Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time
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At least now I know where the term “Whirling Dervish” comes from

The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak

July 12, 2026 by Zirza Leave a Comment

That’s the most positive thing I can come up with about this book. What a slog this was.  The plot: Ella Rubinstein is a forty year old stay at home mother to two children and a possibly perpetually unfaithful husband. She takes up a job with a publishing house to revise a novel called Sweet Blasphemy by a man named Aziz Zahara. As she reads the novel, she becomes fascinated by the story of the novel, about the friendship between renowned 13th century poet Rumi […]

Filed Under: Fiction, History, Religion Tagged With: #history, arabic history, Elif Shafak, Forty Rules of Love, i hated this, rumi

Zirza's CBR18 Review No:21 · Genres: Fiction, History, Religion · Tags: #history, arabic history, Elif Shafak, Forty Rules of Love, i hated this, rumi ·
Rating:
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Recent Comments

  • LittlePlat
    on “To be so ravenous with desperation that the only way out is complete and utter annihilation. A torpedo made of your own sharpened body.”- Senaa Ahmad (or me about wanting to quit this book)
    I suspect I got more enjoyment reading your review than you did of the actual book. "Jail, jail for author...
  • esmemoria
    on “To be so ravenous with desperation that the only way out is complete and utter annihilation. A torpedo made of your own sharpened body.”- Senaa Ahmad (or me about wanting to quit this book)
    This sounds perfectly awful, but I do love this review.
  • Sheila
    on I don’t do torture
    I wish I had read this review before I bought this Audible book. I am just at the halfway point...
  • bjornsnipe
    on “To be so ravenous with desperation that the only way out is complete and utter annihilation. A torpedo made of your own sharpened body.”- Senaa Ahmad (or me about wanting to quit this book)
    Thank you.
  • Maximoff
    on “The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what Fiction means.”- Oscar Wilde
    May I join you at that dinner party? This book is well worth reading.
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