The Kite Runner

Advantages: A must read!
Disadvantages: Not for kids due to some content

...The Kite Runner One of the best books I have read all year and a truly wonderful story. The Kite Runner is a 2003 book written by Khaled Hosseini and was his debut novel. It tells the story of a young boy called Amir. He is growing up in 1970's Afghanistan and faces many trials and tribulations. At first he lives a fairly great looking life on the surface of it. His father is well off and they live in a big pink house away from all the run down houses in the village. He has a great friend, one he can really rely on and trust, Hassan. Hassan and his father are actually servants for Amir and his father and although they have a great bond, Amir often feels embarrassed by Hassan and that embarrassment leads to shame when he questions his actions. Amir's father is very cold and shut off and he is always desperately trying to win...

Spottydog11 21.08.2008 · Read review
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Review of The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

Do a Runner

Advantages: It's an interesting story...
Disadvantages: It's melodramatic, dull, poorly acted by the leads and clumsy.

...for an epic feel. He uses lots of gamelan to try to keep the viewer's nerves on edge, which is contrasted by soft acoustic guitar for Amir's easy life in San Francisco. The first childhood flashback is accompanied by yawing female vocals, loud percussion, accordion and balalaika for chasing the kite. The boys' friendship is illustrated by playful flutes and harps and taut strings crop up when the bullies appear. As the political situation in Afghanistan changes, there are loose, jangly arrangements that feature rising, imposing woodwinds and brass. Amir's return to his homeland features predictable electric guitars and percussion. It's a suitable accompaniment to the film but it can be overpowering at times. "The Kite Runner" is a well-intentioned film that fails to fulfil emotionally because the director gets too tied up in minutiae and forgets...

afy9mab 06.01.2009 · Read review
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Review of The Kite Runner (DVD)

Runners' World - Strangely, a magazine for runners...

Advantages: Great for running enthusiasts or a total beginner
Disadvantages: Can be a little repetitive

...Having been a subscriber to Runner's World since 2006, I felt that it was time to write a review on the magazine. It's published monthly, although the time that it takes to get pushed through my letterbox varies, probably due to the amount of subscribers it has varying. The magazine itself is very diverse, with new product reviews and trials, recipes, letters and some individual stories about people involved in the world of running. ~The Stories~ These are very interesting; indeed these stories are the ones that I turn to as soon as I open the magazine and they can be as diverse as a story about a woman who's ran around the world alone, how long it took her and why she did it, alongside a story about a man who's lost three times his own current body weight through dieting and running. All of the stories are very interesting...

nykied 01.10.2009 · Read review
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Review of Runners World

The Kite Runner

Advantages: Absorbing tale, characters unfold during the novel,
Disadvantages: Harrowing at times

...The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is an absorbing tale of life in Afghanistan. It tells the tale of Amir a young boy from a fairly wealthy family in Afghanistan. This is Afghanistan in the 1970?s before the Taliban and before the Soviet invasion. Amir lives in a nice house with his father (his mother died shortly after childbirth) and in the grounds of the house lives his fathers servant Ali with his son Hassan. Hassan is the kite-runner of the story but I will explain what that means later. Ali and Hassan come from the lower caste Hazaras and Amir although happy to play with the illiterate Hassan when he needs a friend at other times ignores him or makes fun of his inability to read or write. Throughout the story Hassan always remains the loyal friend and it is this loyalty that the story is about. Amir wants to win...

AJ26 26.04.2007 · Read review
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Review of The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

The Kite Runner DVD

Advantages: Great story, great characters
Disadvantages: None

...The Kite Runner After reviewing the book last week, I then found it at Sainsburys at the weekend and decided to watch it as I was very interested in how they would tell the story on film. The Kite Runner film has been adapted from the 2003 book written by Khaled Hosseini which was his debut novel. The film is directed by Marc Forster who also directed Monster's Ball and is produced by Dreamworks. The first thing I really liked about the film is that it used pretty much all Afghani actors. I liked the fact that it did not cast a Tom Cruise or the like and make out that they were actually from Afghanistan. I think this made the film and story more believable, more real and definitely worth watching. A lot of the film is actually subtitled as the actors speak Persian Dari. There is a little bit at the start which is in English and then...

Spottydog11 27.08.2008 · Read review
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Review of The Kite Runner (DVD)

The Kite Runner

Advantages: A beautiful story
Disadvantages: much of the film is subtitled

...I was lucky enough to catch this film by chance on my flight home from Canada last month. I had never heard of or read the book, so I feel unable to comment on whether it is true to the original story, but as a stand alone film I can summarise in one word: WOW. What a story! The Film follows the story of two young friends (Hassan and Amir) in Afghanistan. They have a knack for kite competitions, Hassan is one of the be best kite runners; hence the name of the film. Amir and his father are wealthy and Hassan and his father are their servants. Hassan is bullied by other boys and Amir feels unable to stick up for him. Hassan and Amir grow apart, and eventually Hassan and his father feel they need to leave. Around this time Afghanistan is taken over by the Russians, and then the Taliban - Amir and his father escape to America...

Chuckles1987 16.05.2008 · Read review
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Review of The Kite Runner (DVD)

Runner beans. Grow your own & taste the difference

Advantages: cheap,easy, fun and healthy
Disadvantages: slugs

...Beans have been grown for many years, firstly as ornamental flowers and since the Victorian times as a vegetable. Their proper Latin name is Phaseolus occineus. Runner beans are almost always a climbing plant with only a couple of bush varieties but you may have to hunt around to buy these as they are not so common. The other beans most commonly grown in this group of plants are French bean, broad bean and bean sprouts. You can also grow the soy and lima beans but these are not well suited to out climate, yet. Runner beans are incredibly easy and quick to grow and for these reasons are great for children. There is a lot written about soil preparation but I just dig over, plant and go, but books recommend the digging in of compost or manure in preparation to sowing. The actual beans you plant are about 2cm long...

perfectlypolished 01.06.2007 (11.08.2007) · Read review
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Review of Runner beans

The Kite Runner

Advantages: Amazing story, you will learn a lot
Disadvantages: None but listening might not be as engaging as reading

...The Kite Runner is a must read/listen book in my opinion. It is an extremely well written story that is rich in entertainment value as well as meaningful messages. Overview: The setting of the book is in Afghanistan. The story begins with the main character Amir having various childhood experiences. Amir is a Pashtun boy and his best friend, and the son of his servant, Hassan is a Hazara. At this point of the story there is an apparent division between the ethnic groups in Afghanistan. Hazaras are treated as second class citizens in the region. Amir is the son of a wealthy and well respected man whose name is not revealed, but is called Baba throughout the book. Because of the success of his father, Amir constantly feels overshadowed. He spends much of the book trying to figure out what it means to be a man. (Spoiler) Baba was...

ssj3gohan 25.10.2008 · Read review
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Review of The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

On the Road, On the Mind!

Advantages: The feeling that you're holding the author's hand the entire time.
Disadvantages: Spontaneous prose will not necessarily suit everyone's tastes

...On The Road is an exciting and enchanting perpsective on post-war America's cultural enlightenment, denoting a people's social revolution on the backdrop of an American 'halcyon' idealism. It highlights the desperate yet opportunistic nature of the 'beat' generation as they expand their horizons across the huge stretch of an entire continent. Outlining the experiences and revelations of a fragmented group of college peers and other random associates, it delves into the fiery-hearted life of drug experimentation and liberal thinking, in a decade where the clasp of the state was becoming ever more relinquished. As a psuedo-biographical work the author loosely basis the narrator, Sal Paradise, on his own turbulent past, and specifically that of the character he befriends and idolises, Dean Moriarty. The scope of the events that...

ChristopherAMorrison 29.11.2009 · Read review
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Review of On the Road - Jack Kerouac

Revoulationary Road

Advantages: Good acting
Disadvantages: NA

...This is based on the 1961 novel of the same name by Richard Yates. Set in 1955, Frank (Leonardo DiCaprio) and April Wheeler (Kate Winslet) move to Revolutionary Road in one of New York City's wealthy suburbs, and have a daughter and a son. Everything seemed to be in place for a perfect family. However, after 7 years of being together, April is not satisfied with her life as a housewife, and Frank despises his job at Knox Business Machines, where his father worked for twenty years in a similar position. The Wheelers feel they are trapped in the way of life of the suburb and the normal "happy family scene". On Frank's thirtieth birthday he seduces a young secretary from work and begin to have an affair with her.. Returning home late, April surprises him with a birthday cake and a proposal that they move to Paris, with April...

medgenie 24.05.2009 · Read review
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Review of Revolutionary Road (DVD)