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The Papercut is a podcast about books and reading from the Middle East, Africa and South Asia, and maybe a bit of everywhere else.

04/06/2025

✈️ J U N E • R E A D ✈️

Any book by Hisham Matar has been on my TBR for a long, long time. I love all the books on this year’s reading list, but I was selfish and picked one for June (my birthday month) that I felt was as guaranteed a great read as possible. The theme of friendship in literature is one that I really love exploring. I have no doubt there will be a lot to relate to, based on the blurb which hints at discussions around friendship between young Arab students living in the UK, and how their friendships are affected by the politics of the time. What do you guys think of this pick as the first Hisham Matar novel to be read by our book club?

01/06/2025

Guess who forgot to post the meet up announcement in advance? 🙋🏻‍♀️

See you guys tonight!

13/05/2025

🔄⏪ M A Y • R E A D ⏩🔄

I posted on my stories about the May book club pick and thought I had also made an actual post on the grid about it. Oh, to have a fully functioning brain again!

This biography has won awards, been lauded critically and has been adapted into a movie starring Benedict Cumberbatch. I have always loved reading stories about “ordinary people” ie non-celeb memoirs and biographies, and I have the highest of hopes for this one.

Who’s reading Stuart: A Life Backwards by Alexander Masters with us this month?

30/04/2025

Sunday can’t roll around soon enough! Can’t wait to discuss Almond by Won-Pyung Sohn 🌸

12/04/2025

👁️ A P R I L • R E A D 👁️

This month we’re spending some time in Korea, with Yunjae. He was born with a brain condition that makes it difficult for him to feel emotions. I don’t want to reveal too much more about the story, but what I’ve read in terms of reviews has been very promising. Most importantly, our esteeeeemed member (owner of .ceramics 🔌) picked this one! And we know she reads the best books so… feeling pretty confident right now 😌

02/04/2025

Guys it’s day 3 of eid, my brain doesn’t have enough firing synapses to come up with a good enough caption to do justice to this wonderful book. Let me save the brainpower for the 6th of April cos this book deserves a very substantial discussion! See you all there x

07/03/2025

🧟‍♂️ M A R C H • R E A D 🧟‍♂️

Oh hey, March! We’re closing out the season of re-tellings with FRANKENSTEIN IN BAGHDAD by Ahmed Saadawi, an Iraqi take on Mary Shelley’s classic. I’ve had this on my TBR for so many years and I’m so glad we’re now reading this as part of the book club.

A couple of members have been reading the original stories first before delving into the book club pick, so I’ve decided to do the same this time. I don’t think it’s necessary to enjoy the retelling, but I think it’s going to be really fun to see how the stories overlap. Who’s in this month?

27/02/2025

UPDATE!!! For reasons of Ramadan and moon sightings, we’ve got to postpone our discussion a few days. Please check your inboxes for the new calendar invite. See you on 3/3 🌝

16/02/2025

🏚️ F E B R U A R Y • R E A D 🏚️

“If I was bound for hell, let it be hell. No more false heavens. No more damned magic.”

The second book of the year, the second retelling of a timeless classic. This one, WIDE SARGASSO SEA by Jean Rhys, is a feminist, post-colonial Caribbean retelling of Bronte’s Jane Eyre. I was inspired to include this because one of our members suggested we included a classic novel, and I thought this tale of love, madness and power would be the perfect read for the month of February! And as most people know, I always include a Caribbean book every year, so this fit the bill nicely.

It’s been a while since I’ve read a classic novel, and I have to say I really miss the unhinged depth of emotion captured on the page. Is anyone else revisiting any “classics” this year (however you want to define that genre)?

27/01/2025

The book that is being hailed as an instant classic! The book that people are saying is better than the original! Do you agree do you disagree? Discuss 😍

25/01/2025

🚣🏻‍♂️ J A N U A R Y R E A D 🚣🏻‍♂️

This January is all about James by Percival Everett! One of the most hyped-up books of 2024, and the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, this novel is a retelling of the story of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of the character Jim (or James), the slave who had joined Huck Finn on his adventures.

The question a lot of people are asking is, do you need to read the original novel by Mark Twain in order to enjoy this novel? In true lawyer fashion, the only answer I can give is neither a yes or a no. I think it’s good to know what that story was about. I read it way too many years ago, and I tried to refresh my memory of it a little. But to be honest, I don’t have the bandwidth to meander down the Mississipi at the mercy of Mark Twain’s imagination...

So big thanks to Rachel for sharing a blog post by writer Liza Achilles who shared her expert opinion on which chapters would actually be useful - because tbh, a lot of the chapters feel like they don’t end. Here are the must read chapters:
- Chapters I - XVI
- Chapter XIX
- Chapters XX-###III (not a must, but can be fun)

Who’s joining this month’s session? Watch out for the invites tomorrow!

13/01/2025

Hi!! I was wondering why no one RSVP’d to the email invite, and realized I didn’t send it properly 😬

I think you all should know that the person behind the scenes who manages the invites and these posts is the brilliant and more technically competent .virtualassistant… if it were left up to me (Fatma) things would probably be an unhot mess over here 🫠

So the one time I tried to send out the emails myself, I messed it up 🫣

Hope to see as many of you guys as possible tomorrow evening to talk about The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde, the last book we read in 2024!!

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