Meredith College’s 2007 Summer Reading Book is “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down,” by Anne Fadiman. The book chronicles the trials of an epileptic Hmong child and her family living in Merced, Calif.

Fadiman’s exploration of the unbreachable gulf between the Hmong and American medical systems won her a National Book Critics’ Circle Award. The Washington Post called the book “an intriguing, spirit-lifting, extraordinary exploration.”

As the inaugural Francis Writer in Residence, Yale University’s first endowed appointment in nonfiction writing, Anne Fadiman serves as both a professor in Yale’s English department and a mentor to students considering careers in writing or editing. For seven years Fadiman edited “The American Scholar.” Her essays and articles have appeared in “The New Yorker,” and “The New York Times,” among many other publications. She has won National Magazine Awards for both reporting and essays.
Meredith's Summer Reading Program selection is designed to follow the College's 2007-08 theme, which is “Ethical Leadership.”

“The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down” was chosen because of its exploration of medical ethics. Author Anne Fadiman will discuss medical ethics during a lecture at Meredith on Monday, September 10, 2007 at 7 p.m.

Fadiman’s lecture is part of Meredith’s Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina Presidential Lecture Series. The lecture is free and open to the public.