Lion Women of Tehran

 

This is the story of two women growing up in Tehran.  It's a story of politics and friendship.  The story line covers a couple of decades.

Ellie and Homa grew up together in an impoverished section of the city.  Ellie's mother marries her uncle and they move to a wealthy part of Tehran.  Elli and Homa lose contact until their senior year in high school when Homa is able to get into the prestigious high school that Ellie attends.  Homa is very radical and wants to change the culture for Iranian women.

While imprisoned for protesting the Shah, Homa is raped and gives birth to a baby girl.  Meanwhile, Ellie has married her long-time sweetheart, they move to America and are childless but not by choice.  Eventually things become so horrible in Iran, that Homa asks Ellie to let her daughter live with her in America.  

This book shows how repressive regimes can be towards women.  It's so very sad, but ends on a hopeful note that perhaps things might change.  

I give it 3.5 stars.

The Things We Cannot Say

 

Written in two time periods; contemporary and during WWII, this is the story of an incredibly brave lady in Poland and her granddaughter years later in America.

I was so annoyed at the contemporary mother that I couldn't enjoy that portion of the story.  She was an over-the-top mother of two children; one autistic and the other quite genius even tho she was only about 13 years old.  

Alina is a young lady living in Poland and is deeply in love with her best friend, Tomasz, who is a spy for Poland.  War separates them and the story line gets a little complicated at some point when Tomasz disappears.  This portion of the story is quite brutal and points out the true horrors of war.  

Fast forward to contemporary America where Alice is concerned for her grandmother who is dying from a stroke and unable to speak.  She insists, even tho Alice's life is very complicated and busy at this time, that Alice must go to Poland to solve the mystery of Alina's life.

Man, Alice is so over-the -top as a mother.  She berates her husband, belittles him, but worst of all, has no confidence that HE can take care of the children while she is away for one week.    I was so annoyed at her the entire book.  However, reviewers on Amazon really loved this book.  It's so fascinating how books affect us differently.

I give it three stars.