On a scale of 1-5 stars, with 5 being the best, how do you rate A Thousand Splendid Suns?
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0%
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**
0%
[ 0 ]
***
0%
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****
30%
[ 6 ]
*****
55%
[ 11 ]
Didn't finish it - gave up
0%
[ 0 ]
Didn't read this one
15%
[ 3 ]
Total Votes : 20
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Tigerlily Administrator
Joined: 22 Jul 2006 Posts: 7637 Birthday: 7th July
Location: Shropshire
Posted: Thu Nov 01, 2007 10:54 am Post subject: November Book Choice - A Thousand Splendid Suns
Discuss your thoughts on the book here as soon as you have finished reading it. Did you (not) enjoy it? Anything that struck you or maybe someone else can answer if you have a question? We're not really looking for in depth discussions...just tell us what you think of it!
For those who have finished it, please choose a star rating for the book based on how much you liked it. What did you think of it? Do you have any questions based on the book?
If you do have something to post that reveals plot details which could ruin others' enjoyment of the book, please use the spoiler function (details: http://onlinebookclub.myfreeforum.org/about12.html)
D
_________________ Reading: Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg
Reading Challenge 2009: 8
2008: 4
2007: 10
Joined: 10 Oct 2007 Posts: 538 Birthday: 12th November
Location: In the Land of Pies and Piers
Posted: Thu Nov 01, 2007 2:05 pm Post subject:
A Thousand Splendid Suns is a compassionate and compelling read. I found it a rather humbling experience to read about a culture so very different from my own.
My favourite book of this year. It has stayed with me and I often think about the story. The Kite Runner was excellent but I thought this one blew it away! _________________ Currently reading: The Tent The Bucket and Me by Emma Kennedy and Granny The Pag by Nina Bawden
1001 Challenge Books read in 2009 - 3
1001 Challenge Books read in 2008 - 8
1001 Challenge Books read in 2007 - 13
Joined: 22 Jul 2006 Posts: 7637 Birthday: 7th July
Location: Shropshire
Posted: Thu Nov 01, 2007 3:07 pm Post subject:
annecater wrote:
My favourite book of this year. It has stayed with me and I often think about the story. The Kite Runner was excellent but I thought this one blew it away!
Oooh I can't wait! _________________ Reading: Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg
Reading Challenge 2009: 8
2008: 4
2007: 10
Joined: 22 Aug 2006 Posts: 381 Birthday: 16th February
Location: Upper Largo, Fife
Posted: Thu Nov 01, 2007 3:48 pm Post subject:
Won't be reading this one I don't think. Partly because the library doesn't have it and partly because I wasn't really all that fussed about The Kite Runner - it was alright and it was pretty educational but not great.
What can I say?? I'm hard to please _________________ Currently reading: Man in the Dark by Paul Auster
I read this for my RL bookgroup a couple of months ago and really enjoyed it. I thought that it was an easy but gripping read, I felt that I had learnt a lot about the life that these women led in this country.
I loved the relationship between the two women and was glad that they formed a bond when they so easily could have ended up despising each other.
Joined: 22 Jul 2006 Posts: 7637 Birthday: 7th July
Location: Shropshire
Posted: Thu Nov 01, 2007 6:12 pm Post subject:
nicnic wrote:
Won't be reading this one I don't think. Partly because the library doesn't have it and partly because I wasn't really all that fussed about The Kite Runner - it was alright and it was pretty educational but not great.
What can I say?? I'm hard to please
I'm the same as you with regards to The Kite Runner Nicnic. I learnt a lot but the story didn't blow me away. But I'm still looking forward to reading this one. _________________ Reading: Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg
Reading Challenge 2009: 8
2008: 4
2007: 10
My favourite book of this year. It has stayed with me and I often think about the story. The Kite Runner was excellent but I thought this one blew it away!
loved Kite Runner, will try to get it this month, but think there is still a queue at the library
This one is up there as one of my favourites for this year. It's very different from The Kite Runner not only because we are viewing things from a female perspective this time. It's an easy but very powerful read. _________________ Currently reading - The Italian Boy - Murder and Grave Robbery in 1830s London - Sarah Wise
I'm with Anne and Treez on this one - the best book I've read this year by some considerable margin. I enjoyed The Kite Runner, but this one was in a different league - a really absorbing read, a really strong narrative and an emotional roller coaster. _________________ Currently reading: American Wife - Curtis Sittenfeld
I Just finished it and, dare I say, I preferred the Kite Runner.
I gave this one 4 stars, a very good read, but for me it lacked the magic of the KR.
Maybe my expectations were too high because of all the hype. _________________ sarita
I am really looking forward to this one - I just have a couple of mobile library books to read first. I have wanted to read this for ages, so I decided to treat myself to a copy.
I Just finished it and, dare I say, I preferred the Kite Runner.
I gave this one 4 stars, a very good read, but for me it lacked the magic of the KR.
Maybe my expectations were too high because of all the hype.
That is precisely how I feel about it
Truth is I had some really high hopes for it so it would have been quite hard for the poor book to satisfy them. But
Spoiler:
This book is way more powerful and emotion-filled than Kite Runner as Amir was not only a guy but he also left Afghanistan when the war was just starting (if I remember correctly). Mariam and Laila are both women in a country that thinks nothing of abusing its women folk. It's staggering, simply staggering, the thought that in no further than the '90 there were still people treated like this - women forbidden to go on the streets alone, forbidden to study, forbidden to show their faces...
The book offers a mind blowing image of life in Afghanistan during the '90s. However besides that it was a bit... flat. I for one had come to expect nothing from it. I did get some hopes up when the two have been trying to escape Rasheed (oh and I SO wanted them to succeed) but after that... life was just unfolding, with seemingly no hope for a better life. In Kite Runner we get to held our breaths so many times - will Amir marry his loved one? Will he see Hassan again? Will he find Hassan's kid? Will he manage to bring him to safety? I didn't have this feeling while reading this book. I was just waiting for Rasheed to have a heart attack or something and to die as the poor women seemed so helpless to fight him. I do of course understand everything they did, I'm not saying I would have had the courage to run away repeatedly or anything similar but I don't know, sometimes one expects a bit more from people in books
As a side note: among other things this book made me realize once again how much appearances can deceive. I am referring to the days when Laila was the new wife and Mariam the old and spiteful one. I'm thinking that someone that would have started reading at that point would have really disliked Mariam for behaving like that. Whereas, if we do look at her life on the whole and at the ways she's been continually betrayed by her loved ones we understand her - maybe not agree with her but understand her. It made me think of all the mean characters in all the books I read - what if I misunderstood them all or at least a part of them?
I have to say that I also enjoyed The Kite Runner more. I gave this book 4 stars as I thought it was an excellent read. The way that women were forced to live under Taliban rule in Afghanistan was truly appalling, and the book depicted this well. This is clearly a very emotional book, but I felt very removed from it in parts. I don’t know if that this is because I didn’t allow myself to fully relate to the characters as that would force me to “share” their suffering (as shallow as that makes me sound!). I agree with Kay that it seemed a bit flat.
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