.The Kite Runner.

Thanks to two of my students from this spring quarter I moved Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner up on my summer reading list, and boy and am I glad I did! I know I'm a bit late in catching on to all the enthusiasm, popularity, and hype it received but it's better late than never, right?  It's been sitting on my bookshelf for far too long because I just hadn't found the time to devote to it (I actually picked up my copy in a FREE BOOKS bin at Scott's school - can't beat that!)  Truth is, it didn't take much time to read because I quite literally couldn't put it down and consumed it in just two days!

Needless to say I highly recommend it as a summer read (if you've not read it already, of course, and if you have I'd love to hear your thoughts on it).  To me, it was so powerfully written because of the honesty of the narrator.  He knew he had done wrong and he is quite unsympathetic for much of the narrative.  I told my husband while we were reading together on the porch, "Gosh, I could just slap him," referring to the narrative, Amir.  And I loved it, too, for the same reason one of my students expressed, "It's filled with wise quotes that stay with you long after you've put down the book."  I couldn't have put it better myself!

The two students I referred to earlier are both originally from Afghanistan and were such joys to work with.  During our one-on-one conferences I felt like I was talking to my peers, rather than students, because of their maturity and understanding of the world.  In one part of the book the narrator says that he feels like a tourist in his own country, and both students mentioned this line as one that stuck out to them as Americans who have since travelled back to Afghanistan and Pakistan, experiencing a similar feeling.  For me, it helped me understand the wars and controversies in the Middle East (if only a little better) because it made it a more personal story, one that affects fathers, sons, brothers, wives, daughters, husbands...

Add it to your reading list - you won't be dissatisfied! But a little word from experience: don't go watch the trailer because it gives a detail away that you'll want to read first.  Although now that I've finished I can't wait to watch the film!