Book : No Easy Day

Owen's book, which publisher Penguin describes as a "blow-by-blow narrative of the assault", in which 24 Navy SEALs attacked Bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, killing the terrorist leader. The author, who is a former member of the SEAL Team Six, describes his young life, his early SEAL training, his other missions member's career and the extensive training, the mock up rehearsals and preparation that went on for this infamous raid on May 1 2011.

Bin Laden's Pakistani compound, which has since been demolished

The second half of the book describes the Bin Laden raid.  There was no extended firefight as the team worked its way to Bin Laden’s room.  The sequence of events presented by Owen show that there was no intent to capture anyone living at the compound alive.  Women and youngsters were killed during the raid.  Bin Laden is shot at medium range without being fully ID’d – guilty of being a man on the third floor of the compound – and then again at point blank range a few times to make sure he’s absolutely dead. Two guns were found nearby but he was unarmed.

The whole operation took 40 minutes, 10 minutes longer than planned. The team from a second helicopter landed outside the compound instead of on the roof as planned because they had seen the other aircraft crash. That team then used a breaching charge to blow open a metal door only to be confronted with a brick wall that delayed their entry into the compound.

 The structure was located at the end of a dirt road just 0.8 miles (1.3 km) southwest of the Pakistan Military Academy in Bilal Town, Abbottabad, Pakistan, a suburban town housing retired military officers.

The cast of characters is lovingly presented – from the other members of the SEAL family to the female CIA analyst who’s dedicated her young life to finding Osama Bin Laden. She had told the US Navy Seals who risked their lives in the raid that she was “100 per cent” sure Osama bin Laden was hiding in the compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan

Commandos blew up one of the 2 helicopters used in the military operation against Osama bin Laden after it crashed. It was destroyed but the tail section, below, survived.

Book - A Thousand Splendid Suns

"A Thousand Splendid Suns" is a 2007 novel by Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini becoming a #1 New York Times bestseller for 15 weeks following its release.

Hosseini visited Afghanistan in 2003 and "heard so many stories about what happened to women, the tragedies that they had endured, the difficulties, the gender-based violence that they had suffered, the discrimination, the being barred from active life during the Taliban, having their movement restricted, being banned essentially from practicing their legal, social rights, political rights". 

This motivated him to write a novel which spans a period of over 40 years, from the 1960s to 2003; it focuses on the lives and relationship of Mariam and Laila, two Afghan women born 20 years apart. 

Mariam (born in 1959) is the illegitimate daughter of a wealthy merchant named Jalil who has 3 wives and 9 “legitimate” children. Mariam’s mother, Nana, was a servant in Jalil’s house whose affair with Jalil resulted in Mariam. As you might expect, the 3 wives were less than enthused and Nana and Mariam were forced to live on the outskirts of town, making life cruelly miserable for them. Eventually Mariam was given in marriage to Rasheed, a much older shoe-maker from Kabul. Mariam faced - slaps, kicks, and punches from her husband, throughout her marriage because she couldn't produce a child and suffered from seven miscarriages. She had become a burden him.

Laila, born a generation later, was comparatively privileged during her youth. She was a beautiful young girl who grew up as a neighbour of Rasheed and Mariam in Kabul. She had a childhood friend, Tariq, a young man who lost a leg to a Soviet land mine. As these children mature, they fell in love. Before long, Tariq’s family decided to run from the Mujahideen warlords who by now were bombarding the city. Laila lost her parents due to a rocket bomb and was forced to accept a marriage proposal from Rasheed, Mariam's husband.

And the breathtaking story continues ... be prepared for no happy endings in a place like Afghanistan. 

I like this book for its good historical fiction, especially when set in a place like Afghanistan which I am not very familiar. It is such a war-torn country and Hosseini's attempt to teach a few decades of Afghan history -- a history few readers likely know in much detail -- grafting that history onto the story of one family makes for a rather incredible novel. 

The central theme of "A Thousand Splendid Suns" is the place of women in Afghan society", pointing to a passage in which Mariam's mother states, "Learn this now and learn it well, my daughter: Like a compass needle that points north, a man's accusing finger always finds a woman. Always. You remember that, Mariam." This is what life is like for women in a society in which they are valued only for reproduction.