Journal Entry 1 by therubycanary from Portland, Maine USA on Thursday, June 26, 2008

I heard about this book through an interview with the bookseller himself on NPR. He claims the book ruined his store, his family, and essentially his life.

Interview with him:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16626180#share

 

Journal Entry 2 by therubycanary from Portland, Maine USA on Saturday, February 21, 2009

Offered for the non-fiction swap on www.bookobsessed.com.

Interesting look at Afgani life. The book actually has very little about the bookseller, other than depicting him as a tyrannical, money-grubbing patriarch, and really focuses on the lives of the women in his household. I wish that the last part of the book where the author really lets loose on her feelings about the bookseller were in the beginning. It really sets the tone for why she felt the way she did and why she took almost a scathing tone throughout. I have been in the situation of being a guest in a house in a different country, and now how much the different customs can wear your nerves thin, I think too much of this is evident in the book and that in some places she let her feelings get in the way of good journalism. 

Journal Entry 3 by krin511 from Olney, Maryland USA on Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Arrived today - thanks! 

Journal Entry 4 by krin511 from Olney, Maryland USA on Monday, April 12, 2010

This was an interesting look at the lives of people in Afghanistan during and after the Soviet occupation in the 1980s and the Taliban rule in the 1990s. One scene that has stayed with me is when the women in the burqas have to know what shoes each is wearing so they don't lose each other.