Background for Kabul Beauty School

Here's a YouTube video that features Deborah Rodriguez speaking about Kabul Beauty School.


There is a documentary about the Beauty Academy of Kabul. View the trailer here: http://www.beautyacademyofkabul.com/

Here is an interview with the author that provides more insight on her personal thoughts about life in Afghanistan: http://www.readersread.com/features/deborahrodriguez.htm

Here is information about the organization that provided the initial support for the Kabul Beauty School: http://www.kabulbeautyschool.com/index.html

This is a NPR article from June 2007 about the risks faced by the subjects of Kabul Beauty School: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10634299

These two articles from a UK newspaper shed some light on what really happened to Rodriguez (seems like there is a lot more to this story...isn't there always?!):

• http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-454386/Mother-twos-transformation-Afghanistan-burka-bikini.html
• http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-462460/Kabul-beauty-school-dropout.html

Kabul Beauty School

We're going to depart from our Literary Wives book club list and read Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodriguez, after Lindsay's recommendation. We'll meet mid-February to discuss. To read a preview of the book, go here.

19th Wife Discussion

Our group, sans Buffy, met last night to discuss The 19th Wife over dinner at Travinia's in Lexington. Although not everyone had finished the novel, we enjoyed talking about several themes in the book, including that of Mormonism, polygamy, and the wide range of depicted relationships.

We agreed the modern portion of the story was a bit unnecessary and that Ann Eliza Young's story could have stood on its own. Another criticism we had was the many points of view made it hard to follow.

We also shared our knowledge/experience of Mormonism. It would have been interesting to have a Mormon woman in our group to contribute to this portion of the discussion.

Beyond the book discussion, we thoroughly enjoyed our meal! Travinia's has changed (and improved) its menu. Delicious-ness included: house salads with a variety of vinegarettes, pasta carbonara, margherita pizza, pesto-artichoke risotto, and an amazing pine-nut encrusted salmon!

Information about Polygamy for Reading of 19th Wife

This portion of The 19th Wife's web site had some information about Ann Eliza Young, including real articles that were written about her during her departure from Brigham Young: http://www.19thwife.com/ann.htmlHere's an interesting article about polygamy in the United States: http://gosw.about.com/od/southwesthistory/a/polygamy.htm
This site compiles many articles about polygamist groups: http://www.rickross.com/groups/polygamy.html