I got this book as a get well soon -gift from the secondhand bookshop I regularly visit. The shop is called Omituiset opukset = Strange books and the shopkeeper and I have become friends. So thank you, Antti, if you happen to read this. :)

After I've read this book I will give it to seethroughfaith because she has it on her wish list. I want to let it travel as soon as possible because I believe that if you receive something, it's your turn to give.

My wish is that this book would travel as a RABCK at least for a while for the very reason that I got it as an act of kindness.

I have now read about 100 pages and I truly enjoy the book! I like the way Hosseini lets the story run smoothly. What irritates me, even in a book that is good as such, is stopping suddenly in the middle of the interesting plot to describe something irrelevant. Hosseini doesn't do that!

When Mariam finds her husband's porn collection, I think her reasoning is a bit too adult-like. She comes to the conclusion that a man has his needs so he has had to watch nude girls during his lonely years. Come on, the girl is 15 and very naive! Could she really do that kind of reasoning so young and being so inexperienced?

This was a good book and definitely worth reading! Some parts of it, especially the ones describing domestic violence, were hard for me to read...

For some reason, even though this book gives the voice to Afghan women, I still liked The Kiterunner better. I cannot explain why.

Seethroughfaith will get this book on Friday at the game night. :)

Thank you Savotar .. what a lovely philosophy too. (Now I can remove it from my wish list)

I hope I can give this as a RABCK too - sometime - so that it will continue in the beautiful way it has started.

But for now on the TBR list - can't wait for the summer holidays - I have so many great books waiting for me including this one and the kite runner (RACBK from Aspen!)

My love affair with books from /about Afghanistan continues.

I am so ashamed that this beautiful book has languished on my shelf for TWO YEARS. I read the KiteRunner (by the same author) a while ago, as well as another book about women wearing the burka (the title escapes me right now!) and this week read a bookring Afghanistan: Where God only comes to weep, which was a heart-breaking story of the life of Shirin-Gol, a woman whose life is torn apart again and again and again by what is done to her nation and those who have ruled it over the decades.

I finally started to read A Thousand Splendid Suns last night and it's very compelling already. It's dedicated to 'the women in Aghanistan' ... and my hope and prayer is that as women like us read it and books like it, we too can join the passive resistance spoken of in Where God only comes to weep and the plight of women like Shirin-Gol (and others like her) will begin to come to an end.

Thanks again Savotar. I have to start thinking to whom I ray this forward ... if you have any suggestions please PM me.

At the end of part II.

I have to agree with Savotar that I'm not enjoying this as much as The Kite Runner. (which I thought was a fantastic read). I think it's partly because, while the main characters are women, I find it hard to identify with them.

I do like that the focus shifted from Mariam (in part 1) to Laila (in part 2) and am interested in seeing how the story develops. I think that had the author not used the 3 person narrative voice, but allowed the women to tell their stories themselves I might have got into this more.

The narrative does gloss over the real effects of the wars (Soviet occupation, pre-Talaban regimes etc) (which Afghanistan:Where God only comes to weep does so well)but I am finding the descriptions of how Kabul was - for the middle class - in particular to its view of educating women (even at university level) etc interesting and enlightening as to how hard the arrival of the Taliban (and extreme Islamic rule) must have been. Shudder.

More thoughts when I finish the book ...

The end of this novel was actually quite shocking ... and thought provoking and really 'made' the book for me.
I still believe the Kite Runner is the better of the two novels, but what was good in this one was really getting into the lives of the two wives.

Thanks again Savotar ... now I have to think to whom I can ray this copy forward!

Possible Ray it forward to Elina over in Espoo

sent PM tonight (hauskaa vappua!)

The Ray it Forward is now in Helsinki, will try to pass it on to Elina in the near future!

Elina is coming to the meet-up in Helsinki today, so the book continues to travel.
Have fun reading!

Elina has not been seen, so I took the book in between. Maybe I'll meet Elina sometime later. She did not answer PMs either. I had one book for her too. Hippolein took it instead.

This is a very enjoyable book to read, even if it tells about things that are not enjoyable. I get very angry when I read how men treat women in the name of Islam. And that terrible war against all others: Boom, boom! How is it that men have nothing else, more useful, to do? I can't understand it.

This is my # 86 (120) in
"REDUCE MOUNT TBR 2012" Challenge arranged by Dove-i-Libri.

I took the book to the meet-up in Sokos.
Happy reading!

This is my # 75 in
"KEEP THEM MOVING 2012" Challenge arranged by Booklady331.