A splendid story

Advantages: Gripping story, great characters
Disadvantages: Doesn't quite live up to The Kite Runner

...After reading Khaled Hosseini's first novel, The Kite Runner, I was keen to see if he could achieve the same thing again in his second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns. This time stepping into a woman's shoes, it tells the story of two women and their marraige to the same man, set against the backdrop of the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan. The story begins in Afghanistan in the 1970's and introduces us to Mariam, the illegitimate child of a wealthy cinema owner, who lives with her mother in a small hut on the top of a hill. They live a somewhat lonely life, outcast from any kind of community and with Mariam's mother blaming her for the downturn her life has taken and warning of the way that women are treated by men in Afghan society. Despite this, Mariam is often visited by her father, who takes her fishing and brings her gifts...

bubblegum_princess 03.02.2009 · Read review
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Review of A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini

Simply Splendid

Advantages: amazing characters, strong plot, unique style
Disadvantages: /

...the use of the language did in fact help transport me to Afghanistan and drop me right into the story. For me, the plot was what affected me most. The characters were strong, the style is unique, but the plot has made this book the enjoyment that it is. The one thing I noticed was the fact that this is told like a story, rather than a problem waiting to unfold. I'm used to reading fiction where the main issue is clear within the first few chapters and the story unfolds itself, leaving you with a solution at the end. However, A Thousand Splendid Suns has not one single problem. Instead, it has many. As soon as one issue arises, it is 'solved' within a few chapters, and then a new one crops up. Another thing I found is that nothing ever went to plan. Everything the characters plan blows up in their faces, sometimes too literally. There were two...

Amy69 23.08.2009 · Read review
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Review of A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini

Simply Splendid

Advantages: Perfect for bedtime
Disadvantages: None

...The Mr Men and Little Miss series written by Roger Hargreaves and then later his son Adam will always be a hit with children due to their simply yet engaging stories and brightly coloured pictures. Little Miss Splendid is number 11 in the Little Miss series, which has a total of 33 books in it. Little Miss Splendid is green, wears a red hat, red boots and carries a very stylish red handbag. Her only problem is that she's rather stuck-up. The front cover of the book shows a picture of the character as described before and the back shows smaller pictures of all the other characters in the series, which enables you to keep track of which ones you have bought and which ones you would like to read. ****THE STORY**** Nothing is too good for little Miss Splendid and she lives in an enormous house with all of the best furnishings...

MI9to5 09.09.2008 · Read review
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Review of Little Miss Splendid - Roger Hargreaves

Splendid & Absorbing A Thousand Splendid Suns!

Advantages: thought provoking, un-putdownable, entralling, beautifully written and current.
Disadvantages: I actually cant think of any

...You know that you have come across a special book when one passage makes you shake with anger and the next passage has you smiling at a small act of triumph. A Thousand Splendid Suns is one of those books. ~~The Author~~ I first became aware of Khaled Husseini and his books when he was nominated for three awards at the Galaxy Book Awards. Husseini was born in Kabul in Afghanistan in 1965, but was relocated through his fathers work to Paris in the 1970's. By the time they returned to their homeland in the 1980's Afghanistan was an extremely dangerous place to be and they sought and were granted asylum in the United States. A Thousand Splendid Suns is Husseini's second novel, following the hugely successful Kite Runner. He is now a goodwill envoy to UNHCR. ~~Plot~~ The story is based on two women in Afghanistan and how...

burtybookworm 02.09.2008 (25.09.2008) · Read review
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Review of A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini

A thousand splendid suns

Advantages: great read, throughly engaging
Disadvantages: very sad

...Having heard an awful lot about Khaled Hosseini's first book The Kite Runner, I put ' A thousand splendid suns' on my christmas list, knowing that I could fairly easily borrow a copy of The Kite Runner. Although I'm ashamed to say that I still havent read the first book. This book however is a first for me in the sense of Middle Eastern story telling. I tend to stick to perhaps tales with more of a happy theme, a sucker for a bit of romance I suppose. I am therefore not comparing this book to the authors first, but in it's own merrits. The book is set in Afghanistan where you are first introduced to Mariam, who spends the first 15 years of her life living with her troubled mother. Mariam is a 'harami' born out of wedlock, her father a wealthy business man with 3 wives. Mariam is visited once a week by her father, visits...

mussonanna 20.02.2008 · Read review
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Review of A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini

A Tale of Two Women

Advantages: Very well written; excellent story and characters
Disadvantages: Harrowing references to conflict

...Set against a backdrop of conflicts in Afghanistan, Khaled Hosseini's second novel 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' is essentially the tale of two women, Mariam and the younger Laila. The blurb tells us that it concerns the friendship, 'as strong as the ties between mother and daughter', that develops between them. It is a while, however, before this friendship starts, and there is a great deal of pain and hardship both before and after its beginning. Part One of the novel, covering a hundred pages, follows the childhood of Mariam. She is the illegitimate daughter of Nana and Jalil, one of the wealthiest men in the city of Herat. Mariam and Nana have been sent out of town to live in a kolba or simple wooden hut to avoid embarrassing Jalil, his three wives and other children. Jalil visits Mariam every Thursday, and she thinks the sun shines...

denella 17.05.2009 · Read review
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Review of A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini

We women don't know how lucky we are

Advantages: An absolutely rivetting book
Disadvantages: You WILL cry!!

... A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS KHALED HOSSEINI Last year I read Khaled Hosseini's book, 'The Kite Runner'. That story concentrated on the life of a young Afghan boy as he grew up in violent and confused times. I found it to be an remarkable book that was packed full of emotion. So on finding that the author fhad written another story that takes place in Afghanistan, 'A Thousand Splendid Suns', I had to read it. THE AUTHOR An author's background does not always have a lot of relevance on a book when writing a book review, but I felt that for this book, his background is VERY important. Khaled Hosseini was born in 1965 in Afghanistan. He was born into a privileged position as the son of a diplomat with the country's foreign ministry, while his mother was a high school language and history high...

oldchem 04.11.2009 · Read review
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Review of A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini

Hotel Perfectly Adequate

Advantages: Great location, clean and comfy rooms, Pool!
Disadvantages: Weird showers, no sea views

...I?ve just returned from a holiday in Nice, where there?s approximately 300 days of sunshine a year, there are French women sunbathing topless on the beach, and you can dunk your baguette in your coffee and just sit back and watch the world go by. I went to Nice to meet up with my boyfriend after he?d been at conferences, and so we decided to have a short holiday there. I spent weeks trying to find the perfect accommodation, looking on hundreds of websites, trying to balance out cost issues, as well as trying to find somewhere in a good location, and that had good reviews by other travelers. I finally, FINALLY made a decision and booked the Hotel Splendid through hotelclub.com five days before I left. THE HOTEL: AN OVERVIEW The Hôtel Splendid is a 4-star hotel located on the Boulevard Victor-Hugo in the centre of Nice, a few...

avacarrdo 04.07.2007 · Read review
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Review of Splendid Hotel, Nice

Viva Macau!

Advantages: A unique place
Disadvantages: A long day

...Macau **SPLENDID TOURS & TRAVEL LTD** When I was in Hong Kong we noticed in out hotel we could go over to Macau for a day trip. In our hotel we could book this trip with Splendid Tours & Travel Ltd and they sorted out everything from our boat over to our tickets into the attractions. The tour cost us HK$760 each (adult) as we went on a weekday. For a child (under 9) it would have cost HK680 and a child (under 1) it cost HK$150. On a weekend/holidays it cost HK$780 for an adult, HK$700 for a child (under 9) and HK$150 for a child (under 1). For this tour you are required to have a Chinese visa before going on it. You will be provided with an English-speaking guide. Out guide was very friendly and very informative. He seemed interested with other cultures and made a point to spend time to talk to everyone personally on the tour...

DeniseKelly40 09.09.2008 · Read review
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Review of Splendid Tours & Travel, Macau

After the Kite Runner it's a disappointment

Advantages: Well written and no doubt will sell zillions
Disadvantages: A poor shadow of his first best seller

...If you could find a bookshop or library that organised its books by detailed topics rather than alphabetically or by broad genre, I think it's safe to say that the shelf labelled 'Happy Books About Afghanistan' would be one of the emptiest in the shop. A Thousand Splendid Suns is no exception to the norm in being almost unremittingly bleak but by the standards of others I've read, it's only scratching the surface. Khaled Hosseini's first book, "The Kite Runner" was a massive international success with - if you believe the publishers' publicity - sales in excess of 8 million copies worldwide. Its popularity was driven largely by word-of-mouth recommendation and it achieved immense popularity amongst book clubs and individual readers alike. A film by the same name was due to hit the cinemas on Boxing Day and should be all around...

koshkha 30.12.2007 · Read review
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Review of A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini