I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend! I know that I did since this weekend was my birthday weekend. Since my birthday fell on a Sunday I decided to celebrate on Saturday. Here's a rundown of my weekend, plus the review of the latest book.
Saturday, Feb. 2nd : I woke up super early to go to a Junior League event called Clean Sweep...basically an organized yard sale. I was running around the book section like those crazy housewives that used to be on Super Market Sweep! I really miss that show by the way...I used to have my shopping plan laid out, starting with the meats and cheeses. Anyways, afterwards I treated myself to breakfast and a new bra. I think the most tedious task is going bra shopping. I always feel like I have abnormal boobs and no bra fits like the one I already own. But this time I had a great experience thanks to the lovely ladies at Soma. God Bless middle age women who make it their life's mission to make sure I don't have muffin top boobs! After that enlightening experience I had a lovely afternoon...I had some friends treated me to lunch, browsed the library, visited with my friend Lois, and finally headed to the house for a nap to prepare for the evening festivities. The evening events go like this: lots of cocktails, great dinner, more cocktails, and lot of dancing (a couple of dance battle ensued). GREAT NIGHT!!!
Sunday, Feb. 3rd: I actually got a chance to sleep in for a change. I got up at 10am and that sleep was so delicious. Then I basically just relaxed...no cleaning, no errands and no exercising.* And I got an opportunity to finishing reading the latest book, A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. The novel covers several decades in the backward Muslim country through the perspective of two women. Mariam is a scorned illegitimate daughter of a wealthy businessman and Laila is a spirited girl is an orphaned after her parent are innocent victims of warfare. They become allies in a battle with their shared husband who's abuse is endorsed by custom and law. Mariam & Lalia in the end is forced to accept a path that will never be completely happy for them. The books delivers incredible imagery that describe the violence in the country and in the home with such gumption. I cried several times throughout this novel and I feel like I learned more about Middle Eastern political history. Thank goodness for living in America!
Here is are a few excerpts from this moving novel:
Mariam's first time being called a bastard by her own mother:"At the time, Mariam did not understand. She did not know what this word harami-bastard-meant. Nor was she old enough to appreciate the injustice, to see that it is the creators of the harami who are culpable, not the harami, whose only sin is being born."
The mindset that women were taught: "Learn this now and learn it well, my daughter: Like a compass needle that points north, a man's accusing finger always finds a woman."
How Mariam saw herself in her final moments of life: "She thought of her entry into this word, the harami child of a lowly villager, an unintended thing, a pitiable, regrettable accident. A weed. And yet she was the leaving the world as a woman who had loved and been loved back."
I give this book an A...good read!
Get it? Got it? Good!* My exercise is trying to dance through two Beyonce songs without stopping and/or passing out. That woman is a beast at dancing!
