2025 LATINO BOOKS OF THE YEAR

 

List curated by the Las Comadres & Friends National Latino Book Club.

 

Abuela Lore by Isabella Santana (Somos en Escrito Literary Foundation Press)

Alligator Tears by Edgar Gomez (Crown)

Art Above Everything by Stephanie Elizondo Griest (Beacon Press)

Bird of Four Hundred Voices by Eugene Rodriguez (Heyday)

Black Mestiza: Poems by Yael Aldana (University Press of Kentucky)

Badass Bonita by Kim Guerra (Balance)

Brother Brontë by Fernando A. Flores  (MCD)

Daughter of Fire by Sofia Robleda (Amazon Crossing)

Embody Joy by Beatriz Fritschler (independently published)

I’ll Give You a Reason by Annell López (The Feminist Press at CUNY)

Latina Superheroes: Jalisco & Santa Vol. 1 by Kayden Phoenix (Andrews McMeel Publishing)

Las Bugambilias: A Bilingual Queer Novel by Lalo León (Alv Publishing)

Like Happiness by Ursula Villarreal-Moura (Celadon Books)

Loca by Alejandro Heredia (Simon & Schuster)

Los Muertos: Day of the Dead Fiction by Adela Pineda Franco (Tinta Books)

Malinalli by Veronica Chapa (Atria / Primero Sueño Press)

One Summer Night at the Shore by Caridad Pineiro (independently published)

Ramas y Raices: The Best of CALMA by Colorado Alliance of Latino Mentors and Authors (CALMA)

Salt Bones by Jennifer Givhan (Mulholland Books)

Speak Up! by Susana G. Baumann (Excel Branding)

The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey)

The Border Between Us by Rudy Ruiz (Blackstone Publishing)

The Prince & The Coyote by David Bowles (Levine Querido)  

The Witches of El Paso by Luis Jaramillo (Atria/ Primero Sueño Press)

Vanishing Daughters by Cynthia Pelayo (Thomas & Mercer)

 

 

The Las Comadres and Friends National Latino Book Club is celebrating its 19th year.

There are book clubs in 12 cities. The Book Club is part of Las Comadres Para Las Americas, a not-for-profit organization for Latinas with 10,000 members worldwide.  The Book Club’s mission is to promote the work of Latine authors to every book lover, to bring our community to bookstores, and to support our writers. 

The Comadres & Friends Book Club Membership is free and open to everyone -- Latinos and non-Latinos.  We read two books by Latino authors every month in English, and hold a Live Author Podcast the last Monday of the month.  Visit us at www.latinolit.com.   

#ReadLatinoLit.

 

 

 

SATURDAY, APRIL 29 -- 2023 WORLDWIDE COMADRAZO WITH SPECIAL GUEST DOLORES HUERTA AND KEYNOTE SPEAKER DR. MONICA MUNOZ MARTINEZ

 

SISTERHOOD & COMMUNITY. HEAR US. SEE US. JOIN US.

Saturday, April 29, 2023

 

 

 

Las Comadres Para Las Americas is holding it's biannual WORLDWIDE COMADRAZO on Saturday, April 29.  This is a gathering of Comadres from all over the world to share and discuss Sisterhood and Community.

 

  

SPECIAL GUEST:   DOLORES HUERTA

 

Dolores Huerta is a celebrated Latina labor leader, activist, and community organizer. She has worked for civil rights and social justice for over 50 years. In 1962, she and Cesar Chavez founded the United Farm Workers Union. Today she is the President and Founder of the Dolores Huerta Foundation. Among her many awards is Mexico's Order of the Aztec Eagle Award - the highest decoration awarded by the Mexican Government to foreign nationals. Dolores was also the first Latina inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.

NEW!   KEYNOTE SPEAKER:   DR. MONICA MUŇOZ MARTINEZ

 

Dr. Monica Muñoz Martinez is an Associate Professor of History at The University of Texas at Austin. Her book, THE INJUSTICE NEVER LEAVES YOU: Anti-Mexican Violence in Texas received six book awards. Monica co-founded the award-winning project "Refusing to Forget" and helped to secure four state historical markers commemorating the history of anti-Mexican violence. She is a 2021 MacArthur Foundation Fellow and in 2023, Monica was named a national honoree for Woman of the Year by USA Today.

THE NORA AWARDS

We will announce award recipients for Comadre of the Year, Comadre Community Service 

and Friend of Las Comadres.

Art work for Las Comadres and Worldwide Comadrazo logos created by Laura Lopez Cano.

========================================== 

 

SPONSORS

GOLD SPONSOR OF THE 2023 WORLDWIDE COMADRAZO – RUDY RUIZ

 

 

SILVER SPONSORS

EGBI    *    INCLUSION INSTITUTE+   *   LATINX IN PUBLISHING   *   ADRIENNE PULIDO

 

BRONZE SPONSORS

Athena Silversmith * Bilingual Communication Strategies * Josefina Casati * 

Con Todo Press * Creative Alliance Communications * CryptoConexión 

Grace Flores-Hughes * Lucero Photography * Minero 

MOLA Market Research * Deborah Nevarez-Vivolo 

Yleana Martínez Modern Jewelry Design

LAS COMADRES & FRIENDS NATIONAL LATINO BOOK CLUB ANNOUNCES APRIL 2023 BOOKS OF THE MONTH

 

Keep Reading. It's one of the most marvelous adventures anyone can have.  --Lloyd Alexander

 

Las Comadres & Friends Book Club is proud to announce its April 2023 book selections. 

 

Save the date of Monday, April 24, 8pm ET, for our monthly Book Club Teleconference via zoom.   

FREE BOOK!  Register today for the Teleconference and you may win a free book.  

Register here: https://latinolit.com/join-teleconference/

 

 

 

BOOKS OF THE MONTH

 

CENIZAS: POEMS

By Cynthia Guardado

 

Cenizas offers an arresting portrait of a Salvadoran family whose lives have been shaped by the upheavals of global politics. The speaker of these poems—the daughter of Salvadoran immigrants—questions the meaning of homeland as she navigates life in the United States while remaining tethered to El Salvador by the long shadows cast by personal and public history. Cynthia Guardado’s poems give voice to the grief of family trauma, while capturing moments of beauty and tenderness. Maternal figures preside over the verses, guiding the speaker as she searches the ashes of history to tell her family’s story. The spare, narrative style of the poems are filled with depth as the family’s layers come to light.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  Cynthia Guardado (she/her/hers) is a Los Angeles–born Salvadoran poet and professor. She is the author of two collections of poetry, CENIZAS and ENDEAVOR.   Learn more about Cynthia here: https://cynthiaguardado.wordpress.com/about-2/

 

 

VALLEY OF SHADOWS

By Rudy Ruiz

 

Solitario Cisneros thought his life was over long ago. He lost his wife, his family, even his country in the late 1870s when the Rio Grande shifted course, stranding the Mexican town of Olvido on the Texas side of the border. He’d made his brooding peace with retiring his gun and badge, hiding out on his ranch, and communing with horses and ghosts. But when a gruesome string of murders and kidnappings ravages the town, pushing its volatile mix of Anglo, Mexican, and Apache settlers to the brink of self-destruction, he feels reluctantly compelled to confront both life, and the much more likely possibility of death, yet again.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: RUDY RUIZ is an award-winning author. His novel, The Resurrection of Fulgencio Ramirez, received two Gold Medals at the 2021 International Latino Book Awards. It was also a finalist for the Western Writers of America Silver Spur Award for Best Contemporary Novel. His short-story collection Seven for the Revolution captured four International Latino Book Awards, including the Mariposa Prize for Best First Book. In 2017, he garnered the Gulf Coast Prize in Fiction. A bilingual native of the US-Mexico border, he earned his bachelor's and master's degrees at Harvard and now resides in San Antonio, Texas, with his wife and children. Visit his website at www.RudyRuiz.com.

 

 

GOD IS JUST LIKE ME

By Karen Valentin

 

God may be hard to describe, but one young Puerto Rican girl in New York City finds examples of God's character all around her. As she goes day-by-day through the week, she talks to God about the delightful ways she and God are similar. From vivid sunrises and colorful paintings, dancing to music in the park, loud thunderstorms, and fishing on a quiet lake, the evidence that she is made in the image of God is everywhere she looks.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  Karen Valentin is an award-winning American writer who is proud of her Puerto Rican heritage. She is the author of several books for children, including WHAT DID ABUELA SAY? and BLOCK PARTY. She is also the author of a young adult novel, THE SUMMER SHE CHANGED HER NAME. Karen has also published several books for adults, including a memoir, THE MOTHER GOD MADE ME TO BE, awarded Best Parenting/Family Book in 2016 by The International Latino Book Awards.  Karen is an avid traveler who speaks three languages--English, Spanish, and French.  She taught English as a second language in France after earning a bachelor of arts in English literature from Fordham University.  Learn more about her at www.karenvalentinauthor.com

 

  

Visit the Book Club website for full descriptions and author bios here:  https://latinolit.com/april-2023-cynthia-guardado-rudy-ruiz-karen-valentin/

  

REMEMBER!  Save the date of Monday, April 24, 8pm ET, for our monthly Teleconference with live interviews with  Cynthia Guardado, Rudy Ruiz and Karen Valentin.

 

Until then, Happy Reading and always Read Latino Lit!

 

LAS COMADRES & FRIENDS BOOK CLUB --- NOVEMBER BOOKS

Las Comadres & Friends National Latino Book Club 

announces its books for November 2020.

BOOK OF THE MONTH

THE RESURRECTION OF FULGENCIO RAMIREZ

by Rudy Ruiz

Blackstone Publishing

CONVERSATIONS WITH BOOK

FLYING FREE

by Cecilia Aragon

Blackstone Publishing

Visit the Comadres & Friends Book Club website for book summaries by clicking here.

Save the date! Monday, November 23, for our Live interview with authors Rudy Ruiz and Cecilia Aragon, and the simultaneous #TwitterChat at @ReadLatinoLit and follow hashtag #ReadLatinoLit.

Register for the November 23 teleconference by clicking here.   Early registrants may win a book from publisher; no guarantees.

Buy your books at Las Comadres Book Club Book Shop here:  https://bookshop.org/shop/lascomadresbookclub

Happy Reading

Read Latino Lit