Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are.—Mason Cooley
Greetings. Las Comadres & Friends Book Club is proud to announce our September book selections. We have three (3) books for you this month. The first a bold memoir that makes the case for rejecting assimilation. The second is a mystery involving superheroes. The third is in celebration of Grandparents Day, September 11. It’s a sweet tale of connecting with your Abuela.
You can find full book summaries and author bios on our website by visiting us at: https://latinolit.com/
SAVE THE DATE! Our next Book Club Zoom Teleconference will be Monday, September 26, 8pmET.
FREE BOOK. Sign up today for the teleconference and you may win a FREE BOOK. Register here: https://latinolit.com/join-
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SEPTEMBER BOOKS
BOOK OF THE MONTH
YOU SOUND LIKE A WHITE GIRL:
THE CASE FOR REJECTING ASSIMILATION
Author: Julissa Arce
Publisher: Flatiron Books
BOOK SUMMARY: “You sound like a white girl.” These were the words spoken to Julissa by a high school crush as she struggled to find her place in America. As a brown immigrant from Mexico, assimilation had been demanded of her since the moment she set foot in San Antonio, Texas, in 1994. She’d spent so much time getting rid of her accent so no one could tell English was her second language that in that moment she felt those words―you sound like a white girl?―were a compliment. As a child, she didn’t yet understand that assimilating to “American” culture really meant imitating “white” America―that sounding like a white girl was a racist idea meant to tame her, change her, and make her small. She ran the race, completing each stage, but never quite fit in, until she stopped running altogether.
CONVERSATIONS WITH BOOKS
SECRET IDENTITY
Author: Alex Segura
Publisher: Flatiron Books
BOOK SUMMARY: It’s 1975 and the comic book industry is struggling, but Carmen Valdez doesn’t care. She’s an assistant at Triumph Comics, which doesn’t have the creative zeal of Marvel nor the buttoned-up efficiency of DC, but it doesn’t matter. Carmen is tantalizingly close to fulfilling her dream of writing a superhero book. That dream is nearly a reality when one of the Triumph writers enlists her help to create a new character, which they call “The Lethal Lynx,” Triumph's first female hero. But her colleague is acting strangely and asking to keep her involvement a secret. And then he’s found dead, with all of their scripts turned into the publisher without her name. Carmen is desperate to piece together what happened to him, to hang on to her piece of the Lynx, which turns out to be a runaway hit. But that’s complicated by a surprise visitor from her home in Miami, a tenacious cop who is piecing everything together too quickly for Carmen, and the tangled web of secrets and resentments among the passionate eccentrics who write comics for a living.
SOMETHING ABOUT GRANDMA /
UN VERANO ESPECIAL CON LA ABUELA
Author: Tania de Regil
Publisher: Candlewick
BOOK SUMMARY: At Grandma’s house, where Julia is staying without her parents for the first time, the breeze is sweet like jasmine. Mornings begin with sugared bread, and the most magnificent hot chocolate cures all homesickness. There’s something about this place . . . and about Grandma. Like how she can tell when Julia has been quietly picking limes from the garden. Or that she can see the future—and knows when Julia is about to fall off her bike. Or how she can journey back in time through the stories she tells. In the room where Julia’s mother grew up, her grandmother holds her in a warm embrace—an embrace that Julia will pass on to her family when her parents arrive with her new baby brother. With Tania de Regil’s heartfelt illustrations, incorporating poems by her great-grandfather that were handwritten by her grandmother, Something About Grandma offers a tender and playful exploration of the magic of intergenerational love and wisdom. This book is also available in Spanish: Un Verano Especial Con La Abuela.
HAPPY READING!
ALWAYS READ LATINO LIT!
