Top 3 Novels from my research:
The Kite Runner (published in 2003):
It is a book
written by Khaled Hosseini, the same author as A Thousand Splendid Suns. The Kite Runner is a story about the friendship
between two boys, Amir and Hassan in the city of Kabul at Afghanistan. The city
of Kabul appeared both in The
Kite Runner and also A Thousand Splendid Suns.
Furthermore, The Kite Runner covered from 1970s to 2000s a similar time
range as A Thousand Splendid
Suns. The main themes of The
Kite Runner are the
persistence of the past and endurance of guilt, which on the other hand, the
main theme of A Thousand
Splendid Suns is endurance.
Due to the reason that both books are written by the same author; therefore,
they also share a very similar writing style.
Mornings in Jenin (published in 2010):
The author
of the book is Susan Abulhawa, a Palestinian-American writer. The book is a Palestinian story about four generations of a single family, Abulhejas. The book is
described on goodreads in comparison to The
Kite Runner, "A heart-wrenching,
powerfully written novel that could do for Palestine what The Kite
Runner did for Afghanistan." In addition, the main
themes of this book are endurance and love.
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (published in
2006):
The story took place in Hunan county
at China in 19th century. The story is about the friendship between Lily and a
girl named Snow Flower, and how they reached out of isolation to share their
loneliness, dreams, hopes, and accomplishment. The main theme of this book is
endurance.
Methods:
I found Mornings in Jenin and Snow
Flower and the Secret Fan by using
Google search engine by typing Books like A
Thousand Splendid Suns into the box,
which the first link to goodreads appeared. As for The Kite Runner, I researched the books Khaled Hosseini had written
before, and The Kite Runner appeared.
The Kite Runner can be found on the
Lexile with the reading level of 840 L, but as for other two books, I can’t
find them. I consider it as a really ineffective way to find books because I
have tried to find a book, which it either turned out to be unavailable or some
books that are too short or too long. So I tried the way around, I found some
books that are deep and fitting, but I just can’t find it in Lexile. Despite
the fact that I can not find Morning in Jenins and Snow Flower and the Secret
Fan on Lexile, but since they both recommended on goodreads; therefore, I
consider them as the same reading level as A
Thousand Splendid Suns.
What drew me to these books?
The
Kite Runner: This is the book that have drawn my attention the most for the reasons that not only because it was written by the same author as A Thousand Splendid Suns, but also the similar settings and backgrounds of two stories. In fact, I have heard
of The Kite Runner years before I
came to Canada, but I never get a chance to read it. The
Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid
Suns share quite amounts of similarities in many ways not only for the reason
they were written by the same author.
Morning in Jenins: I was drawn to this book
because the statement on goodreads, "A
heart-wrenching, powerfully written novel that could do for Palestine
what The Kite Runner did for Afghanistan." The
main themes of this book are endurance and love.
Snow Flower and the Secret Fans: It was
about Chinese culture, something I am familiar with. I believe it will interest
to read about a book written by a Chinese-American Writer. Not only that, I
also wish to learn some Chinese history about China in this opportunity. Add to
that, I find its book cover artistic and well designed.
