Long before laughter was prescribed for illness, Anne Ellis wrote with unexpected humor of her extended bout with the "villain" asthma.

SunshinePreferred sums up the attitude of a remarkable woman whose illness interrupted a busy life as politician and breadwinner for two children. In the 1920s she is shuffled from home in Colorado to sanitariums in sunny Arizona and New Mexico. Throughout the long ordeal, she showed her zest for life in writing vivid sketches of her doctors, nurses, and fellow patients.

Anne Ellis advises the reader: "Don't read this book unless you are a...