Great Books...

   These are three great books I have read recently.  The first is The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy.  I actually bought this book eight years ago and started reading it then, but couldn't really get into it.  I just took it off the bookshelf for the second time last month and could not put it down!!!  Roy's story about a girl, Rahel, and her twin brother, Estha, dealing with the traumas and misfortunes of their past is melancholy and intriguing.  But, what really took my breath away was Roy's writing-the imagery in this novel takes you into the depths of India and its culture and you never want to come out...  

 

 

  Tim suggested I read these graphic novels, Persepolis and Persepolis II, and I laughed at him because I don't read comic books!  Well I spoke too soon because after he checked it out at the library to read for himself I happened to pick it up to look at it, and ended up reading both books in two days and loved them!  The first one deals with the author, Marjane Satrapi, as she grows up in Iran during the Iranian Revolution.  She and her family deal with a repressive regime that will do anything they can to snuff out any sense of individuality among the people. 

 

 Marjane's  family sends her off to exile in Austria where she must deal with being away from her family at a young age and cope with the overwhelming culture shock of being in another country.  The illustrations are perfect and you fall in love with Marjane, the witty precosious child, and root for her later as she tries to discover who she is both in Austria and later back in her homeland of Iran.   

p.s. Satrapi studied illustration for children's books in Strasbourg, France.  Can anyone tell me what is special bout that?  :)