Vacation Books (continued)

I read six and half books while on vacation.

That’s a lot of books for me.

I generally read about a dozen books a year.

They are listed on the right column of this blog but I thought I’d highlight two of them that I really liked.

The first is The Kite Runner.  The Gotham Gal turned me and Jessica on to this book.  Jessica read it first and loved it.  It’s about two boys growing up in Afghanistan prior to the Russians invaded in the 80s.  This is an amazing story with plenty of heartache, typical of what the Afghanis have gone through in the past 30 years.  But I couldn’t put it down.  That’s the kind of book I love.  I also learned a lot about Afghanistan in the process of reading this book.

The second book is The Power of One.  This also happens to be a story of a boy growing up in a country torn by war and ethnic hatred.  This time its South Africa pre-apartheid.  This story is a little less believable, more fantasy.  But it taught me a lot about South Africa; the country, its people, its culture, and its tensions and hatred.

If you like novels based loosely on history and have an interest in learning a bit about South Africa and/or Afghanistan, I highly recommend both books.