The first time I walked through my local Barnes & Noble bookstore, I must admit I got a little carried away. I couldn’t help myself…there were cheap English books everywhere! Cookbooks, Turkish language books, religious books, magazines, fiction, I felt like I was in heaven!

 I happened to wander by the travel writers section and the first title I saw was Tales from the Expat Harem. “Hmmm,” I thought, “Harem=Sultan … Sultan=Turkey, right? What’s this book about?” I picked up the book, and the whole title of the book is Tales from the Expat Harem: Foreign Women in Modern Turkey. I was sooo excited! 29 foreign women, living in Turkey over the past forty years, soldiers, archeologists, entrepreneurs, teachers, telling short stories of their experiences!  I barely made it home before I cracked the book.

The first day at my parent’s house, I sat outside in the hammock, listening to the birds, drinking coffee and reading. Most of the time I was laughing so hard. Sometimes I would call my mom outside so I could read the passage to her. Combined with the Disney Channel, it was a great way to spend my week back in Mora.

In the introduction to the book, the authors write “Foreign women on Turkish soil are neither what nor who they used to be, yet they are not fully transformed by their brush with Turkey…Aligned in their ever-shifting contexts, both Turkey and the expatriate share a bond of constant metamorphosis.” When I read this, I knew I was going to love this book. It’s a great book for my fellow expats in Turkey…I haven’t finished the book yet, I’m trying to gauge myself because it’s so fun to read. I highly recommend this book!