Monday, June 04, 2007

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseni

This story is told through the eyes of two women Miriam and Lilia. Miriam is an illegitimate child and is eventually married off to Rasheed who has his own shoe shop. She endures life with him as her mom Nana did on her own with not much help. Miriam and Rasheed take in Lilia after she loses her family. Miriam and Lilia have to figure out their relationship to each other as well as how it will work with Rasheed. With the Taliban starting to take power, the women also need to decide if they feel safe to stay or if they must flee to save their lives.

Mr. Hosseni is a talented and very wonderful writer. His writing got better and it was more emotionally involved. He showed all aspects of his characters extremely well. The depth that he took his writing truly amazed me.

Miriam was my favorite because she endured the most of both. She really had to bounce back from situations multiple times. Yet she never seemed to stay bitter. Lilia was a woman who got thrown into a marriage for no other reason than her reputation. She thought no one was left around to save her or take care of her.

This book took me on a wonderful experience. It taught me more about that culture and what was expected of both men and women. I give it a 5/5. It is difficult to write this review because I am grasping for words to tell you how great it is. I don’t want to give anything away! Please check this book out and if you have not already read Kite Runner they are not linked in any way. Mr. Hosseni is an amazing author and I look forward to his next book.

372 pages/ fiction

I finished this one before I posted The Last Summer. It took me the longest time to write the review for the current book mentioned. Now off to read a romance novel. :)

The Last Summer (of You and Me) by Ann Brashares

Riley and Alice, who have grown up, come back to the island and who shows up but Paul. Paul was best friend with Riley but always seemed to pick more on Alice. Alice realizes what he was really doing and throws out a challenge to Paul. But yet with that comes another realization that their world is not the same anymore. The girls have to deal with feelings that they have for each other, their parents, and Paul. Paul must come to terms with his feelings towards the aforementioned. But will it turn out like a fairy tale or is there more than meets the eye?

Ann Brashares of Sisterhood of Traveling Pants fame decided to write her first adult book. The characters were gripping; emotion filled and had conflict all around them. I enjoyed her expression of all characters and how she could really distinguish between each one. Yet she took her writing to another level by being able to describe things in more depth and have more soul searching in this book. She was really able to step up and write a good book.

Riley and Alice truly had to deal with how things had changed in their world. Alice wanted things to stay the same in some ways yet she also wanted to experience new things. She knew Riley had a difficult time handling change. Riley loved to swim and was best as a lifeguard. She knows something is going on and has secrets of her own.
Paul is just battling with his feelings, his friendships, and even memories of his father who died when he was just a child. It is not so much realizing that the world isn’t what they thought but more of embracing reality. There are sacrifices that are made because of guilt yet it is all part of figuring out what life holds for each one of them.

Ms. Brashares has a talent in writing and really gets emotional with her characters, the situations, and the events happening all around the story. I enjoyed that emotion and it is what kept me turning the pages. I give this book a 5/5 because it kept me finding out whom the romance was going to be with, what the secrets were, and how it was all going to turn out in the end. I found it to be very well written and it expanded on the great stories she had already written.


306 pages/ Fiction

This was a great book! I really enjoyed it! I will post my review of A Thousand Suns later today and then I have 2 romance novels to review. After that, not sure what I am going to read yet.