Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Disillusioned with her daily routine-phone tag, email, multitasking-Masood leaves her job and her family in Seattle and sets off for the Middle East from whence she came. This travelogue follows Masood, strapped into an REI backpack and sporting a well-thumbed Lonely Planet guidebook, as she travels from Egypt and Jordan to Syria and Turkey over the course of 10 months, hoping "to come to terms with a truer me, a more essential self that couldn't entirely be placed amid the bullet points of my resume." A Pakistan-born Muslim American in her late 20s, Masood finds herself blending into her environment-visiting mosques regularly, making friends easily-without entirely fitting in, a dichotomy ethnic Americans often grapple with while abroad and the ambitious, fascinating topic Masood excels in exploring. Unfortunately, Masood is less interested in describing sights and sounds-the dusty air of Egypt, the bustle of Turkey-and in so doing may fail to hook readers more interested in exotic locales than self-discovery. Though there's much here that's stimulating and relatable, fans of travel writing may feel they've been invited on the trip, but denied the pleasure of losing themselves in it. (Feb.) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.
Review by Library Journal Review
In 2000, twentysomething Masood suddenly left her Seattle dot.com existence to live in and travel through parts of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Turkey. Although this intrepid traveler was born in Karachi, Pakistan, she experienced a rebirth of sorts through the kindness of strangers, learning the Arabic language and praying and fasting. By the end of her insightful, pious, and life-altering journey, she had learned a great deal about living in the moment, returning to the United States just two weeks before 9/11. Masood has much to say about the daily lives of the lovely and hospitable people who befriended her and helped her grow. She has since founded Diwan: Dialogue on Islam, a nonprofit institute. Highly recommended; libraries that already own Rosina-Fawzi Al-Rawi's Midnight Tales: A Woman's Journey Through the Middle East will want to purchase this delightful book as well.-Elizabeth Connor, The Citadel, Military Coll. of South Carolina Lib., Charleston (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
