Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life

Synopsis
Eleanor of Aquitaine was one of Europe's strongest and most fascinating medieval women. She was the wife of two kings and the mother of three, but she was also a political powerhouse in her own right.

In a nutshell, she went on the Second Crusade. She pursued an annulment for her first marriage to Louis VII of France and then turned around and married his archrival, the future Henry II of England, a scant two months later. She held her own in her tumultuous second marriage, even supporting her sons when they revolted against Henry. She outlived Henry, remained involved in the lives of her children, and finally retired to be a nun two years before her death.

My thoughts
I first encountered Eleanor of Aquitaine when I saw Lion in Winter in high school. The cast was impressive—Peter O'Toole, Anthony Hopkins, Timothy Dalton, Nigel Terry—and Katharine Hepburn's Eleanor was proud, regal, and utterly captivating. (Bonus trivia tidbit: Hepburn was actually descended from Eleanor.) But it still took me 10 years to get around to reading Alison Weir's biography (I got sidetracked by those glamorous Tudors).

Weir's biography is thorough and enlightening, no small task when you consider that medieval sources and incredibly limited, and those that have survived tend not to focus on women, no matter how powerful they are. (Eleanor sometimes disappears from contemporary records for months at a time, and Weir has to resort to household accounts and educated guesses to determine where Eleanor was.) To complicate matters further, Eleanor was a controversial figure who was regarded with hostility and suspicion. Despite the limitations, Weir's portrait of Eleanor depicts a truly remarkable woman who took charge of her own destiny.

Bottom line
Well worth the read if you have any interest at all in medieval history.

Fine print
Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life, by Alison Weir
Genre: History
Photo from Goodreads
I bought this book.
Read December 2009 (review from my book log)

The Bookseller of Kabul

Synopsis
In the wake of the Taliban's fall, Norwegian journalist Åsne Seierstad moves in with the titular bookseller and his family. She believes Sultan Khan is a unique, forward-thinking man—but his vision of a progressive Afghanistan doesn't seem to extend to his own family, particularly where his female relatives are concerned.

My thoughts

Every few months the plight of women in Afghanistan will appear as a brief blip in the media, usually when yet another study names Afghanistan as one of the most dangerous places in the world for those who lack a Y chromosome. Seierstad's close relationship with the Khan family and her matter-of-fact tone make this account particularly heartbreaking.

I related most to Sultan's youngest sister Leila. We are roughly the same age, but while I was at college living with four (entirely platonic) male roommates and blithely taking my education for granted, Leila felt forced to drop out of a coed English course because of the impropriety of talking with men she wasn't related to. I graduated, found a job I loved, moved halfway across the country from my family, and chose my own husband (he chose me too, just so we're clear on that); Leila struggled as her family's de facto servant while she dreamed of a teaching job that never materialized and covertly exchanged notes with a boy she could never marry.

Parts of this book are so infuriating that it's difficult to keep an open mind. Afghanistan is a backward nation in many respects, but there is hope. Now that the Taliban is gone, the potential for real reform exists. It may happen at a glacial pace, but shifting long-standing cultural institutions isn't easy.

Khan might have been a typical Afghan in his treatment of his wives and sisters, but it was his commitment to literature that drew Seierstad to him in the first place. Even though his store was ransacked and he was thrown in jail, he persisted in defying the Soviets and then the Taliban by saving books that would otherwise have been destroyed. Unfortunately, for me at least, his misogyny and his ruthlessness as a businessman overshadowed his good deeds.

Bottom Line
A must-read. It's a hugely powerful book.

Fine Print
The Bookseller of Kabul, by Åsne Seierstad
Genre: History/Current Events
Photo from Goodreads
I bought this book as a birthday present to myself. It was part of a Borders 3-for-2 promotion back when Borders was still around.

Saved By Beauty: Adventures of an American Romantic in Iran

Synopsis
Sixtysomething author Roger Housden, searching for inspiration for his next book project/midlife crisis, lands on the idea of traveling to Iran. What emerges is a unique travelogue that explores Iran's richly poetic past, its repressive present, and its cautiously hopeful future.

My thoughts
I love armchair travel. One of my friends went to Iraq this year and another went to North Korea, and their experiences have prompted me to seek out travel stories that go beyond the usual buy-a-villa-and-discover-Europe route (although those are fun to read too). That's why this book caught my eye, and I was not disappointed. It never occurred to me to think of Iran as a tourist destination, but Housden's romps among the ruins of ancient cities made me hope for a detente between Iran and the West so that I can see it with my own eyes someday.

Housden met a wide array of people during his trip, and Saved By Beauty helped me understand the passionate, liberal-leaning populace that propelled the Green Movement after the 2009 election (Housden's visit took place shortly before this). I also appreciated Housden's perspective. He pointed out that even as Americans view Iran as an extremist bully with a religious agenda, many Iranians view the U.S. (particularly under the Bush administration) as an extremist bully with a religious agenda. Valuable reality check.

A large chunk of the book deals with the pride many Iranians feel for their Persian culture. This was enlightening for me because, being American, I'm wholly unfamiliar with both Persian culture and the concept of feeling an enduring spiritual connection to my country's culture. (Around the same time Housden was soaking up Persian culture, I was in Italy, where within the span of a couple hours I cheered on the Palio and then cringed my way through an episode of some godawful Tila Tequila reality show. I've never been so profoundly ashamed of America's cultural exports.)

Bottom line
I would have enjoyed the book much more if I'd had more (read: any) exposure to Persian poets. And my mind did start to wander whenever Housden started getting introspective. But Saved By Beauty  piqued my interest in Iran, and I'm curious to read more about its history and politics.


Fine Print
Saved By Beauty: Adventures of an American Romantic in Iran, by Roger Housden
Genre: Travel
Photo from Goodreads
I borrowed this book from the library.