Hello and congratulations! You have not only found yourself a good book, but a whole community of booklovers dedicated to sharing books with each other and the world at large. I hope you'll stick around a bit and get to know BookCrossing --maybe even make a journal entry on this book. You may choose to remain anonymous or to join (it's free! – if you do join, please consider typing my name – Beebarf – in the referral box). Feel free to read and keep this book, or to pass it on to a friend or even set it free "in the wild" for someone else to find as you did. If you do choose to join and journal, then you can watch the book as it travels - you'll be alerted by email each time someone makes another journal entry. It's all confidential (you're known only by your screen name and no one is ever given your email address), free, and spam-free. Happy reading!

When the Taliban took control of Kabul, Kamila Sidiqi and all the women of Kabul saw their lives transformed. Overnight, they were banned from schools and offices and even forbidden from leaving their front doors on their own. The economy collapsed and young men left the city in search of work and security. Desperate to help her family and support her five brothers and sisters at home, Kamila began sewing cothes in her living room. Little did she know that the tailoring business she started to help her siblings would be the beginning of a dressmaking business that would create jobs and hope for one hundred neighbourhood women and would come to mean the difference between starvation and survival for hundreds of families like her own.

This was rather a disappointing book. And I do have issues with privileged white people telling stories that the participants are perfectly capable of telling, especially when it's done in such a way that it removes all colour, all tension and just makes the narrative seem inauthentic.

The author writes in very much the style employed by women's magazines such as "Take A Break" or "Bella" - so there is conjecture, stilted dialogue and little or no examination of the political, philosophical or moral issues underlying the whole situation. The introduction where the political situation is introduced is confusing and unclear, and I'm still confused about the number and ages of family members ...

I also wondered about some of the practicalities ... have difficulties been skimmed over - and if so, why do that in a book about a challenging life? Surely someone who didn't sew can't just produce beaded tunics to a professional standard after one afternoon working with her sister? And why would a shopkeeper just give a stranger fabric and tell her to come back with completed garments?

I got distracted by questions like this simply because the narrative did not grip me, even in moments when the lives and livelihoods of the women were under threat. It also didn't help that the characters of the women did not come through - mostly due to the mediation of the author, who reduced them to sketches, and who made up conversations and inserted feelings in rather a crass way.

The book has 5 stars in support of the women of Afghanistan, and for the glimpses of the real story that comes through, but otherwise it isn't a book I could recommend.

Happy trails, little book! I hope you have an interesting journey!