A Thousand Splendid Suns
Khaled Hosseini

ISBN # 978-1-59448-950-1

"Learn this now and learn it well, my daughter: Like a compass needle that points north, a man's accusing finger always finds a woman. Always. You remember that, Mariam." pg. 7

And so begins the painstaking haunting story of Mariam. I am totally drawn in from the get-go by Khaled Hosseini's story telling. I love how there is just the right balance of description and story line and you are never lost in either one, it just flows from one sentance to the next, one chapter the the next. It is simple and clear. I loved this story.

I did have to ask myself about half way through why I loved it. I was beginning to beg for relief in my heart wondering when the characters would ever have a break, or when ever the good would arrive on the scene. I had to remind myself that this story is the story of countless nameless and often faceless women in many oppressive Islamic societies today and I compelled myself to read on.

The story is really two main stories woven together in a brilliant way. It chronicles 30 years of recent political history in Afghanistan starting during the Soviet occupation through the over throw of the Taliban. It is amazing insight into what the Afghan people faced yet again with just enough Political and Religious information as to keep you interested but not loose you. You are able to fall in love with the country and loath in injustices all at the same time. I tell you this author is brilliant. I have to say for those disturbed by the story line of The Kite Runner, that this story is equally disturbing however deals more with domestic abuse rather than sexual abuse.

"this little girl will be a woman who will never let on that she too has had sorrows, disappointments, dreams that have been ridiculed. A woman who will be like a rock in a riverbed, enduring without complaint, her grace not sullied but shaped by the turbulence that washes over her......"Pg 355

This is "her" story.

Those Who Save Us

Jenna Blum

ISBN# 978-0156031660

I really liked this story. It was nothing like what I thought this story would be about. I was interested from the get go thinking it would be about Germans hiding Jews during the war. I was a far cry from this story line. However it intrigued me. As I read the story I thought often of the question, 'What would I do?' I think this question is what really hooked me into the story every flip of the page I heard the question ringing in my ears. I think it is easier said than done to look back at history and say 'I would have never....' This story challenged my thinking on the the Germans during the war. It gave me a personal look into the depths of their guilt and shame. I was frustrated most of the story that the mother in modern times refused to talk about the past saying again and again in the story, "The past is dead, and better it remain so." One time reminding me that wounds heal better when not picked at but left alone. I was very frustrated with that because I had an ache inside me to know the truth. Knowing the truth helped me to understand why some of the Germans did what they did, and I am not so much talking about what they did to the Jews directly but more so how a whole nation stood by and watched it happen. Evan as I say that I think there is no excuse, ever, but read the story....I was totally intrigued. I still am, I feel like even as I write this my mind is tumbling over a ton of questions and thoughts. Bravo Jenna Blum, you've captivated me, put me under Hitler's spell for a moment and really I don't feel quite the same as when I first picked up this book. I highly reccomend this book. It isn't as heavy as it sounds. At the core of the book its about a mother and a daughter's deep love for each other played out as each one confronts the past. I think putting war torn Germany and all that entails aside the story about a mother's past and moving forward raising her daughter is an every day story. How often do mother's pass on their past hurts and regrets to their daughters? How often does a mother not truly show the depth of her love to her daughter because the depth of her pain often feels far more real. There are parallels to mother's and daughter's everywhere. I guess that is why I really loved this story because at the heart of it all were real live human emotions captured for us by this author in tiny black and white print. Brilliant, intriguing and captivating.

The Associate
John Grisham

ISBN # 9870385517836

Grisham sucked me in again. I never feel disappointed with a Grisham novel. However, with that said, this was not my favorite of his. I was thrilled with where the book was going initially but felt in the long run it really went nowhere fast. I was disappointed in the end and even went back once or twice to see if I had missed something. I felt unfulfilled and left wondering, "What now?". My rule of thumb is when I feel a little overloaded that I read a Grisham novel because it is usually easy page flipping and outright story telling. There is usually no deep down moral lesson to grasp, although Grisham does aim at achieving a point or two. In this novel the main character Kyle is presented with a deep moral dilemma which gets compounded by yet another. Watching him get out of both was where the story found its footing. Grisham is always a recommended read, but again not my favorite of bunch.

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
Anne Fadiman

ISBN# 0-374-52564-1

When I picked this book off a popular book club list I thought it was fiction, which I gravitate too most often, but in actuality it was a true story. It is about a little girl, Lia Lee who was born to Hmong immigrants in California. At the age of three months she showed signs of what the Hmong call quag dab peg (the spirit catches you and you fall down) or what we in the west call epilepsy. The story is an amazing study into a profound clash of cultures. The Hmong family clearly needed help and intervention with their daughter's condition, however never new he road before them would result in both Lia being removed from them by the state and unfortunately in the end Lia's brain death. The believed the western medicine was her ultimate demise. They believed a dab or evil spirit had stolen Lia's spirit as their own.

I found this story to be profoundly sad. The chapter detailing Lia's final seizure which killed her brain actually caused me to sweat profusely, become dizzy and finally put the book down for a break. The history of the Hmong searching for a place to belong was bittersweet as they had found a place to settle in peace but were far from at peace with a governmental system who views them as parasites to the "system" instead of the hard working, insightful people they were. Also a glimpse into a shameful health care system made my heart ache for the disadvantaged, which in some case seems to be anyone without a medical doctorate. There were a lot of tragic occurrences in this book and the author did a wonderful job exposing you to so much in an unbiased way. She played both sides of the fence brilliantly.

The book challenged me on two levels. First cross cultural understanding, one of my favorite studies on earth. This book just gave me more information about the basis of comprehending not only the Hmong but any culture which is different than my own. Secondly health care. I am stunned at the level of discord between doctor and patient. I am challenged to challenge any doctor who God should have come in contact with me to value my soul as well as my body!

This was an excellent book. It was a little slow in the beginning as I got use to how Anne Fadiman was presenting the story, but ultimately I found myself totally engrossed. A highly recommended read!

The Book Thief

The Book Thief
Markus Zusak

ISBN# 9780375842207

"It's probably fair to say that in all the years of Hitler's reign, no person was able to serve the Fuhrer as loyally as me. A human doesn't have a heart like mine. The human hear tis a line, whereas my own is a circle, and I have the endless ability to be in the right place at the right time. The consequence of this is that I'm always finding humans at their best and worst. I see their ugly and their beauty and I wonder how the same thing can be both. Still, they have one thing I envy. Humans, if nothing else, have the good sense to die." Pg 401

Brilliant book! I had no idea for quite some time who was narrating this book and when I thought I figured it out, I simultaneously thought I was wrong. Brilliant perspective.

The 'The Book Thief' was a book I automatically connected with due to my deep desire to devour words and the voyeur in me who want to peek into another world. It appeals immediately, if only in name, to book lovers. It does not disappoint. I did find my usual pace slowed a bit with this book, for several reasons but mostly because it is set in Nazi Germany and deals with issues of the Holocaust. In some ways I was almost fearful of what might unfold. Timid to hear some horror and have its words amassed as a picture in my head. So I picked it up and put it down, reading it over the course of a few months. Each time it sucked me right back in and was well worth the journey! It is a sad story, but I think reflecting back on it, it is a story of life. Life is the good, bad and ugly, brutal and beautiful. I think Markus Zusak captures this thought line brilliantly!

Ps. I love picking a qoute I feel encapsulates the book and love the one I found. I don't think it gives anything away, my apologies if it does.

Island of Lost Girls

Island of Lost Girls
Jennifer McMahon
ISBN 978-0-06-144588-0

Rhonda, the main character, opens the story with an abduction where she stands idly by and watches it unfold while doing nothing to stop it. As the story goes on you see that Rhonda is confronting adulthood while seeming to have one foot in the freedom of childhood. The bonds of relationships she has in her past are strong, idylic and tragically beautiful. She seems to want to move on in her future but the abduction forces her to look at her past and solve things that have been left alone. These things which have been left alone, some have been forgotten and pushed to the furthest corner of her mind while others are vivid memores begging for answers.

Jennifer McMahon weaves you in and out of the past in search of an answer for the abduction. You begin to see more and more that what happened in the past begins to be more and more important to solving the abdution as well as the protagonists inabiliity to act on issues in her future.

Its an interesting story. It was hard for me to get into the book initially. There is a bit of fantasy imgination accuring here and there and it was hard for me to understand how it pertained to the story. I am not sure I entirely understood even now, but that aside Jennifer McMahon was true to her style of building suspense that had me guessing repeatedly "whodunnit?" I really find it amazing that a book can actually leave you in the dark for so long and even side swipe your belief in the end. It seems suspence is a lost art these days, however this author should keep on keeping on at what she does best which is a good story laced with suspence. I am hooked.

Promise Not To Tell

Promise Not To Tell
Jennifer McMahon

Pg 1....."My name is Kate Cypher and I am fourty-one years old.

I killed someone tonight."

Those are the first words in this book. It sucked me in and I was literally devoured. I loved this book. I couldn't put it down, all in all I think it took me about four days to read all 250 pages. Its a different type of book, an actual ghost story. Most of the book the author toyed with you making you think there were ghosts everywhere. I didn't mind this, standing on the brink of fear stance, however I was a bit disappointed that an actual ghost did make an appearance later in the book. oh well, you can't win all the time every time. I wish the author could have solved the mystery in this book without it, but all in all it didn't disrupt the fact that I was swept away. Speaking of mysteries, I was totally amazed that I made it more than 80 percent of the way through this book without knowing "who-dunn-it". I think that was pretty amazing considering this was a book and not an episode of CSI. I think authors are apt to dispell too much early on in an effort to keep you interested but really they spoil things all to early. Jennifer Macon did no such thing.