The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

I did enjoy this book, and the main reason is because of the unique perspective it gave on life in Afghanistan. Through the voice of a young boy (who grows to be a middle-aged man in the book), it describes how the Afghanistan went from a wonderful, peaceful place to live to a war torn country, eventually taken over by the Taliban.

At times, I felt the writing was a bit predictable and inconsistent (some of the events/outcomes were a little too obvious). But overall, it is worth the read. It has good character development - readers feel connected to the narrator, Amir. It often even stirs up strong feelings toward him. Do you love him or hate him? And the historical take-away from it was certainly worth it. I like it when I finish a book and feel like I learned something new, which I did from reading this.

I give this book 2 1/2 bookmarks. (but for me, 4 bookmarks is pretty much the best book ever! so 2 1/2 is pretty good, but not my favorite or necessarily life-changing)