The Search for Nefertiti : The True Story of an Amazing Discovery

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Summary: The Search for Nefertiti
Review: After I watched Nefertiti Resurrected on the Discovery channel I hoped that this book would be wrote. when I received my copy I did not want to put it down until i finished it. The author brought the 18th dynsity alive. You got to know the people and how thay lived and what that may have felt about the change in there lives . Great book, for anybody who loves history, even if you don't think it was Nefertiti's Mummy that was found.
V. Cambron

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Summary: Astonishing, Anecdotal Account
Review: I loved the anecdotal nature of the book, the sense as you leaf from page to page that anything and everything may be coming your way. When Joann was a teen, for example, her aunt told her a story of World War II hijinks on top of the Great Pyramid. There had been a competition, Joann was told, in which her uncle and his army buds had participated. Each would mount the Great Pyramid and attempt to hit a gold ball off the Pyramid and clear its sides. None of them could do it, even the most vaunted of sportsmen. In this way Dr, Fletcher really helps us to visualize the vast scale of the Pyramids. She's no Ivy Compton Burnett when it comes to dialogue, but you do get the picture of a young woman who's deeply in love with archaelogy and with the romance of discovery.

If the mummy in question turns out to be the legendary Nefertiti, then we will all have greater access to one of the most romantic figures of all time, one who had a great influence on 20th Century fashions. Think of Liz Taylor in Cleopatra!

I am no expert on ancient Egypt but after reading this wonderful book I feel I have a better grip on the issues that surround archaeology at the present time, and you can't take that away from every book. This one is a lavish and thoughtfully produced history of two women reaching out to each other from across a distance of centuries and cultures.

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Summary: Very entertaining
Review: Joan Fletcher doesn't look or sound like what you'd expect an Egyptologist to be. She's brash, opinionated and funny. The book is called Searching for Nefertiti but it really ought be called something like My Life With Mummies. It's more about Dr. Fletcher's career and how she went from a being a Yorkshire teen to an authority on ancient Egypt.

The book is very entertaining. You get a glimpse of what Egyptology is--it's not glamorous. There's heat, dust, bad smells, dangerous people, bad food and no plumbing--and you get an idea of how much joy this job brings to the people who do it. You also get a fine understanding of life in ancient Egypt. They were complicated people, far mores so than the movies would have us believe. Dr. Fletcher's special study of ancient wigs and jewelry gives her a more intimate view of the everyday private life of the ancients.

Now, about the Younger Woman mummy. Is it Nefertiti? I don't think so but I can't say that I mind because the book is just so much fun to read.

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Summary: female pharaoh
Review: Never gave much thought that XVIII dynasty Queen Nefertiti's remains would be found. But this book claims exactly that. This, of course, is not totally accepted by 100% of all other Egyptologists. Since I have no ego at stake here professionally or otherwise, I have no reason whatever to doubt the author's claim to have located her. Moreover, I am pleased to think Nefertiti has been rescued. Though my college studies were in anthropology, I don't find that claim as improbable as some Egyptologists may. Especially considering the abiding care given the royal dead. I mean, they were embalmed to last forever, were they not? But this book encompasses other elements beyond this amazing find. It is also an autobiography of Fletcher's journey to become a professional, working Egyptologist. Also, we get not only a view of ancient Egypt, but numerous notes of customs and people making the land their home today. This book should interest anyone enjoying both history and people. Most other cultures of the ancient world took note of many things Egyptian. Then, too, this book deals with the unique aspect of two monotheistic Pharaohs. Pharaohs in the plural, for another claim of this book is that after Akhenaten's death, Queen Nefertiti, his 'beloved', became the next Pharaoh, continuing the monotheism supporting the worship of 'aten!'

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Summary: An Amazing Lack of Discovery
Review: This latest attempt by Joann Fletcher to credit herself with "discovering the mummy of Nefertiti" contains, for all its length, nothing new or conclusive. Most of her points arguing for the identification of the mummy, "The Younger Woman" in the tomb designated KV35, were published years ago by Marianne Luban, whom Fletcher fails to mention in her book. Fletcher has a good deal to say about ancient wigs, her specialty, but has no way of proving that the wig she claims was found with the three mummies in the tomb even belonged to the mummy in question even though she makes much of this wig. Nor does Fletcher give any scientific proof that the two unattached right arms associated with the mummy actually belong to it. So, her "theory" not even originally belonging to "her", Fletcher has added nothing that can add any true weight as proof of "The Younger Woman" being Nefertiti. Whatever her "search for Nefertiti" consists of--and this is a pretty ambiguous if not downright perplexing statement--it can hardly have anything to do with locating the mummy as that has been in the tomb for all these years since being discovered by Victor Loret in the 19th Century. If one wants to learn about the life of the beautiful queen, there are certainly other books that address this much more comprehensively and Fletcher has nothing original to say about the life and times of Nefertiti, either. Fletcher also fails to comment on the many criticisms her colleagues have asserted against her since she first announced that she had "discovered Nefertiti" in 2003 and evidently, outside of monetary gain, still hopes that she will be remembered as the one who found the mummy of the queen, even though chances of this happening are far slimmer than Joann Fletcher indicates in her book. Not recommended at all.

Rating:
Summary: VERY GOOD
Review: This reflect the views of Dr Joann Fletcher in such a way where it doesn't sound like "I told you so" or " Well Maybe" She is straight foward in her idea about Nefertiti and KV35. She doesn't beat around the bush nor does she comes out breathing fire.