by Khaled Hosseini

Finally got around to reading this book. I enjoyed it very much. There’s this disturbing thing that happens in the beginning which almost made me quit but I’m glad I kept going. It was a very fast read. I enjoyed how words in Farsi or Pashtun were incorporated in the text in such a way that you knew what they meant even without looking it up.

by Ann Brasheras

Let me begin by saying how much this book disrupted my life. I’m unfortunately a slowish reader so for me to start and finish the second installment of the Traveling Pant Series so fast required a rather large unhealthy time investment.

That being said, I had to read this second book because I was worried about Bee. She was left precariously in the first book and I needed the peace of mind that she would be okay. She did slowly find herself and I was happy for her. Tibby and Carmen aggravitated me enough to almost quit reading the book as they were falling into their past faults. Lena went through hell this time around.

My favourite metaphor had to do with how Lena was acting as a trapese artist. Releasing her current swing and leaping for another in a different direction in midair knowing the dangers involved.

I will not let myself read the third book for a while.
5/5

by Ann Brashares

I didn’t like her style of writing but I liked her story. She uses a lot of parenthesis which I find very stumblesome and trippy. I prefer the comma. The story is quite endearing. The story is of four friends who’ve been close since childbirth having their first summer apart. All of the four friends are girls. Tibby is the eldest daughter of parents who used to have simple tastes. She spent the summer in town earning money towards a vehicle. Lena is going to visit her grandparents in Greece with her sister Effie. Carmen is going to spend the summer with her dad only to find that he has a new family and Bee goes off to soccer camp.

The author did a good job characterizing the girls as teenagers by showcasing their childish and mature traits. It is a bit of a fairy tale summer. There are very few who can recount such memorable summer in their lifetime.

4/5

By: Robin McKinley

A friend recommended this book so I gave it a shot. It’s a fantasy/fairy tale novel about a lonely princess who goes through trauma of the worst imaginable kind and how she copes. Her best friend is her dog Ash. They escape from their kingdom to a hut in the mountains to deal. Then they find another kingdom, then well… I don’t want to ruin it for you. It’s pretty predictable regardless. I did not like the diction used in this book for some reason. Usually when I come across a word I don’t know I look it up, but I found myself uninterested in doing this for this novel. Perhaps I was just being lazy or realized I would never have the occasion to dress my vocabulary as hers.

It was ok, it kept me entertained.

3/5

Finished it. Atleast now my life can go back to its regularly scheduled program. I greatly enjoyed it and the whole series of books has left me a wonderful daydream outlet. I think I dreamt about visiting a magical car manufacturer last night. Ofcourse I’m quite hungry for the next book. It seems difficult for me fathom how the author will tie all loose ends in the final installment. I kind of hope she won’t. I would greatly appreciate more than one novel to come. She’s such a precise and mindful author mashallah. The amount of organization and forethought in her writing is remarkable.

5/5