IN THE LAND OF INVISIBLE WOMEN : A FEMALE DOCTOR'S JOURNEY IN THE SAUDI KINGDOM
by Quanta A. Ahmed

Before 9/11, Ahmed, a British-born Muslim of Pakistani origin, leaves the U.S. and goes to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to practice medicine. It was an opportunity that she couldn't pass up. She believes that because she is Muslim, she will have no problem fitting in. Instead, she finds an environment filled with contradictions and a clash between modern and medieval.
The book opens with Ahmed's first patient, an elderly Bedouin woman lying naked on an examining table, with her face veiled, which is required by the Kingdom.
Women must be covered at all times in public even in the hospital where Ahmed worked as a doctor. It is a suffocating and oppressive existence.
Men are free to go wherever they please, to drive, to walk around. Not so for women. They must be always chaperoned, are not allowed to drive, have to be careful no matter where they are.
Ahmed lived in Saudi Arabia for two years and learned how to re-create herself. In a society that is extremely racist and intolerant, she found honesty and love.
In the Land of Invisible Women is a journey that most people will never take, but it's important to know about.
A fascinating and revealing memoir.

MY FATHER'S PARADISE : A SON'S SEARCH FOR HIS JEWISH PAST IN KURDISH IRAQ
by Ariel Sabar

For 2700 years a community of Kurdish Jews lived in the mountainous area of Zakho, Iraq. They lived peacefully with their Christian and Muslim neighbors.
In the 1950s the Jews of Zakho were airlifted to the new state of Israel. Within no time, their exotic culture would soon be extinct as they tried to blend into their surroundings.
Ariel Sabar didn't really know much about Yona, his father. And, he didn't really care growing up in Los Angeles. He just thought his father was strange, holding on to the past. Even though Yona became a renowned authority on the Aramaic language, it didn't phase Ariel. Not until the birth of his first son.
In My Father's Paradise Sabar writes about his family's history in four generations. It is quite a saga. With his skills as a journalist, he pens an incredible tale.
A terrific story, wonderfully told.
Highly recommended.

MAY AND AMY : A TRUE STORY OF FAMILY, FORBIDDEN LOVE, AND THE SECRET LIVES OF MAY GASKELL, HER DAUGHTER AMY, AND SIR EDWARD BURNE-JONES
by Josceline Dimbleby

Andrew Lloyd Webber collects art by Pre-Raphaelite painters. One of the portraits, in his home, is of a beautiful, haunting young woman painted by Sir Edward Burne-Jones. The subject of the painting is Amy Gaskell, the author's great-aunt, who had died young "of a broken heart."
Josceline Dimbleby always wanted to know about her family's past and sets out on a quest to discover the secrets. She comes across unpublished letters from Burne-Jones to May Gaskell, her, unhappily, married great-grandmother. The correspondence is passionate, adoring, intimate and continues for six years. Through paintings, family photographs and writings mysteries and tragedies of the Gaskell family are revealed.
May and Amy is a riveting memoir of the Victorian era. Great sleuth work.
A highly, enjoyable read.

THE LOST SPY : AN AMERICAN IN STALIN'S SECRET SERVICE
by Andrew Meier

Isaiah "Cy" Oggins was an undergraduate at Columbia University when he joined the Communist Party in 1920. Soviet intelligence recruited him in 1926 and that is when his travels and undercover schemes began.
In Berlin he posed as an antiquarian dealer so that he could run a safe house.
While he was in Paris he spied on the Romanovs.
He went to China and Manchuria spying on the Japanese occupiers and their puppet emperor, Pu-Yi.
Despite his long, devoted service to the Soviets, he was arrested and sent to an Arctic gulag and languished there for eight years. Then, on orders from Stalin, he was brutally murdered.
Author Andrew Meier began his quest in 2000 while researching information for his previous book about post-Soviet Russia and heard about an American from elderly camp survivors.
Eight years later, he has written a masterpiece.
The Lost Spy is a tremendous story.
Highly recommended.

A ROMANCE ON THREE LEGS : GLENN GOULD'S OBSESSIVE QUEST FOR THE PERFCT PIANO
by Katie Hafner

He was a perfectionist to the extreme. When he played not only was it important for the sound to be beautiful, but the touch of the keys had to feel right. Searching for the best piano became Glenn Gould's manic obsession.
Gould was considered one of the twentieth century's most gifted musicians, albeit bizarre. He was just as famous for his eccentricities: refusing to shake hands for fear of germs, wearing a hat, gloves and coat during the summer months, humming while he played, and taking his creaky, sawed-off chair with him wherever he performed.
In A Romance on Three Legs Katie Hafner writes about Verne Edquist, Gould's nearly blind tuner; the history and science of tuning; the Steinway factory during World War II; CD 318.
It's a marvelous story about genius, craftsmanship and drive.
Highly recommended.

BOMBAY ANNA : THE REAL STORY AND REMARKABLE ADVENTURES OF THE KING AND I GOVERNESS
by Susan Morgan

The Rogers and Hammerstein 1950s musical The King and I conjures up unforgettable memories. We envision Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner dancing together amongst the people of Siam.
The movie was supposed to portray real life events at that time, but in truth it was mostly fictionalized. But, then again, Anna's life was an invention, too.
Anna Leonowens was born as a mixed-race army brat and lived with her family, in extreme poverty, in India. When she went to work for the King of Siam to teach his children and wives English, in the 1860s, she was not British, as she claimed. That was her first invention. She stayed for five years and then reinvented herself as an author, journalist, teacher, and lecturer living in the United States and Canada.
Bombay Anna is a densely, detailed biography which took author Susan Morgan ten years to research and who found facts that had eluded other writers.
The book has quite an extensive bibliography, an index, two appendices and black and white photographs.
A fascinating account of a remarkable woman.

SEE YOU IN A HUNDRED YEARS : FOUR SEASONS IN FORGOTTEN AMERICA
by Logan Ward

Imagine what it would be like to walk away from the twenty-first century and give up telephones, computers, electricity, cars, supermarkets; everything that is familiar and taken for granted.
Logan Ward and his wife, Heather, after becoming worn down from their rat race life in New York, pull up stakes and move to rural Virginia to live as dirt farmers, but in the year 1900.
They learn how to cook on a wood stove, milk their two goats (Heather becomes quite adept at making cheese), harvest their crops, can food to store in their root cellar, how to drive a wagon, and use tools that were available back then.
See You in a Hundred Years is a wonderful book and beautifully written.
Highly recommended.