Can't remember where I picked this up but I am glad I did. For the genre, it was both enjoyable and interesting. I seem to be reading a certain type of book lately -- not romance in the bodice ripper sense, but love stories or gentle tales of women interacting with life. In this one, a young Iranian woman (27) has come to America with the hopes of finding someone to marry her so that she can stay here. The background story of how her Iranian family, who has been living in the US before the overthrow of the Shah, found themselves back in Iran, was interesting. Reading about her life kept recalling Reading Lolita in Tehran. And seeing our world (albiet the southwest) through her eyes was fascinating, especially when her eyes were a camera lens, as she took up photography. Tamila's dilemma of loving her country, yet despairing for it was delicately communicated, for despite the flaws and faults of those in power, it is clear she loves her culture and heritage.

one of the most moving passages for me was a moment when one of the other students in her ESL class asked her:

"What is I-Ran like? Is it as bad as the news says it is?" He pronounces my country I-Ran, as in I Ran to the Corner to Buy some Milk. It sounds harsh and ugly to hear it this way. Eee-Rahn, that is how Persians say it. But I do not correct his mistake.
"It is..." I do not know how to describe it for them so they will understand. It is crazy drivers. It is open-air markets all over the city selling spices and onions and fish with their heads still on. It is linking arms with your girlfriends and whispering about the good-looking boy you have passed. It is saffron and tea and naps in the haet of the afternoon. It is escaping sometimes to the mountains or the Caspian Sea where the air is moist and not so repressive.
It is, I want to say, all that I know.

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I found this in the free little library.