A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

Book Title:- A Thousand Splendid Suns

Author:- Khaled Hosseini

"A Thousand Splendid Suns", to be honest, i was bit reluctant to read this book given by one of my colleague. It was lying in the stack until one day i inserted my bookmark in it.

It was a treat ro read. At two or three stages, I had tears in my eyes. It's a historical + friendship + love + social story all clubbed together. what more can one ask for in one story! Myself being from different religion, I was immersed in a world completely different then my own.

The transition of Mariam from little harmless girl having thousand dreams to uneducated yet so intelligent woman is amazing. At times, I was surprised that how can a male author pen down female expressions so deeply. But they have done it so many times. Laila brought the much needed self respect and rebel in her own way.

It's heart-touching to see the friendship grow. Un-dying love never fails to impress anyone. Tariq's character leaves no stone turned to this. The detailed history of Afghanistan, war and people is also good. The author has very well demonstrated the cultural barriers and its benefits.
For example, although both characters were almost forced to wear the burqa, but both of them felt comfortable within it with each having their own reasons. The small story of a female prisoner who was sentenced to 5 years jail for eloping with the man she loved while the guy freed by saying that the woman lured him! It somewhere depicts the true male dominated society.

I was all smiles through the end. Thank goodness the author uplifted the society and emotions of both women despite the harsh realities. There were suns thousands of them shining splendidly after every rough path of life and of course by the end.

I wonder if I would ever be able to write a story with one fourth of this much detail and creativity ever!


As I have a new habit, here are some of my favourite lines from the book:-

My Favourite Lines from -  A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

How did you like the book? Would you go ahead and read it after my thoughts on it? Write your heart/mind in comments section. I would be glad to read out your end of thinking on the book.

Quotes from - A Thousand Splendid Suns- My Favourite lines

I could not help but re-read the following lines on the journey of - 'A Thousand Splendid Suns".

• One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs, Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls.
• Learn this now and learn it well, my daughter: Like a compass needle that points north, a man's accusing finger always finds a woman. Always. You remember that, Mariam.
• There is only one, only one skill a woman like you and me needs in life, and they don't teach it in school. Look at me... Only one skill, and it's this: tahamul. Endure.
• She remembered Nana saying once that each snowflake was a sigh heaved by an aggrieved woman somewhere in the world. That all the sighs drifted up the sky, gathered into clouds, then broke into tiny pieces that fell silently on the people below.
• As a reminder of how women like us suffer, she'd said. How quietly we endure all that falls upon us.
• A man's heart is a wretched, wretched thing. It isn't like a mother's womb. It won't bleed. It won't stretch to make room for you.
• Give sustenance, Allah.Give sustenance to me.
• But remember my girl, what the koran says, 'Blessed is he in whose hand is the kingdom, and he who has power over all things, who created death and life that he may try you.
• Marriage can wait, education cannot.
• Because a society has no chance of success if its women are uneducated, Laila. No chance
• Love can move people to act in unexpected ways and move them to overcome the most daunting obstacles with startling heroism.
• And the past held only this wisdom: that love was a damaging mistake, and its accomplice, hope, a treacherous illusion.
• But the game involves only male names. Because, if it's a girl, Laila has already named her
• You can not stop you from being who you are.
• People…shouldn't be allowed to have new children if they’d already given away all their love to their old ones. It wasn't fair.
• Of all the hardships a person has to face, none was more punishing than the simple act of waiting.
• That I only have eyes for you.
• Tell your secret to the wind, but don’t blame it for telling the trees.
• The Chinese say it’s better to be deprived of food for three days than tea for one.
• One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs, or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls
• Mariam is in Laila's own heart, where she shines with the bursting radiance of a thousand suns, but the game involves only male names. Because, if it's a girl, Laila has already names her.

This is how I felt after I read the book (click the link)- A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini

Quotes from The Wedding by Nicholas Sparks- My Favourite lines

This is my first of such collection. Now onwards, i would try to note down the lines i like whenever i read a book.

Below are few lines I loved from the book "The Wedding" by Nicholas Sparks

• “What are we, after all, without our memories … without our dreams?”
• “Everything a baby does strikes a parent as the most magical thing he/she has ever seen.” 
• “Love I have realized is more than 3 words mumbled before bedtime. Love is sustained by action, a pattern of devotion in the things we do for each other every day.”
• “Gifts of the heart can't be claimed by anyone except the giver.” 
• “Is it possible, I wonder, for a man to truly change? Or do character and habit form the immovable boundaries of our lives?” 
• “How many people are ever given that chance? To have someone you fall in love with you ever over and over?”
• "Marriage is about compromise; it's about doing something for the other person, even when you don't want to.”
• “There is nothing quite peaceful as holding a sleeping child in the comfort of your arms and wondering how it’s possible to care so deeply.”

        Click the Link to read how I felt after reading "The wedding

The Wedding by Nicholas Sparks

Book Title:- The Wedding

Author:- Nicholas Sparks

Thirty years into the marriage can make any couple to be taken for granted for each other. Forgetting one’s marriage anniversary is no doubt the worst and most dreadful thing any husband can ever do his wife. This fact is well known and stated by all men – ‘ahh, Women..!”. But, the sinking feeling inside one's self when Wilson fears that his beloved wife Jane no longer loves him is the turning point in his life. Jane being the closest witness to undying love of her own parents Noah and Allie, Wilson himself being an inexpressive person by nature – He knows he has a hard time ahead to win her wife heart back. Noah gives him a perfect kick by confessing how he felt when Allie would not recognize him –

“Every time I read to her, it was like I was courting her, because sometimes, just sometimes, she would fall in love with me again, just like she had a long time ago. And that's the most wonderful feeling in the world. How many people are ever given that chance? To have someone you love fall in love with you over and over?”

I truly loved the book and enjoyed it thoroughly. I do not know how, but I somehow predicted almost all the coming events. That did spoiled my experience a bit, but despite of that, I could not help but smile throughout the romantic trip. I could not help but notice the special love and bonding shared by parent and children described so effortlessly throughout the book. Obviously I would also do anything as eternal as Wilson’s Daughter did for him. I could very easily picture my brother in place of his son and the anger over his dad to hurt his mom.

I have some favourite lines from the book which I would like to note in my diary –

                Here is the link to my Favorited lines from “The Wedding”.

Do you remember the most romantic moment from your wedding days? How did you like the book? Would you go ahead and read it after my thoughts on it? Write your heart/mind in comments section. I would be glad to read out your end of thinking on the book.