Books 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26
Revenge of the Spellmans - Lisa Lutz. The third in the Spellman series. Isabel Spellman is undergoing court-ordered therapy (so ordered after violating a restraining order . She is officially taking a break from being a PI, but being a Spellman, you know that won’t stop Isabel from working on one or two special cases.
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down- Anne Fadiman. This is a GREAT book. Tt is a fascinating and engrossing ethnography of the Hmong. She focuses on Lia, the beautiful and beloved 8th child of recent Hmong immigrants to Central California, who has her first seizure at about five months. Her parents know this is because of a loud noise which has frightened her spirit out of her body. Medical doctors believe otherwise. There is no happy ending in this clash between Western medicine and firmly held parental beliefs. She widens her lens to provide a look at Hmong history, religious beliefs, the inadequacy of Western medicine and some inspiring doctors.
Once Bitten - Laurien Berenson. Genre fiction (murder in the competitive dog show world) read at my sister’s house while suffering a gall bladder attack. It was sufficiently diverting.
Village School - Miss Read (Dora Saint). This came into work so I added it to my collection. I think it must be one of the longer and more involved of the series. This is the first and I don’t know that she was intentionally writing the first of a series. She is much more concrete about dates and ages than she ever is again.
Farther Afield - Miss Read (Dora Saint). Amy nurses Miss Read when she is down with a broken arm and Miss Read provides moral support to Amy while she is dealing with the worst of James’ indiscretions. The bonus is that Miss Read gets to go to Crete when James can't go. Obviously written in those long ago days when airline tickets were tranfereable.
Friday Night Knitting Club - Kate Jacobs. I started reading this, along with Comfort Food, at Borders, but never finished it. It was my read-while-I-am-eating-lunch book. The ending is perhaps not quite as upbeat as one would expect of escapist fiction, but that’s good, right?
Like Water for Chocolate - Laura Esquivel. I LOVED this book. What wonderful writing. I tried to read Garcia Marquex before but couldn’t quite get the metaphysical/supernatural part. This was much easier. Maybe I can re-tackle Love in the Time of Cholera now.