book review: a thousand splendid suns

i recently finished reading khaled hosseini's second published book, "a thousand splendid suns."

hosseini wove a tragic tale of two afghani women who went from living in a free afghanistan to living through the soviet invasion, the mujahadeen rule and finally, taliban rule.

hosseini's words provided colorful descriptions of rural life in herat and modern life in kabul pre-soviet invasions. he then provided powerful (albeit depressing) imagery of what the mujahideen and later the taliban did to afghanistan.

hosseini also did a good job of creating strong female characters who may have come from different backgrounds and generations, but were both depicted as three dimensional: they had fears, they had strength and resolve, they felt jealousy, they had self-doubt, they had courage, they engaged in acts of stupidity, they loved (or not). clearly, these women were not perfect. they were flawed. but, hosseini successfully created complex women whom you want to embrace and nurse their wounds, and at the same time, scream at them because of their seeming inability to escape from their oppressive lives.

the book is definitely not a happy read. but, just like the kite runner, i felt that i learned a little bit about afghanistan and was able to enjoy (in a depressing way) a story about finding a little bit of happiness amidst a world full of tragedy, sadness and repression.

random ramblings

on the wildfires

i don't understand arsonists. apparently, it is suspected that at least one of the 16 or so fires burning in southern california was caused by arsonists. what kind of kick could arsonists possibly get?

my thoughts are with friends, family and everyone else living and/or evacuated from the affected areas. i hope the winds die down soon so the fires could be contained and no longer endanger lives of thousands.

perhaps, some good can come out of this disastrous event: better urban planning, better environmental controls, and better prevention of global warming.


on albus dumbledore being gay

jk rowling, author of the harry potter series, announced dumbledore is gay. cool!


on college basketball

aaaaaaw! this is a real good article about kevin love and coach wooden.

Love also is going to ask as many questions as he can to absorb what it means to be at UCLA, how he can hang a 12th national championship banner in Pauley Pavilion and maybe, even if he's in college for only one season, become as effective as some of the great centers who have passed through the school.

this kid is gonna do BIG things for ucla. i can't wait!

as for u$c, this is hilarious! per u$c coach tim floyd:

"We're trying to be comparable nationally to what Duke and Carolina have accomplished 10 miles apart," Floyd said. "We recognize that the other three [Duke, UNC and UCLA] are there. Ten years ago, 12 years ago, I would have never made a comment like this, because you never try to over-promise and under-deliver, but at this point in my career I recognize this is my last job. We want to set the bar high, and we'll never get there unless we set the bar high."

apparently, floyd fancies himself comparable to coach k:

Floyd compared USC's private school education, the lofty price tag to attend and the academic reputation to Duke. He said the wealth of talent in southern California makes the rivalry even more of a possibility.

as much as i dislike duke, at least duke has won national championship banners and made regular appearances to the final four.

floyd takes $c to the sweet sixteen once and he thinks he can win a national championship and/or make regular appearances to the final four!

answers to some of my harry potter questions

jk rowling answered some of my questions about the end of the harry potter series. no, she and i did not have a conversation; as much as i would have wanted to.... i got my answers through the nbc interview of jk rowling and cnn's chat with her. i got some answers. and it makes me happy.

here is the full nbc interview. and here is the full chat with jk rowling on mugglenet.

more harry craziness

if you all think i am harry potter crazy, check this out.

my favorite:


the runner up:

more on harry

i would like to think that jk rowling read my questions about the harry potter characters because she now claims that she will be writing an encyclopedia about what happened to all the characters. yay!

i got caught in the harry potter mania

so i ordered my harry potter and the deathly hallows (book 7) and i had it scheduled to be delivered on july 21, 2007 -- the release date.

at noon on july 21, ups had not delivered it. so i called ups. ups said they delivered it to my post office the day before and that usps would deliver it on july 21 with my regular mail.

at 3 pm on july 21, i received my mail but no harry potter. so i called the post office and asked why i haven't received my harry potter. they said it was because so many people ordered it and their system was: deliver all mail to all households on their route, then deliver all the harry potters.

so what did i do?

i walked around my neighborhood until i found the post woman, showed her my driver's license and asked (without sounding like a stalker) to have my harry potter. luckily, she did not think i was psycho and gave me my harry potter.

i then ran home and read. and read. and it was gooooooooooooooooooooood.

if there is that remote chance that jk rowling reads this blog, here's my message:
thank you for the series!

now here are my questions:

what happened to the dursleys?
what happened to george weasley and the joke shop?
what happened to the death eaters? was there a war crimes tribunal?
what happened to seamus, cho chang, luna, etc.?
what happened to mcgonnagal, sibyl trelawney, filch, etc.?
where did harry and family live - 12 grimmauld, godric's hollow or elsewhere?
what happened to kreacher?

best line of the book (us page 736):
"NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU B!^*H!"