A Thousand Splendid Suns- by Khaled Hosseini

This is the second book that I've finished reading so far this summer and was written in one of my favorite genres- historical fiction. I love reading a gripping story while absorbing the history and culture of a far away place- in this case Afghanistan. If you read the author's previous book, The Kite Runner, you already have a glimpse of what life was like in pre-Soviet Afghanistan. In his new novel, Khaled Hosseini returns us to Kabul (this time in the mid 1960's) and brings us to the present- as we follow two women's lives through Soviet rule, the Taliban, and finally the beginnings of rebuilding Afghanistan.

If you are looking for chick lit, this is probably not the book for you. If however you want to immerse yourself in another culture with an engrossing, epic novel- read A Thousand Splendid Suns, but keep the Kleenex handy.