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312th out of 332 books
—
148 voters
The Woman Who Fell from the Sky
by
Jennifer Steil (Goodreads Author)
"I had no idea how to find my way around this medieval city. It was getting dark. I was tired. I didn’t speak Arabic. I was a little frightened. But hadn’t I battled scorpions in the wilds of Costa Rica and prevailed? Hadn’t I survived fainting in a San José brothel? Hadn’t I once arrived in Ireland with only $10 in my pocket and made it last two weeks? Surely I could hand...more
ebook, 336 pages
Published
May 11th 2010
by Broadway
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In the land of pomegranates and grapes, amongst goat and cow herders, where desert sands swirl and shift and offer up frankincense and jasmine, Manhattan journalist Jennifer Steil is hired to give a three week seminar in newspaper reporting in Yemen's ancient capital city of Sana'a. Steeped in historic and biblical legend, Sana'a is said to have been founded by Noah's son Shem, and is one of the oldest cities in the Middle East. Yemen is a country consisting of a mixture of either desert people...more
Culturally fascinating, well-written, and at time absolutely hysterical
The Woman Who Fell from the Sky: An American Journalist's Adventures in the Oldest City on Earth is the memoir of Jennifer Steil, a 37-year-old journalist who goes to Sana'a, Yemen in 2006 to teach a three-week crash course in journalism to the reporters of the Yemen Observer ... and ends up staying for a year. Her time there will change the course of her life and she meets a cast of wonderful, exasperating, funny, interestin...more
The Woman Who Fell from the Sky: An American Journalist's Adventures in the Oldest City on Earth is the memoir of Jennifer Steil, a 37-year-old journalist who goes to Sana'a, Yemen in 2006 to teach a three-week crash course in journalism to the reporters of the Yemen Observer ... and ends up staying for a year. Her time there will change the course of her life and she meets a cast of wonderful, exasperating, funny, interestin...more
In The Woman Who Fell From the Sky, author Jennifer Steil recounts her engrossing adventure as an American journalist in Yemen working for an English-language newspaper. Throughout her memoir she explains various hurdles she’s encountered as a Western woman living in an Islamic country. While her intentions are to adapt to the culture as seamlessly possible, including wearing a hijab to cover her hair, Steil quickly learns that she is not able to hide her Western ways in both appearance and as a...more
Jennifer Steil accepts an invitation to Yemen to teach US reporting methods to the staff of an English language newspaper. The temporary teaching job turns into a managing job and Steil becomes immersed in Yemeni life.
She shows the difficulty of producing a quality newspaper in authoritarian country. Besides not questioning what they are told, reporters do not distinguish fact from opinion. The women are reliable and ready to learn, the men are late, disappear to chew qat and are quick to dispar...more
She shows the difficulty of producing a quality newspaper in authoritarian country. Besides not questioning what they are told, reporters do not distinguish fact from opinion. The women are reliable and ready to learn, the men are late, disappear to chew qat and are quick to dispar...more
This was a fascinating book. Jennifer Steil left a reporter's job in New York City to become the editor of the Yemen Observer. I see that choice as amazing and courageous. She agrees to stay one year to train the Yemen staff how to be professional journalists. This proves to be an enormous undertaking during which she learns just how difficult it is for her female reporters to be women in Yemen. I found it so telling that as an American woman, she was largely exempt from the punitive restriction...more
The only redeeming anything to this book (because quality is not a word I would use for it) is that it is one person's picture of Yemenese culture, a culture I knew nothing about before reading it. However, being someone that has traveled quite a bit, I found her treatment of the culture and country shallow, especially for a reporter. I enjoyed when she spoke about the reporters at the newspaper, especially when she related her conversations with the women reporters and discussed how they came t...more
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Jennifer Steil goes to Yemen to become the editor of the Yemen Observer. It is a culture so unlike New York city where women are covered and sheltered, and the men are in charge of everything. Though there are women who work tirelessly as reporters, there is little respect from the men around them. The society is sexually segregated though Steil is a kind of third sex because she is American, and this allows some amount of seeing the worlds of both women and men. Trying to get a newspaper out in...more
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Excellent memoir and a great look into another culture. An important read for those who just want to know about some of the mores of men and women in work, love and general life in a Muslim country…..especially a well-written memoir from the viewpoint of an intelligent, very Anglo Saxon woman's experience as an editor of the local Yemenese newspaper, Not many of us are so daring as Steil that we could take a trip like this, but reading this book really allows one to “feel” it. through the fascin...more
Jennifer Steil a journalist goes to Yemen to teach a 3 week class on journalism, when it’s all over she is offered the job of being editor-in-chief (in all but name since a foreigner can’t hold that position) . The Woman Who fell from the Sky shares her experiences during this time. For the most part it’s an interesting story but sometimes I got a little annoyed with the author. It’s a great look at the workplace and the running of a newspaper in a country that doesn’t have the same view of jour...more
This book provided really interesting insight into the Arab mindset and way of life. It also offered a fascinating peek into the world of journalism, and made me appreciate freedom of the press in the United States, which I often take for granted. The book ends on a ironic note, when after, spending a year stressing the importance of journalistic ethics to her staff, the author has an affair and ultimately destroys the marriage of the British ambassador in Yemen. Notwithstanding the pain she has...more
I really liked this book. It is a true story about the author's year in Yemen as an editor of an English language newspaper. She rented a home in the old part of the city and became friends with neighbors and, of course, her staff at the paper. It was very interesting to learn about living in Sana'a and she has enough personal feelings and experiences to make it fun. She enjoyed living in Yemen and her time in Yemen. I am always fascinated with the segregation of the sexes in the middle east. Ev...more
I haven't read a book that made me laugh so much in a long time. Jennifer Steil left behind her New York life to spend a year in Yemen, editing a Yemeni newspaper. I've never been to Yemen (and what we hear about it in the American press is generally not good), so I was interested to hear a firsthand account. Steil had her share of trials and tribulations in Yemen, as well as a lot of fascinating and wonderful experiences, and writes about it all hilariously.
For example:
For example:
Faris has promised me an...more
I was in the mood to read about a woman on an adventure. This book delivered. The story is about a female journalist who lives in Yemen for a year to be the editor of an English language paper there. While I don't think I'll be spending time in Yemen any time soon, I was inspired by her sense of adventure. One of the most fascinating parts was the how she was in her own category as a foreign woman -- she was able to float between the two sexes in a country where women and men are routinely kept...more
I always hope that travel writers will afford at least a peek into the local culture of the place they visit. Jennifer Steil goes way beyond the usual gloss-over in The Woman Who Fell From the Sky. In 2006, Steil was invited to give a three-week journalism training session in the ancient capital city of Sana'a, Yemen and then she was persuaded to act as editor in chief for the following year of the Yemen Observer, a weekly English newspaper. She worked with a skeleton crew of reporters who had...more
I've started to notice that almost all my reviews are good...it's because I don't bother with bad books most of the time!
Fabulous non-fiction that opens your world up a bit. Jennifer Steil is a female journalist from the U.S. who travels to Yemen to teach a journalism class at a local newspaper. The things we complain about in our local papers are laughable compared to what she finds the staff doing in the town she ends up in. The culture is a mix of modern and archaic that keeps her unbalanced...more
Fabulous non-fiction that opens your world up a bit. Jennifer Steil is a female journalist from the U.S. who travels to Yemen to teach a journalism class at a local newspaper. The things we complain about in our local papers are laughable compared to what she finds the staff doing in the town she ends up in. The culture is a mix of modern and archaic that keeps her unbalanced...more
I would have given it four stars if it weren't for her discussing her love life. TMI.
The most interesting quote from the book: "Someone once told me that women leave a bad marriage because it is a bad marriage, but that men never leave until they find someone else." It would never have thought about it if I hadn't seen seven divorces around me in the past three years. When the men initiated the divorce there was another woman, but when the women initiated there was something undefined. Seems lik...more
The most interesting quote from the book: "Someone once told me that women leave a bad marriage because it is a bad marriage, but that men never leave until they find someone else." It would never have thought about it if I hadn't seen seven divorces around me in the past three years. When the men initiated the divorce there was another woman, but when the women initiated there was something undefined. Seems lik...more
Stiel takes on a 3 week course training reporters on the Yemen Observer and then accepts a job as chief editor of the daily paper for a year. Entertaining slice of life from the little-visited country. She details the instability of Yemen (though the book is from 2006-07 and so before Saleh was ousted), the huge qat addiction, and religious oppression of women and other cultural oddities. Six months into the job she realizes her dream of turning the Observer into western style government watchdo...more
this was a good book for a look into the reminder that freedom of press is not universal. it is a good book at providing insight into the separate women and men spheres of some Islamic societies- especially Yemen, of course, which may be further unique due to the culture of qat...the book made me want to visit Yemen as it sounds geographically and architecturally beautiful...i was turned off by the last few chapters where the author recollects her love affair (but it is a memoir, so it is her pe...more
I was really interested to learn about the state of "journalism" in Yemen, and hear the observations of an outsider living there. The author was a bit chatty and haw-haw for me, and she's pretty shallow in the cultural sensitivity and interpretation departments. Her beginning an affair with the married British ambassador, and then moving into the embassy as his mistress--in YEMEN--leaves one wondering about her veracity and wisdom in other areas and casts a little shadow of doubt upon the rest o...more
I enjoyed both the journalism/ newspaper story as well as her "foreigner in Yemen" part of the story. Her openness to adventure and the culture made this a great read and a glimpse into a state I didn't know much about. There is some about the politics and government, but also a lot about culture and people, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I enjoyed that the Yemeni woman who got the fellowship in Mississippi said it wasn't so different from Yemen. Before anyone takes offense, I rather take it as som...more
This book was culturally interesting. It is told in the first person about a journalist's experience traveling to Yemen to teach employees of a local newspaper how to be better journalists. She later returned when she was offered a job to run the newspaper, which could not be official since Women could not be in that position. She tells of major and minor cultural classes as she learns how to live and work in Yemen where the woman have to remain covered and the product expectations are low or no...more
Editing a newspaper in Yemen.
In 2006, American journalist, Jennifer Steil was asked to visit Sana'a for three weeks to improve the local English language newspaper. The paper was in serious need of upgrading and her initial three weeks eventually became a year's employment.
Although her presence was initially viewed suspiciously by the male staff, the women accepted her immediately. Dealing with the female staff involved finding ways around their restrictive lifestyles. They came from traditional...more
In 2006, American journalist, Jennifer Steil was asked to visit Sana'a for three weeks to improve the local English language newspaper. The paper was in serious need of upgrading and her initial three weeks eventually became a year's employment.
Although her presence was initially viewed suspiciously by the male staff, the women accepted her immediately. Dealing with the female staff involved finding ways around their restrictive lifestyles. They came from traditional...more
Full disclosure: I actually know the person who wrote this book. We went to Columbia Journalism School together, graduating in 1997. But no matter. Jennifer, you did a great job! I loved every minute of reading it and even had my book club read it. It was a hit at book club, as well.
Steil is one of the world's great adventurers and I envy her the ability to leave it all behind for the next new adventure. 'The Woman Who Fell From the Sky' is more than an adventure story, however. It offers an in...more
Steil is one of the world's great adventurers and I envy her the ability to leave it all behind for the next new adventure. 'The Woman Who Fell From the Sky' is more than an adventure story, however. It offers an in...more
This just leapt into my hands, nudging The Miss Dennis School of Writing: And Other Lessons from a Woman's Life aside for a few days.
Finished this yesterday. I really enjoyed her writing style and the story itself is engrossing since I knew nothing about Yemen before and now I'd love to see some of the places she describes, especially Soqotra Island.
Ironically. for a book that was at least partly about writing, this book needed a better edit. It bogged down in places and became repetitive. I got...more
Finished this yesterday. I really enjoyed her writing style and the story itself is engrossing since I knew nothing about Yemen before and now I'd love to see some of the places she describes, especially Soqotra Island.
Ironically. for a book that was at least partly about writing, this book needed a better edit. It bogged down in places and became repetitive. I got...more
This book was cruising along at about a three star rating for me until the end when the author unabashedly discusses an affair with a very married and very public man; the British Ambassador to Yemen. Curious, I read a few articles related to the book and the author and was even more disappointed/disgusted by her complete lack of concern for anyone but herself.
Throughout the book, I was also annoyed by her ego centric attitude towards Yemeni people. On one hand she criticizes their culture beca...more
Throughout the book, I was also annoyed by her ego centric attitude towards Yemeni people. On one hand she criticizes their culture beca...more
Top-notch memoir by a female American journalist who ran a newspaper in Yemen. A great story & totally authentic. No romanticized views or stereotypes here. Highly recommended.
After a three week stint to train Yemeni journalists, Jennifer returns to her job as an editor in New York City. Yet she finds herself yearning to for Yemen, as her Manhattan life now seems oddly dull compared to Sana’a. She longs to return to accept an offer to run the Yemen Observer for a year.
And so she does. Jenni...more
After a three week stint to train Yemeni journalists, Jennifer returns to her job as an editor in New York City. Yet she finds herself yearning to for Yemen, as her Manhattan life now seems oddly dull compared to Sana’a. She longs to return to accept an offer to run the Yemen Observer for a year.
And so she does. Jenni...more
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I had mixed feelings about this book. I'd have to agree with previous reviewers that I would have preferred more about Yemen and less about the author, but then she never really purports to be writing more than a personal recount. That said, since she's a journalist... I would have liked more info about where she was.
I both liked and didn't entirely respond to her style. She's very open and forthcoming, even when it means portraying herself in a less-than-flattering light, and I appreciated her...more
I both liked and didn't entirely respond to her style. She's very open and forthcoming, even when it means portraying herself in a less-than-flattering light, and I appreciated her...more
I want to go to Yemen. The food sound great....pomegranates, dates, couscous...the architecture seems interesting.....sure, I would have to cover my face, but think of the time saved because I wouldn't have to blow dry my hair, put on makeup, etc.
This book reminded me of 'Eat Pray, Love' because I liked the character until I learned more about her personal life, then I didn't like her. The story was interesting. Jennifer travels to Yemen to help the writers at the Yemen newspaper learn about jo...more
This book reminded me of 'Eat Pray, Love' because I liked the character until I learned more about her personal life, then I didn't like her. The story was interesting. Jennifer travels to Yemen to help the writers at the Yemen newspaper learn about jo...more
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Jennifer Steil is the author of The Woman Who Fell From the Sky, An American Woman’s Adventures in the Oldest City on Earth (2010, Broadway Books/Random House), a memoir of the year she spent as editor of the Yemen Observer newspaper in Sana’a, Yemen. The book received critical acclaim in The New York Times, Newsweek, and the Sydney Morning Herald among other publications. The Minneapolis Star-Tri...more
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I'm gutted that I missed it but we had guests.
Great that it's 5* book too.
Dec 21, 2011 02:18am