A wonderful, thought-provoking, heart-wrenching read by the author of The Kite Runner.

Story of 2 women in Afghanistan, brought together by historical, cultural, family, and personal factors.

One of the best book group discussions we've had!

Considering a bookring...

And so the bookring begins!

We have a great group of bookcrossers, and I trust everyone will do their best to enjoy reading this book, then keep it moving out of respect for everyone in our bookring!

- oliviapoolside - WA
- valpete - CA
- Firegirl - AZ
- dee831 - OH
- HeresDeb - IL
- eressea - WI
- ButtrcupHarmony - NH (asked to be skipped; received her own book)
- esq228 - NJ (6/3 - asked for more time - will send on by 6/23 - thanks!)
- batty14 - NY
- cyber-librarian - NC
- brianset - SC (asked to be skipped)
- rooshill - CA
- bevanrx - WA
- JDT - CA - back home!

Bookring rules:

1. Please journal the book's safe arrival & PM the next person for address.
2. Try to read and mail within 3 weeks. (let us know if you need more time, or prefer to be skipped)
3. Journal your thoughts after reading, and mail book to the next person ASAP.
4. Enjoy!!

Sending on to oliviapoolside in the morning!

The book has arrived safely. I will read it as soon as I am done with my current book. Thanks for including me in this bookring!

My favorite memory of this book will be this: Hadassah, 7, reading the title and bursting into song:
A THOOOOUUSSAAANNNDD SPLENNNDIDD SUUUUNNNSS!! over and over at full volume, head back and arms outstretched like an opera singer on stage. Some words just lend themselves to song I guess. It is an excellent book, even better than Kite Runner I thought. So horrible, what Afghanistan has gone through. I mean the Soviets and Warlords (might as well have the Crips and Bloods running your country) were bad enough, really bad, then you have the mouth of hell open and belch out the Taliban. Why the U.S. would ever arm any of these people is beyond me. I would call it wrong. I respect the author not only for this book but also for his work with UNHCR.

Sent to ValPete in California

Received from Oliviapoolside as part of a Book Ring. Looking forward to reading it!

A wonderful book, although gut-wrenching and heart-stopping.

This bookring arrived safely today. I've got a little bit of a heavy homework load with finals coming up, but will read it as quickly as possible and move it on.

Quite the book, that's for sure. I wish I'd had more free time lately to sit down and devour it in larger chunks -- I enjoyed it that much each time I snatched a few minutes to read it. I liked reading a book based in Afghanistan from the women's perspective; I think that was an excellent choice of voice in comparison to the male role in The Kite Runner. I felt myself feeling sympathy for all of Afghanistan as I read this, for though the book may be fiction, it could easily not be and this history, of course, is real. Books like this make me appreciate how truly fortunate I am to live in the country I do. I value my freedoms more and more with each exposure to the hardships and unfairness found in other countries. Hosseini has a gift for writing fluid, beautiful, heart-breaking novels. Thank you so much for involving me in this ring, JDT! I'll be passing it on in the next day or two. Happy holidays everyone -- be thankful that you can celebrate however you want. Raise your voice in joyful song, but spare a moment to remember our brothers and sisters all over the world, less fortunate than we.

This goes out in the post today. Sorry for the delay, but I wanted to wait until after the holidays before I braved the post office.

Arrived today safe and sound. Yippy!! Have part of another book to get through first, then I'll start this one. Will mark date that I begin reading here in this journal to keep you updated. Thanks for including me in this bookring, I can't wait to get started. - dee

Started: 1/9/09
Update: 1/16/09 Still reading, about halfway through. Sorry it is taking me so long to get this far. I should be done within another week. Will keep you updated here.
Update: 1/23/09 Savoring every last word...Should finish this weekend. Finished.

Wow, not sure what else I can say that Olivia or Firegirl hasn't already said. I was halfway through before it really grabbed me enough that I just couldn't put the book down. It truly was a remarkable book. Both sad and beautiful, often times like poetry on the page. The women were rocks that could not be moved. They had to be to survive what they endured. I can't even imagine having to live the way they were forced to. I feel so blessed that we have our freedom. Thank God.

If you liked this book, you might also like: Memoirs of a Geisha

... She thought of her entry into this world... an unintended thing, a pitiable, regrettable accident. A weed. And yet she was leaving the world as a woman who had loved and been loved back. She was leaving it as a friend, a companion, a guardian. A mother. A person of consequence at last. No. It was not so bad... that she should (leave) this way. Not so bad. This was a legitimate end to a life of illegitimate beginnings...

"One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs,
Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls."

Releasing to HeresDeb in IL, who is the next recipient on this bookring journey. Enjoy!!
Delivery Confirmation# 03080730000130979125

It's here! Please note, I had 3 bookrings arrive at my house within 3 days of each other. This book was #3. I'll try to get it out within the requested 3 weeks and will update you if it looks like I won't make it by then. Thanks for understanding!

Oh no! I thought I had sent this out when I sent out the other bookrings. I mailed a bunch of packages at once, and didn't realize this wasn't among those. Don't worry, the book is here and safe and sound. I will mail it out on Monday! Thanks so much for sending me the reminder. I wouldn't have realized otherwise.

It has arrived safely, will try to have it sent out by next week.

I loved this book. I was touched by it. I became enthralled right from the beginning, and by the end I was sitting on my couch and crying. I think I like this one more than The Kite Runner. The women were incredible; the every day women who in reality were super heroes. I feel such sympathy with their plight. And not to make this poitical, but when I saw on the news the other day about the 300 women in Afghanistan who were marching for their basic human rights, I couldn't help but think that this book touched a little too close to home to be able to ignore their plight.

Arrived safely in NJ a couple of days ago. One book ahead of it... Thanks for including me!!

First, thanks to JDT for sharing this book and for granting me the extra time so I could finish it. I'm so glad that I did. I only wish I had the words to explain just how moved I was by this story. It was, without a doubt, the very best book I've read this year. Better even, I think, than The Kite Runner, which I also immensely enjoyed. The story painted for me, in alarming detail, the horrors that the Afghan people have had to endure and I am left sickened by the evil perpetrated by the warlords and especially the Taliban (I knew they hated women, but never knew they also hated art and literature and all those things that provide people with joy) against their own people. I knew these horrors existed but this story made them real to me and for that reason, I think this book should be required reading for anyone who thinks war only hurts those who deserve it or who think Afghanistan is not worthy of our sympathy or our assistance.

Will send on as soon as I have an address.


6/17/09 Update: batty14 asked to be skipped. Will PM the next person in line...

I picked up this book at the post office today from esq228 in NJ ... as part of this bookring. I have another one in front of it and then will read and pass it on asap.

c. 2007 -- 372 pages -- Hardcover -- Families -- Afghanistan -- #42 on BookCrossing 2008 Favorites list -- 21 weeks on the USA Today top-10 Bestseller list:
#1 on 5/27/07, 6/3, 6/10 and 6/17
#2 on 6/24/07, 7/1 and 7/8
#4 on 7/15/07
#5 on 8/12/07 and 8/19
#6 on 8/5/07 and 8/26
#7 on 7/22/07 and 1/6/08
#8 on 12/30/07
#9 on 7/29/07, 12/23 and 1/13/08
#10 on 9/16/07, 9/23 and 12/16

Jacket Flaps: After more than 2 years on the bestseller lists with The Kite Runner, and with more than 4 million copies in print, Khaled Hosseini returns with a beautiful, riveting, and haunting novel of enormous contemporary relevance. A Thousand Splendid Suns is a breathtaking story set against the volatile events of Afghanistan's last 30 years -- from the Soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban to post-Taliban rebuilding -- that puts the violence, fear, hope, and faith of this country in intimate, human terms. It is a tale of 2 generations of characters brought jarringly together by the tragic sweep of war, where personal lives -- the struggle to survive, raise a family, find happiness -- are inextricable from the history playing out around them.

Propelled by the same storytelling instinct that made A Kite Runner a beloved classic, A Thousand Splendid Suns is at once a remarkable chronicle of 3 decades of Afghan history and a deeply moving account of family and friendship. It is a striking, heart-wrenching novel of an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship, and an indestructible love -- a stunning accomplishment.

I finished reading this book today. It was very interesting and continued my education on Afghanistan, especially in the treatment of women ... and the memory and scars that wars leave behind.

I have PMed rooshill for her address and will be mailing it out as soon as I receive it.

I'm mailing this book tomorrow to rooshill in CA ... as part of this bookring.

DC# 0306-1070-0000-8356-1266
According to usps.com, this was delivered ... "Your item was delivered at 7:50 AM on August 1, 2009 in FORESTHILL, CA 95631."

I remain convinced that someone at the Foresthill branch PO is reading my books before delivering them.
NO JOKE! I am a bit behind in the mail, since I've been working OT and the desk is piling up, but this package has certainly not been here for 2 weeks. *sigh* what can I do about it, though? I just remain grateful that, for the most part, my packages are getting through even though many appear to have been opened and re-taped and are a bit late in arriving at my box. Perhaps someday I'll have the energy to find a way to catch whoever it is. Then again, maybe they really need the reads? If stuff doesn't start disappearing left and right, I guess I'll not spend time on it...
Anyway, I'll be making this my lunch break book, as I'm currently reading another ring as my 2nd bedtime book (when I'm still awake enough) - 1st bedtime book is Harry Potter with my son :)

Wow. This book made me cry in the first 50 pages. Not a normal thing for a novel.
There were several times that I thought it was over, then turned the page to find a new chapter. It started to irritate me, felt laborious and exasperating. Then I thought about it - and it's very fitting. It's a parallel to the way the people of Afghanistan must have felt each time a new regime took power. Oh, *sigh* it's over - oh, no, wait, it's not.

I recieved this in the mail yesterday and started reading it last night!

This book was brilliantly heartbreaking! There's nothing more that I can add that hasn't already been said here!

Home again!
Thanks to everyone in this awesome bookring!

continuing this wonderful, well-travelled book's journeys:
sending to a reader in MO - paperbackswap request.
Enjoy!