1000 places to see before you die

Whether we go to London for the weekend or to a place that's utterly alien, travel changes us, sometimes superficially, sometimes profoundly. It is a classroom without walls.

heh 1000 kali best g kelas yang tade wall ni dari kelas yang start dis Wednesday. Oh noo!

Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama

Title: Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance

Author: Barack Obama

Publisher: Three Rivers Press

“Provocative . . . Persuasively describes the phenomenon of belonging to two different worlds, and thus belonging to neither.” 

—New York Times Book Review

“Fluidly, calmly, insightfully, Obama guides us straight to the intersection of the most serious questions of identity, class, and race.” 

—Washington Post Book World

“Beautifully crafted . . . moving and candid . . . this book belongs on the shelf beside works like James McBride’s The Color of Water and Gregory Howard Williams’s Life on the Color Line as a tale of living astride America’s racial categories.”

 —Scott Turow

“Obama’s writing is incisive yet forgiving. This is a book worth savoring.” 

—Alex Kotlowitz, author of There Are No Children Here

My stepfather Lolo said, "Men take advantage of weakness in other men. They're just like countries in that way. The strong man takes the weak man's land. He makes the weak man work in his fields. If the weak man's woman is pretty, the strong man will take her. Which would you rather be? Better to be strong. If you can't be strong, be clever and make peace with someone who's strong. But always better to be strong yourself. Always."

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Title: The Kite Runner 

Author: Khaled Hosseini

Publisher: Riverhead Trade

In The Kite Runner, Amir and Hassan grow up together in Afghanistan like brothers, although they couldn't be more different. Amir is the son of a wealthy businessman, a Sunni Muslim, a Pashtun, and he's educated and reads voraciously. Hassan's father is a servant to Amir's father, and Hassan is a Sh'ia Muslim, a Hazara, he's illiterate, and he has a harelip. But neither boy has a mother and they spend their boyhoods roaming the streets of Kabul together. Amir, though, continually uses his superior position to taunt or abuse Hassan, and one day hides in fear as Hassan is beaten mercilessly by bullies. The Soviet invasion of Aghanistan sends Amir's family to the United States, but he returns there as an adult during the Taliban rule to atone for his sins to Hassan. Khaled Hosseini is an Afghan émigré living in San Francisco and his debut novel has received mostly good reviews. The Denver Post says The Kite Runner "ranks among the best-written and provocative stories of the year so far." 

and also, the Kite Runner movie is awesome. I almost cried(silly me!) when Amir went to mosque back in Afganistan after a long time being "Americanized" and sort of leaving Islamic lifestyle. Here's the trailer: