"A Thousand Splendid Suns" is a novel by the author of "The Kite Runner," Khaled Hosseini. This story about women in Afghanistan is a "must read," whether you like the book or not. Many men are turned off by a story that begins with a little girl and that focuses on women, but I urge men to read it. My only criticism is that the author did not make the symbolism of the title strong enough at the end of the book.
I look forward to your comments.

Thanks, Missann. We tried to get it from the library today, but it was checked out. We'll either buy it or get it from another library.

Good to know, missann! I remember our book club had some issues with the ending of The Kite-Runner, also; it seemed to peter out. I thought his writing there was vivid and the story excellent,and I look forward to reading its successor. Did you read that one, and if so, do you like Hosseini's latest book as much as the first?

Although both books are about Afghanistan, they are very different. I think he could have improved the ending on 1000 Suns.

Missann, I am very much enjoying it, but now I am worried about the ending! I was flying back from Washington DC with my purse, containing my kleenex, in my bag in the overhead compartment, and I needed to wipe my tears! The woman next to me must have thought I was nuts. Thankfully, I had a window seat so I was able to look away. I would have loved to have discussed it in a book group.

I haven't read The Kite-Runner, but I will after this book.

I finished the book. Are others reading it? If so, I will wait for my comments. If not, I'd love to discuss it. I think it would be great for a book group discussion.

I agree about the title, but I don't agree with the ending. I didn't feel that it petered out. I rather liked the ending...and I adored the book.

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do you like Hosseini's latest book as much as the first?

They are different. I thought the ending of Kite Runner was good. Sensitive. The boy held his hand.
I think the ending of 1000 Suns is not as good. He doesn't emphasize the meaning of the title at the end. But a very good book.

Yes, I agree that the meaning of the title was flimsy, at best. Laila remembered, as she made the decision to leave Pakistan and go back to Kabul, her father's farewell ode to Kabul:

One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs,
Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind the wall.

On the other hand, how important is a title really? Perhaps it's more important to you than it is to me. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and I wasn't let down at all by the ending. I would have been, though, had they all died. That's what I had anticipated when you said you didn't like the ending.

Titles are definitely important: would "Eats, shoots and leaves" have become the success it is had it been called, "A basic English Grammar textbook"?

But a good title is only (literally) the start of the story. A good opening paragraph is also very important to pique the reader's interest so that he or she will get into the story.

Haven't you sometimes read a book with at title that wasn't that great, but the book was still great? I mean, some books, like the one I am reading now for work ("Crucial Conversations"), have just plain mundane titles. Even something like "Hamlet" just gives you the name of the main character.

I suspect titles of books mean more to some than they do to others. I could be persuaded otherwise, though. I definitely did note the weakness of the title in "A Thousand Spendid Suns."

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Haven't you sometimes read a book with at title that wasn't that great, but the book was still great?

Certainly. As I have opened letters and parcels wrapped up in brown paper, the contents of which have been great. But nice wrapping puts you in a mood of pleasurable anticipation. Given a choice between two items and with no other knowledge, you would choose the one with attractive wrapping. For wrapping read title.

"A Thousand Spendid Suns" sounds rather like a science fiction book to me. If I had come across it in a library or bookshop without having seen this thread I might have picked it up because of the SF-like title, read the blurb, and put it back because it doesn't look like the sort of subject I'd normally be interested in.

The title can often be misleading. I remember that, when I was about nine, I was ill in bed with the measles or some such and my mother exchanged my library books for me. I was going through a "railway" phase at the time, and one book she got me was called The Blue Train. Like most (fairly) normal nine-year-old boys, I was very disappointed to find out that it was about the life of the British ballet dancer and choreographer Sir Anton Dolin - Le Train Bleu [The Blue Train] is the name of a 1924 ballet.

Starved of reading material, though, I did read it and was quite interested. It would be nice to say that it awakened a life-long love of the ballet, but it still leaves me cold.

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Given a choice between two items and with no other knowledge, you would choose the one with attractive wrapping. For wrapping read title.

The title wouldn't make an iota of difference to me as to my enjoyment of the book. I guess we're just different in that.

Yes, arnie, one wouldn't know what the book is about just looking at the title, I agree. But one only has to read the blurbs on the cover to find out, and, because of that, I was not surprised. Your example was funny, though!

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The title wouldn't make an iota of difference to me as to my enjoyment of the book. I guess we're just different in that.

The title would make no difference to my enjoyment, either. And I certainly never meant to suggest it would.

Like the wrapping on a parcel, a title makes no difference to the contents - but it does make a difference to the state of mind of the reader or recipient and definitely has an affect on people's selection. A badly entitled book or a badly wrapped parcel may both be the same inside as a well entitled book or a well wrapped parcel - but they are less likely to be chosen, all other things being equal.

Life was almost unrelentingly dismal for this woman in Kabul, for 30 years - more than 10,000 days. Any yet only 'one thousand splendid suns' is enough for her to want to return.

That's what I thought when I finished.

Yes, I'd say that sums it up. I very much enjoyed it.