eyes.2c Reviews

Book of Queens :  The True Story of the Middle Eastern Horsewomen Who Fought the War on Terror   by Pardis Mahdavi       ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ If you love horses and enjoy strong women with soul this is the book for you. An historical look at the Caspian horses of the Middle East, and the freedom fighters, the warrior women who bred, trained and ensured their survival.  Paradise Mahdavi explores her family history for the truth about these horses and the women who dealt with them. Her journey takes her across the Middle East, to the United States, and to England. We’re taken from Afghanistan to Virginia and back. From Mahdavi’s Iranian grandmother to the now. A big part of the story is the search for the studbook of the Caspian Horses. Important for the provenance and history of bloodline. Along the way we discover the women fighters who take on the Taliban, ISIS and warlords of the northern regions. A tribute to the forgotten history of the women of Persia, of Iran,...

Picture in the Sand   by   Peter Blauner               ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Amazing piece of writing that brings together a radicalised young Muslim from the US post 911 and the story of his Egyptian Muslim grandfather in Egypt in the 1950’s during Nasser’s rise to power, coinciding with Cecil B. DeMille’s filming of the Ten Commandments. Alix’s grandfather, Ali Hassan writes to Alix  (now Abu Suror meaning ‘father of joy’)  about his fate, his journey during those years. How he regained a faith he’d lost, not through radicalisation, but through circumstances that lead from a step away from repudiation of his religion to an acceptance of things. The miracle of love during this time comes slowly. His grandfather had been writing about his life over the years and he was now sharing it with Alix.  A family drama that has legs and captures a vast array of reasons why people do things, people who are in the wrong place at the wrong time, the ...

The Kurdish Bike: A Novel by Alesa Lightbourne         An unusual story set in Northern Iraq where divorced teacher, Theresa Turner takes on a stint of teaching in a ultra conservative school, the International Academy of Kurdistan, for the upper echelon in the far reaches of Kurdistan in 2010. Somewhere between a novel and a memoir, I was fascinated by Theresa's purchase of a bike and steps towards exploring the culture she was working within. Her developing relationships with the women of the village is a jewel. Her entree into their hopes and dreams, their disappointments and the rules they live by is eye opening. Her brief moments of journeying with these women is wonderful. What's not so precious is the showing up of the teacher she's replaced with a somewhat sinister aura. That played into sinister shadows of disgruntled converts, something I didn't like and didn't think was necessary. And why didn't Theresa just toss the guy's mysterious packa...