Pedro Suarez Suarez itibaren Lincoln Charter Township, MI, Birleşik Devletler itibaren Lincoln Charter Township, MI, Birleşik Devletler

I liked this book :) I'm a big fan of Jennifer Weiner, though. There weren't any characters that fit what I've come to think of as her typical heroine, but it's good that she's branching out a little. I liked the way the story was told from different perspectives. And I liked the ending, too.

This was horrible for me. I understand that this was a stand alone and was quite different from the Rizzoli & Isles series, but this was by far the worst I've read by her. If I would have read this first and not the other series, I would have never picked any of her books up! I hated the plot, the story itself, the characters were flat and dull, the ending was horrible, and just everything altogether for me was total yuck! Prostitutes, non human babies/tumors thingies, ER night shift, everyone blaming someone else for others' mistakes, Newton Mass. (stolen or I guess inspired R&I series), burying people alive, prolonging life. This all had a good premesis and then when it comes down to actually reading it, I was dreading it! I should have just put it down and it should've just stayed down. Oh well, wasn't my cup of tea.

The unexpected keeps happening. Sometimes too much - the main characters' actions were a bit unbelievable.

This is a lovely, timely book - the account of this true story serves as a microcosm for the challenges of cross-cultural communicaton facing the U.S. today. An ancient hill-tribe culture clashes with post-industrial Western society when a large community of Hmong refugees settles in Merced, CA. The main focus of the narrative is the ensuing problems that arise in the delivery of healthcare to this immigrant population. The language barrier turns out to be the least of Merced's problems. The hospitals and doctors of Merced are ill-equipped for communicating with a people who believe deeply that everything has a spiritual component, that a shaman must retrieve the wandering souls of the sick, that animal sacrifices, coin rubbing, and herbal concoctions are essential to the healing process, and that Western medicine is not to be trusted. The author does a commendable job of telling this story even-handedly - we feel for the parents, for the doctors, and the social workers - everything was done with the very best of intentions and the most tragic of consequences. Along the way, the reader learns a good deal about the fascinating history, beliefs, and traditions of the Hmong. There are no easy solutions when deeply-held cultural values conflict, but the author's compassionate analysis puts us on the path toward solutions - which will undoubtedly involve compromise, mutual respect, sensitivity, and the assistance of those few precious folks who straddle the divide between two cultures - the cultural liaisons.