Syrian Brides is a collection of 14 short stores by Anna Halabi. The author was born and raised in Aleppo and immigrated to Europe for her studies in 1999. Some of the stories have a bite, some are quirky, some share a lesson, and all are interesting. I appreciated learning more about the Syrian and Muslim culture. ( )

Book given in exchange for an honest review

So, I don't want to sound horribly negative since this book was decently done overall. Brides is a small collection of individual stories based on women's life experiences in Syria, the exact timeframe I didn't recall seeing but which turns out to not be important. The stories themselves are interesting tho they don't go in to the deeper personality of the characters, the brief style of the stories don't really demand a harder fleshing out of anyone but it would be nice to see. Plus I know there's differences in culture and religion but some statements about islamic men and family life seemed very out of place but I of course can put that up to me being a muslim woman from one country reading a book by a muslim woman in another country. After all, said differences.

All in all it was entertaining to read even with a more simple tone and writing style (could have been lost in translation if it wasn't printed in english first, of course). Some of the stories were witty, none boring. Enjoyable overall and worth the time for a smile or something to chew over. ( )

Book given in exchange for an honest review

So, I don't want to sound horribly negative since this book was decently done overall. Brides is a small collection of individual stories based on women's life experiences in Syria, the exact timeframe I didn't recall seeing but which turns out to not be important. The stories themselves are interesting tho they don't go in to the deeper personality of the characters, the brief style of the stories don't really demand a harder fleshing out of anyone but it would be nice to see. Plus I know there's differences in culture and religion but some statements about islamic men and family life seemed very out of place but I of course can put that up to me being a muslim woman from one country reading a book by a muslim woman in another country. After all, said differences.

All in all it was entertaining to read even with a more simple tone and writing style (could have been lost in translation if it wasn't printed in english first, of course). Some of the stories were witty, none boring. Enjoyable overall and worth the time for a smile or something to chew over. ( )

"For all the strong Syrian women, enduring battles- at home and at war in their homeland".
Syrian Brides by Anna Halabi

This book is utterly delightful.

As others have said, this is a full length book with a collection of short stories about Syrian Brides. The stories..all of them..are exceptional. You can read this at your leisure or more likely gobble it up in one sitting.

The stories vary greatly. Some are biting, some are poignant, some are just plain hysterical but what all of them have in common are that they are all powerful. And so well written.

There is not one story I did not appreciate. A few frustrated me because I wanted more! This happens to me so often with short stories. I just want them to be longer!

This is particularly true in my personal favorite..The Bride's maid.

Purely Hilarious..The Counterfeit Bride..

That could easily be a full length book. In fact all of them could.

Irony plays a huge role in this book in many of the stories..so if you are one for irony as I am it is all over the pages here and you will have a field day reading these stories.

In addition, they give me insight into another culture and how they live and that is always a great thing.

I would recommend this book highly and thank you Sandra as I found it through you. ( )

I chose this book because I love reading about other cultures. Short stories about married women and brides to be were definitely something I could relate to. I expected a mixture of stories about different types of marriages. I expected some of those to be heavy topics and possibly hard to read. What I got was a delightful surprise! Yes, they were stories of marriages and some covered heavy topics. What was surprising was the humor they were told with! The voices in this book made me feel like I was listening to wise women talk of marriage. I would love to go into detail about the stories and talk about the lessons to be learned from them but to do so would ruin it for you. This book is filled with short story gems.
There are some Arabian words but at the back of the book, in the section titled Endnotes, you will find a dictionary. To me the words added a rich flavor. I enjoyed learning them.
This is a book I would recommend to friends who enjoy different cultures, to those who are interested in woman’s studies, as well those who just enjoy entertaining stories of life.
Thank you to The Review Crew and the author for providing an ecopy for reviewing. My review is voluntary. ( )