“A Thousand Splendid Suns,” another winner by Khaled Hosseini, is based in his home country of Afghanastan and followed the lives of a few families as it depicts what we in the United States would think of as a more normal life, what happens when Russia invades the country and then, of course, the Taliban takes over. It is amazing to read how any people could survive in such conditions, but then if you read “Surviving the Extremes” by Dr. Kenneth Kamler, you will read about how amazingly adaptable the human body is to extreme conditions. Dr. Kamler was the doctor on the Mt. Everest team when the storm hit that is chronicled in “In Thin Air”. Most of the stories are about the places he has been – climbing, diving and traveling as the “doc” for various extreme expeditions such as into the depths of the Amazon to help observe crocodiles.
I read “Shakespeares Secret” because my daughter liked it so much she wanted me to read it. The story is based around a 6th grade girl that moves to a new town and finds out about Edward de Vere, who is speculated as being the “real” Shakespeare.
“The Color of Water, A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother” by James McBride chronicles the life of James as one of 12 African American/Jewish children growing up in New York. His mother is a white Jewish woman who marries an African American, who then dies, and she meets and marries another African American man. Each chapter is interspered between actual interviews with his mother. As he grows up, it shows the struggles between being African American and having a white mother and the contrast between his world and his mother’s Jewish upbringing. What is totally fascinating about this book, and seeing that this mother practically raised these 12 children on her own and in poverty, is that every one of these children have at least a college degree.