LAS COMADRES & FRIENDS NATIONAL LATINO BOOK CLUB RELEASES 10TH ANNUAL SUMMER READING LIST

  

The Las Comadres & Friends Book Club’s 10th Annual Summer Reading List includes something for everyone in a variety of genres.  The List includes a 40-year-old classical novel; a Pulitzer Prize winner; a celebrity memoir; a dazzling anthology with intergenerational voices of Latine women; mysteries; historical fiction; young adult books; adorable children’s book, a mouth-watering cookbook and a gardening craft book.  

1.       A DELICATE MARRIAGE by Margarita Barresi (Atmosphere Press) – fiction

2.       A HAUNTING IN HIALEAH GARDENS by Raul Palma (Dutton) – suspense

3.       AN AMERICAN IMMIGRANT by Johanna Rojas Vann (WaterBrook) – fiction

4.       ARRIBADA by Estela González (Cynren Press) – fiction, LGBTQ+

5.       DAUGHTERS OF LATIN AMERICA: AN INTERNATIONAL ANTHOLOGY OF 

          WRITING BY LATINE WOMEN edited by Sandra Guzmán (Amistad) – anthology

6.       DEATH’S COUNTRY by R.M. Romero (Peachtree Teen) – young adult, LGBTQ+

7.       FAMILY LORE by Elizabeth Acevedo (Ecco) – fiction

8.       I’LL GIVE YOU A REASON by Annell López (The Feminist Press/CUNY) -- fiction

9.       IN MY EYES, YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL by David Unger (Mosaic Press) – fiction

10.     LEGENDARIOS: WRATH OF THE RAIN GOD by Karla Arenas Valenti (Aladdin) –

          children’s books

11.     LILIANA’S INVINCIBLE SUMMER: A SISTER’S SEARCH FOR JUSTICE by

          Cristina Rivera Garza (Hogarth) – Pulitzer Prize winner, non-fiction

12.     RELENTLESS: MY STORY OF THE LATINO SPIRIT THAT IS TRANSFORMING

          AMERICA by Luis A. Miranda Jr. (Hachette Books) – biography

13.     SYLVIA’S SECOND ACT by Hillary Yablon (Pamela Dorman Books) – fiction

14.    THE DOMINICAN KITCHEN by Vanessa Mota (Rock Point) -- cookbook

15.    THE HOUSE ON MANGO STREET by Sandra Cisneros (Vintage) – classic, fiction

16.    THE PRINCE AND THE COYOTE by David Bowles (Levine Querido) – young adult

17.    THE ROARING DAYS OF ZORA LILY by Noelle Salazar (MIRA) – historical fiction

18.    THESE HOLLOWED BONES: POEMS by Amelia Díaz Ettinger (Sea Crow Press) --               poetry

19.    ¡VERDURA! LIVING A GARDEN LIFE by Perla Sofía Curbelo-Santiago 

         (Cool Springs Press) – craft, gardening

20.   WILD DREAMERS by Margarita Engle (Atheneum Books for Young Readers) –

        young adult, fiction

 

Join the book club here:  https://latinolit.com/join-book-club/

  #ReadLatinoLit

Some photos of our Summer Reading List

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!