The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

This book took me an extremely long time to finish because I did not like the format. Instead of one complex mystery throughout the whole book, it was short stories. This meant I did not have time to really get into the story before Holmes was already explaining what happened. But I did enjoy all the characters and mysteries. I would like to read some other Sherlock Holmes book. My favorite character was Watson, even though he is not as clever as Sherlock. Some people think Watson is dumb, but Holmes can not tolerate being around slow people. Therefore why would he have Watson around if he wasn't in some way helpful. Its not that Watson is slow, it is just in comparison to Sherlock he is not observant making him look confused in most cases. What I find interesting is that Sherlock takes interest in things that some people wouldn't even think is linked to a crime. It probably took years of practice and experience, and some natural born talent, to have the amount of logic Holmes uses. Another thing that is interesting is some of the mysteries that Sherlock Holmes had are used and the crime fighting shows today.

Review to Kite Runner Book Review

I found a book review on Amazon from Publisher's Weekly which I agree with for the most part. They describe the characters like Amir as "sensitive [and] insecure" which is right on the mark. But they say the theme is "how childhood choices can affect our adult lives", I semi-agree with this. Really I think the book is more about how Amir was pressured into his choice. But his choice did follow him into adulthood. The review is also right about the fact that the story is political and also a personal story about forgiveness.

The Kite Runner

I have to be honest I was thinking of dropping this book at the very beginning, only the reassurance that it gets better from others who had read it kept me reading. And now I am so glad I didn't drop the book. It is very depressing at points but I like the fact that it is real. Not a so fake it- never-would-happen-in-real-life ending, but a believable ending that was just happy enough. The book had so many aspects to it, like the political angle, the ideas of forgiveness, when Amir forgives himself for all his bad deeds and also when Hassan forgives him, this is not in the book but it is implied when Amir reads Hassan's letters. Also the idea of peer pressure, or maybe influence is a better word, because Amir never actually called Hassan his friend due to the fact that his ideas were pressured or influenced by the society at that time. I think my favorite part of the book was when Amir and Sohrab were bonding because it was like he was fixing all the awful things that happened so many years ago. I think so how it was not only fear but maybe a little bit of jealousy which caused all the teasing and mistakes Amir made. And I know this sounds cliche but doesn't jealousy get the best of all of us? I feel Amir was right to feel bad about what he let happen to Hassan, but maybe he took it too far. I mean he let it get into his thoughts almost all the time and made himself feel almost unworthy of being happy. I don't think I would have changed anything about the book because everything matched so perfectly if you changed one detail the whole thing would collapse.

The End of Digging to America

The book, as you can probably guess from the title, is about immigration. Two extremely different families, the Yazdans and the Donaldsons, adopt two little baby girls from Korea. The girls names are Jin-Ho and Sooki. Yet the Yazdans change Sooki's name to Susan. They meet at the airport and you can see the difference of the families just from the first page describing the arrival at the airport of the two girls. The Donaldsons are loud, big, and very... American. And the Yazdans are an exotic Iranian family, which had only a few people come to the airport to meet the baby girl. Friendly Mrs. Donaldson says they must come over to their house and have the girls be friends, what with all the things the girls have in common. Eventually the two families bond after many, many awkward dinner parties. But the book isn't just about the girls being adopted from Korea, it is more about the Yazdans struggle to look American and how the Donaldsons try so hard to be accepting of other's cultures. For example, only the Yazdans change Susan's Korean name because maybe they don't want her to experience what they had to. They also dress Susan in jeans and overalls at a young age. They even bought her an American Girl Doll. Yet the Donaldsons buy traditional Korean outfits to dress Jin-Ho in and remind Jin-Ho of maybe going to Korea one day. I find it funny though that despite trying to Americanize and de-Americanize the girls, Susan sings traditional Korean songs, speaks Farsi, and completely ignores her doll. And Jin-Ho loves to wear jeans, begs for an American-Girl doll, and doesn't know why she would ever want to go to Korea. Another story of immigration is inside the book. Susan's grandmother, Maryan Yazdan, constantly says how hard she tried to be modern and American. And complains about being treated so differently despite her efforts. I agree with this, but I don't like the fact that Maryam is always saying things like this. The author was born in Minneapolis and grew up in North Carolina. What does she know about immigrants issues with fitting in? One thing I find interesting is that Maryam discusses her first days in American saying how she tried to push away her Iranian roots. But as she became older, she discusses wishing to have kept some things reminding her of home. Like she realizes the mistake she made trying to fit in. Because here we don't need to all be the same, that's why America is called the salad bowl!

The End of the Glass Castle

The book as I said in my last entry is extremely interesting, but so depressing. All three children leave their parents early to look for a better life in New York City. Yet their parents follow them to New York City, living as homeless. I think the end is a great example of forgiveness. The youngest, Maureen, tries to stab her mother after finally hitting rock bottom, yet her mother does not press charges or is in anyway angry. The children forgive their parents for making their childhoods so hard. Parts of the father's personality come out too. Such as his helpfulness in the scene where Jeannette needs money for college donations and her father gives her some, even while he and his wife are homeless. And you can tell by the end that he is feeling remorse for not supporting their family. There was an interesting scene where the father is sober for many weeks and moves upstate to stay that way. But because of the absence of his wife he comes back to New York City and soon he is drinking again. So the question is whose fault is it that the Walls lived so poorly for so long? I think it is both the father and mother combined. Jeannette's mother did not act like an adult throughout the book. And her father had his drinking problem which wasted so much money. Yet he tried to stop, but the mother did not encourage him to continue to be sober. She is almost afraid of loosing the drunk Rex Walls, because then her life would not be "an adventure" as she says many times in the book.

The Glass Castle

I don't exactly like memoirs and non-fiction books, but I decided to try this because so many people praised it. And I agree with them, I can't put it down! But the strange thing is I can not really pinpoint why I like it so much. If I had to guess it would be because its unbelievable. Sometimes so much that I wonder if the stories are actually true. Maybe this book attracts so many people because the family is so unusual, it reminds me of the shows, Jon and Kate Plus Eight and the 18 Kids and Counting. The families are so different from the norm that we can't help but be interested. Sometimes reading the awful things these kids needed to do made me cringe. I do wonder, because this is a memoir, how do people treat Jeanette Walls's parents? If someone knew them then read the book, what would they tell them? And did the parents read the awful things they did and feel remorse?

The End of Girl with a Pearl Earring

I liked this book so much, I don't even know where to start...from the beginning I liked the main character, Griet, who is the girl who will be in Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring. Not actually of course. As the story progressed I started to dislike Griet's decisions though. I think Griet was losing her good traits, like her innocence and compassion, the longer she lived with the wealthy family. As soon as I read the first few pages, I knew that Vermeer had noticed Griet's artistic ability when she organized her vegetables in a perfect color wheel. This is probably why Griet was hired as the maid in the first place. Also as she stays with the Vermeers she evolves in her artistic abilities and becomes braver. After experiencing all these grand things at the house, she still sacrifices helping Vermeer with his paintings to help her family by marrying the butcher's son. At some points in the book it was really depressing, like when her sister dies and her brother runs away. Overall, I would recommend this book because it is a book you can't put down.