vthegemini

June was kinda crazy for me and flew by! I managed to finish “The Friday Night Knitting Club” around the middle of the month (it was great! A bit of a tearjerker and the main character wasn’t particularly likeable to me but I did like the book as a whole…) but didn’t start this one until right before the end of the month.

Author’s website says – “A Thousand Splendid Suns is a breathtaking story set against the volatile events of Afghanistan’s last thirty years—from the Soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban to the post-Taliban rebuilding—that puts the violence, fear, hope, and faith of this country in intimate, human terms. It is a tale of two generations of characters brought jarringly together by the tragic sweep of war, where personal lives—the struggle to survive, raise a family, find happiness—are inextricable from the history playing out around them.

Propelled by the same storytelling instinct that made The Kite Runner a beloved classic, A Thousand Splendid Suns is at once a remarkable chronicle of three decades of Afghan history and a deeply moving account of family and friendship. It is a striking, heart-wrenching novel of an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship, and an indestructible love—a stunning accomplishment”

Why this book? – I read “The Kite Runner” about 6 months ago. It was beautifully written, emotional and gripping; I couldn’t put it down. Hosseini is a fabulous writer and I knew this novel would be just as good. I’m tearing through the thing so I guess I was right :)

“The Friday Night Knitting Club” by Kate Jacobs

Back says: “Once a week, an eclectic group of women comes together at a New York City yarn shop to work on their latest projects – and share the stories of their lives…
At the center of Walker and Daughter is the shop’s owner, Georgia, who is overwhelmed with juggling the store and single-handedly raising her teenage daughter. Happy to escape the demands of her life, she looks forward to her Friday Night Knitting Club, where she and her friends – Anita, Peri, Darwin, Lucie, and K.C. – exchange knitting tips, jokes, and their deepest secrets. But when the man who once broke Georgia’s heart suddenly shows up, demanding a role in their daughter’s life, her world is shattered.
Luckily, Georgia’s friends are there for encouragement, sharing their own tales of intimacy, heartbreak, and miracle making. And when the unthinkable happens, these women will discover that what they’ve created isn’t just a knitting club; it’s a sisterhood.”

Why this book? – I wanted to read “Certain Girls” by Jennifer Weiner this month but when I went online to reserve at the library I found my card was expired so I had to stop in for my annual renewal. This caught my eye so I figured why not?

So I finished “After All These Years” last weekend. It was decent, it held my attention, had good plot twists and was another quick read. I didn’t like how everything just fell into place and all worked out for the main character nice and tidy but I suppose that’s how most mystery novels end, just one of the reasons it’s always difficult for me to get into the genre.

Currently working on re-reading “Angels & Demons” by Dan Brown before I catch the movie but I probably won’t count that toward my book a month goal just because I’ve already read it once and want to count only books that are new to me. I knocked down two books in May, if I can keep up that pace I will officially mark this goal as complete in November! This is turning out to be less difficult than I thought :)