"A Man Called Uwe" ~ Fredrick Backman

I am really sorry I didn't read this book earlier. It makes you smile, laugh and cry, and that is something which rarely happens to me with a book. It makes you feel as if you already know some of the characters in real life, so natural everything feels. The only reason I took one star is that at some point the book looks like one of those Sunday afternoon movies you watch just to kill the time. One of those unpretentious comedies about a grumpy old man who actually turns to be not so bad and thanks to the always happy and good-nature friends/ neighbours he has, we manage to see his soft side. Well, probably just life makes us sometimes a little more bitter,stubborn and angry (paraphrasing Mr. Backman).

"A Thousand Splendid Suns" ~ Khaled Hosseini

Picture: Goodreads

An advice: Just enjoy this book and try to get everything you can from it. "One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs, Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls." This is a book that I avoided for a long time. It's just that I am really prejudiced toward over-praised books. But this one really got me. This is a book that makes you feel like a part of the story. It makes you become part of the characters' emotions and experiences. It's almost as if you have a second life which you see through their eyes, through their thoughts and feelings. I was really surprised that in the course of reading this book, I not only got to know some of the country's story but also to find real human morals. For example the two girls (Mariam and Laila) who despite their mothers' warnings and desires do what they think right to do, although they end up hurting them. But still their mothers also do some illogical things in order to please or be accepted by men. All over the world there are many women whose thoughts, decisions, acts are influenced by men in their lives. [I would really like to give you some examples here but I don't to spoil everything for you in this labyrinth of human interactions and their (un)willing consequences]. *Narrative Spoilers* After the middle the story takes a sharp emotional turn. The two main heroins have to face great atrocities. like when Mariam and Laila are being betrayed while escaping and a little later Laila is forced to leave Aziza in an orphanage because of the constant hunger), as well as inhuman hardships, mostly from men like Rashid who locks Laila and the baby in a room for two days without food and water, while beating Mariam after trying to run away. These particular scenes are truly heart-breaking and affecting. I caught myself breathing heavily, being angry that I could not do anything to help them, to make their situation just a little better. But that is Hosseini's real talent! And I believe you will find it in every other of his books and will be surprised by the emotions he will get out of you.