Celebrate our Book Club's Quinceañero all year long. Every month we bring you two books for your reading pleasure. Here are our selections for June 2022.
Our first book is a historical fiction novel set during the controversial annexation of Texas by our Comadre Reyna Grande. Our second selection is a contemporary novel set in a predominantly Dominican part of New York City by debut author Cleyvis Natera.
SAVE THE DATE! Our next Book Club Zoom Teleconference will be Monday, June 27, 8pm ET.
FREE BOOK. Sign up today for the teleconference and you may win a FREE BOOK. Register here: https://latinolit.com/join-
FREE AUTOGRAPHED BOOKS PLATES from Reyna Grande to all who attend the teleconference.
Book of the Month
A BALLAD OF LOVE AND GLORY
by Reyna Grande
Atria Books
The year is 1846. After the controversial annexation of Texas, the US Army marches south to provoke war with México over the disputed Río Grande boundary. Ximena Salomé is a gifted Mexican healer who dreams of building a family with the man she loves on the coveted land she calls home. But when Texas Rangers storm her ranch and shoot her husband dead, her dreams are burned to ashes. Vowing to honor her husband’s memory and defend her country, Ximena uses her healing skills as an army nurse on the frontlines of the ravaging war.
Meanwhile, John Riley, an Irish immigrant in the Yankee army desperate to help his family escape the famine devastating his homeland, is sickened by the unjust war and the unspeakable atrocities against his countrymen by nativist officers. In a bold act of defiance, he swims across the Río Grande and joins the Mexican Army—a desertion punishable by execution. He forms the St. Patrick’s Battalion, a band of Irish soldiers willing to fight to the death for México’s freedom.
When Ximena and John meet, a dangerous attraction blooms between them. As the war intensifies, so does their passion. Swept up by forces with the power to change history, they fight not only for the fate of a nation but for their future together.
About the Author: Reyna Grande is an award-winning author, motivational speaker, and writing teacher. As a young girl, she crossed the US–Mexico border to join her family in Los Angeles, a harrowing journey chronicled in THE DISTANCE BETWEEN US, a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. Her other books include the novels A BALLAD OF LOVE AND GLORY, ACROSS A HUNDRED MOUNTAINS, AND DANCING WITH BUTTERFLIES. Reyna lives in California, with her husband and two children. Visit her at ReynaGrande.com.
Conversations with Book
NERUDA ON THE PARK
by Cleyvis Natera
Ballantine Books
The Guerreros have lived in Nothar Park, a predominantly Dominican part of New York City, for twenty years. When demolition begins on a neighboring tenement, Eusebia, an elder of the community, takes matters into her own hands by devising an increasingly dangerous series of schemes to stop construction of the luxury condos. Meanwhile, Eusebia’s daughter, Luz, a rising associate at a top Manhattan law firm who strives to live the bougie lifestyle her parents worked hard to give her, becomes distracted by a sweltering romance with the handsome white developer at the company her mother so vehemently opposes. As Luz’s father, Vladimir, secretly designs their retirement home in the Dominican Republic, mother and daughter collide, ramping up tensions in Nothar Park, racing toward a near-fatal climax.
About the Author: Cleyvis Natera was born in the Dominican Republic, migrated to the United States at ten years old, and grew up in New York City. She holds a BA from Skidmore College and an MFA from New York University. Her writing has won awards and fellowships from PEN America, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Kenyon Review’s Writers Workshops, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She lives with her husband and two young children in New Jersey. NERUDA ON THE PARK is her first novel.
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Happy Reading!
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