Book Review: Rooftops of Tehran

I just finished Rooftops of Tehran by Mahbod Seraji.  It has been a long time since I read (or in this case listened to) a book that I absolutely could not wait to have other people read.  (I think the last one I felt this strongly about was The Book Thief, which you should definitely go read if you haven't already...)  Rooftops of Tehran is set in Iran during the early 1970's when the country is ruled by the Shah.  The main character, Pasha, is seventeen and dealing with typical things such as getting out of high school, figuring out how to tell his parents that what they want him to do with his life is not what he wants to do with his life, and thinking about girls.  But obviously, things are different for Pasha because of where he is growing up.

The author does a wonderful job of making the story realistic, which still making it easy to relate to the characters while they experience the hardships of living under the Shah, most of which we can't even imagine.  The Iranian history and terms are explained extremely well, so don't worry if you don't know a lot of your Iranian history, I didn't either. The plot is suspenseful and surprising.  I can't tell you much else about the book because I don't want to give away any of the plot, but I would DEFINITELY recommend this book.

And a few thoughts on listening to books.  I listen to a lot of books in my car while I drive to and from work.  It lets me feel productive, even when I'm just sitting at stoplights.  There are two problems with listening to books instead of reading them:

1. I usually end up getting really into the book I am listening to, so by the end of the book I end up listening to it whenever I can.
2. I am one of those people that loves to mark passages in books.  I never write in my books with pens, but constantly mark passages with pencil so that I can find them when I am looking for them later.  That is something you can't do when you're listening to the book.