Welcome to BookCrossing!

Please make a journal entry to let me know that this book has been caught so I know that it has found a good home with you. If you are new to BookCrossing, when you join please indicate that you were referred by debnance. I hope that you enjoy the book. You can make another journal entry with your comments when you are done reading.

Then, whenever you are ready to send it on its way, make a journal entry if you are giving or sending this book to a known person, or a release note if you are leaving it “in the wild” again for anyone to catch. Then watch its journey. You’ll be alerted by e-mail each time someone makes another journal entry. And it’s confidential (you are known only by your screen name and no one is ever given your e-mail address), free, and spam-free.

I hope that you will enjoy the BookCrossing experience!

RELEASE NOTES:

A thoughtful book I've recommended to many....

I love Anne Fadiman's Ex Libris, so thought I would give this a try.

Finally getting around to this one as my book group is reading it this month.

I really enjoyed Fadiman's exploration of the clash of two cultures. The story of the Hmong journey through the ages, from China to SE Asia and finally to the US in many cases, is a complex one, and the author carefully interweaves it with the story of Lia Lee, a Hmong child with grand mal epilepsy in early 1980s California. Lia's parents were refugees, having lived as Hmong farmers most of their lives, living in a culture where sickness was caused mostly by evil spirits and improper behavior, before war forced them into camps and then across the ocean. The interactions between American medicine and the Lee family are heartbreaking on both sides, and highlight the struggle between modern and traditional knowledge. I'll carry this around in my head for a while, and would certainly recommend it to others.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Mailing out as a RABCK. Hope you enjoy the book!

Surprise is the word to describe how I felt when my granddaughter brought in the mail. Thank you so much. I will read within the next few months and pass it on to someone here on BC. Hopefully, keep the book in the BC family. Thank you so much for thinking of me.

Trying this year to read many of my KTM books. I have had this book on my TBR shelf way too long. It is next on my pile to read.

Quite an interesting story. My heart went out to both sides - the Hmongs and the medical personal. Hoep to find a new reader soon.

Enjoy! Trust the book finds a new reader.

This great book returned in the ABC Bookbox, thanks so much for setting it free! It looks like a good read and I am adding it to MTR.

Sharing my ABC books with other Bookcrossers, Happy Travels!

To the finder of this book:

Welcome to BookCrossing! This book you found is now yours to read, enjoy, keep or pass on to another reader.

The BookCrossing ID, which you entered in the "Enter a BCID" box on the website, is unique to this copy of this book. We would be delighted if you would make a journal entry to say you have found the book.

BookCrossing is free to join and a great deal of fun, completely confidential, and you may remain anonymous. If you choose to join please consider using me BOOKSTOGIVE as your referring member.

Maybe the most important and enthralling book I've read in twenty years. Thank you, bookstogive, I'm delighted to have an excuse to read this again.

Last month I happened to meet a friend's daughter who is taking a seminar with Fadiman, a perfect excuse to re-read this. She agreed that it was a fascinating book, and I hope sometime to hear about her seminar.

A young Hmong girl is stricken with epilepsy; both her family, and the medical professionals at the nearby hospital, want to provide the best possible care. But treatment is complicated by HUGE barriers of culture and language between the two sides. This probably happens fairly often, at least in metropolitan areas, so it's interesting to get a good look at the issues involved. But what sets this book apart is the incredible amount of patient, detailed research Fadiman undertakes, and the fairness and balance she brings to the writing. Every time I re-read this book, I keep searching for a way the outcome could have been improved. I want to be able to say, in the wisdom of hindsight, "If only so and so..." But there is never an answer. Reality is tough.

This is a great book, one I'm proud to share through the magic of BookCrossing. I hope future readers find it as engaging, informative, and challenging as I have.

Placed in quietorchid's Medicine Chest bookbox

I am delighted JudySlump612 offered this to the Medicine Chest Bookbox! Wonderful book. Here's my review from earlier:


Part anthropology, part sociology, part history, part medical case history, this is a revealing book. When the Vietnam War wound down, the problem of the Hmong people was pushed under the rug. It wasn't until the 1980s that our government started to accept our allies as refugees. For many Hmong, it was too little, too late. For others, the trip out of the Thai refugee camps where they had been warehoused for decades was a mixed blessing.

This is the story of one such mixed blessing. When one family in California in the 1990s needed help with their infant daughter's epilepsy, the encounter between the refugee family and a medical center soon spun out of control. California did not handle their refugees well. The author tracks frustrating lapses and miscues from both sides as a precious little girl's future hung in the balance. Sobering reading, and makes me grateful that my state at least started the cultural outreach in the 1980s, (not that Minnesota was always successful; see the author on how well the Hmong assimilate to a new culture over 2,000 years!) rather than wait for tragedy.

Put in the Medicine Chest V Bookbox.

Left on the shelf to find a new reader!

Welcome to Bookcrossing, where Books roam freely! I hope you enjoy the book, and leave a journal entry so I can see where the book ended up. You can remain anonymous if you'd like, or join and follow the book's travels throughout the world. The site is free, secure, and non-spamming. Take a look around, and then go read!

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