Burnt Shadows: A Novel | 
pickThis novel has a complicated plot that spans 50+ years. I enjoyed that chapters with Sajjad more than the others. The ending set in Afghanistan was complex that I was not as engaged. However, the last line of the novel is so powerful that I think this is a book that will stay with me for a long time.
My book made it back to me - and here is a (much delayed) photo of the lovely bookmarks included in the package.
Thanks to @Cupcake12 and @jenniferw88 for the fun exchange.
#LitsyPostalExchange
pickLoved this ❤️ historical fiction with brilliant central characters. The women are awesome. So good to read some of these events from a perspective that is not reflective of my historical teachings in school!!
#weeklyforecast no change really from my #bookreport - I'll be continuing them all, except that I'll maybe try to finish the tagged. @Cinfhen
pickShamsie is a MASTER at moral ambiguity. She puts characters in situations that reveal greater truths about our society.
Hiroko was in Nagasaki when the bomb was dropped. After losing her fiancé, she is bereft and heads to his family in India. There, she begins a journey that will take her to post-partition Pakistan and eventually NYC. Along the way, she loses much, but the fate of her family and her fiancé‘s are bound like a spider to a web.
so-soA heart wrenching story covering a time period of over 70 years. Written with warmth, character and above all realism. Following the life of Hiroko Tanaka, the book is plot into 3 sections- 1940s, 1980s and 2001.
It tackled a lot of subjects and included detailed descriptions of daily life. Conflict is a huge part of this book but I felt they weren‘t covered in detail or focused upon.
Overall, a good solid read but not my genre of choice.
#lmpbc
pickA book that starts with the dropping of the atomic bomb in Nagasaki, ends in the US after 9/11, and touches on Indian partition in the middle. I got swept away in the grand scale of the story but Shamsie manages to make it all feel personal as well, told through the eyes of two families each with their own strengths and prejudices. The final stretch started lagging for me but the end more than made up for it. I found this to be a powerful read.
Started reading it last week and enjoyed it but can‘t muster the emotional energy to continue.
pickThis novel takes on an epic scale, two families, two to three generations that connect the atomic bomb in Nagasaki, the end of British Rule and the beginning of partition in India, through the war against Soviets in Afghanistan and 9/11. A less accomplished writer would have drowned in all that! Shamsie juxtaposes those truly scarred by war with those for whom acts of war are intellectualised and excusable - she does it through a personal lens ⬇️
Some of the great diverse reads out there, read all except for Pachinko - this year!
#DiverseReads #ANewChapter
pickStarting in Nagasaki 1945 and ending in New York 2002, this novel covers a lot of recent history. We see and experience these events through the eyes of members of two families. This is a novel that makes you think.
My second book finished for #MakeMeReadIt
Week 34/52 2018 - #BookStats
8 Books Finished, 3440 Pages Read
3 Books Currently Reading
#LitsyAtoZ 0 (24/26) - U, X left
#MountTBRChallenge 1 (35/52)
#YearoftheChunkster 1 (19/26)
#SeriesUptoDate 0 (16/20)
#SeriesFinished 1 (4/20)
#ListyPassport 0 (2/12)
#MakeMeReadIt 1 (7/12)
pickFinished my fourth book during the #24B4Monday #Readathon, & now clocked up 22 hours 35 minutes.
It took me a quite a while to get into this book, but once I did it is a story that I really enjoyed and I‘m sure will stay with me. It covers key events such as the atomic bomb attack on Nagasaki, partition in India in 1947 and events pre and post 9/11 in Afghanistan. This book delivers quite a powerful punch, why did it sit on my shelf for 6 years!
Started Burnt Shadows, my seventh #MakeMeReadIt book. Had it for 6 1/2 years so about time! #Orange
so-soThe writing is undeniably beautiful and vivid, and I really liked following Hiroko through her life and all the upheaval she experienced and witnessed. But I felt like the story started getting away from the author in the last quarter or so. It got too sprawling and tangents started taking over what had been the central focus. Could‘ve done w/o the portions from Raza‘s perspective for sure. But def think others might enjoy more than I did. 3/5 ⭐️
She had no interest in belonging to anything as contradictorily insubstantial and damaging as a nation.
... she‘d learnt the desire to walk behind time.
[This is how the author refers to nostalgia, and what a perfect and beautiful way to put it.]
I love that about the Americans—the way they see certain kinds of craziness as signs of character.
pickAnother book by Kamila Shamsie that I loved. Moving from Japan, to India, to the US and to Afghanistan Shamsie writes about human relationships between different cultures and religions. She writes about the wish to understand eachother and how hard that becomes when reality hits and fear and prejudices take over. I love all Shamsie teaches me and the #homage she pays to innocent muslims.
#pop18 book with ugly cover #aprella #marchmadnesschallenge
Happy to see Exit West and Burnt Shadows as required reading for an English course at my campus
I dont know how will be I and my life if in world there in no reading material remain 📚🤔😢
pickSeems I am pretty liking it 😂
pickThoroughly hooked by the storyline in this. I felt that the way in which it moves through both tine/era, and country, kept me totally interested. I think the ending, and the last few chapters, was a well thought out way to end. Excellent read.
so-soJust finished this book, I rate it 3/5. Enjoyed the plot and characters, but at times the story dragged on and didn't grip me the whole way through 😐
New read started last night. One that I've chosen to read rather than a book club pick. So far it's drawing me in.
#day10 #somethingforsept #bookssetinasia. Loved both of these. The stories were engaging and the writing was solid.
"Konrad imagines conscripts sent out at night to net the clouds and release them in the morning through factory chimneys to create the illusion of industry"
