tried to read the historian, borrowed from hoong seng. since its about salasilah si drakula, hoong seng thought its a good read for me, since i'm interested in that area. thanks ya!

but it being historical is not what made me put down the book after 100+ pages, but rather the writing that bugged me. i read one page, 143, for one night, and ended up REreading page 143 again the next night! 1 page only for two nights! xpenah jadi tuh.

i tried again friday night. the same page. i managed to add more pages to that, but thats about it. the next morning i gave up. n read khaled hosseini's one thousand splendid suns dari kulit ke kulit for three hours, until my eyes were red and my head was pounding. but i was happy. it was darn good that i couldnt put the book down, from start to finish.


its about a girl, mariam, who lived in a small hut in the outskirt of Herat, Afghanistan with her mother. she was about 9, i think, when she learned that she's a harami, an illegitimate child. her father was one of the prominent businessman in Herat, and always visited her every thursday - until she made him promise to bring her to the cinema to watch Pinocchio, together with his other legitimate children (the father has 3 wives, and including mariam, 11 children). when he didnt turn up, mariam walk for 2km to the city and went to his house. she fell asleep overnight at the outside of the gate waiting for him, while he was inside the house. when she went back home, her mother had hang herself. alone now, mariam was brought back to the city and made to marry a man named rasheed. she was fifteen. then she was brought to kabul by her husband and there, her torments began.

then there was another girl called laila. she was very beautiful, fair skinned, dark hair and turquoise eyes.since small she befriended a one legged boy named tariq. as they approach teen, their feeling began to differ. then the war came. they were to flee kabul (separately) with their families, but laila's parents were killed in a bombing. here laila and mariam's path crossed. she was rescued by rasheed and mariam. now, mariam was childless after many years and 6 miscarriages. rasheed tricked laila to marrying him, by convincing him that tariq was already dead. but laila agreed to marry him, only because she's pregnant with tariq's child.

laila and mariam couldnt get along together at first, since mariam thought laila as her husband's stealer. but later they got very close after laila tried to protect her from rasheed's belt. two children later, laila finally found out that tariq was still alive. mariam and laila tried to escape from rasheed but were found out and tortured by him. finally, mariam killed rasheed, and stayed behind to let laila and tariq flee together with the two children. mariam was then sentenced to death for killing rasheed.

this book will take u in an emotional roller coaster ride, with the war as its background. a definite must-read!!!