A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini, is two brilliantly written stories intertwined.

One story of a young girl that was unwanted and a shame to her father, who was handed off to marry a man that was about forty years older than her. When she is not able to give her husband the only thing he wants, he turns into a cruel, hard old man and she turns into a reclusive, depressed women. The other story of young girl growing up in the start of a new age with a mother that has given all her love to her two sons that are in the war and doesn't seem to have any left for her. She is surrounded by violence and lose and is falling in love with her best friend in a time of separation.

Based in Afghanistan, A Thousand Splendid Suns gives the reader a insight of Indian culture.

Recommended by two friends, Chynna and Mason, this is one of my favorite books and to those who decided to read it I tell you, keep reading, there IS a perfect ending.

Of Mice and Men

John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men is the tale of two men traveling through life together. For Lennie, George is his friend and role model; for George, Lennie is an unexpected friend and a burden, but they're family. Both men, repeatedly getting kicked off ranches, wonder from town to town with only a fickle dream propelling them.

George is witty and small, while Lennie is ginormous and somewhat mentally challenged. Lennie is always getting in trouble, while George is always getting him out of trouble. The duo arrives at a new ranch and find their dream finally coming true with a little help from some new friends. But trouble seems to be waiting around every corner and Lennie just keeps bumping into it...

I wouldn't recommend this book:
1. for the language through out the book! There was a curse word on every line!
2. if your a fan of happy endings, the ending was horrible!

But if those things don't bother you, you might enjoy this book, after all it is a classic (for some reason).

The End of a Chapter

As my sophomore year comes to a screeching halt, I feel like the world is spinning underneath my feet, and with it, everything and everyone around me is swirling past. Starting at a crawl then working up to a blurred streak of colors, this year is finally ending. Finally... all the homework, all the tests, all the early mornings, all the endless, dreary classes going on while the sun is shining through the windows, all of it's done!

But...

Even though the sand has drizzled out of the hour glass of '09, I am still just as far away from picking what I want to do as I was when I was five. With my junior year staring me in the face with choices of colleges, careers, and colleagues, I feel slightly overwhelmed by the enormity of my choices; my interests are as scattered as the stars in the sky, each option coming with it's own specific choice of where to go.

But...

I have a year, maybe two if I stretch it, to decide so... for now I'm not worrying myself about what awaits me because I know it will show it's face in time and in for now the sunshine and cool water is calling my name! For now, I'll forget colleges, careers, and colleagues and enjoy the few months of freedom I have before they drag me back to the jailhouse they call school.

The Giver

The Giver, by Louis Lowrey, is a unique book about being different and loving so much that you are willing to make a major sacrifice for their benefit.

The Giver is written in simple modern English and is not a difficult read (I read it in 7th grade). Lowery paints pictures and crafts characters so smoothly that you don't realize your learning so much about the character and their community until you finish. Set in a different world, with a different way of living, her smoothness is a great feat. In her world the people are excluded from feelings and pain, and they are forced to be the same through "Sameness".

In The Giver, the main character Jonas is a young boy selected for a position of great honor, or that's what everyone keeps telling him, but no one seems to know what the Receiver does. Jonas' job comes with rules that he would have never have thought possible; suddenly he was able to lie and was exempt from certain activities that EVERYONE had to participate in. Jonas' secretes and exemptions separate him from his family and friends.

Then Jonas is faced with a choice; does he stay in his comfortable home or does he give it up so his community can have the chance to feel real emotions and live their lives?

The House On Mango Street

The House on Mango Street is understood better when you understand where the author, Sandra Cisneros, grew up. Cisneros was raised as a Hispanic-American in the rundown suburbs of Chicago. She was surrounded by poverty and racism. She incorporated all she experienced and learned into her book through the unique, innocent voice of a young girl named Esperanza.

The House on Mango Street is the story of Esperanza, Esperanza's growing up, making friends, overcoming her surroundings, and overcoming what people expected of her. She doesn't fit in with her family and has had to move so many times that she never had the chance to make friends.

Cisneros writes this novel in a series of short anecdotes that give the reader a glance into Esperanaza's life without handing the information to them but lets the reader interpret the stories and draw the deeper meaning themselves. Cisneros gives the reader a taste of what life is really like for Hispanic-Americans, for young girls living in poverty, and for young girls growing up no matter what ethnicity.

Swing

A couple months ago, my little sister fell off a bag swing and broke both of her arms. My dad was the only one with her and the incident scared him so bad that he cried... which doesn't happen. After hearing him tell the story I wrote this, it's structure is similar to The Little Red Wheelbarrow:

Swing

Flying,
Soaring,
To the sky...

Clutching,
Clinging,
Falling...

Bleeding,
Not breathing,
Not seeing,
Not screaming...

"Breathe
Please, breathe"

Breath...

Wailing...

Cast,
Sling,
Bruises...

"She'll be fine"