Rating: 
Summary: Couldn't put it down
Review: This book is so compelling. I couldn't put it down. Highly recommend this, especially in today's world. I had no idea women lived like this.
Rating:
Summary: Very Powerful Book!
Review: It is very rare that I find a book that moves me, as this one did. I had no idea that the women of Saudi Arabia were subjected to such brutality. It was a book that I continue to reflect on and discuss at great length with my friends and husband. If there ever was a book that makes me appreciate the limitless power that we, as women, enjoy in the United States, this is it. I hope that you read it. It is a scary thought that there are people living like this in the world!
Rating:
Summary: Best Book for Truth
Review: I have to admit, I hate reading!!! But this book, I just could not put down. I read it in 3 days. This is not a book for the weak, there are some "true" graphic things in this book that really happens to women over there. Some of my family lived in Saudi Arabia for a while, and let me tell you that this book is the truth when it comes to life of the women over there. They are treated like they are less than dirt. I don't care what other reviews say on here about how it is not how they treat women, because it IS!! I don't know if it is because they are trying to keep what is going on over there in the dark or what, but this book really sheds some light on what really happens. I really recommend this book. I am now starting to read her next book, Princess Sultana's Daughters, I will let you know how that is.
Rating:
Summary: This book changed my view of life.
Review: This book changed my view of life.I first heard of this book from an eye-catching quote in a magazine. I was horrified to learn about female mutilation.
I was unaware that such a practice existed (ever existed, let alone continued to exist). I read in horror the excerpt from the book. Out of morbid curiosity, I got the book and read it voraciously. The stories were totally engrossing. Sometimes a book comes along that puts you in a fog. When you put the book down, you can't shake the feeling it
gives you. This book was like that. I felt myself weeping for the people in those page. As I'd walk to my car to go to work, I'd think to myself: "How lucky I am to live in a country where I can walk
alone, where I can walk with my face exposed, where I can own and drive a car, and have a job..." How lucky I am
to have never been abused or had the most sensitive part of my body barbarically cut off. I can love, wholly. I fear
no man, I fear nobody. I am truly privileged. I honestly feel that every girl and every woman in North America should read this book. Whenever I see a spoiled
brat or hear somebody complain about something trivial, I think to myself: "You don't know how LUCKY you are
and yet you complain?! You have no right!" I cannot get on a soapbox and force people to think like I do, but I can certainly take from the book a lesson... a
lesson that I think both the subject and the author wanted to teach. I have since read the next two books, and find them equally amazing. I weep for the wretchedness in the world that I cannot control. But I can control my own life and I will not take it for
granted.
Rating:
Summary: Soapopera of Saudi Princess
Review: This book is a fast read and wonderfully written. The first person stories and colorful characters hold your interest. The melodrama of the lives and the way one woman fights against an oppressive culture is stirring. However, it is not a nuanced or wise explanation of that culture. If one wants some insight to the civilization, it is a good way to start. But it is only a start, a one sided story out of many that could be told.
Rating: 
Summary: Can this all be true?
Review: This an easy to read absolutely riveting account of the lives of upper class Saudi women, written by a member of the royal family. By way of background, the "Princess" of the title is a direct descendant of the founder of the current Saudi monarchy, and has told her story at great personal risk, according to the author. Even taking into account that there are several hundred princes and princesses who claim to be direct descendants, I found it hard to understand how this book, which is actually the first of three, could have been published without its source being discovered, given the unbelievably tight constraints the society places on the behavior of women. Be that as it may, the lives of these women are lived in gilded cages, which is fine if you can totally suppress your personality and intelligence and observe the rules. The ones who can't suffer consequences that I find hard to believe exist in the modern world. On the surface, life seems pleasant enough--the royal family lives in luxury that is unimaginable even by American standards--once a young couple is married, the building of several palaces seems a matter of course. When the Princess goes on her honeymoon, her new husband buys all the seats in first class so they can have privacy. Yet life is circumscribed severely--education is often withheld from women; husbands are chosen for a girl at a very young age in order to cement family or business alliances, with no regard for suitability in terms of age or personality. Abuse of women in marriage is common. From childhood, the wishes of men are accomodated in all things--a son can take the possessions of his sister without question. Porsches and Rolexes for male teenagers are common. The Princess' brother seems to be an especially despicable example of moral decay resulting from having every wish fulfilled--he rapes young girls, uses underage prostitutes, hits women, and is cruel even to loyal servants. Yet a woman who breaks the rules, particularly in regard to sexual matters, pays a hefty price. Two incidents in particular stand out--in one, a father drowns his only and much beloved daughter in the family swimming pool for engaging in some admittedly rather wild sexual behavior with non-Saudi men. In another case, a young woman is locked into solitary confinement for the rest of her life for falling in love while abroad studying. At last report she was alive but insane. Having read this most horrible story I was eager to learn more, as I find it hard to believe any civilized nation would permit the outright murder of women by family members, solely based upon how the head of the family feels about the transgression in question. Interestingly, Amnesty International's latest report on the treatment of women states that it is hard to get direct evidence of events like this due to their inability to talk to Saudi women themselves, and most of the report deals with the mistreatment of non-Saudi workers. This book left me disturbed and uneasy particularly as these "allies" have become very important to the U.S. in recent weeks. I worry that the book is true, and I worry about how inflammatory it and others like it can be in the current environment. Read "A Street in Marrakesh" for a much less dismal look at life in Morocco for poorer women. Read as much as you can, written from different viewpoints. And try to keep an open mind.
Rating:
Summary: A LIFE THAT IS OFTEN SHOCKING, SOMETIMES DISTURBING...
Review: If you are woman and happen to think your life is not "all a bed of roses," wait until you read this book. The story is told by a Saudi Arabian princess who has all the materialistic possessions she could want, but still lacks the freedom that most women in North American countries take for granted. Her husband is loving and caring but most women she knows are not so fortunate, and she tells what it is like for women who do not have her advantages. Some of what you will read will be beyond comprehension, and often disturbing, as we read about life and conditions which seem so far removed from our own. Women are virtually nothing more than possessions of the men who own them. Harems of sex slaves and forced marriages of young girls, to men old enough to be their grandfathers, are not uncommon. For most women, there is no freedom, no education, no possessions of their own, and no choice. Life is hard and cruel. It is somewhat difficult for women in our society to imagine that conditions like this still exist in our modern-day world as we know it...but they do! This story is clear evidence of that fact. "Princess" is a real eye-opener about a culture few people in our society truly understand. The book is well documented, highly recommended and most deserving of a five-star rating.
Rating:
Summary: Eye opening
Review: Wow is the only way to epress myself after reading this book, although it's not enough. I always wondered how the "other half"
of the world lived and the Princess told me in unabashed terms. Although I read this book a few years ago,I still remember every moment of every experience Sultana told. Her bravery to recount her life to another, a western woman in fact, risking her life to tell the opressive truth of how women of cover are reguarded,even Sultana,as royality. I respect her courage,and am greatful for my freedoms. I gave this book a 4 star rating not because I "liked" the storyline, but because it was a SHOCKING story that had to be told.
Rating:
Summary: Read It and Be Sickend
Review: This book is a shocker from begining to end. Although it merely restates on a human level what groups like Amnesty International have been saying for yeasrs Princess is a good introductory novel for anyone who is interested in what life for Saudi women is like.
Rating: 
Summary: too exaggerated!
Review: I read this book but I thought it was well exaggerated. To find out some of the facts I logged onto an Arab web site and have been exchanging emails with real Saudis (including some women) and they have told me it's true women can't have a driver's license but it is NOT true that their births are not recorded! Also the fathers killing wives and daughters at the drop of a hat, one woman said what's more realistic is that the family takes the girl to Egypt where there are surgeons who can surgically restore the girl's hymen so she's like a virgin on her wedding night, NOT EXACTLY what the American stereotyped idea of Arabs is, but it makes a lot of sense even if they maybe don't want to publicize that's what they're doing! No one of the Saudis I talked to had read Sultana but they said lots of people write nonsense about Saudis. One of the other reviewers in Amazon recommended a book by Marianne Alireza called At the Drop of a Veil. Some of the Saudis knew that book and said yes it gave a real picture but it's a little out of date. At any rate I'm looking for a copy on ebay. I think it's important in these days to know the truth about other people including Moslems, and books like Princess don't help, they just try to be sensational.
| 
