The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns

I've been on a Khaled Hosseini kick lately, it seems. I picked up The Kite Runner because, well, everyone else was. I ended up enjoying it about as much as I expected, which is to say it was an engaging book with an interesting, if not somewhat contrived, plot line. I closed the book with satisfaction; not mourning its ending nor feeling any time spent reading it had been a waste. I liked it well enough, in fact, that I want to see the movie.

I also liked Hosseini's writing well enough that I thought to request A Thousand Spendid Suns from the library. Now this book I loved. Where The Kite Runner guides you through the periphery of what life was like in Afghanistan during the Taliban's rule, A Thousand Splendid Suns drops you right into the middle of a Taliban controlled Kabul. The book is painful, almost, in how easy is is to become wrapped up in the two heroine's horrific lives and see what they see and feel what they feel.

Both books though, are good ways to while away these cold winter days.

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

I still remember reading this book as a child. It was assigned reading in sixth grade over our Christmas break. That was the year my family and I went to St. Barthélemy in the French West Indies. Beaches are, and always have been, one of my favorite reading spots. The warm sand and the hot sun are the most inviting combination to pleasurable reading that I can imagine. I felt that way when I was twelve, just as I do today, and I easily recall reading this book while hearing the ocean waves crashing just a few feet away. Mostly though, I recall loving this book.

Imagine my delight when Madeleine and Hank decided on this book for a family read. I'm not sure who looked forward to reading it the most: the kids or me, but it's safe to say we all loved it and all got swept up into the rats' lives, daring escapes and the plight of the industrious Mrs. Frisby and her sick son.

Madeleine and Hank won't remember reading Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH on the beach, feeling the hot sun while Justin directed his rat friends out of Nimh or hearing the tumbling surf as the Frisbys' cinder block home was moved, but they will recall (I hope!) lying in our living room on Major Book Nights, munching on popcorn and discussing, after the reading of the book's final pages, who the two rats left behind could have possibly been.