Kites, Bees and a Banana.....

It's been a while and thus there is some book catching up to do....thus I'll do my best to keep this brief.

The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini:

Hands down the saddest book I've ever read. The writing was great, the story compelling, and the main character is tragically heart-breaking despite his best efforts. Every time you think he will redeem himself and make things happily ever after you're wrong...which I guess makes it more true to life. Set in Afghanistan what I appreciated most was how it reminded me that REAL people live there. People with families, friends, hobbies, and kites. People who, by no choice of their own, have had their lives changed forever. People who aren't extremists. People trying to do their best and be happy. It's a feeling of remembrance I haven't been able to shake since I read the book and for that I am grateful.

The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd:

Years ago my friend Tara Bradshaw told me to read this book and it's been on my mind ever since....and finally I picked it up. Set in the south during the civil rights era, I was immediately interested. The characters are distinctive and endearing and I appreciate how they each have their own story. This book has it's fair share of sadness as well, but is ultimately redeemed by love conquering those things that divide us. It was a little slow for me at times...but that's just me and for the most part I really enjoyed it. C and I also went and watched the movie which I thought stayed impressively true to the book.

Banana Rose, by Natalie Goldberg:

I'd read the phone book if Goldberg was the author. I've read her writing books and memoir, but this was the first piece of fiction. At first I wasn't sure I'd love it because the characters lives were so different than what I'm prone to be interested in. But then she sucked me in with her development and emotion and by the end the characters were my friends. Aside from a part or two I would edit, I enjoyed the book. Most interesting to me was the main character's intense connection to place....sometimes at the expense of other aspects of her life. More than even people or activities she felt linked to a place that made her feel whole and allowed her to truly live.