A Thousand's Splendid Sun
by Khaled Hosseini
My eyes are still red and puffed, my head is starting to throb but my mind and fingers are itching to write something. I started reading this book last Friday night after arguing with my husband who let me had the chance to get a hold of this one in the first place. I chose to read this first over another which I had no idea what it was exactly about as to a synopsis or something of that sort. For this book, hubby was able to, at least, tell me more like a sentence or a brief description about it. It wasn't just "it was top ten recommended books to read" or something to that effect. In order to for someone to start something to read, there should be at least a background or something of a pre-reading part before the actual reading. You just don't go bungee jumping without knowing what's below you. Err..is that too much of a comparison,now? It was well late into the night and I seriously don't have any plans of turning on my laptop to check for the background of the story online.
That left me starting to read Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand's Splendid Sun. The setting started in an all-too-innocent backdrop of a place in a country far from civilization. Meaning, no electricity, a couple of farm pets in the scene, -- a very simple living. There was a girl. And an eccentric mother. A little girl of fifteen years of age, and strange words that signals the reader that this wasn't an average English written novel. It continues on with these local words, giving it some spice. It isn't straightforward English and sometimes, you'd get lost in some terms. Nonetheless, looking at the other side of the coin, it gives the reader a glimpse of the language and culture of where the story begins. From the innocent setting that it has started, the story unfurls into almost excruciatingly painful changes that takes place in the young life of the protagonist. As the story moves to the city of Khabul, I wonder what kept me reading it. If somebody has told me that most of the story takes place in Afghanistan, I am not sure if I would have the interest of finishing at all. I am not going to attempt to retell the storyline or much less give out spoilers, pray forgive me. Perhaps in another entry I might, or might not, after all.
This will only be my reaction. I cannot share this with my DH coz he hadn't finish it yet and I might give out some spoilers.
Reading the book made me thankful, again, that I was a girl born in a country where I have rights. I am not really one patriotic citizen, with all the shams going on in my country but for being born and brought up where women have more right, is more than a good fortune. It is a privelege. I don't think I can live in a culture where women are thought less of any more than a possible wife, mother or househelp. Don't get me wrong, all of those roles are beyond repproach but THAT isn't all. The author dedicated the book to two names and the women of Afghanistan. Women. Yes, women. Not to the scantily-clad women of tabloids, of TV's and movies but my guess would be to the burqa-clad women who have no choice but to live in their husbands shadows, along with the violence that women around the world endures. This I must reiterate. I am open to the fact that it much of the culture that some women in certain countries live that way. It is their culture. Yes, but if the women should have a choice if they wish to follow their culture or another. I perfectly understand women who have a great respect to their own culture and I DO ADMIRE them for that. I can only be be grateful that they have a heart like for I myself may not have any for such. Go ing back to the story, it tells of a tale of two young girls who later on grows up in front of the reader's eye's into women, made sterner through all of the wars, bloodshed and the simple ramifications of living a life in Khabul, under the different political disturbances for a period of a decade or two. Or is it even three? I can only sigh. This is indeed a good read, not for the faint-hearted but for anybody who has a heart, a man or woman for that matter.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
P turns Five!
Yesterday has been a great day! It was a bit busy for me but it turned out fine.
After three years of planning, I was finally able to bake my son his birthday cake. A first for me, I'm afraid. We've always bought cake from stores before and just come to think of it, he has always had a cake on his birthday. Small maybe but still a cake.
I started around 10 AM after my morning routine. I made two batch coz the portions were not that enough. After two hours, a total of 6 C of flour, 2 C of mayo, 3 C of sugar, 12 T of cocoa and a number of sifting, the mixture did get into the oven and out to start cooling while we had our lunch. Having it cooled a bit, I went back to it to make the fudge and finish up the irregular turn out of the cake. Ha! It sure was time consuming for a first timer like me. I still had to run to the market to get some peppers for the spaghetti. It was about 4 when the grandparents arrived with their gift. ;)
Since not everything is still settled, we all went out for some playtime for the birthday boy and while I run for additional candles and peppers and other stuff needed. SOS from my bro who took care of the finishing touches for the cake which was wanting some colors save for the brown chocolate fudge covering it.
Things to properly note down on DIY cake: NIPS, or MnMs, mallows, sprinklers (which I have to go to a special party store and not just at the only mart in town!), small stick'o, pretzels, hmm...it should look better next time. ;)
Some more notes on the things I learned:
a. I may someday consider using the confectionaire's sugar on the frosting or even fudge. I did buy it and it's rotting in my cupboard. The very conscientous of sugar for the teeth really gets in the way of my baking. Tsk, tsk. I keep on thinking of the very fine confectsugars that is just perfect to melt in our mouth and at the same time melt our teeth! There should be a balance somewhere.
b. Take care of the candles way in advance. This is a second for me coz I do remember one of my friends who had the same problem last time. I almost had the same, except that mine was easier solved. I didn't have to look for a very special candle. A stick was enough except that I needed one more. My reuse-reduce-and-recycle-thing kicked in and what I did was just add one more from the last set that we had last year. Ah! I did buy two this time for next year. Hmm..kidded the clerk about it but I was actually dead serious. LOL..
And now, off to make our thak you cards for our guests yesterday. My son sure had a great birthday thanks to them.
After three years of planning, I was finally able to bake my son his birthday cake. A first for me, I'm afraid. We've always bought cake from stores before and just come to think of it, he has always had a cake on his birthday. Small maybe but still a cake.
I started around 10 AM after my morning routine. I made two batch coz the portions were not that enough. After two hours, a total of 6 C of flour, 2 C of mayo, 3 C of sugar, 12 T of cocoa and a number of sifting, the mixture did get into the oven and out to start cooling while we had our lunch. Having it cooled a bit, I went back to it to make the fudge and finish up the irregular turn out of the cake. Ha! It sure was time consuming for a first timer like me. I still had to run to the market to get some peppers for the spaghetti. It was about 4 when the grandparents arrived with their gift. ;)
Since not everything is still settled, we all went out for some playtime for the birthday boy and while I run for additional candles and peppers and other stuff needed. SOS from my bro who took care of the finishing touches for the cake which was wanting some colors save for the brown chocolate fudge covering it.
Things to properly note down on DIY cake: NIPS, or MnMs, mallows, sprinklers (which I have to go to a special party store and not just at the only mart in town!), small stick'o, pretzels, hmm...it should look better next time. ;)
Some more notes on the things I learned:
a. I may someday consider using the confectionaire's sugar on the frosting or even fudge. I did buy it and it's rotting in my cupboard. The very conscientous of sugar for the teeth really gets in the way of my baking. Tsk, tsk. I keep on thinking of the very fine confectsugars that is just perfect to melt in our mouth and at the same time melt our teeth! There should be a balance somewhere.
b. Take care of the candles way in advance. This is a second for me coz I do remember one of my friends who had the same problem last time. I almost had the same, except that mine was easier solved. I didn't have to look for a very special candle. A stick was enough except that I needed one more. My reuse-reduce-and-recycle-thing kicked in and what I did was just add one more from the last set that we had last year. Ah! I did buy two this time for next year. Hmm..kidded the clerk about it but I was actually dead serious. LOL..
And now, off to make our thak you cards for our guests yesterday. My son sure had a great birthday thanks to them.
August 20th, 2009
Things that make me happy in the morning...
Waking up to see my boys sleeping beside me,
catching the rays of the early sun reflected onto the wall from the floor that catches the sun from the window,
(it only happens sometime around seven or so),
having the moment of being alone before the numerous tasks that have to be done gets rolling in,
and seeing the torrents speed hitting 40's up to 50's kbps. With our net service provider usually hovering around less than 10 kbps, this is something. Now, isn't that fast and enough to make you happy?
Waking up to see my boys sleeping beside me,
catching the rays of the early sun reflected onto the wall from the floor that catches the sun from the window,
(it only happens sometime around seven or so),
having the moment of being alone before the numerous tasks that have to be done gets rolling in,
and seeing the torrents speed hitting 40's up to 50's kbps. With our net service provider usually hovering around less than 10 kbps, this is something. Now, isn't that fast and enough to make you happy?
Monday, August 3, 2009
Three Men and a Maid
Upon searching for an audio book to download for my aunt to listen to, I checked out this book. It's pretty short, light read and funny. I might have seen this plot on movies/tv a lot of times before but it sure is a good try to listen to an audiobook for a change.
From librivox.org, I started to listen to it. It actually made me laugh out loud at times. Good thing I am listening while doing chores at home and not in somewhere in public. It is not really hilariously funny but it does have the occasional humor to it. I loaded it up in my mobile player yesterday and hopefully finish it up on the 4th or 5th of this month. Then I can move on to another book. ;)
From librivox.org, I started to listen to it. It actually made me laugh out loud at times. Good thing I am listening while doing chores at home and not in somewhere in public. It is not really hilariously funny but it does have the occasional humor to it. I loaded it up in my mobile player yesterday and hopefully finish it up on the 4th or 5th of this month. Then I can move on to another book. ;)
Blog Face-off
This is the first entry. A big trial. Another attempt to write something. Anything. As long as we're writing. For only 15 minutes, we have to write something.
This exercise has been brought up before, without the timer thing, but never made it to a second or even an decent one entry. We talked about doing a writing exercise every week before but it NEVER materialize. It seems that if we put it in the schedule for another time, the "another time" never comes. This time, we did it the "Flylady way". And what's the flylady way that I learned? It is setting your mind on to something, being able to do it in fifteen minutes and doing it NOW. That sure sounds quite easy, but for people who can't really concentrate and tend to over concentrate ;), that is almost an impossible task.
So for now, I will just have to leave it to my fingers to keep moving until the bell rings. It reminds me of writing exercises at school which I never really appreciated. I mean, I never saw the importance of using the remaing time for the class to sweat on something to write about. Somehow, there was no consistency on the writing exercises, and I never saw the connection.
Fast forward to more than ten years since high school, I find myself having to retrace my steps on learning to write. I'm not talking of the basic pen-holding things, and grammar of course. This is creative writing. Well...at least an attempt on it. It might be a good exercise for the brain, if not necessarily physically for my fingers for my typing skills. An exercise nonetheless which I hope I can continue on doing as I try to keep a decent flow of entry in my blog.
Looking back to my previous blog entries, I've pretty much kept a regular entry every month since I got my own laptop this year. I'ts quite liberating to be able to write something when you feel like writing. The only problem is finding the time now.
Time's up!
This exercise has been brought up before, without the timer thing, but never made it to a second or even an decent one entry. We talked about doing a writing exercise every week before but it NEVER materialize. It seems that if we put it in the schedule for another time, the "another time" never comes. This time, we did it the "Flylady way". And what's the flylady way that I learned? It is setting your mind on to something, being able to do it in fifteen minutes and doing it NOW. That sure sounds quite easy, but for people who can't really concentrate and tend to over concentrate ;), that is almost an impossible task.
So for now, I will just have to leave it to my fingers to keep moving until the bell rings. It reminds me of writing exercises at school which I never really appreciated. I mean, I never saw the importance of using the remaing time for the class to sweat on something to write about. Somehow, there was no consistency on the writing exercises, and I never saw the connection.
Fast forward to more than ten years since high school, I find myself having to retrace my steps on learning to write. I'm not talking of the basic pen-holding things, and grammar of course. This is creative writing. Well...at least an attempt on it. It might be a good exercise for the brain, if not necessarily physically for my fingers for my typing skills. An exercise nonetheless which I hope I can continue on doing as I try to keep a decent flow of entry in my blog.
Looking back to my previous blog entries, I've pretty much kept a regular entry every month since I got my own laptop this year. I'ts quite liberating to be able to write something when you feel like writing. The only problem is finding the time now.
Time's up!
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Secret Adversary, by Agatha Christie - A book report of sort
might have started a new one to read without writing anything about this. Nevertheless, for the sake of writing exercise, and future reference on what this story is all about, I am writing it now.
This book, it seems to the the first book of Tuppence and Tommy. The first, or probably the only one I've read of Christie's books featuring this duo, was "What Mrs. Mc Gullicudy Saw" or Flatform 9:13 or something like that. It was quite a light read compared to the books featuring Hercule Poirot. It must have been not very easy to write a male protagonist. I believe it's pretty complicated compared to writing about a woman protagonist.
Back to Tuppence and Tommy, this book introduces the reader to the two childhood friends who ended up meeting each other in their lives. At one point during the war where Tuppence was working in a hospital as an all-around attendant (from dishwashing to attending to the patients) and Tommy as one of the soldiers/patients injured in the war. After their VAD stints, they met again while both looking for opportonity to earn something. It is in this situation that they teamed up to take up anything. After laying out their plan on advertising themselves in the papers, Tuppence stumbled onto a very interesting case of a catchy name.
Jane Finn. What's in name?
Seriously, it didn't strike me as anything special. It's just a name and there are other countless strange names across the globe. Well perhaps not during that time of writing. I mean, the war has just ended and all that.
So going back to the story, I really won't be going into the nitty gritty of it all. I would just like to take into notice how the characters were painted. There were other big characters which at one point was in my list of suspects. Sure there were a lot of other characters involved but with the build up of an apparent mastermind behind all of the complications in the story, a mysterious Mr. Brown is always the culprit. Upon realizing that this Mr. Brown is most likely one of the active characters in the story, living in another name, I was out for a possible name. As I read, I developed a hunch that it was Suspect no.1. Almost all throughout the book, my money was on him. The thing was I wasn't really that sure as I later found out because I did a doulbe take around the end when the Suspect No. 2 was pointed out as the One. But of course, all the deductions and various offhand suggestions that was built up against Suspect No. 1, indeed added up and in the end, it turned out that he indeed the one posing as Mr. Brown. Now what points led me to form that hunch? Hmm..the way the character was build up. It was so attractive, I'm not referring to the aesthetic here. Although there was another character described as interestingly but it died somewhere in the story. That brought me back to No. 1. I really admire how his character was build up. There was the instance on the mysterious poison administered, inside knowledge of things that the protagonist will be doing and such and such. It seemed that the protagonist are always one step late of what the anagonist has done. This case simply led the reader to believe that the culprit is among the people trying to help the protagonist as they solve the case. SOmething like an inside knowldge of the pursuants. Ah! This was one entertaining read for me.
I can finally move to another book and see for myself how another story plot thickens, how the characters are built and how well can I make guesses.
Now, what will be my next one? Perhaps a Ms. Marple book. I don't think I'm ready for Poirot again.
This book, it seems to the the first book of Tuppence and Tommy. The first, or probably the only one I've read of Christie's books featuring this duo, was "What Mrs. Mc Gullicudy Saw" or Flatform 9:13 or something like that. It was quite a light read compared to the books featuring Hercule Poirot. It must have been not very easy to write a male protagonist. I believe it's pretty complicated compared to writing about a woman protagonist.
Back to Tuppence and Tommy, this book introduces the reader to the two childhood friends who ended up meeting each other in their lives. At one point during the war where Tuppence was working in a hospital as an all-around attendant (from dishwashing to attending to the patients) and Tommy as one of the soldiers/patients injured in the war. After their VAD stints, they met again while both looking for opportonity to earn something. It is in this situation that they teamed up to take up anything. After laying out their plan on advertising themselves in the papers, Tuppence stumbled onto a very interesting case of a catchy name.
Jane Finn. What's in name?
Seriously, it didn't strike me as anything special. It's just a name and there are other countless strange names across the globe. Well perhaps not during that time of writing. I mean, the war has just ended and all that.
So going back to the story, I really won't be going into the nitty gritty of it all. I would just like to take into notice how the characters were painted. There were other big characters which at one point was in my list of suspects. Sure there were a lot of other characters involved but with the build up of an apparent mastermind behind all of the complications in the story, a mysterious Mr. Brown is always the culprit. Upon realizing that this Mr. Brown is most likely one of the active characters in the story, living in another name, I was out for a possible name. As I read, I developed a hunch that it was Suspect no.1. Almost all throughout the book, my money was on him. The thing was I wasn't really that sure as I later found out because I did a doulbe take around the end when the Suspect No. 2 was pointed out as the One. But of course, all the deductions and various offhand suggestions that was built up against Suspect No. 1, indeed added up and in the end, it turned out that he indeed the one posing as Mr. Brown. Now what points led me to form that hunch? Hmm..the way the character was build up. It was so attractive, I'm not referring to the aesthetic here. Although there was another character described as interestingly but it died somewhere in the story. That brought me back to No. 1. I really admire how his character was build up. There was the instance on the mysterious poison administered, inside knowledge of things that the protagonist will be doing and such and such. It seemed that the protagonist are always one step late of what the anagonist has done. This case simply led the reader to believe that the culprit is among the people trying to help the protagonist as they solve the case. SOmething like an inside knowldge of the pursuants. Ah! This was one entertaining read for me.
I can finally move to another book and see for myself how another story plot thickens, how the characters are built and how well can I make guesses.
Now, what will be my next one? Perhaps a Ms. Marple book. I don't think I'm ready for Poirot again.
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