The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner
By: Khaled Hosseini
Time to read: 1 week
Pages: 371

Wow, this book was an amazing read – harrowing in its straight-forward truth and blatant candor. Hosseini shows Afghanistan and its character through a group of characters and how they've changed over the course of forty or so years. It also shows how much turmoil Afghanistan has been through and how long the country has suffered.

Amir tells the story of his friendship with Hassan and how their different beliefs and ancestry (one a Sunni Muslim, the other a Shi'a) effect both of them while growing up. Unforgivable acts take place, yet, somehow, the people who do these acts find redemption, and deservingly so. At times you will find it excruciating to read this tale, but it is worth it in the end. The hate you feel at points eventually subsides, and the reader too wishes for Amir to find peace.

I don't want to give too much away, so I'll leave you with this quote from Isabel Allende: "This is one of those unforgettable stories that stays with you for years. All the great themes of literature and of life are the fabric of this extraordinary novel: love, honor, guilt, fear, redemption."

Gone with the Wind

Gone with the Wind
By: Margaret Mitchell
Time to read: 3 weeks
Pages: 1024

This is one of my all-time favorite books. Next to Harry Potter, which this was a time filler to read before I start Deathly Hollows.

I've always been interested in the Civil War from a Southern point of view, and this book is the epitome of Southern living in the 1860s. The book opens in 1861 with a 16-year old Scarlett O'Hara flirting with twin brothers on the front porch of her large, Southern plantation, Tara. The book progresses through the war years, Reconstruction and then post-reconstruction time.

Scarlett moves from Tara, which is 25 miles south of Atlanta, to Atlanta during the war. Much to her dismay she is forced to work in hospitals and help dying soldiers. She flees Atlanta right before Sherman burns it to the ground on his infamous march to the sea.

After the war she is forced to completly rebuild her family's plantation..for the first time in her life she is forced to work along side the black people who have always done her bidding. Then she is in constant fear of Carpetbaggers or Yankees coming to kill, rape or steal everything that she has worked so hard to build up after the war.

I won't say too much about the love triangle in the book between Scarlett, Rhett and Ashley. Essentially she thinks she loves Ashley, and she realizes too late that it's really Rhett she loves.

I love this book a lot, and I hadn't read it in about two or three years. But re-reading it as a more mature reader made me able to better analyze the characters and their motives. Rhett is nothing but a cynical ass hole, who deeply loves Scarlett. If Scarlett lived today, she would be some big wig corporate exec., but since she lived in the 1860s, she was considered 'fast,' 'manly' and many other things. But, I admire her just the same.

I'm not much for the movie Gone with the Wind, but the book is great. If you like historical fiction I would definately reccommend it!

Four stars!

Middlesex

Book: Middlesex
Author: Jeffrey Eugenides
Pages: 529
Time to read: more than a month
Claim to fame: Oprah's Book Club

This book isn't exactly a page-turner, at least not until the last two or three chapters, but it is interesting in how the author writes the book. He interupts himself so many times in this story that you'd think you'd get annoyed and want to throw the book down, but you don't. You don't because each interuption gives you another look into some part history, whether it's the author's history or world history. It's a facination read in that sense.

"Middlesex" is about a person, Callie/Cal, who is born a hermaphrodite. As a child, no one knew anything was wrong, so she grew up as a girl. To be honest, most of the book, Callie is present. In order to get to the present of what is happening, the author carries the reader back to Greece, where her grandparents grew up. Eugenides slowly tells the story about how Callie/Cal came to be by explaining the details of first her grandparents' lives, then her mother's, father's, aunt's and aunt's husband's lives, and finally comes to Callie growing up. Throughout this, each chapter opens with Cal speaking about his life at the current time (age 25-35?).

To be forthcoming, this book involves love in all forms: incest, inbreeding, homosexuality, hermaphroditism, etc. One thing I will credit the author with is writing about love from all these angles and never writing about it like it's wrong. It made the family in the story seem that much more real because they were the ones living this life and if they didn't believe they're feelings were right, then the reader would have had much more difficulty reading this story.

If you're looking for a long, in-depth read, try this book out. Otherwise, it may not be your cup of tea.

Hey, guys!

Ok, to start, my name is Margaret. I just graduated from Ball State University in Muncie, IN with a degree in theatre. I'm currently living in Fort Wayne, IN. I am a waitress at Applebee's and the head marching instructor for the high school I graduated from. In November, I will be moving to Washington, D.C. No, I have no idea what I will be doing once I move there.

Books I have read recently and would recommend:

If Minds Had Toes
This book is about a teenage boy who travels to the World of Ideas and meets a bunch of old, dead philosophers. This book made me smile and really deals with whether or not the examined life is worth living.

Freakonomics
This book is so thought-provoking. In it, an economist takes everyday problems and trends, looks at the numbers, and analyzes it. One of the questions he answers is what teachers and sumo wrestlers have in common.

Elsewhere and its sequel, Nevernever by Will Shetterly
In these novels, Shetterly uses the setting of Terri Windling's Bordertown books and creates his own characters. These two books are about a boy named Ron who runs away from home to find his older brother. Throughout these books, Ron discovers what it means to live in Bordertown and who he is. It's very much science fiction but I enjoyed reading it.

Ok, that's it for now.

All the President's Men/The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

Finally, I finished something!

Book: All the President's Men
Authors: Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward
Pages: 336
Time to read: Three-plus weeks

I don't generally read non-fiction, but this remains a must-read for journalists. Two key reporters of the Watergate investigation walk you through their steps of uncovering possibly the largest political scandal of all time. At times, I felt like this book was taking too long, but in retrospect, it was similar to the frustration the reporters felt. This isn't a read-before-bed kind of book, but it is an important one.



Book: The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
Author: Ann Brashares
Pages: 294
Time to read: 44 hours

The Sisterhood series is quickly becoming a fixture in young-adult chick lit and for good reason.

Brashares shares the stories of four teenage girls (juniors-to-be) who are scattered across the globe for the summer. Naturally, the plot follows the pants and their adventures as well. It is a feel good book with a clan of characters who may as well be the girls next door, although they lack the depth that you would find in a true classic. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is an easy read, but perfect for vacation or a weekend.

Speaking of being scattered, the six contributors of this blog are living in six different states: Pennsylvania, Indiana, Kansas, New York, South Dakota and Oklahoma.