"The Kite Runner" by Kaled Hosseini

"The Kite Runner" by Kaled Hosseini.  Two boys living in Afghanistan are best friends at a time when war lords reign and threaten the classes.

I enjoyed the novel's great characterization of the two young boys: Amir and Hassan, and the initial love Amir shares with his servant/brother.  Amir takes the time to read to Hassan as Hassan does not know how to read, nor is he allowed to receive a proper education, as it is not extended to Hazaras.  I enjoyed this novel as it discusses the meaning of what it really takes to uphold a promise.

 The character of Amir upholds a promise by leaving America, even though he is a successful writer there, in order to save his best friends son.  He agrees to go back to a dangerous and complicated land after receiving a call that explained to him that his best friend died, and the warlords had captured his son. He must go back to a land to retrieve the son.  

How many of us would have taken such a risk like the character of  Amir does?

In my belief, most of us wouldn't.  In fact, many of us deny our own family members safety.  Even those people that are within our own communities.  Those people who don't even live hundreds of miles away are not  even granted safety and security.  Yet here is this man who goes back to a land, for which he is unfamiliar with; A land for which he only knew as a child, in order to save his best friend's child. 

The movie "Kite Runner" does great justice to the novel, in that the setting of the movie allows the audience to know the extreme conditions revalent in Afghanistan.  The setting shows the hot desserts and the women in Burqas (the arabic meaning of garment that covers a woman's body)The setting shows the remote conditions for which one must travel on unpaved roads, in rusty jeeps and cars that can barely be called "get-away-cars). 

 The setting depicts an arena in Afghanistan similar to the historical, Greek Colloseum, in that like the Greek gladiators who were thrown to fight to the death, similarly Afghans were thrown into the arena and humiliated in front of their peers and society where they would later be tried and punished for crimes.

"The Piano Teacher" by Janice Y.K. Lee

"The Piano Teacher" by Janice Y.K.Lee.The novel opens with a description of Hong Kong:dirty with people everywhere: businessmen from all parts of world, Indians, British and Philippinos, Pakistanis with Pakistani rug stores and lastly, the Chinese.

Lee describes the British and the Chinese their ability easily mingle with one another.  And how the fish mongers butcher their fish in an unsanitzed manner, how feculence can be smelled and found in the alley ways of the tallest, high rise buildings.

The plot engages readers in the tell tale story of young newly wed by the name of Clair and her exposure to a brand new culture in Hong Kong.  Clair, the piano teacher would come to teach Locket, a young Chinese girl how to play the piano.  Clair is initially baffled by the prospect that a Chinese, upper class, family in Hong Kong would be well known in the community.  She's surprised that the the family speaks immaculate English and at the parents interest in pushing their daughter, like an animal, to learn the piano.

When Clair asked the mother about whether Locket, the daughter, will be attending school in America, the Chinese mother simply retorts "I don't want to talk about Locket's education, I want to talk about yours." 

 When Clair becomes infatuated with the family's riches, she decides to take some for her own:stealing a trinket and scarf without being caught by anyone.  Unfortunately, the family servant gets fired for stealing the items instead.  Clair is once again baffled by the Chinese traits in the home, as the young pianist she teaches seems unruffled at the dispearance of the servant, exclaiming that her mother had always  taught her that "all servants steal".

This incident would stick with Clair, putting her on edge in the family's home. Clair would come to have an affair in the novel, masking her obvious unfamiliarity in China with a new sudden interest.

Lee's generalizations of Americans and their over confident zeal, in this novel ,is obvious.  But what is even more stunning is how Lee depicts the character of Clair.  How could Clair be so unconscious of up-and-coming Chinese super power?

"Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortenson

"Three Cups of Tea" (Nonfiction) by Greg Mortenson. I enjoyed this book of nonfiction and intricate details of how the author, Greg Mortenson, describes his transition from working the night shift in a burn unit hospital to wanting to make a career change, and a change in his overall perspective of life. 


This man's need to help people led him to sleep in his car to save on rent so he could later use that money for supplies in the construction of school across the world in Pakistan.  This American man would make trips to Pakistan in the course of his career.  But his initial visit brought him to terms with the fact that he was privileged in his life in America.  That unlike many of the people he came in contact with his new job, back home, he did have safety and security.   


 After he spent many months in Pakistan he realized that he had the most interest in the actual construction of buildings and he narrowed his outlet to the building of schools for girls.  The amount of school for girls is strikingly low considering that girls are not encouraged to pursue an education, and instead encouraged to work in the home.

 Mortenson learns first that the completion of the schools wasn't a piece of cake even with an exorbitant amount of money, because of the fact that there were just too few roads that led into the mountainous regions of Pakistan.  He also realized that he'd have to build a bridge, first and foremost to get supplies over.  Once the first bridge was up and the first school, Mortenson would have to convince many Americans to help fund the making of even more schools, and he is still working his dream till this day.

"The Boy Who Would Be Shakespeare: A Tale of Forgery and Folly"by Doug Stewart

"The Boy Who Would be Shakespeare" by  Doug Stewart.When a young boy wishes to be twinkle in his father's eye, he'll do anything to get noticed.  When his job as law clerk in his father's business fails to get notice, he cuts straight to the source of his father's read pride and enjoyment: Shakespeare.  This  boy's new friend just happens too have a secret treasure chest full to the brim, with Shakespeare's original poetry, Or is it really Shakespeare's authentic work?

I enjoyed the character of William Henry (the son) and how he was so determined to recreate works of Shakespeare, even if was forging the individual poetry.  The prospects took weeks to months at a time, with calligraphy and writing that turned out quite beautiful.  The ignorance of the father and his nature towards his son was unbelievable.

As for the boy, you'd think someone who had so much talent for forgery could become change his career altogether, but age of Shakespeare led to many limited career possibilities.

"The Year of Pleasures" by Elizabeth Berg

   

"The Year of Pleasures" by Elizabeth Berg

 I distinctly remember reading the "The Year of Pleasures", by Elizabeth Berg when I was traveling from a large city to a very small town. 

In this novel Betta Nolan is left a widow after her husband's long battle with liver cancer, she is forced to rediscover herself as an individual, although for two decades she has shared interested with her now deceased husband, and she must rediscover all new interests.  

How does one recreate a new life, when they hammered out a life of routines with someone in the existence of marriage?  The writer, Berg, shows readers the year of pleasures by displaying an arrangement of pleasures that anyone can relate to so as readers can commemorate on their own pleasures and what makes them individual.

The character of  Betta Nolan begins her new life with the start of a cup of coffee everyday.  This transitions into a friendly greeting with her neighbors and then the upkeep of her new home.  She enlists the help of the neighbors as contractors and painters. She ends her days with the invitation of guests to a homely-made dinner.  

I am a romantic, in that ,I loved how the husband (before he died) created a treasure trove of small discoveries for his wife to find even after his death: a small array of trinkets she had collected from garage sales they had previously visited together.  Attached to these trinkets are small messages for the wife to open and discover one after another so that she would never feel completely alone after his death, making the mourning process slightly easier.    

"Eat Cake" by Jeanne Ray

   

 "Eat Cake"  by Jeanne Ray. When a family begins to struggle because the husband gets laid off from his job at the hospital.  Ruth, a Minneapolis wife and mother must step up her role as a housewife, and come up with a plan to save the family from financial disaster.  The wife has a scheme to create tiny, individual cakes in perfect ,little boxes that she makes from her own kitchen to sell (Don't try this at home).

 Ruth is a tremendous baker who has  been baking for years, and she has her own kitchen filled to the brim with necessary baking materials.  The business seems successful, if not for the misery of  the long last father, the pianist, who comes to live with them, after he has broken both his hands.

 Maybe its the cake that makes the book so memorable.  But Ray does an excellent job of showing a struggling family.  A family with a rebellious teenager unwilling to help a family in crisis.  She does an excellent job in showing a father whose pride is destroyed at the sudden loss of his job, and loss of even more pride when his leading-lady must come up with a business plan that he initially believes will fail. 

Lastly, Ray does an excellent job showing a grandmother's bitterness when her husband returns, and an overall coming together of a family to help one another.

This may be a food critics best choice awards with its mouth watering descriptions of its cakes.  Note-to-self:  Barrow the book again to retrieve the fantastic recipes located in the back pages of the book.  

"The Poe Shadow" by Matthew Pearl

"The Poe Shadow" by Matthew Pearl.  I thought this novel would read much the same as Matthew Pearl's, "The Last Dickens".  Unfortunately, I think it lacked much of the action that too place in "The Last Dickens."  Although we do see the action the sought out aid of the real-life model for Poe's genius-sleuth, detective C. Auguste Dupin who comes to America in the search of the real killer of Poe.  I would have appreciated a little less of the discrete details of this detective, and appreciate more of a glimpse inside Edgar Allan Poe's career and details leading up to his death.

Pearl writes too much about Dupin, who cares if the detective was rude to his house servants and unfriendly.  Who cares that he disregarded a person when they talked. He was a detective after all, a man of observation not a man of social etiquette. I didn't expect to be reading Sherlocke Holmes, but with this novel I may as well have read the whole Sherlocke series with the depth of detective characteristics shown. 

The way that the french detective explains his perception of Americans once he arrives in America does not surprise me.  He says that Americans are rude, that they are too direct and spit their tobacco juice on the streets: unawares of any passer-by.