land_serene | Entries tagged with women

Title: Princess Sultana's Circle
Author: Jean Sasson
Publisher: Windsor-Brooke Books
Format: Paperback
Pages: 265
Times Read: 1
Rank:

Summary: Sasson and Saudi Princess Sultana follow their earlier accounts of social oppression of women in Arabia with one that focuses on the Saudi royal family and how, despite its wealth and relative freedom from social conventions, its men continue to oppress women. Specific instances include the forced marriage of a young niece to a brutal older man and a cousin's harem of sex slaves.
~ Booklist

( Review )

Title: Geisha, A Life
Author: Mineko Iwasaki
Publisher: Washington Square Press
Format: Paperback
Pages: 320
Times Read: 1
Rank:

Summary: Now in her 50s, Mineko Iwasaki was one of the most famed geishas of her generation (and the chief informant for Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha). Her ascent was difficult, not merely because of the hard, endless training she had to undergo--learning how to speak a hyper-elevated dialect of Japanese and how to sing and dance gracefully while wearing a 44-pound kimono atop six-inch wooden sandals--but also because many of the elaborate, self-effacing rules of the art went against her grain. Revealing the secrets of the geisha's "art of perfection," this graceful memoir documents a disappearing world. ~ Amazon.com

( Review )

Title: Anna and the King of Siam
Author: Margaret Landon
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks, 1999
Format: Paperbacks
Pages: 416
Times Read: 1
Rank:

Summary: This classic tale blends fact and fiction as it tells the story of Englishwoman Anna Leonowens, who becomes governess to the children of King Mongkut of Siam in the 1860s.
~ Amazon.com

( Review )

Title: The Reluctant Empress, A Biography of Empress Elisabeth of Austria
Author: Brigitte Hamann
Publisher: Alfred A, Knopf, 1982
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 410
Times Read: 1
Rank:

Summary: A biography of Empress Elisabeth, based mainly on letters and diaries of herself and her contemporaries.

( Review )

Title: Memoirs of Cleopatra
Author: Margaret George
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin, 1998
Format: Paperback
Pages: 976
Times Read: 1
Rank:

Summary: Cleopatra has captivated generations, and this huge novel will ensure additional adulation. Beginning with a memory at age three of witnessing her mother's death and ending with her own suicide, Cleopatra tells her story. Both the telling and the tale are exceptional. George combines history and legend with her own imagination to produce a fascinating portrait. Strangely, some of the more implausible events, such as Cleopatra's being hidden in a rug and taken to Caesar, are fact, not fiction. The graceful use of the language and the intense action make for compelling reading.
~ Library Journal

( Review )

Title: Princess Sultana's Daughters
Author: Jean Sasson
Publisher: Windsor-Brooke Books, 2001
Format: Paperback
Pages: 256
Times Read: 1
Rank:

Summary: A member of the royal family of Saudi Arabia, Sultana now is married to a progressive prince, but this privileged status does not protect her or her two daughters from the country's repressive laws against women. Though a devout Muslim, Sultana believes the entrenched male power structure has perverted religious doctrine to justify veiling women and depriving them of basic civil liberties. The lack of opportunity to forge equal relationships with men before and after marriage, Sultana argues, is why one of her daughters became fanatically religious and the other suffered a mental breakdown. This eye-opening account is limited to life among the royals rather than a critique of Saudi Arabian society, although Sultana describes the brutal custom of female circumcision practiced by the poor.
~ Amazon.com

( Review )

Title: Golden Fleece: The Story of Franz Joseph and Elisabeth of Austria
Author: Bertita Harding
Publisher: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1937
Format: Hardcover, autographed 1st edition
Pages: 370
Times Read: 2
Rank:

Summary: A biography of Elisabeth and Franz Joseph, empress and emperor of Austria and queen and king of Hungary.

( Review )

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A Land Serene

Princess Sultana's Circle, Jean Sasson

Geisha, A Life, Mineko Iwasaki

Anna and the King of Siam, Margaret Landon

The Reluctant Empress, Brigitte Hamann

Memoirs of Cleopatra, Margaret George

Princess Sultana's Daughters, Jean Sasson

Golden Fleece, Bertita Harding

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