Shreya's Treasures

A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS KHALED HOSSEINI  GENRE: NOVEL, FICTION FIRST PUBLISHED: 2007 “One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs, Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls.” In his novel A Thousand Splendid Suns, Hosseini provides a vivid portrait of a country shattered by a series of ideological leaders and wars imposed on it by foreign and internal forces. The narrative, which spans several decades, is driven by the stories of two women, Laila and Mariam, who, despite starkly different beginnings, find themselves intimately connected and dependent upon one another. Hosseini’s women, much like the country of Afghanistan itself, appear to be propelled by the whims of outside forces, familial and societal, with little chance of influencing their own lives and futures Yet Laila and Mariam are neither passive nor helpless as they make choices and accept consequences to affect desired ends, both hopeful and tragic. This portrayal of their dreams, trials, an...

THE BOOK THIEF MARKUS ZUSAK GENRE : HISTORICAL FICTION, WAR NOVEL, YA FICTION FIRST PUBLISHED : 2005 "Together, they would watch everything that was so carefully planned collapse, and they would all smile at the beauty of destruction." Try­ing to make sense of the hor­rors of World War II, Death in Markus Zusak's book "The Book Thief" relates the sto­ry of Liesel, a young Ger­man girl whose book-steal­ing and sto­ry-telling tal­ents help sus­tain her fos­ter fam­i­ly and the Jew­ish man they are hid­ing, as well as their neigh­bors. Fortunately, this book isn't about Death; it's about death, and so much else. It is about love, kindness, friendship, trust, books, and lots of thievery. It is about finding small happiness during the dark times, and having faith in humanity. Liesel Meminger's little brother dies just before her mother leaves her with the foster parents in a dismal town in southern Germany (her father, a Communist, has been take...