Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women, Geraldine Brooks     

Before becoming a well-known fiction writer, Geraldine Brooks (People of the Book) was a prize winning foreign correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, covering the Middle East at a time of resurgent fundamentalism. For her, headline events were only part of the story. Nine Parts of Desire tells of her journey into the world of the Islamic women behind the veils and the political, religious, and cultural forces that affect their lives.