THE LATINA BOOK CLUB

  Hispanic Heritage Month is in full swing and The Latina Book Club continues its celebration and promotion of Latino authors.   Below is an impressive list of children's books and young adult authors.   I didn't include the obvious choices -- Esmeralda Santiago (When I Was Puerto Rican), Julia Alvarez (Return to Sender) and Sandra Cisneros (The House on Mango Street) -- to give their spots to "newer" authors, a few of whom have won the prestigious Pura Belpre Award.   We also did not include these two new authors -- Cindy L. Rodriguez (When Reason Breaks) and Valerie Tejeda (Hollywood Witch Hunters) -- because their works will not be out until 2015, but keep them in mind for the new year.   The Latina Book Club welcomes your additions to our list.   --mcf 1.     *Yuyi Morales, Niño Wrestles the World, www.yuyimorales.com   2.     Yadhira Gonzalez-Taylor, Martina Finds a Shiny Coin, www.ygtbooks.com   3.     *Duncan Tonatiuh, Pancho Rabbit and t

  We continue to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month .   This week we are giving away an ebook copy of THE CITY OF PALACES by Michael Nava.   Enter to win by leaving a comment below and/ or by posting our hashtag on Twitter, #amreadingwiththelatinabookclub .  Winner will be announced next Monday.  And, look for more prizes every week during this special month. A man must live his life in service of something. Without a cause, existence is pointless.   Whatever the stupid Christians may believe, the real hell is a life without purpose or meaning. -- Rodrigo Sarmiento THE CITY OF PALACES is the first book in a new series by this gifted writer.   It's beautiful written, with strong engaging characters, rich narrative and astounding imagery.   Michael Nava has written a majestic, sweeping saga of a family, of a country.   Readers will be intrigued and captivated by the many contrasts within -- beauty and scars, grandeur and squalor, civilization and barbarism.   There is so

  We are celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month with fun "Top 14" Lists.   Here is a list of New York's Leading Latino Authors.   How many do you know?   Feel free to add to our list by leaving a comment.   And, follow us on Twitter.   Our hashtag is #amreadingwiththelatinabookclub.   Matt de la Pe ñ a 1.        Esmeralda Santiago, www.esmeraldasantiago.com   2.        Theresa Valera,   http://theresavarela.com/   3.        Chris Campanioni, http://chriscampanioni.com/   4.        Manuel A. Melendez, http://www.manuel-melendez.com/   5.        Torrey Maldonado, http://www.torreymaldonado.com/ Theresa Varela   6.        Matt de la Pe ñ a, http://mattdelapena.com/   7.        Dalhma Llanos-Figueroa, http://www.llanosfigueroa.com/   8.        Sofia Quintero, http://www.sofiaquintero.com/   9.        Bobby Gonzalez, http://bobbygonzalez.typepad.com/      10.    Karina Guardiola "Eleven" Lopez, http://www.

T oday is the start of Hispanic Heritage Month.   In celebration, The Latina Book Club will give one lucky reader a free e-book copy of THE AMADO WOMEN, our Book of the Week.   Enter to win by leaving a comment below or by posting this hashtag on Twitter, #amreadingwithTheLatinaBookClub.   It's a mouthful; we know.   Winner will be announced next Monday.   And, look for more prizes every week during this special month. Cinco Puntos Press   Happiness is a decision.   You simply cast aside that which you are tired of looking at, weary of battling, unable to accept and focus on that which remains.   --Mercy Amado, matriarch Stunning, original, beautiful, mesmerizing. I love that this novel is about gutsy Latina women, and better yet, gutsy Latina sisters.    They fight and argue like sisters will do, but pick on one and you are facing all three!   And that fire, that passion is what makes Zamorano's debut novel such a success. THE AMADO WOMEN is all about famil

     There are so many good, memorable, inspiring memoirs that it was difficult to choose only 14.   Please feel free to add your favorites to this list.---mcf 1)       RITA MORENO: A MEMOIR by Rita Moreno 2)       HANDBOOK FOR AN UNPREDICTABLE LIFE by Rosie Perez 3)       TAKE THIS MAN: A MEMOIR  by Brando Skyhorse 4)       A CUP OF WATER UNDER MY BED by Daisy Hernandez 5)       CONFESSIONS OF A BOOK BURNER by Lucha Corpi 6)       THE CLOSER by Mariano Rivera 7)       SHATTERED PARADISE:   MEMOIRS OF A NICARAGUAN WAR CHILD by Ileana Araguti 8)       WHEN I WAS PUERTO RICAN by Esmeralda Santiago 9)       DOWN THESE MEAN STREETS by Piri Thomas 10)    ALMOST WHITE: FORCED CONFESSIONS OF A LATINO INHOLLYWOOD by Rick Najera 11)    MY BELOVED WORLD by Sonia Sotomayor 12)    MAN UP: CRACKING THE CODE OF MODERN MANHOOD by Carlos Andres Gomez 13)    THE DISTANCE BETWEEN US by Reyna Grande 14)    CRAZY LOCO

  It's Memoir Week here at The Latina Book Club . Do let us know which memoirs/biographies you would add to our list. Happy Reading.   “She looks like a Spanish Elizabeth Taylor.”                              -- Louis B. Mayer of MGM    Woman.   Actress.   Legend. Rita Moreno’s memoir is fascinating and full of juicy details.   She has written a vivid tell-all book about her childhood in Puerto Rico, her move to El Barrio in New York and her rising star during Hollywood’s Golden Age.   She tells us about her discovery by Louis B. Mayer, dancing with Gene Kelly and acting with Gary Cooper and Yul Brynner.   Rita is frank about the racial and sexual discrimination in the film industry, and about her many lovers, including Elvis Presley and “bad boy” Marlon Brando.      Best known for her iconic role as Maria in West Side Story , Rita soon found she couldn’t get any roles where she was not playing the spitfire Latina.   But despite the self-doubts and the doors

    It's Memoir Week here at The Latina Book Club . Do let us know which memoirs/biographies you would add to our list. Happy Reading. And join us in congratulating Rosie on joining ABC's The View !     Rosie Perez is best known for her accent, her hair and her humor.   She is also a well-known actress, dancer, choreographer, director and activist.   Her humor is her trademark so it comes as a shock to learn that this wonderful funny woman can laugh after enduring such a cruel childhood.   In her HANDBOOK FOR AN UNPREDICTABLE LIFE, Rosie opens a vein and let us into her life – the good, the bad and the very ugly.   From her days in a Brooklyn foster home to being abandoned by her crazy mother to being shuffled among relatives to being discovered by Spike Lee to dancing on Soul Train (How I envy her!) to choreographing for Janet Jackson and Bobby Brown to working with Jennifer Lopez and the Fly Girls to being nominated for an Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for

  It's Memoir Week here at The Latina Book Club .   Do let us know which memoirs/biographies you would add to our list. Happy Reading.   Simon & Schuster "At least it's never boring." --Mami's favorite saying   Brando Skyhorse's memoir is at times funny, poignant and simply outrageous. Imagine growing up thinking you are an American Indian -- Mami's good intentions aside! -- and   then learning that your whole life was a lie, that you are really a Mexican.   TAKE THIS MAN is Skyhorse's search for his true identity and his real father. BOOK SUMMARY:     When he was three years old, Brando Kelly Ulloa was abandoned by his Mexican father. His mother, Maria, dreaming of a more exciting life, saw no reason for her son to live his life as a Mexican just because he started out as one. The life of “Brando Skyhorse,” the American Indian son of an incarcerated political activist, was about to begin. Through a series of letters to Paul

  It's Memoir Week here at The Latina Book Club .   Do let us know which memoirs/biographies you would add to our list. Happy Reading. Beacon Press The road before me is English and the next part too awful to ask aloud or even silently: what is so wrong with my parents that I am not to mimic their hands, their needs, not even their words? A CUP OF WATER UNDER MY BED is a coming-of-age memoir told in vignettes and familial anecdotes.   It's a story about family and tradition, about exploring the world and one's sexuality, about living your life your way. SUMMARY:   Daisy Hernández chronicles what the women in her Cuban-Colombian family taught her about love, money, and race. Her mother warns her about envidia and men who seduce you with pastries, while one tía bemoans that her niece is turning out to be “ una india ” instead of an American. Another auntie instructs that when two people are close, they are bound to become like uña y mugre , fingernails and dir