The Kite Runner

Title: The Kite Runner
Author: Khaled Hosseini
Recommended by: Francine Ndaribamare, Aaron Kite, and my mother.

Well, a bunch of people have recommended this book to me, but I've been pretty hesitant to pick it up. It's about Afghanistan, and my last experience with Afghanistan was Rambo 3, and that movie was really boring for the first like 40 minutes. (sidenote: I hear that Rambo 3 picks up at the end, and he blows up a horizon, or something like that) Anyway, I finally decided to give this book a go.

The story is about the life of a boy who grew up in Afghanistan, and then flees the country with his father after the political structure of the country starts to fail. Also, the story involves the boy's best friend, who is his family's servant, and the events that bring them apart. The story also has some pretty dark spots.

I really liked all of the characters in this book, I thought they all had very strong presences in the story. The main thing I didn't like was that the main character never really seems to change. In the story of him growing up, and into his adult life, he pretty much always acts the same way. And I guess it's a type of character development to have the character always fall into the same traps, but I enjoy a more dynamic development, involving epiphany and change. I also really enjoyed the ending of this story, I thought it was very strong, building up from the whole story, without the need for any shock value.

Recommendation: 7/10, If it's between reading this book, or watching Rambo 2, I'd watch Rambo 2. Because Rambo blows up a waterfall in it.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

Title:The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
Author: Mark Haddon
Recommended by: none, a table?

When I went into the bookstore to get I am Legend, there was a table with books on it, a common sight in a book store. And there were a lot of books I'd read and liked, and since they were all on the same table, I saw this book, and then rented it from the library the next day. (Yeah, I pretty much only use bookstores as convenient browsing sites for books.)

The story is about a mildly autistic kid, who's trying to figure out who killed a dog in his neighborhood. But the book isn't really about that at all, the kid himself is writing the book, and it's really cool to see into his mind and how he thinks about things. The kid is also good at math, and there are some fun math bits thrown into the book. Also, it all takes place in England, so that makes it a little more exciting, somehow. Also, the kid likes outer space and machines and math, so I guess I'm a little biased on the topics.

Note to clarify: This book is fiction, the author is not autistic, but he does work with autistic kids.

Recommendation: 8/10, it's a quick read, and has some well done character development.