Kristina honored me with this You Make My Day Award, which is my very first blog award. I was touched by all the nice things she said about me. Thanks so much, Kristina!

I have so many book blogs on my feed list that it's just impossible to narrow my favorites down to 10. All of you do a wonderful job on your blogs - I've gotten so many fabulous recommendations from your posts. Here are just a FEW of the blogs that make my day:

A Patchwork of Books - My list has to include Amanda, because she's the whole reason I found this awesome book blogging community. I started my blog as a personal project, not even realizing that there were other book bloggers out there. When I stumbled on her blog and saw all of the sites on her blogroll, it was like Christmas for me. Seriously. Plus, she writes a great blog and always has excellent recommendations.

Inside A Book - I love this blog because its author and I have a lot in common. We live in the same city and seem to like the same kind of books. She doesn't update nearly as often as I would like, but her blog is wonderful.

Chainreader - The first thing you must do on this blog is read its description. It is laugh-out-loud funny. The author obviously has a great sense of humor, and I enjoy her succinct, but thoughtful reviews.

A Striped Armchair - I know Eva has gotten and given this award a million times, but that just goes to show how awesome she is. I love her thorough reviews and the sweet comments she leaves on my blog. She commented that I looked gorgeous in a picture I posted, so she's my BFF now whether she likes it or not!

Big A, Little A - I found Kelly's blog only recently, but I love it for its variety and the thorough reviews.

Miss Erin - Erin is a talented girl in more ways than one. Her blog covers a variety of topics, and her addiction to certain authors (Shannon Hale) just makes me laugh. I always enjoy reading what she writes.

Lightheaded Books - Despite the title of this blog, the reviews are not "lightheaded" at all. I think they are intelligent and well-written.

Thoughts of Joy - I enjoy this blog for numerous reasons, including the succinct reviews and the fun challenges Joy hosts.

Becky's Book Reviews - I know Becky is widely loved, but I just have to give her this award for all the hard work she puts in on her blogs. She's always got something going on, whether it's a review, an author interview or a new challenge. She's amazing!

There are some countries I am content to "see" only through books and movies. Afghanistan is one of them. Often books about a country make me want to visit, but The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad had the exact opposite effect. Although the culture she describes is fascinating, I prefer to learn about it from the comfort and safety of my living room couch.

Seierstad is a Norwegian journalist who entered Kabul in 2001. She had been in Aghanistan for six grueling weeks, following Northern Alliance commandos through mountians, desert and steppes as they moved against the Taliban. After the grimy adventure, she happened upon an oasis in the country's capital city - a bookshop where she found it "refreshing to leaf through books and talk about literature and history" (ix). Although the books were interesting, she found their owner, Sultan Khan, to be an engaging storyteller, a veritable "history book on two feet" (x). Seierstad made him a proposal: If he allowed her to live with his family temporarily, she would write a book about him. He agreed. Thus, began her 3-month visit with a family she describes as typical in some ways, not in others.

As Seierstad began her stay, she observed the pecking order in the Khan Family: Sultan ruled his multi-generational family (his household included his mother, his sister, 2 wives, and his own children) with an iron fist. His sons did not attend school, but worked in their father's bookshops, despite their own dreams. Women had even less choice - they remained home, cooking, cleaning and waiting on the men. Sultan's word was law. No one dared oppose him. The man, himself, was an enigma. He had risked his life to save books from destruction by Kabul's religious fanatics, and considered himself open-minded on the subjects of education and women's rights. Yet, he denied his own children opportunities to learn and made sure all of his women were kept in their proper places.

The book shifts its focus constantly, highlighting different members of the family, who in turn represent various sections of Afghanistan society. Trying to sort out the names and relationships of all the individuals will make your head spin, which must echo the reality of living with a dozen or more people in a cramped city apartment. There is Rasul, Sultan's eldest son, who resents having to work for his demanding father. He takes his anger out on his aunt, Leila, who is only 3 years older than him, but the lowest creature on the Khan Family food chain. Then there is Mansur, also crushed under the thumb of his father. He desires only to get an education and see the world, but his future has already been carved for him. Leila's is the most tragic situation - as Sultan's younger sister, she is the family's slave, working tirelessly for the men who torment her. When a young suitor sends her love notes, she becomes excited, but terrified. If Sultan finds the notes, she will be beaten as contact between unrelated men and women is strictly forbidden. Her marriage will be treated as a business deal between the men of her family and her fiance's - she has no say in the matter. As these decisions are made, she feels "how life, her youth, hope leave her - she is unable to save herself. She feels her heart, heavy and lonely like a stone, condemned to be crushed forever" (282).

Through the various members of the family, we are given an intimate and troubling portrait of Afghanistan. The country emerges as a weary land, sagging under the plague of endless war and greedy leaders. With the possible exception of Sultan, all members of the Khan Family appear deeply unhappy with their lots in life. Afghan men, especially, are portrayed as cruel hypocrites - men like Sultan welcome progress on one hand while holding their wives' and daughters' heads under the water with the other. To me, and I think to Seierstad, this dichotomy is one of the most intriguing and odious things about Afghan culture.

I found this book to be many things - fascinating, compelling, disturbing, heart-wrenching, depressing - but it offers an unparalleled look inside a society that is notoriously closed to outsiders. Like all glimpses into other cultures, the book helped broaden my world view, and like any trip abroad, it made me realize once again how blessed I am to live in The United States of America. For this, if for nothing else, it is worth the read.

Grade: B

**Don't forget - I'm giving away my copy of this book. All you have to do is leave a comment on this post and I will enter you into the drawing. I will draw a name on February 25, so entries need to be in by midnight on the 24th. Good luck!

In an effort to avoid folding laundry declutter my mind, I thought I'd let you all in on some thoughts that have been floating around in there lately. I've got news about a giveaway, an upcoming author feature, an award and lots of other random stuff, so here we go:

* I love magazines, so much so that I subscribe to at least 20 of them. Of these, only 1 - Bookmarks - is dedicated solely to books/reading. Book review magazines just aren't very prevalent (Anyone have any recommendations?), so I get excited when my favorite magazines allot at least a little bit of space to books. I recently picked up the March issue of Good Housekeeping, and was excited to see a short story by one of my favorite authors, Jodi Picoult. I love Jodi because she's fearless. Her books tackle tough issues, which she examines with both honesty and understanding. To me, her stories ring with authenticity. Perhaps you can begin to see why I was so disappointed in "Spring Break," which concerns a mom who leaves her family one day out of the blue and takes up residence in a seaside Ritz Carlton. Although she scares her family to death, causing emotional damage to her husband and children, everything wraps up nicely in the end. Now, I like happy endings, but I excpected more from Picoult. Did anyone else read this? What did you think? I thought Jodi whimped out on this one.

* I've been chatting with some authors lately - did you catch Jason Wright's reaction to my review of Christmas Jars? I think the guy has a great sense of humor, and I'm honored that he stopped by my humble little blog. Stay tuned, because I will be talking to author Amanda Ford on March 5. She will be on a blog tour to promote her book, Kiss Me, I'm Single: An Ode to the Single Life - I've been perusing it, and I think it's full of some great wisdom. Stand by for a review and hopefully an interview with this fun writer.

* Many, many thanks to Kristina for honoring me with my first-ever blog award. Now, I'm busily trying to choose 10 bloggers who make my day. I have TONS of book blogs on my feeds list, so this is an amazingly tough job. Hopefully, I'll have that post up tomorrow. Thanks again, Kristina, this award definitely made my day!

* Finally, I just finished The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad, which is fascinating. My review should be up tonight (that's if I stop procrastinating on the laundry); as part of it, I'm going to be giving away my copy of the book. If you are interested in entering the drawing, all you have to do is wait (hopefully not too long) until my review is up, then make a comment. Simple, right? I (or most likely, one of my kids) will draw a name on February 25. If you're not interested in the book, I would still love your comment :)

* Crap! I think that's it. Looks like it's back to laundry for me. I hope the rest of you are doing something exciting - like reading a great book. I'll catch you later when I'm a little more caught up on my housework!

Christmas Jars by Jason Wright is the kind of novel I hate - it's predictable, it's sappy, and it's wrapped up in a way that is completely unrealistic. In short, it's the kind of book that sacrifices good storytelling for sentimental sermonizing. In fact, I think I would have liked the book a whole lot more if Wright had written up his ideas as a personal essay instead of trying to integrate it into a fictional story.

His tale concerns Hope Jensen, a young reporter who has just lost her mother to cancer. Although Louise was not her birth mother, she discovered an infant Hope abandoned at a chicken joint and raised her as her own. Hope is devastated by her loss, a sadness that deepens as Christmas approaches. On Christmas Eve, Hope's heart cracks open a little further when she arrives home to find her apartment ransacked. What little she had of value is gone, including the $500 she had hidden in a drawer. As the police poke through the crime scene for evidence, Hope makes a discovery of her own - a brown paper sack is sitting by her front door. In it sits a glass jar filled with money; the only clue she can find are the words "Christmas Jar" painted on it in red and green letters. She can't imagine who left it at her front door or why. When she questions her neighbors, one of them points out the obvious: "Somebody was thinking of you. How lucky!" (24)

Hope's journalistic instincts kick in, and she jumps in to solve the mystery of the Christmas Jar. Searching in her newspaper's archives, she discovers a handful of letters to the editor from other jar recipients, thanking their anonymous benefactors. She rushes to interview the grateful citizens, but no one knows anything save that the jars arrived on Christmas Eve when they were in need. One lady even warns her, "This ain't about gettin' credit. This just don't belong in the papers" (31). Only one man has even a shred of information, but it turns out to be the proverbial gold mine.

Suddenly, Hope finds herself in the midst of the loving Maxwell Family, who reluctantly share the secret of the Christmas Jar tradition. Not only do they take her into their confidence, but they envelop her into the heart of their family. The only problem is they think Hope's a college student interviewing them for a research paper on small, family-operated businesses. They have no idea she's a reporter who's developing a story about their secret crusades to help people with their Christmas Jars. To get the story, which has a chance of earning a spot above the fold on the newspaper's front page (Hope's lifelong dream), she knows she may have to betray the Maxwells, whom she's come to think of as family. In the process, Hope will learn just how far-reaching the Christmas Jar tradition really is.

I actually love the idea of the Christmas Jar (I won't tell you how it works, since I hate spoilers) - I think it's sweet and fun. I just wasn't impressed with Wright's ability to describe it in a story. His writing is too generic, his characters have about as much individuality as paper dolls, and his plot is as neatly packaged as a professionally-wrapped Christmas gift. The story relies so heavily on coincidence that it's just not believable. In addition, it's so saccharine it makes my head hurt. I know the book has touched people with its message, I just wish it wasn't trying so hard to be inspirational. All the sentimentality just killed the story for me.

As much as I hate to admit it, my eyes did well up a couple times as I was reading Christmas Jars, so I guess it has some power despite all its flaws. It's a short book and one you probably won't regret reading - I'm just warning you that it's not great literature by any means. Having said that, I do want to recommend going to Jason Wright's site and reading the real stories of people who have given and received Christmas jars. If Wright needs an inspirational story, obviously all he has to do is turn to real people - in future, he should leave fiction to the pros.

Grade: C

Note: Many thanks to Shadow Mountain Publishing , who sent me this book to review.