As a fan of Anna Quindlen, I wanted the pages to jump right out of the book so I could devour them as I have with many of her other books. I wanted to savour each word and grow from all of her hard earned wisdom as I have in the past. As a woman in my late 40's , I could relate to many of the aspects of her life that she was writing about but I didn't find anything earth shattering or fresh, if you will, about what most of us that have lived a little have experienced. It's a great book to reflect on your own life and see where possibly you could grow or change your way of thinking as she did but I wanted more and this book left me feeling a little short changed.

Thank you to BookBrowse for recommending this book to me. In comparison to” A Long Way Gone", the story of a young boy's daunting walk out of Darfur, “In the Sea There are Crocodiles” is not as graphic and disturbing , yet just as hideous and harrowing. Enaiat's story told through the pen of Fabio Geda is a much softer and simplistic tale. A much lighter easier read, it lends itself to the Young Adult/Teenage book category, and slowly grabs adults by the throat and drags them into a world that one can only imagine in the best fiction. Only Enaiat’s story is real and his resilience and fate will leave you amazed. You find yourself cheering when he arrives in Italy 5 years later. You find yourself saddened and shocked by what is happening in Afghanistan and other parts of the world today and the unspeakable losses of children and families the world over. Required reading. Bravo Fabio Geda and God Speed Enaiatollah Akbari!

This book was a pleasure but not a page turner and a tad bit slow. It wasn't as deeply emotionally satisfying as I had hoped for, however, it was well researched and held my interest. It's more of a romance novel than historical fiction and it fell a little short in both catagories for me. I really enjoyed the historical facts surrounding Sienna and horsemanship. I did learn a lot about that area of Italy in that time period. I liked the characters but felt they could have been more developed. It was enjoyable and I I would recommend it as a beach read but I'm not one for "beach reading". I like a lot more meat and substance in the shade.

A grieving young widow, Rehana, loses her small children to her brother-in-law after the death of her husband due to jealousy, position, and power. This event permeates through the rest of the story as their mother tries to make peace with the past and heal this wound. They leave Bangladesh for the safety of Lahore and she vows to get them back, only to plunge them into a perilous war as they come of age in a country that their mother loves and they feel compelled to defend. Written with subtle exquisite prose and very real characters, Rehana’s love for her children and her country make for a heart wrenching tale of choice, destiny, and the affairs of the maternal heart. Ms. Anam gives voice to a widow’s love for her country and her late husband, the perils of war, and words left unsaid. She speaks eloquently of the depth of a mother’s love for her children and where the tragic path of that love will lead them.

This book is an extremely engrossing read about the real world of high stakes organized crime operating in and out of Italy today. It will have tremendous appeal to real life crime fighters and mob aficionados across the world, not to mention anyone with generational ties to Italy as a homeland. Well written and extremely informative, it engages the reader in a tell all approach of the extensive world wide implications of organized crime originating in and out of Naples today. Graphic and disturbing, it gives factual details only an "insider" would have access to. Particularly fascinating is the increasingly large part women play in the leading role of organized family clans. "The Godmother", if you will. One could only imagine a blockbuster film coming out of this information. This reader would have preferred more details about how the writer actually infiltrated "The System" but perhaps that will be a follow up to this this amazing read.