On Their Nightstand
On a recent trip to California I had the opportunity to get some uninterrupted reading time in, and was lucky enough to have two fantastic books with me. Both were very gripping, emotional novels with strong family-oriented content, which I'm a sucker for these days.
The first was The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, which my sister lent my step-mom before I subsequently borrowed for the trip. Without giving anything away, and to steal a line from the cover, it's "a moving story of modern Afghanistan". I absolutely loved it, and got misty-eyed a few times during the read. One section near the end (no spoilers!) felt a little too "Hollywood" and contrived for me, but otherwise I thoroughly enjoyed it.
The second book was less gritty and more fantastical, written by Carlos Ruis Zafon and titled The Shadow of the Wind. It reminded me (and others, if you see the reviews) strongly of Umberto Eco's work, but either had better translation or was written in a more down-to-earth fashion. At any rate I found it much more accessible than Eco's writing, since I got most of the references and didn't feel the need to run to Wikipedia every time a new phrase was dropped. It's sort of a murder-mystery love story set in 1950s Barcelona, and is one of the best books I've read in a long time.
Run, don't walk to your library or bookseller and pick these two up! They lend well too, so if you like passing books along to friends they're worth buying.
jake, i, too, loved the kite runner!! i keep passing it on to friends. it's definitely one that stays with you for a very long time. did you see in the news recently that they were banning the kite races due to deaths?
I also thoroughly enjoyed "The Kite Runner". I think I know exactly the scenes that you thought were too Hollywood, Jake. They did seem contrived to me as well, but overall the book was outstanding.
I just finished "The Shadow of the Wind" and was totally engrossed in the characters. It is rare for me to find a book where I can completely surrender myself to the belief of the characters and fall into the story. However, since finishing this book, I am sad as I don't want to say good bye to the characters from the book. They were all so deep and compelling.