First book by Alison wearing, memoir writer and programme leader. Not sure if this is memoir or travel book??

Unfortunately, I don't remember enough specifics about this to write a good review. I remember bits and pieces, like her description of her hijab, and passing out because she got so hot in it. I also specifically remember thinking this author is a kook. (She describes getting lost in China because she was so absorbed in the book she was reading that she got on the wrong train. Who does that???) I liked the stories, but didn't care for the author. She seemed rather brash and a "typical American." For example, there was a scene where, while in a small market, she helps herself to items in a jar and starts sampling it. You just don't do that sort of thing in a foreign country, and anyone who's traveled even a little knows that. I was annoyed with her and happy to be done with the book.

Full disclosure: I spent several years in pre-revolutionary Iran. ( )

Very witty! You get a real sense of the journey she is on discovering not only the country and people of Iran but ultimately herself. ( )

Were this book to be read by every high-school student in the USA - American political agression may be radically changed. A book to be read every few years - it contains such tenderness, insight, humour. A whole new world opens up to us vis-a-vis the humanity of the ordinary Iranians in the face of the multitudes of restrictions in their lives. Reading this book always helps to cleanse the tawdry hopelessness & toxicity of the Bush era. ( )