run...run...run for the kites...

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
oooooooooh...soooooooo good. I'm so glad i had just read Three Cups of Tea before this because it made it that much more enjoyable. i'm kind of obsessed with pakistan and afghanistan now, I really want to go there.



this book is sooooo sad, so emotional, but such a good story. what a novel!



"For you a thousand times over!"


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and they said he'd never have another good season...

not to say that #6 Penn State is a powerhouse now that they're up in the rankings, but as an '04 PSU grad myself, i think i have room to speak. graduating from penn state in 2004 gave me a few more rough football years than good ones. i faltered through the 5-7 2000 season. i was at the game in 2001 when PSU upset Ohio State and gave JoePa his 324th win, making him the winningest NCAA Division I coach. it wasn't the greatest of seasons...we were 5-6 overall, but at least Joe passed Bobby and the world was at peace. then my junior year, we were 9-3 and went to the Capital One Bowl...it was such a big deal for me since my 1st two years were so tough. and then...2003...we ended the season 3-9...and i was a senior and our nittany lions looked like nittany kittens that year. after that, everyone started to say JoePa needed to retire and his time in the limelight was over...he needed to finish while he was ahead...blah, blah, blah...



well, i always stood by Joe Paterno. Joe lived on McKee down the street from me my junior year when i lived on north allen street...right next to Sunset Park.

i used to pass him a lot up on Park Avenue...and during the 2002 season, i left him PSU cookies on his Brady Bunch style 70s home doorstep. i donno if Joe ever ate those cookies, but i still feel a special connection to him.

i've just always supported joe. when my Pitt alumni father dogged on him and the rough seasons, when fellow Penn Staters said, "Maybe he should retire," when the media said he was going to die on the football field...i supported him.

and now, it's 2008, and the Nittany Lions are 6-0. joepa may have coached from the press box yesterday afternoon, but his Lions are strong this year.

it may be just another year of college football...it may be that our almost-82-year-old Joe has had many years of success...but it doesn't mean that he's at the end of his journey.

Joe Paterno is my man...I just wish he was running for President. i'd vote JoePa!

STOP what you're doing and read this book

Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
Three Cups of Tea isn't a work of literary genius...something you'd pick apart for AP Literature classes in high school or writing classes in college...it's not Poe, Steinbeck, Orwell, or Shakespeare...but the words that are weaved together in this book that retells the ten years of Greg Mortenson's life when he went on his biggest adventure, reaching a summit far higher than that of K2, are maybe more valuable than any of the best classic literature or informative non-fiction in the world. The strides that Mortenson took after chance brought him to the village of Korphe in Northern Pakistan are amazing.



Three Cups of Tea chronicles both the eccentricities that become Greg Mortenson in his life in the U.S. as well as the footsteps he took, lessons he learned, and lives he changed while in Pakistan and parts of Afgahanistan.



Three Cups is filled with suspense at times when he's captured by unknowns, sitting to drink tea with Taliban leaders, or just barely escaping death in a tunnel in Afghanistan.



Three Cups is filled with emotion at times when Mortenson is building this one-of-a-kind father-son relationship with Haji Ali, the leader of the village of Korphe, sharing the best friend relationship that was built in just six days with his future wife Tara, and recounting the power that Jahan, granddaughter of Haji Ali, has received through her education and how her empowerment has given her high hopes for the rest of her life.



Three Cups is a book so full that everyone should read it. It's not a literary work of art, it's a humanitarian work of art.


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