Childrens Toyshop
Welcome to The Childrens Toyshop, here you will find all the latest and traditional toys in our toyshop. You can search and locate the best selling Toys Games & Puzzles to purchase online and have delivered to the door. We have a large selection of Books with reviews.
Back to Home Page > Go back a page
Books : A Thousand Splendid Suns
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
Rating: 
- Highly recommended
Wow, what a book. Gives a throughly honest insight into life in Afghanistan over the last forty years.
Whilst being emotionally draining, its a book you won't be able to put down. I find some books that focus on current affairs can be very pretentious and often glamorized, but not this, it seems as honest as possible. Read it now!
Rating:
- Enjoyable and enlightening, but ...
I had read and enjoyed Hosseini's first novel, "The Kite Runner" and was really looking forward to reading this. You can see immediately the similarities with the previous book in the setting, Afghanistan, and style - teaching the reader about Afghan life and troubles through very personal and powerful stories of individuals.
But the are are many differences too. The main characters this time are two women and the historical period is longer, from the 1970s to 2003. So, we learn about Afghan life under the tribal wars, fighting the Russians, the arrival and dominance of the Taliban, and much later the arrival of the Americans and their allies.
The characters are strongly, if not always fully, drawn and we are made very much to empathise with Mariam at first as she is taken to be the wife of a much older man, Rasheed, who turns out to be very cruel, and later Laila, the second, younger and more passive heroine, who is tricked into marrying the same tyrant. The relationship between the two women grows and their suffering and tribulations are described in great detail, so we are drawn into their lives very much.
My response to the book changed as I read it. At first I was thinking I was was reading a book for teenagers as first Mariam and later Laila were young and we were led to empathise with them. This changed, however, as they aged, and the violence increased. Later I felt the characters were too simply drawn: both heroines were too good and Rasheed too evil - I wanted to know what made him like that. In fact most characters were black or white. Mariam's father was the one exception [could we have a spin-off about him?] - a weak man who could not make a stand for his principles and loves.
The ending was the biggest disappointment. Not what happened to Mariam [I won't give that away] but the return of another character was just too neat, too pat a way to end the story. It just convinced me of one feeling I had frequently during the reading, that I was being manipulated a little too obviously into feeling specific things about specific people and events. The epilogue was the final straw, pointing you to a website where you can make contributions to work done in Afghanistan. Was the whole story leading to that?
I feel Hosseini is an excellent story-teller but not a great novelist. He knows exactly how to spin a yarn and pull in the reader to that world and the people in it. He has done excellent service to his country [although, unlike Laila, he does not seem to want to return there from California] in using his narrative skills to point us to their situation. When he starts to write about other places and other issues, then it will be interesting to see if has the same popular appeal. Meanwhile, "A Thousand Splendid Suns" has cemented his growing reputation and good luck to him.
Rating: - A thousand more please !!!
Khaled Hosseini is a storyteller who has a supreme talent for writing words in a magical way. You can visualise the occurrences in the book and get totally drawn in and affected by the proceedings. He is like a modern day Scheherazade (1001 Arabian Nights)who keeps us hooked on his tales like Scheherazade did with the king. A thousand more tales like this and Kite Runner would not be enough. Please keep writing, we're all waiting for the next one, Dr.Hosseini.
Rating:
- A sad but enjoyable read
A highly enjoyable read that I would definately recommend. Although quite a sad book I would advise all women to read this book, if only to realise how lucky you are. This book really is an eye opener!
Rating: - Beautiful story, beautifully told
This is a wonderful book. I loved the style of writing and its simplicity made it really easy to read as did the engaging plot. However, it was the characters living in such a harrowing setting that made the novel extremely powerful. The setting and its culture is extremely interesting. Another book which I loved was The Bookseller of Kabul which provided factual details about the way of life under the Taliban. In my opinion, A Thousand Splendid Suns is a brilliant book and I much preferred it to The Kite Runner. It should not be missed.
- Highly recommendedWow, what a book. Gives a throughly honest insight into life in Afghanistan over the last forty years.
Whilst being emotionally draining, its a book you won't be able to put down. I find some books that focus on current affairs can be very pretentious and often glamorized, but not this, it seems as honest as possible. Read it now!
Rating:
- Enjoyable and enlightening, but ...I had read and enjoyed Hosseini's first novel, "The Kite Runner" and was really looking forward to reading this. You can see immediately the similarities with the previous book in the setting, Afghanistan, and style - teaching the reader about Afghan life and troubles through very personal and powerful stories of individuals.
But the are are many differences too. The main characters this time are two women and the historical period is longer, from the 1970s to 2003. So, we learn about Afghan life under the tribal wars, fighting the Russians, the arrival and dominance of the Taliban, and much later the arrival of the Americans and their allies.
The characters are strongly, if not always fully, drawn and we are made very much to empathise with Mariam at first as she is taken to be the wife of a much older man, Rasheed, who turns out to be very cruel, and later Laila, the second, younger and more passive heroine, who is tricked into marrying the same tyrant. The relationship between the two women grows and their suffering and tribulations are described in great detail, so we are drawn into their lives very much.
My response to the book changed as I read it. At first I was thinking I was was reading a book for teenagers as first Mariam and later Laila were young and we were led to empathise with them. This changed, however, as they aged, and the violence increased. Later I felt the characters were too simply drawn: both heroines were too good and Rasheed too evil - I wanted to know what made him like that. In fact most characters were black or white. Mariam's father was the one exception [could we have a spin-off about him?] - a weak man who could not make a stand for his principles and loves.
The ending was the biggest disappointment. Not what happened to Mariam [I won't give that away] but the return of another character was just too neat, too pat a way to end the story. It just convinced me of one feeling I had frequently during the reading, that I was being manipulated a little too obviously into feeling specific things about specific people and events. The epilogue was the final straw, pointing you to a website where you can make contributions to work done in Afghanistan. Was the whole story leading to that?
I feel Hosseini is an excellent story-teller but not a great novelist. He knows exactly how to spin a yarn and pull in the reader to that world and the people in it. He has done excellent service to his country [although, unlike Laila, he does not seem to want to return there from California] in using his narrative skills to point us to their situation. When he starts to write about other places and other issues, then it will be interesting to see if has the same popular appeal. Meanwhile, "A Thousand Splendid Suns" has cemented his growing reputation and good luck to him.
Rating:
- A thousand more please !!!Khaled Hosseini is a storyteller who has a supreme talent for writing words in a magical way. You can visualise the occurrences in the book and get totally drawn in and affected by the proceedings. He is like a modern day Scheherazade (1001 Arabian Nights)who keeps us hooked on his tales like Scheherazade did with the king. A thousand more tales like this and Kite Runner would not be enough. Please keep writing, we're all waiting for the next one, Dr.Hosseini.
Rating:
- A sad but enjoyable readA highly enjoyable read that I would definately recommend. Although quite a sad book I would advise all women to read this book, if only to realise how lucky you are. This book really is an eye opener!
Rating:
- Beautiful story, beautifully toldThis is a wonderful book. I loved the style of writing and its simplicity made it really easy to read as did the engaging plot. However, it was the characters living in such a harrowing setting that made the novel extremely powerful. The setting and its culture is extremely interesting. Another book which I loved was The Bookseller of Kabul which provided factual details about the way of life under the Taliban. In my opinion, A Thousand Splendid Suns is a brilliant book and I much preferred it to The Kite Runner. It should not be missed.