Books Read: 16

I have no finished The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant. It is about this young girl who grows up during the Ren. in Venice and loves paintings and art. She is educated and very smart, but her world gets torn apart by Savonarola, a priest who is against art and women being educated. She is forced to marry herself to an older man, which ends in shabbles. However, she manages to survive and is able to explore her passion that she has had to keep hidden.

This was a pretty simple book. Not too complex of a plot or writing style. I thought it got a bit too graphic at bits and could have been written in a more interesting manner. Not a bad book to read for the summer since it is pretty relaxing. I do not have a whole lot to say about this book since it was so short and simple. If you enjoy Ren. Italy and paintings and an easy read its a good book. I may not read anything else by the author, but I am glad I picked this one to read because I believe it is one of her better ones.

Books Read: 15

I just finished reading A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini and I could not put it down! It looks at the last 33 years in Afghanistan from the viewpoint of two women, whose lives eventually come together in the middle of the novel. It is a great book about the hardships these women face individually as well as together against there husband. The book starts off with Mariam's childhood and her naivety about being an illegitimate daughter to a wealthy businessman til your 15th birthday. When her mother dies she is forced to marry a man from Kabul and at first everything seems to be alright, but after several miscarriages Mariam's life is very difficult and sad. Then the book shifts to Laila, a girl who lives down the street from Mariam and her husband's home. She grows up with her friend Tariq and eventually when they are both much older realize they love each other. However, life in Kabul has become unsafe due to the shootings and killings between warlords. Tariq family leaves and Laila's parents are blown up and she is saved by Mariam and her husband. She learns from a man that Tariq died on a refugee camp and agrees to marry Mariam's husband, so that he has two wives and hopefully Laila will produce children. She has a daughter which puts the husband against her and soon Laila and Mariam bond together and they are both seen as the one and the same to their husband, even after Laila becomes pregnant again and gives birth to a boy. They struggle against his anger and beatings together as their world is been torn apart by war and the restrictions of the Taliban. I won't say to much else, because I don't want to give away the endings because it is amazing.

I absolutely loved Kite Runner and I heard this book was just good and they were right. I loved reading this book and had a hard time putting it down. I really hope he writes another book because I think he is a fantastic author. They stories and lives of the character is so different from my own that I can't help, but be sucked into the difference and interesting aspect of the lives of these people.

Books Read: 14

I finished Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. A classic that most people know, so I will not sum up here. I will however talk about some of the differences I found from the movie, which surprised me from reading the book. First, Scarlett actually has one child from each of her two previous marriages, Wade and Ella. I can understand why the movie did not have this, it made the loss of Bonnie much more dramatic since it was Scalett's only child in the movie. However, her distress over losing her figure after have one child loses its validity when she actually has 3 in the book. Another is Rhett's final line is different in the book than in the movie and that was weird because that line is so famous with this story and its not even correct with the original story. Although, I do understand why this book is a classic, it is really good. Its long, but so hard to put down because it is just that good!

Books Read: 13

I have finally finished The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. It is about this American woman, Isabel Archer, who comes to England with her Aunt to experience freedom and independence. She is pursued by an American, who has been interested in marrying her before the book begins. As well as an English Lord she meets while in England. She becomes close with her cousin, who is also in love with her, but refuses to try and marry her due to their family relations. Isabel meets a friend of her Aunt, Madame Merle, who arrives at their home while her uncle is dying. They become close friends and after her uncle dies, she receives a large inheritance and begins to travel to Italy. While there, Madame Merle introduces her to Gilbert Osmond, a poor but a gentleman with a young daughter. During their time together Madame Merle convinces him to pursue her and eventually convinces Isabel to marry him. The rest of the book is about their marriage and the struggle between individual beliefs and the old society. I won't say anymore and give the ending away!

For classic literature, this is a fantastic book. There are lots of twists in the plot and I feel better written than many books I've read from this time period. It is very different from other books with strong heroines that seem to have a destiny that is a struggle and full of hardship. That is probably why I enjoyed it slightly more than other books of this period with similar themes. They are still good, but this one is slightly more interesting because you don't know exactly how it will end. With other books you do know how it will end. I am planning on reading more books by this author because I think he has a good writing style and has interesting way of presenting the same topics in a different way.