For the month of February the Balch Springs Library Book Club read Pablo Coehlo's " The Witch of Portobello".  The story was written in Spanish originally, and then translated to English.  It is set in the 21st century and surrounds the life of a woman with a checkered past.  The book was read/ reviewed by English and Spanish speaking readers just to see if there was something missed in its translation. 

There wasn't.

The book is written in a series of interviews with each attempting to collaborate a fundamental storyline.  Of those interviewed are her lover, her mother, the calligraphy teacher, a journalist, and an additional five or six other characters.

The main character is the daughter of a forbidden relationship between a Romanian Gypsy and a foreigner.  She is then placed for adoption, and later rasied by a wealthy Lebanese family.  As the main character ages she discovers an unusual interest in the spiritual world, a connection to the feminine force of the planet, or also described as strong intuition.  She changes her name to Athena and has an additional alter ego when speaking to her followers.  Most of the tale takes place between Transylvania and London.

The story is loosely based on a chance encounter the author had with a Romanian stewardess.

Coehlo himself believes in witches, but not in the demonic traditional sense.  A witch, in his eys, is a woman with keen intuition.  He does not denounce religious rites, but feels it necessary that a feminine doctrine be equally recognized.

We voted it less than half of the five coffee cup standard.  

Sorry, Paulo.

Next month's book read is Percival Everett's " I am Not Sidney Poitier".  As usual its the second Saturday in March (13th) at 10:30.

The book is available at the Balch Springs Library and at the Weekend Reader Book Shop -check out the website at www.weekendreaderbookshop.com