Laurie R. King

I live in the hills, so when I go out, it’s rarely for just one stop. The other day my list of tasks included x-rays, fruit stand, and bookshop.

Obviously, Bookshop Santa Cruz came first, and it would only take a minute because I was picking up a pre-paid order.  But when I stopped at the pickup desk, I discovered that I’d accidentally double-ordered a book I’d missed when it first came out, and kept meaning to read.

Arsenic and Adobo, Mia Manansala

Still, these were the paperback edition, and returns are processed at a different desk, and anyway, I hate to mess my bookshop around when something is my fault. So I told myself I’d give one to somebody.

I got to the med clinic, tucked a copy of Arsenic and Adobo into my shoulder bag, and wandered down to the x-ray clinic.

Twenty or so pages into the story, my name was called. I followed the technician in her vivid purple scrubs, laid my things down on the table, sat for the x-rays, and was getting ready to go when the young woman nodded at the book and asked what I was reading. I told her I’d just started it, but it was a mystery novel about a Filipino family and their restaurant. She brightened up and told me she was Filipina and loved cooking, so she’d have to read it.

Problem solved. That second copy of Mia Manansala’s book had a home.

(Read about Arsenic and Adobo here—and try the recipes!)