Musings from Quarantine

So, I'm home sick with...wait for it....pertussis. Thank you parents of unvaccinated children, who, with their children come to the ER after getting an entirely preventable disease. My guess is after repeated exposure to pertussis, my poor little (vaccinated) immune system just gave up. So now I'm living in self-enforced quarantine until the antibiotic course is over, which should be in 4 days. Sadly, I'll miss being around everyone for the 4th of July, but better that than spreading this disease!!The upside is that I'm getting  A LOT of reading done at home- hooray for the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 and the Kindle App!! I read a book last night called Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok that was awesome. It's a really well-done novel about a small girl who moves here with her college-educated mother from Hong Kong just prior to the Chinese re-takeover in the late 90s.  The author does some really neat things with language as the main character grows and learns to understand English and American slang/culture. It's a semi-autobiographical novel for the author, based on both her brother's and her experiences with America. I've read a lot of American bildungsroman based on the immigrant story, but none recently with such a captivating storyline and characters. If you're looking for a good book to read this summer, this is it!

 Another good one I read yesterday is called Seating Arrangements by Maggie Shipstead. It's a good, slightly meatier beach read than most beach reads out there, and satirizes/observes the life of WASPS at a wedding in the Northeast. Again, really great writing, good characters and an engaging storyline.

 Both these books are by first time authors, and I can't wait to read their next books!!

Okay. Back to reading/The Real Housewives/dying of boredom inside.