This is the second book I've read by this author and I enjoyed it as much, if not more, than The Egg and I, which was her first book. In The Plague and I Betty finds herself in a sanatorium battling tuberculosis. Only a person with her sense of humor could have written this in such a light hearted manner. I lost count of how many times I laughed out loud while reading this book. She describes the rules and routine of the sanatorium so vividly that I felt as if I were there with her. How she managed to keep up her spirits when facing, what was then, a terminal disease, I'll never know, but she did manage it, and then went on to share her memories with us. I can't wait to get hold of the rest of her books. This is a terrific book, full of humor and dry wit. ( )

When I just need to laugh until I cry, I pull out my beloved copy of this book! You would not think a book about life in a TB sanitarium would be funny, but you would be wrong---the characters the author meets there are absolutely wonderful, and the staff is portrayed so well that you feel like you there. Betty MacDonald is one of the funniest authors who ever lived.

Who would think a story about a woman going through treatment for TB could be hilarious? Only Betty MacDonald could find something to laugh about.

Who knew tuberculosis could be so funny?! Actually, although this book is billed as an amusing story, at its heart, it's quite sad. MacDonald contracted tuberculosis and was hospitalised in a sanitorium for a year in the late 1930s, in the days before modern antibiotics. She later wrote this account of her stay at The Pines and her experience taking "the cure." Although her descriptions of the other patients and the sanitorium staff are wildly funny at times, the descriptions of the actual treatment were quite a surprise to me. I had always thought that TB patients in those days were sent somewhere to rest, somewhere lovely with clean air. While rest and clean air are certainly a part of the treatment, MacDonald and her fellow inmates had to follow an incredibly strict set of rules: "Patients must not read. Patients must not write. Patients must not talk. Patients must not laugh. Patients must not sing. Patients must lie still. Patients must not reach." Like schoolchildren, most of them broke the talking rule, of course. But those who wanted to get better did, in fact, follow the rules pretty closely. MacDonald was hospitalised for a year, but many others were long-time residents of the sanitorium, with six or seven years under their belts. Six years of lying in bed, not speaking, not moving ... it's unimaginable. As MacDonald's stay progressed and her health improved, she was permitted reading time, then an hour up a day, etc., until she was moved to the ambulant wing of the sanitorium and allowed to make crocheted doilies and other useless things. Although some of the humour is slightly dated, I did have a good chuckle over MacDonald's descriptions of the staff and patients. But, more than that, I found this slim volume an incredible lesson about a terrible disease - something I knew far too little about.