstenberg’s Right to Life.

Do head over and read for joy:

To experiment with the idea of making poetry more fun, I created an anthology entitled ‘Poetry, Comedy & The Modern World’ for a recent project on my English Literature degree. I thought I would share the twelve poems that made their way into the final anthology here on my blog! I hope you enjoy exploring and, hopefully, having a bit of a laugh along the way…

via Poetry, Comedy & The Modern World — Miscellany Pages

July 10, 2020July 10, 2020

Silent Heroes, When Love and Values Are Worth Fighting for, 1 Year Anniversary

5 books everyone should read in their lifetime

Celebrate with me Silent Heroes, When Love and Values Are Worth Fighting for and its 1 year anniversary from its publishing debut on Amazon.
Looking at war from the perspective of all those sucked into it, civilians, soldiers, military working dogs, MWD, and eve belligerents, Silent Heroes is a narrative about the value of life and the necessity of combat; the terror of dying; the ordeal of seeing your loved ones and your platoon-mates killed in front of your eyes; the trauma of taking a human life.

“What I tried to convey through Silent Heroes is that all those impacted by war are, at the end of a fighting day, human being with dreams and families. A war’s consequences, like the shadow of a nightmare, reach far beyond the battlefield.
Perhaps being a woman that writes about war I couldn’t ignore my inner voice speaking for the daughter, the wife, and the mother in me.”
Patricia Furstenberg

Silent Heroes, When Love and Values Are Worth Fighting for, 1 Year Anniversary, 5 books everyone should read in their lifetime — 5 books everyone should read in their lifetime, Jodi Picoult, Ken Follett, **Silent Heroes** by Patricia Furstenberg, Victor Hugo, Shantaram – as chosen by fantastic reader and book blogger Mani.

On the book itself and on how it came to be, read below.

Numerous other silent heroes, from countless wars, came before the book itself, especially the Military Working Dogs of Gulf War, Iraq War and the War in Afghanistan. That was just the beginning.

Secrets Revealed in of Silent Heroes

5 Secrets Revealed in Silent Heroes. A Mysterious Underground Fortress
5 Secrets Revealed in Silent Heroes. The Military Chain of Command
5 Secrets Revealed in Silent Heroes. Taliban’s Secret Lair
5 Secrets Revealed in Silent Heroes. Women’s Rights under Taliban
5 Secrets Revealed in Silent Heroes. The Humanity of U.S. Marines

Music often inspired me. I invite you to listen to some of the tunes behind Silent Heroes, When Love and Values Are Worth Fighting for on the book’s 1 Year Anniversary:

The Music of Silent Heroes

Songs that Remind me of the Marines, my Silent Heroes
Songs that Remind me of Silent Heroes: the Afghan people

The Setting behind Silent Heroes

5 Remarkable Places You Will Want to Visit After Reading Silent Heroes
Afghanistan, a Dangerous Landscape

The youngest human character in Silent Heroes is a little Afghan boy of eight years old, Rafik:

Rafik’s Travels in Silent Heroes

Rafik’s Journey in Silent Heroes. An Afghan Village
Rafik’s Journey in Silent Heroes. At Camp Bastion
Rafik’s Journey in Silent Heroes. The Afghan Desert
Rafik’s Journey in Silent Heroes. An Oshkosh Vehicle
Rafik’s Journey in Silent Heroes. The Hindu Kush Mountains

Silent Heroes book Afghanistan military orking dogs Patricia Furstenberg

Of course, there would be no Silent Heroes, 1 Year Anniversary, without some:

Silent Heroes Poetry and First Chapters

The Soldier and his Dog, Silent Heroes
A Boy and his Dog
Read the opening pages of Silent Heroes by Patricia Furstenberg

If you love secrets and symbology you might enjoy reading:

Secrets of a Book Cover

Secrets of a Book Cover – a Guest Post: the soldier and his dog, an Afghan sunset, and Afghan eyes
Secrets Hidden in a Book Cover – the colors: red, brown and gold

Women Writing about War

How is my Writing Different in my Genre
A Resultant Force, Women Writing about War
Women Writing about War

And, how else:

Celebrating the Readers of “Silent Heroes, When Love and Values Are Worth Fighting for” and Their 5 Stars Reviews for This Book

July 7, 2020July 9, 2020

Bamiyan Buddhas, Silent Heroes

The Bamiyan Buddhas stood for nearly two millennia as silent heroes, symbols of the Buddhist faith, witnesses to the hustle and the bustle of the Silk Route with its whirlwind of wealth, ideological exchange, and art, and to countless illogical wars.

In silence they stood since the middle of the first century, and witnessed. Did they know they were the largest in the world? Perhaps they heard rumors. Did they even care? I think not. Like the Buddhism they stood for, they enjoyed the freedom to observe and meditate, learning about human nature and that nothing lasts forever.

But how did the Bamiyan Buddhas really look like?

Yes, like standing Buddhas carved into performing specific gestures, but also carved into niches, allowing worshipers to circulate all around their feet, at the base of the statue, while meditating. They were not just shaped into the face of the mountain. By hairstyle they were Buddhist, but their capes showed clear Hellenistic Greek influences (think Louvre’s Winged Victory of Samothrace) as well as Indian elements. Two cosmopolitan masterpieces.

The tallest Buddha was almost as tall as the first floor of the Eiffel Tower, Paris, or half the height of the Victoria Tower, London, or almost a third of the height at which World Trade Center once stood.

If we would have a telescope to look back in time we would see:

‘a rock statue of the Buddha standing, one hundred forty or fifty feet in height, a dazzling golden color and adorned with brilliant gems.’
as well as
‘a copper statue of the Buddha standing, more than one hundred feet tall.’
The Great Tang Records of the Western Regions (Da Tang Xiyu Ji) by Xuanzang (Hsuan-Tsang), chinese monk, description written in 643

What happened to the Bamiyan Buddhas, these Silent Heroes?

‘Taliban forces operating in Afghanistan had destroyed these colossal statues in March 2001. They started by damaging the Buddha with anti-aircraft firearms and cannons. Yet the damage inflicted was not enough for the Taliban. They returned with anti-tank mines that they placed at the statues’ bases. When sections of rock broke off, the statues suffered further damage. And still, they did not stop here. The Taliban dropped men down the face of the cliff. They had placed explosives into the various grooves found in the Buddhas. The plan was clear, to completely destroy the facial features of the two statues. Maybe a bad understanding of the Quran: Islam condemns idolatry. When one of the blasts could not destroy the facial features of one statue, a rocket was used in its place. It left a hideous gap in whatever was left of the Buddha’s head.
The Taliban did not succeed in wiping out the two Buddhas, but they became unrecognizable as the figures they once were. A cultural, religious, historical and entomological symbol and landmark.
It was a bleak day in human history when something that watched over the valley for 1 500 years was destroyed in a matter of weeks.
Thanks to 21st-century technology the larger of the two Buddhas has been reconstructed using 3D light projections. A holographic image which, unfortunately, is only unveiled rarely, during special occasions.’
Silent Heroes by Patricia Furstenberg

Why destroy the Bamiyan Buddhas?

Maybe a bad understanding of the Quran, as Islam condemns idolatry and Taliban was known for their extreme iconoclastic campaigns. Maybe a need for gaining global media attention. Or just pure evil.

Bamiyan is now listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in Danger.