riginal Kin: The Search for Connection Among Adult Sisters and Brothers by Marian Sandmaier, a writer on family and gender issues. This is a sensitive, intelligent book that's not afraid to recognize ambivalent feelings. Although Sandmaier writes about sibling connections, she began thinking about the themes for her book after the sudden death of her brother. In the years that followed, she found no books on sibling loss and, she says, she felt unprepared for the "domino effect [it] set in motion" on her surviving siblings. Her book grew out of her need to understand their bond and the meaning her brother's death had in her life.