Book review: 'The Sum of Our Days'

Title: "The Sum of Our Days"
Author: by Isabel Allende
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 301
Price: $26.95

In a Nutshell: In an emotionally rich, candid yet witty second memoir, preceded by "Paula" in 1995, Isabel Allende, one of the world's greatest writers, puts her family on parade. With elegance and loads of personality, Allende once again writes to her daughter, who died of the mysterious, rare disease porphyria at the age of 28. Elegantly, she sums up the past 13 years. Demonstrating her devotion to the love of family, even those not blood-related, Allende alternates between the tragedy and the euphoria of the "tribe" over which she presides in a charismatic but humane fashion. As always, she is a wonderful writer.