Reviews by khan amir

A man from the fictionalized country of Krakozhia is indefinitely stuck at New York's JFK airport terminal after his passport is revoked when a military coup takes over the leadership of his country while he's in the air. Essentially "in limbo" for the period of the film, we follow the man around as he tries to make due under the very odd circumstances. Somewhat based on a true story.

I enjoyed watching this movie, liked it a lot, 2 hrs entertainment pack.

Last October, the New York Times published an article that claimed FarmVille farmers outnumbered actual farmers in the US by a ratio of more than 60:1.

A virtual farming simulation with ample bells and whistles, FarmVille is first and foremost a game about crops. It is really a socializing game that become an addiction to the players.

An Adaptation, First published in 1954, The Eagle of the Ninth, Rosemary Sutcliff's novel for older children, is now regarded as a classic. This adaptation of the popular kids' book about Romans in Britain is a solid, watchable piece of storytelling.

A young Roman soldier begins a dangerous quest to clear his family name in this accomplished action-adventure movie

The setting of the movie is breathtaking, as it is based in the beautifully city of Rio de Janeiro. The movie starts off with a dazzling, display of colours and music, with wildlife putting up all manners of song and dance in the jungles of Brazil.

Jesse Eisenberg’s depiction of a nerdy domesticated bird, afraid to come out of his comfort zone is spot on, and keeps the viewers involved in Blu and his predicament.

Overall, the movie is more fast-paced and vibrant than the Ice Age series or Rango.

Rio theme based on the notion of believing in yourself and following one’s heart rather than the head.

With this startling, bizarre, yet surprisingly funny first openning, Kafka begins his masterpiece, The Metamorphosis.
It is the story of a young man who, transformed overnight into a giant beetle-like insect, becomes an object of disgrace to his family, an outsider in his own home, a quintessentially alienated man. A harrowing -- though absurdly comic -- meditation on human feelings of inadequacy, guilt, and isolation, The Metamorphosis has taken its place as one of the most widely read and influential works of twentieth-century fiction.

A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there.

A touching tale of two souls, must read

Quotes from the book

"You forget what you want to remember, and you remember what you want to forget."

"If trouble comes when you least expect it then maybe the thing to do is to always expect it."

Stephen W. Hawking is very likely the most famous physicist in the world. This is partially as a result of the public's amazement that a man who is so severely disabled by motor neuron disease (Hawking has lost almost all ability to move his extremities and can only "speak" through the aid of an specially designed electronic device), can be such a brilliant scientist. But part of Hawking's fame is in his wiliness to present to the general public his fascinating views on Cosmology.

Hawking does insert himself into the story, but never obtrusively, just enough to remind you that science is carried out by real people. For instance he writes,

"However, one evening in November that year, shortly after the birth of my daughter, Lucy, I started to think about black holes as I was getting into bed. My disability makes this rather a slow process, so I had plenty of time."

His most interesting chapter is perhaps "Black Holes Ain't So Black" where he describes the discovery (which he was very involved in himself) that because of quantum effects, energy and particles can be emitted from black holes.

The fact remains that this book deserves its place on every popular science shelf, not as a trophy or an icon, but as a fascinating, enjoyable read.

A thousand Splendid suns, became such a huge best seller, based largely on word of mouth and its popularity among book clubs and reading groups. A Thousand Splendid Suns,” focuses on mothers and daughters, and friendships between women. It not only gave readers an intimate look at Afghanistan and the difficulties of life there, but it also showed off its author’s accessible and very old-fashioned storytelling talents: his taste for melodramatic plotlines; sharply drawn, black-and-white characters; and elemental boldfaced emotions.

Extract from book

“Mariam wished for so much in those final moments. Yet as she closed her eyes, it was not regret any longer but a sensation of abundant peace that washed over her. She thought of her entry into this world, the harami child of a lowly villager, an unintended thing, a pitiable, regrettable accident. A weed. And yet she was leaving the world as a woman who had loved and been loved back. She was leaving it as a friend, a companion, a guardian. A mother. A person of consequence at last. No. It was not so bad, Miriam thought, that she should die this way. Not so bad. This was a legitimate end to a life of illegitimate beginnings.”

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is one of the best books I have read in years. This is a page turner with complex characters and situations that will make you think hard about friendship, good and evil, betrayal, and redemption. A sad reality in perspective of burning & war torn country.

It's a book about rapid cognition, about the kind of thinking that happens in a blink of an eye. When you meet someone for the first time, or walk into a house you are thinking of buying, or read the first few sentences of a book, your mind takes about two seconds to jump to a series of conclusions. Well, "Blink" is a book about those two seconds, because I think those instant conclusions that we reach are really powerful and really important and, occasionally, really good.

You could also say that it's a book about intuition, except that I don't like that word. In fact it never appears in "Blink." Intuition strikes me as a concept we use to describe emotional reactions, gut feelings--thoughts and impressions that don't seem entirely rational. But I think that what goes on in that first two seconds is perfectly rational. It's thinking--its just thinking that moves a little faster and operates a little more mysteriously than the kind of deliberate, conscious decision-making that we usually associate with "thinking." In "Blink" I'm trying to understand those two seconds. What is going on inside our heads when we engage in rapid cognition? When are snap judgments good and when are they not? What kinds of things can we do to make our powers of rapid cognition better

Malcom Gladwell