Happy Thanksgiving!

Finished this a few days ago, but our DSL is down at home... I'm at the library now trying to get caught up on some emails, so this is going to be a short review. I thought the book was okay. It was written in the 1950s and is comprised of Carlos Levy's essays, observations, interviews, etc. from his travels to Sicily. He is an Italian himself, but he is not Sicilian, so he has a different perspective than other books I've read about Sicily. It wasn't the best book I have read on Sicily, but it did have some interesting pieces on the peasants and how they live and are treated in the Sicilian countryside, on farms and in the mines. The book is translated from Italian, and some of the parts don't make too much sense, but it is interesting to read the footnotes about the Italian and Sicilian words. I'd give it three out of five stars!


I've already started my next book (#18/101)... I am reading the Book Thief by Markus Zusak, and I think it will be a quick read, because so far, it is very good. Here is a very brief summary from http://www.booksamillion.com/:


"Set during World War II in Germany, Zusaks groundbreaking novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel, who scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing, encounters something she cant resist: books."

Up Next

Now I'm reading Carlo Levi's, Words Are Stones: Impressions of Sicily, in hopes that reading of my warm, sunny Motherland will help me to overcome the dark and dreary days that we've been been having all too often here in Germany... This is #17 on my list of 101 books.

A Thousand Splendid Suns

#16/101

Yesterday I picked up reading on page sixteen, and today I read all the way through the 360+ pages. I don't know what it is lately, but it has been taking me a while to get interested in a book and then when I do, I read the entire thing. So today I finished, A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini. I've read a lot of "Middle Eastern" fiction lately, and it's all so new and fascinating to me... i.e. Afghanistan before the Soviet invasion, when the Taliban came, their customs and religion, the food, the carpets, the literature, etc. I also find it very depressing. All of the stories are so tragic and heartbreaking, and this book is no different. I cried a little in the beginning and then pretty solidly throughout the last 1/3 of the book. Not that crying determines whether it is a good book or not, but it definitely takes skill to write in such an emotion-provoking manner. I would definitely recommend this book, and after, The Kite Runner, and now, A Thousand Splendid Suns, I look forward to seeing what Khaled Hosseini writes next!

And this is what Amazon has to say... "Afghan-American novelist Hosseini follows up his bestselling The Kite Runner with another searing epic of Afghanistan in turmoil. The story covers three decades of anti-Soviet jihad, civil war and Taliban tyranny through the lives of two women. Mariam is the scorned illegitimate daughter of a wealthy businessman, forced at age 15 into marrying the 40-year-old Rasheed, who grows increasingly brutal as she fails to produce a child. Eighteen later, Rasheed takes another wife, 14-year-old Laila, a smart and spirited girl whose only other options, after her parents are killed by rocket fire, are prostitution or starvation. Against a backdrop of unending war, Mariam and Laila become allies in an asymmetrical battle with Rasheed, whose violent misogyny—"There was no cursing, no screaming, no pleading, no surprised yelps, only the systematic business of beating and being beaten"—is endorsed by custom and law. Hosseini gives a forceful but nuanced portrait of a patriarchal despotism where women are agonizingly dependent on fathers, husbands and especially sons, the bearing of male children being their sole path to social status. His tale is a powerful, harrowing depiction of Afghanistan, but also a lyrical evocation of the lives and enduring hopes of its resilient characters."

Lost and Found

I know it sounds like a sorry excuse, but I haven't been able to read for the last couple of days because I misplaced my book, lol. Actually, I left it out where I always do (on the coffee table, I think), and my husband went on this crazy cleaning spree the other day, and (how dare he?!?) put it on the bookshelf! I looked all over the floor, tables, counter, etc. before finding it in the middle of a stack of books this afternoon. And... I won't lie, with the change in time, it is getting dark so early here. I am not a big fan of winter in Germany (although the snow is pretty). The days are so short and so dreary. I haven't seen the sun in forever, and it is really depressing. So when I am home and have free time, I am more inclined to nap instead of read. Bad, I know!