The Insomniac Book Club has raced through the following: "One Man's Mexico" by John Lincoln, "On Persephone's Island: A Sicilian Journal" by Mary Taylor Simeti, "Garden in the Hills" by Elizabeth West, "The House by the Dvina: a Russian-Scottish Childhood" by Eugenie Fraser The authors of "Persephone" and of "Garden" are both earnest, but Persephone is highly entertaining and informative, while "Garden" is truly the insomniac's friend. The partner of the "Garden" book is revealed to be somewhat unpleasant as a person, and one suspects that friends or partners of John Lincoln may find him heavy going at times; his book paints him as the type of male personality of which not much has been seen so openly since the 'fifties and early 'sixties. "Dvina" is a window on a world unfamiliar to most of us. I'm going to be more interested in White Russians (always a running joke in movies of the 'twenties and 'thirties) and Archangel. I don't remember ever before hearing of the "allied intervention," but now that I have it'll be appearing everywhere. These four books were found as neighbors at the Austin Public Library when the book being sought was not to be found where it belonged.