Rated 4.3/5 from Goodreads, A Thousand Splendid Suns is the second novel by Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini, following the best-seller 2003 debut The Kite Runner. If you've already read The Kite Runner, this book will definitely rip your heart into pieces if not already. 

Set in Afghanistan between 1960's to early 2000, it tells the story of Mariam, a young girl born out of wedlock to a rich businessman father, Jalil, and lives with her mother Nana. As far as cliche goes, the story is well fat with it - the suffering of a fatherless child, the mother finally having had enough and took her own life, an unfortunate marriage to an abusive husband, miscarriages and so many unfortunate events in the life of the little girl from her childhood to her death. 

But, in contrast, while The Kite Runner tells the story of friendship and bond between men, A Thousand Splendid Suns tells the story of a bond between mother and daughter, and of friendship between women. The storyline is also something contrasting to The Kite Runner, where the story is rather linear and gains momentum as events after event unfurls. 

One notable theme of the novel is addressing women oppression in traditional Afghanistan - depicted clearly after Mariam, in her early teens, was married to Rasheed, an old shoemaker, against her will. Rasheed forces Mariam to wear a burqa, to not speak to any men and were to stay in her room when there are male visitors in the house. After she failed to give birth to a son, instead bearing a daughter after a few miscarriages, Mariam was treated even worse, subjected to mean scorn, ridicule and insults especially to her cooking by Rasheed. 

Reading the book, to me, felt like taking a glimpse of what life in Afghanistan must be like back then, between the time of peace and the rise of Talibans, where the social status of women were deemed of very little importance compared to men - denying the right for women to pursue education or work, even hospitals turning down female patients in labor because men and women are supposed to be seen at different hospitals, as well as the Titanic fever following the movie that was played in cinemas and in videotapes back then. It is in the perspective of Mariam that these stories were told, and what made this novel a stirring read, almost impossible to resist (Entertainment Weekly).

Though I'm proud to say that I like to read, that given the choice to be paid to read I would probably become a millionaire very very quickly, I'd like to clarify that I don't remember too much of what I read. More than "not being able to remember", I'd say I "don't want to remember because I tend to live inside the novel and get caught in my vivid imagination". Sounds crazy, I know, but trust me, I have been know to drive myself crazy. 

The Yellow Birds is such a book that would drive me insane. Written by Kevin Powers, a veteran of war himself who enlisted with the army and joined the Iraq war serving as a machine gunner, The Yellow Birds was something like a memorabilia of his experience of war. Set in the northern city of Al Tafar in the eyes of Private John Bartle, the book tells a story of a brotherhood of men in the army, of a broken promise and of betrayal. 

21-years-old Private Bartle together with 18-years-old Private Daniel Murphy enlisted into the army and was placed under the command of Sergeant Sterling - a decorated war veteran. The sergeant, worn and battle-scarred, would punch them in the face one moment and clap them in the back the next, as they together with the rest of their platoon endured basic training. 

Before their deployment, Private Bartle made a promise to the mother of Private Murphy that he would take care of his son. It was revealed that the promise would be broken in the early chapters of the book, and it was Sergeant Sterling who stressed that such promises should never have been made in the first place. 

The book was non-lineally structured - jumping between the years of which Private Bartle and Private Murphy fought in the war to when Private Bartle returned home, without private Murphy with him thus breaking the promise he made, to the brief time they had spent in Germany for their post-battle health evaluation, and finally when Private Bartle was arrested by the Criminal Investigation Division for the crime he and Sergeant Sterling committed regarding the death of Private Murphy. 

The climax of the book, in my opinion is when Private Bartle returned home to his mother. and began reflecting on the things he did back in Iraq. He felt like he did not fit into the society - whom was very grateful for his service but to him he was wrong for returning home unharmed while some of his army-men never had the chance to return at all. As he drank and slept his days away, counting the second when the CID would finally catch him, he reflected on the promise that he made to Private Murphy's mother, how he should've seen how Privatee Murphy began to lose himself to the war, and how he felt responsible for not setting Private Murphy straight. 

This is my first book with army and war theme in background, but more than that the inner-thoughts that made up for chase scene made up of words and phrases, like music that crescendos into fast paced allegro vivace to a melancholy adagio, it carries me to a different world - an slight and if only made-up understanding of the state of a soldier returning from war. I find myself worrying about our own men coming back home from war, and I hope they don't go through what Kevin Powers describe it to be in this book.