Rating: 
Summary: Worth reading
Review: I enjoyed this book mainly because it is about the lives of Indian women seen through the eyes of a foreigner - ie a western woman. I felt I could relate to this book very well as a 'western' woman myself, albeit with roots in India. I would recommend this book for those who know little about Indian society .
Rating:
Summary: rereading bumiller
Review: I happened to read Bumiller's book after a gap of about 3 years and found it as interesting as when I read it first. I think her section on Nabaneeta Dev Sen remains the best. I don't think I am concerned too much about how 'true' it is to Indian life (which in any case is a subjective area) but I think Bumiller is one of few who writes with both affection and detachment about India. As an Indian woman, some of the things she writes about (e.g. the process of the arranged marriage) brought a jolt of realisation - being a part and parcel of Indian life they tend to remain unnoticed. All in all it was worth a second read.Anuradha
Rating: 
Summary: Completely Clueless
Review: The only valuable part of this book is the first 8 pages, where the author describes her profound cultural shock of arriving in India. Clearly, she never got past it. The book is over-generalized to the point of being trashy... it is the perfect example of Western imperalism and idiocy in understanding another culture. The author doesn't seem to get that part of visiting a new place is to get beyond comparing how much better your home country is... I suggest any potential buyers to steer clear.
Rating:
Summary: May You Be the Mother of a Hundred Sons
Review: The only valuable part of this book is the first 8 pages, where the author describes her profound cultural shock of arriving in India. Clearly, she never got past it. The book is over-generalized to the point of being trashy... it is the perfect example of Western imperalism and idiocy in understanding another culture. The author doesn't seem to get that part of visiting a new place is to get beyond comparing how much better your home country is... I suggest any potential buyers to steer clear.
Rating:
Summary: Impressions of women?s lives
Review: This book is a collection of articles about various aspects of Indian women's lives. Bumiller lived and worked as a journalist in India for 3 years with her husband in the 1980s. She didn't intend to write about Indian women at the start of her stay, but found herself getting drawn into women's issues through her friends and activities. In the book, Bumiller describes and analyzes such topics as arranged marriage, bride burning, female infanticide, women in politics, women in Bollywood, women artists, housewives, and population control. Overall, I found Bumiller's descriptions quite accurate and interesting, but for my tastes, the range of topics seemed too broad. The book lacks the focus found in Bumiller's second book, "The Secrets of Mariko", which describes a year in the life of a Japanese housewife. Nevertheless, it provides a very readable introduction to Indian women's lives for Western readers.
Rating:
Summary: Impressions of women¿s lives
Review: This book is a collection of articles about various aspects of Indian women's lives. Bumiller lived and worked as a journalist in India for 3 years with her husband in the 1980s. She didn't intend to write about Indian women at the start of her stay, but found herself getting drawn into women's issues through her friends and activities. In the book, Bumiller describes and analyzes such topics as arranged marriage, bride burning, female infanticide, women in politics, women in Bollywood, women artists, housewives, and population control. Overall, I found Bumiller's descriptions quite accurate and interesting, but for my tastes, the range of topics seemed too broad. The book lacks the focus found in Bumiller's second book, "The Secrets of Mariko", which describes a year in the life of a Japanese housewife. Nevertheless, it provides a very readable introduction to Indian women's lives for Western readers.
Rating:
Summary: Completely Clueless
Review: This book is an eyeopener. It illustrates the stereotypical western attitudes towards Indian culture and religion. The author lacks any true insight into the lives of the people she is writing about and carries on giving us her 2 cents anyway. Imagine if some Indian woman with no idea of western culture "studied" women by living in the US for 4 years and took it upon herself to write something as condescending about American women, society, culture and history, how would that turn out ? That is how ridiculously shallow this attempt is. Read Chitra Devakaruni, Jumpha Laheri, Bapsi Sidhwa, Veena Oldenburg ... this author has no clue ...
Rating: 
Summary: Mere chronicle of who/how many interviews were conducted
Review: This book is merely a chronicle of who and how many people were interviewed by the author in the preparation of this book.It offers no insight into many of the problems affecting women anywhere in the world,let alone in complex Indian society. Surely it is no secret that all you need in India (and most of the third world) is a WHITE SKIN -and you will be wined, dined and feted by all the natives,high and low(including Prime Ministers),irrespective of the mediocrity of the possessor of the WHITE SKIN.For all the efforts of people who "made her project their own" the authoress declares that they are "her friends for life ".How very generous ! If all that the reader expects from a book like this,is for the author to have done her "research" among a wide strata of people covering the length and breadth of the terrain,then this book is the just punishment they deserve.The authoress has undoubtedly taken the trouble to stay in a village(while her husband underwent similar torture in a neighbouring village ), interviewed professional women in urban India(painters,poets,actresses,filmmakers etc)and has also touched on issues such as bride burning for dowry,sati,caste conflict etc-she also spares no effort to inform the reader of the troubles she endured to undertake this noble project -"Every single interview was excruciatingly slow and difficult.Many lasted for two hours,the limit of my patience" -indeed there is no consideration for the unfortunate Indian women who had to undergo this punishment and in whose lives those two hours lost meant lost wages ! The guides tell you that the "Taj Mahal took 22 years to build and employed 22000 men and cost 220 million rupees" -as if this is sufficient ground to declare the Taj Mahal as a world class monument -one must adopt the same posture in judging this book,to be charitable.
Rating: 
Summary: May you be the mother of 100 daughters:)
Review: This book was very interesting & I feel that I have learned a lot from reading it. It is non-fiction, the author discusses topics that as citizens of this world we should all educate ourselves on: arranged marriage, bride burning, female infanticide, women in politics, & population control among other topics. This book was written in the 1980s so some of the information might be somewhat outdated but it is very informative regardless. Ms. Bumiller is a Westerner (seemingly a wealthy one) & the book sounds at times like a reading from an academic journal: the case-studies will outrage you but won't bring tears to your eyes or make you board the next plane to India to "make a difference" & help out (it is not a very emotional account). Every woman & man interested in women's status in other cultures should pick up this book & if you consider yourself a feminist you should definitely read it!!
Rating:
Summary: Sensationalism which never goes below the surface
Review: This is a stereotypical account with a liberal dose of sensationalism, evident in the topics and events she chooses as representative of the Indian feminine experience. This is in the line of books masquerading as sympathetic accounts but really caarrying on from a colonial mind-set of looking down from above. To get a more accurate picture of issues like Dowry, I recommend Veena Oldenburg's (sp?) "Dowry Murder" -- be prepared to get your received prejudices challenged.
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