My Summer Reads

A passion of mine is literature. I absolutely love to read. This summer I read a few books that I think we're very well written and that taught me a lot about cultures and history around the world.

Obviously I love to travel so when I can read a book about either traveling to another country, or about the history of the people living within a country I find it is a real eye opener for me. Here is a list of the books I read this summer maybe you will find one that you are interested in reading yourself.

The Lost City Of Z- By David Grann

I loved this book! This book is about legendary British Explorer Percy Fawcett and how in 1925 he ve

ntured into the Amazon in search of a fabled civilization. He was one of the first explorers into the Amazon but after one trip he never returned. Over the years many people went in se

arch of him and also never returned. This book is an amazing book about the history of mapping the unknown world. It is also interesting that Percy Fawcett was the

man that many other stories were based on such as " Indiana Jones". It is also fascinating that in the last few years people have found the proof of this lost city he was searching for. This book will make you want to go to the jungles of South America and explore them for yourself. As a side note even my husband is loving reading this book. Also there is an article in an issue of " Awake" on Percy Fawcett.

Eat Pray Love- Elizabeth Gilbert

I

think every women in North America has read this book this summer or at least gone to see Julia Roberts take on the role in the movie version. I really enjoyed this book and seeing the authors frank open and honest view of herself, the world, and how her journey helped her. Who doesn't like to read about places such as Italy, India and Indonesia. It made me want to start learning Italian and to try and find a way to move to Italy.

Secret Daughter-Shilpi Somaya Gowda

This was a random book I picked up at a book store for a road trip that we were going to be taking this summer. It was a very interesting book because it is about two families one living in the poor farming community of India, the other a family of mixed backgrounds a husband and wife in America one an Indian doctor the other a california girl. It really shows the pressure there was in India to have a male child that could help you work and make money, and that having a little girl was something terrible to most people. It also shows you a lot about the different classes in India. I really liked that it showed the pressures of both countries living in America as well as India and that people need to adapt and be selfless enough to understand each others cultures.

A Thousand Splendid Suns-Khaled Hosseini

This book was incredible. It was given to me by my aunt and I had never read a novel by this author before. It is a story told through 2 women living in Afghanistan and it covers a few decades worth of that countries history. I never understood a lot about Afghanistan. I never understood the culture or how many horrible wars have been fought there all throughout history and how many innocent people have had to deal with the war surrounding them who don't want anything to do with it anyway. It was a real eye opener for me. I have been in the middle east before actually only 30 km from Iraq and I felt that I understood the culture at least a little but this book really moved me. I actually could not put it down and read 18 chapters in my first sitting with it. For a book that entails a lot of history involving war etc.. that is pretty amazing for me. It is a very real book and not a good read if your looking for something a little more light hearted but I do believe it helped give me a bit of a better understanding of this country and the people living in it and not just what we see on the news about what it is now. I am going to read the Kite Runner next since this author kept me engrossed in this story so I am hoping I can learn a lot from that book as well.

So those were my books of the summer. Enjoy!