A Thousand Splendid Suns (hey LouMinotti)

[Anonymous]

Thought I'd start a new thread about this instead of continuing to jack the other one...

I enjoyed A Thousand Splendid Suns more than Kite Runner because I could identify more with the story line. Both books were gut-wrenching for me. I couldn't put them down, but I really felt physically sick reading them in places. Very very good books but I've sworn off anything else by Khaled Hosseini - he's just not good for my mental health.

Ben Kingsley? I puffy-heart Ben Kingsley. IMO he should draw the big bucks and attention that leading men like Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise get and don't deserve.

I haven't read The Alchemist but I just looked it up on amazon.com. I'll put it in my list at the library.

I just finished reading The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. It's one of my new favorite books.

*edited for proper formatting of book titles (hangs head in shame)

Message Edited by desifink on 08-08-2008 02:10 PM

[WhirledPeasPlease]

I'm glad you started this --  I wanted to mention a book to LouMinotti and you just reminded me of that fact!

Lou -- I'm almost finished with Past Perfect by Susan Isaacs.  I picked it up thinking it would just be the regular summer fluff, but it's not.  It has a 'conspiracy theory' theme and it has me hooked! 

I've avoided A Thousand Splendid Suns b/c I know I need to be in really 'happy place' to read it -- and I've had way too much to do this summer to spend a week in my pajamas reading something that makes me want to eat ice cream and sleep often.  LOL.

I know this has been mentioned before, but I wish for everyone to read the book Three Cups of Tea.  Just amazing.

Next up on the summer reading list?  Umm..  I dunno.  I have about 8 books left from my last round of book buying.

[demi]

I've read Three Cups of Tea..great book - changed a lot of perspectives

I loved A Thousand splendid Suns  FABULOUS.... Still have not read the Kite Runner, went to read a few weeks ago and couldn't locate it, but found it in the move, so will be my next one. 

Another fascinating one is Snowflower and the Secret Fan, about the Chinese culture and how woman/girls were treated, some gruesome scenes of foot binding (nothing like I thought it was) but great book.

Been reading a lot of "fluff" lately, mainly cause I have it, and trying to read most of the books I have before I buy more !

Message Edited by demi on 08-08-2008 10:35 AM

[islandchild82]

I LOVED A Thousand Splendid Suns. Hosseini's writing was vastly improved from The Kite Runner. And the story was truly heart-wrenching. I also enjoyed the insight brought into a country that has so often been front-page news yet I felt I knew so little about.

I also really enjoyed Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. Great story and explanation of cultural practices. Didn't enjoy the follow-up nearly as much, Peony In Love. In fact, I still have to finish it, so maybe my mind will change by then.

[southernficoaddict]

Wow!  Thanks for all the great titles!  Going to the bookstore with a list as soon as i work out of this rotation!

[LouMinotti]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Thought I'd start a new thread about this instead of continuing to jack the other one...

I enjoyed A Thousand Splendid Suns more than Kite Runner because I could identify more with the story line. Both books were gut-wrenching for me. I couldn't put them down, but I really felt physically sick reading them in places. Very very good books but I've sworn off anything else by Khaled Hosseini - he's just not good for my mental health.

Ben Kingsley? I puffy-heart Ben Kingsley. IMO he should draw the big bucks and attention that leading men like Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise get and don't deserve.

I haven't read The Alchemist but I just looked it up on amazon.com. I'll put it in my list at the library.

I just finished reading The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. It's one of my new favorite books.

*edited for proper formatting of book titles (hangs head in shame)

Message Edited by desifink on 08-08-2008 02:10 PM

---

Oh wow, Hi there! Thank you for posting this and my apologies for being late to the thread. I've been completely pre-occupied finding and securing an apartment -- otherwise know as room and board -- for my middle son (freshman entering Berklee) in Boston without actually going to Boston. About as stressful as securing the loan to pay for the R&B, and so I haven't been able to read or focus on anything else. But my mission is almost accomplished in and 3 weeks I will be going from a household of four to a household of two and I am hoping that I will start to do the things I used to, like read books!

Thousand Suns is first on the pile, and then a book I heard about on NPR the other day called "Apples and Oranges" by Marie Brennan...here's a quote from the IHT about it:

"If Marie Brenner and her brother, Carl, can learn to love each other, there might be hope for our divided America after all. She's a hot-shot writer at large for Vanity Fair, an investigative journalist known for taking down corporations; her exposés of the tobacco industry became the 1999 movie "The Insider." He is an apple farmer in Washington State with the National Rifle Association sticker on his truck. Illness turns out to be this family's cure. Carl is discovered to have cancer, and Marie flies to apple country to try to save him."

A true story and from what she said in her interview with Diane Rhem, a funny and poignant and surprising one. I am currently at odds with my own brother. "Why can't he be more like...me?" I say to myself. Apparently lots of us with siblings say the same thing. Her conclusion is this; the problem is hers, not his. She never learned how to accept him the way he is until he became ill with cancer. Powerful stuff, but those are the stories I am drawn to, fiction or nonfiction. The Alchemist is a story with all those characteristics that defines a good book for me: they make me introspect and valuing what is worthy in life. KWIM?

The Time Traveler's Wife. I have heard good things about this book...I'm going to Amazon now! :-) Thanks, Desi.

[LouMinotti]

---

@WhirledPeasPlease wrote:

I'm glad you started this -- I wanted to mention a book to LouMinotti and you just reminded me of that fact!

Lou -- I'm almost finished with Past Perfect by Susan Isaacs. I picked it up thinking it would just be the regular summer fluff, but it's not. It has a 'conspiracy theory' theme and it has me hooked!

I've avoided A Thousand Splendid Suns b/c I know I need to be in really 'happy place' to read it -- and I've had way too much to do this summer to spend a week in my pajamas reading something that makes me want to eat ice cream and sleep often. LOL.

I know this has been mentioned before, but I wish for everyone to read the book Three Cups of Tea. Just amazing.

Next up on the summer reading list? Umm.. I dunno. I have about 8 books left from my last round of book buying.

---

Awesome. Adding them to my list of things to spend my money on now that I may actually have some to spend. :-)

[WhirledPeasPlease]

Please keep us posted!  I don't want this thread to go away!!

I'm almost finished with Self Storage.  So far it's an okay read, but it's not something I'd tell others to run out and pick up.

I'm going to have to switch to a bunch of Geography related books next.  We've decided to teach about China at the beginning of the year b/c of the Olympics.  Wish me luck!  (Oh, just to clarify this is my first attempt at teaching World Geography -- after 11 years of teaching I guess I needed something new to switch things up a bit!)

[Anonymous]

I just finished Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See. It's a great book, giving a glimpse into Chinese culture from a woman's perspective in the 1800s. Really makes me grateful to be a woman in modern-day U.S., even with all our political, economic, and environmental issues.

I puffy-heart my library, too...I used to spend gobs and gobs of money at the bookstore until I realized I could go online to my library's website and reserve books. Now I get a call when my books are in, I go pick them up, and all I spend is gas money!

[atlastontheroad]

I've just started Kite Runner.  So far, I like it a lot, he's a good storyteller.  The confluences of guilt, shame and cowardice in adolescence just remind me that people are more alike than different. 

However, the tear-jerker of the summer for me has been The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.  I can't recommend it highly enough.  It's not an "easy" read, be warned.  However, if you're 40 something, it's likely you'll enjoy it.

I also read about eight Patterson novels for a brain break last week on vacation.  Thank G-d for used bookstores!!! 

We do a book exchange ( a rack of take-a-book) at work.  I'm trying to get one started at the gym too.  If I can read, I can do the elliptical for an hour. 

atlast....