Girls of Riyadh: A Novel

My husband and I are on our way to Saudi as he has accepted a job with ARAMCO. I have begun to read and listen to every book that I can get my hands on to understand their culture. This has been on that I have truly enjoyed. You are allowed to follow these 4 friends through their lives with much emotion. I find myself cheering for them and hoping for different endings to their real-life story. The narrator has a pleasant tone that she changes with the characters. I think this book would have been more difficult to read than to listen to as she pronounces the arabic phrases and translates them for you in the correct pronunciation. You will not regret this purchase.

This was amazingly helpful for me to understand the social issues of working with Saudi's.. great examples of the various challenges in this culture.

This may be a work of fiction, but it reads like a lot of the non-fiction/memior material that has been written by Arab women in the last 25 years. Enjoy it for the accurate cultural voyeurism it offers, respect it for the truth it tells.

I've listened to Kate Reading before and always enjoyed her performaces (particularily The Wheel of Time series). She speaks clearly with a certain dryness, cut when applicable by the required emotion.

I picked up this book because I've always been fascinated by foreign cultures, and from the preview this appeared to be a venture into the lives of young women in Riyadh. This is exactly what I got. It's full of reasons and situations that are similar and at the same time very different from what I've grown up with, and forms of expression in dialogue that seem to be plucked straight from Arabic, which I find absolutely fascinating (I don't speak Arabic but intend to learn).

I quickly grew to root for the four main characters, and followed them through their ups and downs. At the end of the book I was sad to leave them.

I've already recommended this book to most of my friends. That in itself is n indication of how much I enjoyed it.

I really enjoyed getting a glimpse into these Saudi girls lives. It's written like posts to an email list where one girl describes what happens to her friends - mainly in the field of love.

I really enjoyed the book and learnt a great deal from it. Wonderful travel into the world so different but all the same so close.

Ok ..so this was a bit like a sisterhood of the traveling pants...in Saudi . It was enjoyable but didn't quite cut it. i love books about the "eastern" cultures...I can't put my finger on it ..but this didn't quite cut it.