(You can catch up on what my Reading Challenge is all about here.)

Book: The Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea

Verdict: This book was written by a Saudi woman about the lives of four upper-class Saudi women in their early 20s. I found it incredibly interesting, especially because I didn't know anything about Saudi culture before reading this book. It followed four fictional women from their time just after graduating high school until they were about 25... at which point, they basically act as if they are old spinsters who will never find love if they aren't married already. (Which, as a 29 year old, is a little depressing.)

It was a great book for our book club and raised a lot of different discussion points. I think if it had been based on another society I was more familiar with, it really wouldn't be a very interesting story... just following four, spoiled rich girls on a quest for a husband. But this book was eye-opening in that I never really thought how difficult it must be, for these women who are exposed to Cinderella-version stories of true love in Western movies, books and the internet, but are still very limited in their ability to socialize with men outside their family and have little say over the men they can marry. These women are caught between tradition and religion, and wanting to find that perfect romantic love as it exists in the movies. I was also surprised by how much young men and women stealthily interact with each other, over the internet or on cell phones, before they even meet, especially because they aren't even supposed to socialize with members of the opposite sex to whom they are not related. Seriously, these people are on the cell phones from midnight to 4AM every day!

I would recommend this book if you're interested in learning a little bit about Saudi culture. It only addresses the lives of the upper-class in a big city, so it's still a small sample of society in Saudi Arabia, but it's still a well written, interesting book.