Im tore between i like it but i wouldn’t reread it. The women’s stories are inspiring and emotional. The poems with the each story complement each other. ( )

This is a review of an advanced copy of "Stripped to the Bone: Portraits of Syrian Women" for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

Overall, the book is indeed a captivating one and thus comes as a positive recommendation to read from me. I rated this book four out of five stars and look forward to more books from the author in the future.

“Stripped to the Bone: Portraits of Syrian Women” by Ghada Alatrash is a captivating book that brings the reader to a closer understanding of Syrian people and their culture.

The book is a collection of seven stories or portraits of Syrian women from various walks of life. Each story is named after the main character of the story and highlights the social evils and insincerity in today’s Syrian society where women have to bear the brunt of a patriarchal society.

The author writes with flair and passion for her home country, Syria, and shares fascinating facts about Syrian history. The book also features beautiful poetry from some of her favorite Syrian poets interspersed with her lovely fiction writing.

Overall, the reviewer recommends this book as a positive read and rates the book with four out of five stars. ( )

The story of each had there aww moments but I do feel like there was to much extra words or explanation that felt were unnecessary. once you get to the root of each story it can stir compassion and empathy. This is just a small group of women stories but open your mind to what happens in other life's. ( )

I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was an incredibly emotional book. Most of the focus of each story was interior: the characters' self-definitions, thoughts, emotions, and what it meant for them to feel "stripped to the bone." As such, there was relatively little actual plot in each story. The effect was most like a snapshot of a certain time, place, and emotion. Transitions in action were therefore often disjointed and the focus of a certain section could jump from one place or thought to another, which lent itself to a kind of stream of consciousness feeling. Some of the descriptions felt almost hyperbolic in their intensity and the heavy use of similes and metaphors, but that might just be a difference in literary taste between the author and I. I did enjoy the choice of poetry in the chapter epigraphs. They provided yet more Syrian voices as a means of setting the stage for each new chapter. As a whole, this was a wonderful, heartbreaking, and occasionally horrifying (there are descriptions of torture in the second story) book that provides a glimpse into the minds and hearts of a number of Syrian women, both in Syria and abroad, and their relationships to their country and themselves.

A fascinating read, but it lacks polish. One problem I had with my copy was the manner in which notations were handled - usually in-line notes rather than endnotes or footnotes. Now, e-readers tend to handle footnotes badly, but I would have preferred endnotes to in-line as a solution. It frequently broke up the flow, often with explanations of things I was already familiar with. Weirdly, the one thing I was not familiar with (a traditional love story) was given barely any explanation, while simple translation decisions were repeatedly explained at length.

Overall, the material was both beautiful and difficult, but the author's own editorial voice was more impediment than aid. ( )