2015-04-12: re-read for book club because I read my review and had no recognition of any of the characters. I read a good chunk of it on national siblings day! That seemed apt. Still good! 
 2013-05-28 - And the Mountains Echoed delves into the bonds between siblings. The storylines span across families, history, and continents. While the book focuses, once again, on the myriad of relationships within families, And the Mountains Echoed is a definite departure from Hosseini's previous two books. For one, the narrative is split between many more points of view, and second, the story is told in semi-non-linear fashion. The book has a kind of anthology-esque format, which I quite liked but may not be to everyone's taste. 
 Overall, I definitely liked this book and continue to enjoy Khaled Hosseini's novels, but in terms of emotional impact I think A Thousand Splendid Suns has the more powerful narrative. But that's entirely a personal opinion. While neither of his previous two novels had a "happy ending", there was a note of finality or at least closure for the storylines in each book. And the Mountains Echoed differs from that expectation; (view spoiler)[there's much more open ended-ness; and many of the threads don't have a satisfying conclusion. I especially would have liked to have read more about Iqbal's son. Some other spoiler-y stray thoughts: Nila was kind of a terrible mother. Although Pari hooking up with her mom's ex-boyfriend is all kinds of weird/squicky; and Idris was kind of a tool. (hide spoiler)] It's kind of funny reading this book so soon after The Imperfectionists, but there were certain characters whose chapters I had a similar reaction to. But there were like, maybe, one or two characters that I flat out hated whereas in The Imperfectionists it was every character. I'll definitely be eagerly anticipating any other books that Khaled Hosseini writes. 
 2013-01-20 - What whaaatttt?! New Khaled Hosseini book?! I'm there!!