I was really impressed with this book. When I first picked it up I was a little leery of reading it at all. I was of the thought process that I would either hate it with a passion or love it... no in between. I guess I was extra paranoid after reading "Reading Lolita in Tehran", which I hated because the author was so self-involved and self-aggrandizing that it made me sick. I ended up being pleasantly surprised and impressed by Deborah Rodriguez's memoir. I felt that it really provided a level headed view of the world she lives in, both the hardships and the more positive experiences. You pick up the book and you may scoff at the fact that it is a beauty school... what kind of empowerment can that provide for the women, right? But then you start to read and you see how this one place ended up being an outlet for all these women. A place where they could go and be themselves. A place where they were safe from what was more traditionally a mans world. Not only that, but you see how these women also helped to enrich and heal Deborah's life. How they made a positive and significant impact on her life. I really enjoyed reading this memoir and would highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in a memoir about an American woman in Afghanistan. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.