This is the memoir of a Jewish girl from New York who ends up working in the Harem of a Prince of Brunei. Its not so much a story about Harem life, although that’s mentioned in places. Its more about Jillian’s psychological journey, her troubled childhood, and working out who she is in the world….
Tag: non_fiction
The Man in the Rubber Mask
I’d been looking for this book for ages, as it is quite rare, so it was exciting to find it at Gould’s the other day. This is the memoir of the dude inside the rubber mask that Kryten wears in Red Dwarf. The book is an easy read, and entertaining, although I wouldn’t call it…
On Cars
Jeremy Clarkson isn’t one of those people you can read hundreds of pages of at once. That’s probably why he writes articles instead of books. This book is a collection of these articles, and it is an interesting and entertaining read. However, I couldn’t read it front to back. Instead I read it over a…
Why do men fall asleep after sex?
This is the second medical trivia book by The Leyner and Goldberg duo. The first was Why do men have nipples, which I read in June. This book suffers from the same flaws as the first — its light weight and doesn’t take itself very seriously. That means that often they avoid answering serious questions,…
The Book of General Ignorance
I seem to be on a bit of a trivia book kick, which is at least partially motivated by getting through all my Christmas presents so I can pack them into a box and move to a different country. This book was written as part of the production of the very excellent BBC quiz show…
Why do men have nipples?
This book is pretty light weight. The font is big, and there is lots of “chrome” on the pages, which conspire to make a book which would probably be only 100 pages in a normal font more like 200 pages. The book also suffers from trying a little too hard to be funny, with numerous…
Why don’t penguin’s feet freeze? (and 114 other questions)
This book was really fun. Its a collection of 115 questions sent into New Scientist magazine, and the answers provided by other readers. Sometimes the answers and sarcastic or funny, and sometimes they are incredibly detailed. I found this book really interesting to read, and I certainly picked up some trivial to annoy my wife…
Sticklers, Sideburns and Bikinis
This is the second book I have got from the LibraryThing early reviewer program (the previous book was The Spy Within). I’m going to have to be honest with this book and say that I haven’t read all of it yet. Its basically a dictionary and I don’t tend to read those cover to cover….
The Spy Within
LibraryThing, of which I am a member runs a program where members are shipped early copies of books for free, with the preference for them writing a review when they’re done reading the book. The books are shipped by the publisher directly to the reviewers. This isn’t that uncommon in the publishing industry — both…