...The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. In my case, read by Hosseini:I listened to this one on my iPod while cooking and cleaning.

To be honest, I never thought I'd be so drawn in to a story set in Afghanistan and Pakistan about Muslim young men. I was mistaken. This novel reads like a poignant memoir, especially when heard as read by the author. I'm left wondering how much of it is autobiographical, or at least a compilation of characters that Hosseini has known; it seems impossible to me that some of the characters in the book aren't real people. The sensation is so vivid that I'm tempted to Google the names and see where they are now!

The Kite Runner is not a pleasant book to read. In fact, there is some graphic violence including a rape "scene," and while presented as tastefully as I can imagine it could have been, it's deeply disturbing. But it does give me, as a rather sheltered Westerner, a small window into a life so removed from mine it's hardly fathomable. If you want to be challenged in your notions of Muslim culture and the chasm that exists in our understanding of a people so different and yet so like us, this would be a great start...