"The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini

I was thinking about reading this book for a long time. But the problem was to get it. There is no in the library in my village, in the bookstores it’s quite expensive, on the Polish version of BookMooch there is no copies at all. At least I found a lovely person who agreed to mooch it to me from the United Kingdom via BookMooch.

Already the first sentence and the whole first paragraph conquered my mind and heart - „I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975.”. I felt like sitting on my grandpa knees, during the freezing winter evening, nice warm fire in the fireplace and He is telling me the story of his life. And because of that the author got my interest already with the first paragraph :)

This book is about feelings, about what is good and beautiful in us, but also about what is scary and monstrous. We discover a history of a family, but also the history of a country. Country which suffered a lot during last few dozen of years. And will suffer still in the future, as it’s impossible to see a soon end of the conflict in Afghanistan. This book shows us the beauty of this country, tells us about people living in it, about their daily life, habits, celebrations, how they enjoy themselves, how they pray, celebrate, love, how their families function, how the social relations looks like.

But mainly tell us a story of a boy. Boy and his friend. Boy and his father. Boy and his wife. Boy and… I think that during reading this book I never read more than 2 chapters at time. There is too much of feelings in it, it gave too big emotional and psychological load, too many questions raised in my head. But that’s better, it’s not an ordinary chick lit, which you may “swallow” in one or two hours. That’s this kind of book about which you thinks a lot, even when you’re not reading it at the moment. Still everything is “melting” in my head, that’s why it’s still difficult to write the review of it.

Maybe – as some people are telling – Khaled Hosseini is just a great “craftsman”. Maybe this book is just an example of a good technique. Maybe, it’s not me to judge it, I’m not an expert. But this book is a wonderful gift for me, for which I’m very grateful for him. And that’s why my copy of “The Kite Runner” will stay on my shelf. No chances for mooching it. And I already mooched „A Thousand Splendid Suns” – to give myself another such a great gift :)

"Porte De LA Paix Celeste" by Shan Sa

"Porte De LA Paix Celeste" (I think it’s in English “The Gate of Heavenly Peace) is a short novel. That’s full of emotions.

It’s a story of 2 main characters – a revolutionist student, very smart and sensitive girl, trying to find peace in her life after the suicide of her big love and a soldier, settled strongly in order and in the frame of communist China system. She is criminal in the eyes of the government and he is send to catch her and to “make an order with her”. She – with help of some people – is hidden in the village, in the deep province. He is following her as a wolf after the lamb. But in the meantime he is reading her diaries found during the search in her house. She is trying to find peace in herself. He starts to feel emotions which never accompanied him. How it will end? What will happen? Will they meet? I will not tell you that :)

It’s a short story of sudden changes and deep emotions. It’s also showing the cruelty of the system, where individuals are nothing special. But it’s also showing those Individuals who means a lot.

If you want to spend an hour or two on reading – that could be a nice suggestion.

"Berlin Alexanderplatz" by Alfred Doblin

When I decided to read this book I did not have any info about it. I decided just because of the title – “Berlin Alexanderplatz”. Usually, in 99% of cases I check the books before I’m taking my decision about reading them (especially those, which I can’t earlier open and at least look through it). But those, who know me, know that I’m crazy about Berlin, and this square and its’ surroundings is one of my favorite places there. That’s why I decided on spec. First I could not find it anywhere, but one of my internet-bookworm-friends helped me and she borrow it for me :)

And that’s how my adventure with this book started. Honestly, I had a hard time during reading it! The story itself – the story of Frank Biberkopf – is compelling. We’re meeting him in the gate of the Tegel prison, from where (after spending there a few years for the murder) he is right now starting a new chapter of his life. Frank promises himself to live and to work honestly, avoid troubles and old companions. How will he manage? How the whole story will finish? What will the life bring to Frank during Just one year since this moment? I don’t want to tell much about the story line, but I will just mention that he will open and close a few more chapters of his life. Frank will be surrounded by more or less interesting characters, friends and enemies – how it’s usually in life. He will have a great deal of bad luck and quite much luck as well. But, at the end he will find out still that it’s better to live with other people, together, for each other. Then we know better what is good and what is bad. Will it be like that? I don’t know, but I’m willing to believe to Frank. That’s about the plot.

I had a hard time during reading because of the language and the style used in this book. In the foreword we are warned that this author like to “destroy the forms of the novels”. But I did not expect what I’ve got ;) Many times (especially during first 200 pages) I felt as I’m reading 10 different books in one + the newspaper with announcements. The plot is interrupted many times with small fragments, which doesn’t have any logical background and relation with the whole story. For example during one walk of Frank we’re getting to know how different plants are reacting for a cold weather. I need to admit that those fragments dishearten me often.

Berlin is very much settled in the plot of this book. We’re getting to know quite well many streets, squares, districts; we know how they looked like in the twenties of the last century. We get to know as well different information about architecture, transportation, economy, social relations etc. For me those descriptions of Berlin were an “added value”, because I could compare the look of the places which I know :)

To sum up – the story itself it’s interesting, but because of the style used I could not relish those 600 pages of reading.

"Snow Flower and the secret fan" by Lisa See

This book just make me almost cry, but also smile, think about things which are described there, human feelings and so on. A wonderful story, well written by Lisa See.


It’s a story of a life-long friendship between Lily and Snow Flower, two Chinese girls (later women). When the date of binding the feet of small girls is near, by the help of matchmaker , the adults decide that these two girls will be “the same” – friends forever. They write to each other letters full of emotions, wonderful words and using – instead of paper – a fan. They meet each other a few times each year, spend some holidays together. Time is passing, girls are growing, both of them are engaged, later married. They share together the joys, but much more often sorrows of being a young girl, who needs to be obedient to all people around her – parents, brothers, older sisters, later to her husband, parents-in-law, brothers-in-law and so on. They try hard to give birth to sons, it’s a main duty of women and her “guarantee” for the future. Their friendship is developing, growing, even against a bad luck and events around them. But then something happened. Will the friendship survive? Will they stay the most important person in the life of each of them? How our feelings are influencing our decisions? What is more important – heart or mind?


I love the plot so much. But also the poetic style of writing, colorful language used in the book. The beauty showed even in the description of simple actions taken in daily life. The feelings which author insert into this book influenced me during reading for sure. Sometimes it was difficult to stop reading, even if I needed to do something else instead. The characters in the book are so human, full of good and bad features, feelings, doing mistakes. And all those things were for me written so realistically! The girls are so sweet and lovely, but the relation which was created between them as adults was just amazing, so complicated, multileveled, full of emotions.



I strongly recommend reading this book for all people, who love books written with beautiful language. It was very good beginning of my adventure with the books of Lisa See. Now, I’ll look impatiently for her next book :)

Books to be read by Aga

Ok, now I'm trying to create a list, which is not so easy as you know ;) After some time of thinking I hope to reach 8 books in all of those 8 categories above. I already wrote some books in a few categories as I'm sure I would like to read them in this year. Some categories are empty and I'll be very flexible during next months to fill them :) So...

I. Already owned:

1. "Elephants can remember" by Agatha Christie
2. "The clocks" by Agatha Christie
3. "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" by Victor Hugo
4. "Breakfast at Tiffany's" by Truman Capote
5. "Uśmiech Dalidy" by Dominika Cosic
6. "Panther in the Basement" by Amos Oz

II. Around the World:

1. "Snow Flower and the secret fan" by Lisa See (02.08.08) - review here
2. "Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Doblin (13.08.08) - review here
3. "Forbidden City" by William Bell
4. "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini (19.08.08) - review here
5. "Porte De LA Paix Celeste" by Shan Sa (14.08.08) - review here
6. "Dreams Of Trespass: Tales Of A Harem Girlhood" by Fatima Mernissi
7. "The Bookseller of Kabul" by Asne Seierstad

III. Books in Polish:

1. "Tata, one i ja" by Manula Laicka ("Dad, them and me")
2. "Zniewolony umysł" by Czesław Miłosz ("Subdued mind")
3. "Trzepot skrzydeł" by Katarzyna Grochola (22.08.08) - review here
4. "Jadąc do Babadag" by Andrzej Stasiuk

IV. Books in English:

1. "Three Men in a Boat (to say nothing of the dog)" by Jerome K. Jerome (11.08.08) - review here
2. "Bollywood Nights" by Shobhaa De (09.08.08) - review here
3. "Bergdorf Blondes" by Plum Sykes
4. "Notting Hell" by Rachel Johnson
5. "South of the Border, West of the Sun" by Haruki Murakami (22.08.08) - review here
6. "The fifth woman" by Henning Mankel

V. Exchanged books (via http://www.podaj.net/ or http://www.bookmooch.com/):

1. "Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal" by Christopher Moore
2. "Dangerous Liaisons" by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
3. "Winter's Tales" by Karen Blixen
4. "The last promise" by Richard Paul Evans
5. "L'Anneau du pêcheur" by Jean Raspail
6. "Promise Me" by Harlan Coben

VI. 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (my proposals for today only!):

1. "Jacques the Fatalist" by Denis Diderot
2. "The Monk" by M.G. Lewis
3. "The Age of Innocence" by Edith Wharton
4. "Mrs. Dalloway" by Virginia Woolf

VII. Classics:

1. "Crime and punishment" by Fiodor Dostoyevski (31.07.08) - review here
2. "Plague" by Albert Camus

VIII. Popular Reads:

1. "The Nanny Diaries" by Nicola Kraus & Emma McLaughlin (22.08.08) - review here
2. "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" by J.K. Rowling
3. "Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets" by J.K. Rowling

So, now just need to read 64 books and write reviews, easy :D