Monday, February 3, 2020

Six books to help us through tough times

Elif Shafak / Elif Şafak is an award-winning British-Turkish novelist and the most widely read female author in Turkey. She writes in both Turkish and English, and has published seventeen books, eleven of which are novels, including the bestselling The Bastard of Istanbul, The Forty Rules of Love, and Three Daughters of Eve. In 2017 she was chosen by Politico as one of the twelve people who would make the world better.

Shafak's latest novel is 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World.

Shafak is also a political scientist and an academic. She holds a degree in International Relations, a masters’ degree in Gender and Women’s Studies and a PhD in Political Science and Political Philosophy. She has taught at various universities in Turkey, the UK and the USA, including St Anne's College, Oxford University, where she is an honorary fellow.

At the Guardian, Shafak tagged six works full of wisdom, heart and hope to help us through tough times, including:
George Monbiot’s Heat: How We Can Stop the Planet Burning is a solidly researched, well-presented answer to climate deniers everywhere. For anyone who cares about the survival of our biosphere, anyone trying to find the right balance between preserving lifestyle and cutting carbon emissions, it is the perfect guidance.
Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue