LN

"Seventeen year old Veronica "Ronnie" Miller's life was turned upside-down when her parents divorced and her father moved from New York City to Wilmington, North Carolina. Three years later, she remains angry and alienated from her parents, especially her father...until her mother decides it would be in everyone's best interest if she spent the summer in Wilmington with him. Ronnie's father, a former concert pianist and teacher, is living a quiet life in the beach town, immersed in creating a work of art that will become the centerpiece of a local church.The tale that unfolds is an unforgettable story of love on many levels - first love, love between parents and children - that demonstrates, as only a Nicholas Sparks novel can, the many ways that love can break our hearts...and heal them.~Book Browse []

This book is one of my favorite books is because it hits very close to home in some aspects for me. Growing up as a kid I have lived my whole life with a sick father. So when I read the story and Ronnie stayed and helped her father it meant so much to me. Of course the parts with Will are good too, but the real reason that this book is one of my favorites is because of the character of her father. He is so brave in the face of dealth and finds ways to still worry about his kids even when he should be worrying about himself. While I hope that i never have to go through that with my father, it was almost inspiring to watch how she stepped up and took care of him until his dying days. "In 1966 Ji–li Jiang turned twelve. An outstanding student and leader, she had everything: brains, the admiration of her peers, and a bright future in China's Communist Party. But that year China's leader, Mao Ze–dong, launched the Cultural Revolution, and everything changed. Over the next few years Ji–li and her family were humiliated and scorned by former friends, neighbors, and co–workers. They lived in constant terror of arrest. Finally, with the detention of her father, Ji–li faced the most difficult choice of her life." - Book Review from GoodReads.com []

This is one of my important books because the first time I read it the hardships that Ji-li faced really touched me. She is a great example of battling through what's the right thing to do and what is the accepted thing to do. She shows me what the human spirit is and how to overcome the struggles that are forced upon you. I really like this book because it goes along with the time period. Her life reflects what is happening in the world around her at that period of time. It's a good way to understand history better and it gives you personal insight on what it was like to live during that time.

=Abby/Libby: I am enjoying this book so much, my heart is breaking for Ji-Li. I admire her courage. Mrs. J 10/08 = "Propelled by the same superb instinct for storytelling that made //The Kite Runner// a beloved classic, //A Thousand Splendid Suns// is at once an incredible chronicle of thirty years of Afghan history and a deeply moving story of family, friendship, faith, and the salvation to be found in love.

Born a generation apart and with very different ideas about love and family, Mariam and Laila are two women brought jarringly together by war, by loss and by fate. As they endure the ever escalating dangers around them - in their home as well as in the streets of Kabul - they come to form a bond that makes them both sisters and mother-daughter to each other, and that will ultimately alter the course not just of their own lives but of the next generation. With heart-wrenching power and suspense, Hosseini shows how a woman's love for her family can move her to shocking and heroic acts of self-sacrifice, and that in the end it is love, or even the memory of love, that is often the key to survival."~Book Browse []

This book is one of, if not my all time, favorite book. I love the fact that the story takes place in a culture that is so different from ours because you can really see how different their lives are from ours. The struggles that the two girls face are in the story are so inspiring because they always find a way to continue on living their lives even when everything around them is falling to peices. We could never imagine having to deal with the things that they go through and to me that was the best part of the story. The fact that the two girls supported each other literally until their dying day was something that was so moving to me. I also love how you can clearly tell through the events of the story what is going on in the country, whether it was a war, or the Taliban take- over, the context of the story made it all very clear. = checked by Mrs. J 9/28/12 45/45 points =