Thursday, September 6, 2007

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

- posted on behalf of Kim Scarboro

Outstanding book. The Kite Runner captured my attention from the start and held it to the last page. Hosseini did an outstanding job of bringing his story and characters to life. Much of the book is set in Afghanistan and focuses on two young boys - Amir and Hassan - who grow up together, but are worlds apart because of their social status. The book explores the complexity of friendships and relationships, shows both a beautiful and tragic glimpse into the Afghanistan culture/circumstances, and tells a touching story of family, friendship, betrayal and the price of loyalty. This story will touch you deeply and make you take a good look at who you are and who you want to be. "The Kite Runner" movie will be in theaters Nov. 2.

Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynn Truss

-posted on behalf of Kim Scarboro

As Truss says in the very beginning of Eats, Shoots & Leaves: you will either get this book or you won't. This is a book about commas, semicolons and the importance of using basic punctuation correctly, creatively and effectively. Truss throws in humor, history tid bits about punctuation and, of course, some rules on using punctuation. You may think a book on grammar would be extremely boring - as I was afraid it might be when I first opened the book - but Truss pulled off an interesting read for punctuation sticklers and, in my case, people who need a reminder about such things as when to use a semicolon instead of a comma.