A Work in Progress

I posted here about the Fall Reading Challenge hosted by Susan at A Southern Daydreamer Reads . During the time of the challenge, September 22 to December 20, I read 15 books. My local library holds a series of book discussions each spring and fall. Five books based upon a theme are chosen for each discussion series. This fall's books were about other cultures and they turned out to be the best reads of the season. Here are my top three books for the fall. The Latehomecomer by Kao Kaila Yang tells the story of a young Hmong woman who immigrated from Thailand to Minnesota with her family. The book tells about the family's challenges in assimilating themselves into a new culture. Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder is one of those books everyone should read. Although I thought the story was sluggish in spots, I learned a lot about genocide in Africa. The central person in this story is a young man who was in medical school when the genocide began in a country I have neve...

Susan over at A Southern Daydreamer Reads is hosting another seasonal reading challenge. I signed on for her summer reading challenge and read 15 books between June 21 and September 21. Most of them weren't the ones in my original list, because, well, it was summer and it was hot and I just indulged in a lot of light fiction and mysteries. Three of the books I read deserve special mention, though. I purchased All the Tea in China after I visited my aunt in the spring and we went to the Celestial Seasonings Tea factory in Boulder, Colorado. The book chronicles how an English botanist smuggled tea plants out of China and made the drink available to the rest of the world. I always enjoyed Nancy Pickard's mysteries featuring Jenny Cain who runs a philanthropic organization in New England and I was sad when that series ended. Since then Ms. Pickard has written several novels in a...