OK, so maybe Khaled Hosseini's "A Thousand Splendid Suns" didn't make the same kind of emotional connection as his magnificent first novel "The Kite Runner." After all, the "Suns" story was about the lives and friendship of two women in wartime Kabul, overlaid with the politics that have made that city and that part of the world nearly unbearable, compared to the autobiographical-sounding tale from the earlier novel. (Click here to read an excerpt and hear an interview with Khaled Hosseini, the author.)

But I can't stop thinking about Mariam and Laila ...