Sisterchicks Down Under

I'm not sure why I'm drawn to books about older women rediscovering themselves, but I'm in love with Robin Jones Gunn's Sisterchicks series. I've read Sisterchicks on the Loose (Two friends take a trip to Finland to visit a long-lost aunt.), Sisterchicks do the Hula (Two friends travel to Hawaii - one pregnant.), Sisterchicks in Sombreros (Two friends go down to claim property left to one of them in Mexico.), Sisterchicks in Gondolas (Two friends go to Venice to cook for a group of missionary men.), and now Sisterchicks Down Under (Two friends...you get the picture).

Kathleen travels to New Zealand with her husband for three months so he can work on a film being taped there. She adapts miserably to the loneliness and world's smallest apartment. That is, until she runs across Jill at the Chocolate Fish cafe. From then on, the girls take on the world together, from hobbits to art museums, chocolate fish to koala bears, grief to forgiveness. I love the way Gunn writes, and I like that she's able to draw deeper meaning from these fun jaunts. She works in local history tidbits and shares the sights, so that it's almost like being there myself. Without the chocolate fish, unfortunately.