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shaguftap's review
3.0
Fascinating read, especially about planning and development in Qatar, though I did wish Islam was a more positive element in the characters lives!
eveleswer's review
4.0
3.5?? 4??
This was such a beautiful memoir and Sophia and her family were so interesting. I loved the focus on Sophia's struggle with finding a sexuality in both Seattle and in the Arabian Gulf, her relationships with her Mother, Father, and all her relatives was so fascinating. The ending of the book sort of faded out which was pretty dissatisfying, but overall it was such an enjoyable read and maybe it was just because I found her childhood and teenager years more interesting.
This was such a beautiful memoir and Sophia and her family were so interesting. I loved the focus on Sophia's struggle with finding a sexuality in both Seattle and in the Arabian Gulf, her relationships with her Mother, Father, and all her relatives was so fascinating. The ending of the book sort of faded out which was pretty dissatisfying, but overall it was such an enjoyable read and maybe it was just because I found her childhood and teenager years more interesting.
jacquiek11's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
5.0
You have to read this! I came to it via the blessed Isabel Waidner and I'm very grateful. A coming of age story with identity issues. Her American mother sends her to the family of her Bedouin father thinking it will be a boot camp and she finds freedom.Finding an identity is more of a challenge, til she is saved by Bowie and turns to Ziggy Stardust and the powers of self invention.
The pacy writing and my interest in her didn't distract from the story of her father's family
'In a generation they had gone from migrating the peninsular with the seasons to living in windowless housing blocks.....But their nomadic instincts adapted to the situation and ended up manifesting themselves in new ways - for example, in the regular changing of interior decoration.it was seasonal: every few months everyone got together and traded their curtains and carpets to get the feeling of having a new room.'
The change impacts on the freedom.of the women more, or that's the way it seemed to me. The joy of being in groups of women is marvellous to read.
The pacy writing and my interest in her didn't distract from the story of her father's family
'In a generation they had gone from migrating the peninsular with the seasons to living in windowless housing blocks.....But their nomadic instincts adapted to the situation and ended up manifesting themselves in new ways - for example, in the regular changing of interior decoration.it was seasonal: every few months everyone got together and traded their curtains and carpets to get the feeling of having a new room.'
The change impacts on the freedom.of the women more, or that's the way it seemed to me. The joy of being in groups of women is marvellous to read.
amylandranch's review
3.0
This was a memoir I bought for my middle school library. Sophia has an American mother and a Bedouin father and she is stretched across two worlds. I liked the contradiction between her life in Washington and her life in Qatar. Learning about her culture and some of the Muslim ways of life was interesting. As she gets older, she tries to figure out where she fits in and how she will live. Towards the end, there are a few parts that make the memoir a little more mature than my 6th graders can handle, like losing her virginity and then faking losing it to another man. There is a little language and an incident with a man exposing himself. Good memoirs have some type of conflict or bad life experiences in them, which makes it hard to find interesting, not too mature on content, books for my students. 9th grade and up.
greyscarf's review
3.0
An interesting memoir that moves quickly, filled more with incident that insight. I picked up Al-Maria's memoir because it was name-checked in the acknowledgements of [b:The Peripheral|20821159|The Peripheral|William Gibson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1402651292s/20821159.jpg|40167043]. Al-Maria's story of searching for her identity as she traverses American and Arabic society is interesting & she brings up plenty of topics that curious readers can research themselves. But I frequently wanted to hear more about certain things she brought up. For instance, the author mentions reading [b:Dune|234225|Dune (Dune Chronicles, #1)|Frank Herbert|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1389569143s/234225.jpg|3634639] while growing up in Qatar. While she does mention some events or associations that happened in her life that caused her to think on the book, they don't extend past more than a comforting mention when I wanted something akin to Nathan Rabin's pop culture devotions. I do get the feeling that Al-Maria has more to say, so I hope to enjoy further works by her.
_zora_'s review
4.0
Lovely! Initially felt like it might break under the weight of all the alien and space metaphors, but fortunately those fade away just enough (they're still very apt). Very interesting look into not-so-well-off Qatari life.
sarah_d's review
3.0
I think this book was perfectly fine. I'm sure it was probably better than fine but I've been totally off reading lately so a book like this that should have taken me a day to read took three weeks instead. I would totally ignore this review when it comes to deciding whether or not you should read this book.
sandyd's review against another edition
5.0
Lovely memoir about the coming of age of the daughter of an improbable couple - a temporarily hippie-like teenaged girl from Puyallup, WA, and a confused Bedouin boy who never makes it to Seattle for a scholarship.
Sophia (or Safya, as she's called in Qatar) spends much of her teen years in Qatar and Egypt, and the conflicts between American and her family's style of Muslim culture are mind-boggling. Great insights into the current generation and changing cultures. Not as funny as Randa Jarrar's A Map of Home, but just as interesting.
Sophia (or Safya, as she's called in Qatar) spends much of her teen years in Qatar and Egypt, and the conflicts between American and her family's style of Muslim culture are mind-boggling. Great insights into the current generation and changing cultures. Not as funny as Randa Jarrar's A Map of Home, but just as interesting.
strickvl's review against another edition
4.0
Much better than I had expected. This is the memoir of a girl who grows up between an American family/childhood and her Bedouin family, constantly shifting from one to the other. Well written and sensitive to the realities of life as a young woman in a Qatari Bedouin semi-tribal environment.
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