The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
Anne Fadiman

ISBN# 0-374-52564-1

When I picked this book off a popular book club list I thought it was fiction, which I gravitate too most often, but in actuality it was a true story. It is about a little girl, Lia Lee who was born to Hmong immigrants in California. At the age of three months she showed signs of what the Hmong call quag dab peg (the spirit catches you and you fall down) or what we in the west call epilepsy. The story is an amazing study into a profound clash of cultures. The Hmong family clearly needed help and intervention with their daughter's condition, however never new he road before them would result in both Lia being removed from them by the state and unfortunately in the end Lia's brain death. The believed the western medicine was her ultimate demise. They believed a dab or evil spirit had stolen Lia's spirit as their own.

I found this story to be profoundly sad. The chapter detailing Lia's final seizure which killed her brain actually caused me to sweat profusely, become dizzy and finally put the book down for a break. The history of the Hmong searching for a place to belong was bittersweet as they had found a place to settle in peace but were far from at peace with a governmental system who views them as parasites to the "system" instead of the hard working, insightful people they were. Also a glimpse into a shameful health care system made my heart ache for the disadvantaged, which in some case seems to be anyone without a medical doctorate. There were a lot of tragic occurrences in this book and the author did a wonderful job exposing you to so much in an unbiased way. She played both sides of the fence brilliantly.

The book challenged me on two levels. First cross cultural understanding, one of my favorite studies on earth. This book just gave me more information about the basis of comprehending not only the Hmong but any culture which is different than my own. Secondly health care. I am stunned at the level of discord between doctor and patient. I am challenged to challenge any doctor who God should have come in contact with me to value my soul as well as my body!

This was an excellent book. It was a little slow in the beginning as I got use to how Anne Fadiman was presenting the story, but ultimately I found myself totally engrossed. A highly recommended read!

The Book Thief

The Book Thief
Markus Zusak

ISBN# 9780375842207

"It's probably fair to say that in all the years of Hitler's reign, no person was able to serve the Fuhrer as loyally as me. A human doesn't have a heart like mine. The human hear tis a line, whereas my own is a circle, and I have the endless ability to be in the right place at the right time. The consequence of this is that I'm always finding humans at their best and worst. I see their ugly and their beauty and I wonder how the same thing can be both. Still, they have one thing I envy. Humans, if nothing else, have the good sense to die." Pg 401

Brilliant book! I had no idea for quite some time who was narrating this book and when I thought I figured it out, I simultaneously thought I was wrong. Brilliant perspective.

The 'The Book Thief' was a book I automatically connected with due to my deep desire to devour words and the voyeur in me who want to peek into another world. It appeals immediately, if only in name, to book lovers. It does not disappoint. I did find my usual pace slowed a bit with this book, for several reasons but mostly because it is set in Nazi Germany and deals with issues of the Holocaust. In some ways I was almost fearful of what might unfold. Timid to hear some horror and have its words amassed as a picture in my head. So I picked it up and put it down, reading it over the course of a few months. Each time it sucked me right back in and was well worth the journey! It is a sad story, but I think reflecting back on it, it is a story of life. Life is the good, bad and ugly, brutal and beautiful. I think Markus Zusak captures this thought line brilliantly!

Ps. I love picking a qoute I feel encapsulates the book and love the one I found. I don't think it gives anything away, my apologies if it does.

Island of Lost Girls

Island of Lost Girls
Jennifer McMahon
ISBN 978-0-06-144588-0

Rhonda, the main character, opens the story with an abduction where she stands idly by and watches it unfold while doing nothing to stop it. As the story goes on you see that Rhonda is confronting adulthood while seeming to have one foot in the freedom of childhood. The bonds of relationships she has in her past are strong, idylic and tragically beautiful. She seems to want to move on in her future but the abduction forces her to look at her past and solve things that have been left alone. These things which have been left alone, some have been forgotten and pushed to the furthest corner of her mind while others are vivid memores begging for answers.

Jennifer McMahon weaves you in and out of the past in search of an answer for the abduction. You begin to see more and more that what happened in the past begins to be more and more important to solving the abdution as well as the protagonists inabiliity to act on issues in her future.

Its an interesting story. It was hard for me to get into the book initially. There is a bit of fantasy imgination accuring here and there and it was hard for me to understand how it pertained to the story. I am not sure I entirely understood even now, but that aside Jennifer McMahon was true to her style of building suspense that had me guessing repeatedly "whodunnit?" I really find it amazing that a book can actually leave you in the dark for so long and even side swipe your belief in the end. It seems suspence is a lost art these days, however this author should keep on keeping on at what she does best which is a good story laced with suspence. I am hooked.