Rating: 
Summary: author should have died her hair brown b4 leaving for Iran
Review: I picked this up off the shelf because I am fascinated by Iran and I was looking for something beyond the traditional travel guide. What a worthy investment! Like Elaine Sciolino's Persian Mirrors, this book really illustrates the complexity of contemporary Iranian culture and makes us appreciate the beauty of its people and landscape. Ms. Bird also does an excellent job of explaining some of the history and cultural mores that many people do not understand about Iran. Even if you're not interested in Iranian society so much, pick this up as a lover of travelogues, and you won't be sorry!
Rating: 
Summary: Stunning travelogue
Review: I picked this up off the shelf because I am fascinated by Iran and I was looking for something beyond the traditional travel guide. What a worthy investment! Like Elaine Sciolino's Persian Mirrors, this book really illustrates the complexity of contemporary Iranian culture and makes us appreciate the beauty of its people and landscape. Ms. Bird also does an excellent job of explaining some of the history and cultural mores that many people do not understand about Iran. Even if you're not interested in Iranian society so much, pick this up as a lover of travelogues, and you won't be sorry!
Rating:
Summary: author should have died her hair brown b4 leaving for Iran
Review: I was surprised how much the author talked about
her "blondness", or "tallness" and how afraid
she was of her "blond hair" showing from the sides
of her head covering. It makes you think these
Persians must be such awful people they are going
to harm her because of blond hair peeking through
her chador. Of course that was not the case rather
it was the author who was fixated on her
own "blond" hair. Ms Bird also kept talking
about her "Western face" which made me wonder
what an Eastern face is. Persians are Aryans
(Iran meaning Aryan) and though darker than
Americans they are Caucasians. I felt she was too hung
up on whatever physical differences there were
and this did not allow
her to get close to her subjects or to her reader.
Persian Mirrors author Elaine made the same
mistake and kept talking about the chador throughout
her book (thank God she wasn't blond!!) which makes these
books on IRAN written by American women have a very narrow focus.
Rating:
Summary: An honest and personal account
Review: I've read several personal-point-of-view books about Iran recently, and I have a lot of respect for this one. I rate it as an honest book because Ms. Bird is very clear about her personal standards, background and feelings and where they come from. She doesn't pretend to be objective; she's giving one person's perspective. In particular, she includes her own reactions even when she knows that readers will find them unsympathetic. How much more can you ask? I enjoyed reading it very much, and I think many others will find it an interesting view of an interesting country
Rating:
Summary: An honest and personal account
Review: I've read several personal-point-of-view books about Iran recently, and I have a lot of respect for this one. I rate it as an honest book because Ms. Bird is very clear about her personal standards, background and feelings and where they come from. She doesn't pretend to be objective; she's giving one person's perspective. In particular, she includes her own reactions even when she knows that readers will find them unsympathetic. How much more can you ask? I enjoyed reading it very much, and I think many others will find it an interesting view of an interesting country
Rating:
Summary: Neither East Nor West
Review: In some ways this might be described as a middle class travel guide to Iran. I say this because of the obvious differance between this book and one endorsed on the review page earlier called Honeymoon in Purdah (please see my review of that book) which to me was a more informal expedition/book. I feel in some ways Ms. Bird got a more realistic impression of Iran and Iranians, though I can't really fault either author. These are a very complex people whom I felt after 3 1/2 years of intimate association with them that I knew a LITTLE bit about, so am impressed that these two women learned so much about them in so little time. This book is very well researched and written and is a good source to learn about Iranian history, culture and it's people. I was very gratified to learn that Amrikayeh is not a univeral swear word in Iran, reading these books makes me want to go back.
Rating: 
Summary: Great inside to Iran from a "street' preson's view
Review: Ms Bird's easy style of writing combined with her warm personal touch made the book extremely enjoyable. This is as close as one can get to travelling to Iran. I have not visited Iran in 24+ years and always wondered about the country after all these years. Her approach was very unique and most preferrable to all the more indepth and political books. She convinced me that it is worth travelling to Iran and visiting it again. I had completely given up on the country after all these years of "one-sided" press coverages. Thank you for sharing with all of us your great trip.
Rating:
Summary: Great inside to Iran from a "street' preson's view
Review: Ms Bird's easy style of writing combined with her warm personal touch made the book extremely enjoyable. This is as close as one can get to travelling to Iran. I have not visited Iran in 24+ years and always wondered about the country after all these years. Her approach was very unique and most preferrable to all the more indepth and political books. She convinced me that it is worth travelling to Iran and visiting it again. I had completely given up on the country after all these years of "one-sided" press coverages. Thank you for sharing with all of us your great trip.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book!!
Review: One of my favorite books, I would love to follow the authors footsteps in Iran...very interesting view of Iran from a western woman's point of view. kudos Miss Bird!
Rating:
Summary: A BENEVELANT IRAN?
Review: The only reason I am giving this book 4 stars instead of 5 is that it is not an "easy" read. A good read for sure, just time consuming. Author Bird talks about Iran like it is a benign, peace loving place you should not be concerned about. I personally don't hold those views, but it is most interesting to read why the author does. In fact the reader is impressed of how the Iranians (most of 'em) love the Americans. You get a lot of interesting history and how the Iranian citizen live their daily lives. Family is truly the heart of the nation and large numbers of people participate in social events within broad family members. People help each other in many different areas and they more or less ignore the government in many ways. One weird thing is that the whole country hires "dress police" where fines and arrests occur if you do not dress properly (particularly the women)according to the government. Citizens rarely rat on each other due to the wonderful social graces of the population.
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