Started and finished Rooftops in Tehran today. Having interesting books to read as school assignments is still a foreign concept to me... but I haven't found a book from this semester's list that I haven't enjoyed (okay, Baghdad Burning was a bit hard to get through, but it was extremely enlightening to get that perspective from someone living in Baghdad).
Rooftops in Tehran is amazing. And I know I said that about In Cold Blood, but this is amazing in a completely opposite way. This book is essentially a love story about a couple in Iran right before the Iranian revolution. Zari has been engaged to another man since birth because her parents are friends with his parents and they wanted to ensure they remain friends forever. Her fiance is called Doctor and is part of a political group that opposes the Shah. To make a long story short (and because all of you really need to read this book), Doctor gets arrested by the (not so) secret police and killed. Zari and Pasha (the character who is telling this story) admit that they've fallen in love with each other. But tragedy falls and because I'm delusional and believe some of you might actually go out and read the book, I'm not going to ruin the end of the book. This is where Bob would interject (ha, he hates that adjective) and say that he hates when people say they don't want to ruin the end of something... it doesn't ruin a novel or a movie when the end is revealed. You read a book/see a movie for the entire experience of the book/movie, not just for the end. But still, I'm not revealing anything. Go read the book!
I've been reading mostly books about the Middle East... and I'm sure this is the point of the book assignments... but it's very interesting to read what these people think of us. Usually it's not good... although in ROT (Rooftops of Tehran) they'll say how much they hate America, then in the same breath talk about how their kids need to go to an American university because that's the only way to succeed in Iran and also the only way to advance the situation of people in Iran. This novel takes place in 1974/75 and I'm not very educated on Iran in this era, but now I want to do some reading about it. But another thing that apparently people believed was that we'd figured out how to heat all the pavement in the country in order to keep roads from freezing. I laughed out loud about that.
Anyways, I'm still at work and technically should be working... and I'm freezing so I can't feel my fingers as I type and it's almost time to go see Cammie and Becky... so I'm going to bid adieu and stop typing here.
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