When reading Sandra Sabatini's linked stories about the family of a man suffering from Alzheimer's disease there are times when the writing is so beautiful one feels an ache in the heart, and heat behind the eyes. I don't believe I have ever known characters so completely, or felt so in touch with painful and lovely moments in a book of fiction. The stories are perfect, rich, and unpretentious; this book is a gift and a treasure. I hope Ms. Sabatini will write again, and soon. Until she does I will remain delighted and astonished with "The One With the News."

Read this book if you know about Altzheimers. Read this book if you don't. It is presented as a series of short stories revolving around a family and how the failing mental state of one family member affects everybody. Don't read this book in public if you are easily embarrassed by having strangers see you cry or hear you laugh.

"Diamonds, pain, truffles," writes Sabatini, "How can all these things be exquisite?" The stories in this collection are exquisite, told with an insightful mix of reality, hilarity, and hope. The book's richness drew me in, and the muscular strength of the stories themselves--especially the title story, with its breathtaking ending--kept me eagerly turning pages, caught up in the lives of the characters, pulling for them.

Each story describes the characters' attempts to cope as Alzheimer's disease causes a tectonic shift in the geography of their family or community. The book gives a voice to the fears and frustrations of caregivers and family members, while reinforcing the worth of human life. Sabatini borrows snippets from medical textbooks and old Scottish proverbs and weaves them artfully into her narrative to create memories for someone who has no memories left.

If Sandra Sabatini's "Breath - The Essence of Yoga" were only an inspired guide (with exquisitely simple sketches) to yoga breathing, or if it were only a poetic tribute to the breath, it would teach you something with each reading. It is both. You feel the writer's utter sincerity in every page. She leaves you with a sense of awe for one of our most mysterious functions: the breath - gateway between body and spirit.