THE LATINA BOOK CLUB

  Dark.   Scary. Mysterious. Deadly. Monsterous. She had me at Puerto Rico. Ann Dávila Cardinal’s first solo novel  is suspenseful and thrilling at the same time.     Lupe, a self proclaimed Gringa-Rican, from Vermont visits Puerto Rican to spend the summer with her father’s family, including her police-chief Tio.   Only this summer is different. El Cuco, a childish bogeyman is killing teenagers and Lupe is in the middle of solving the mystery. Seems El Cuco is targeting “los cangrejos” – five estranged friends one of whom is her cousin. Lupe pairs with Javier, one of the cangrejos and a former addict. The spirited duo are in a race against time to stop the Cuco before anyone else dies.   FIVE MIDNIGHTS is an energetic super natural thriller with great glimpses of Puerto Rican barrios. It is an action packed fast page-turner. The author has also created a great cast of interesting diverse characters, which we are happy to report are back in the s...

  A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots. –Marcus Garvey We’re not taught anything that we contributed to this country and we’ve been around for 500 years . – John Leguizamo   I get my energy and strength from the spirit and words of my ancestors, from my mother’s spirit that shines so bright, and from the unconditional love and support of my father and family. –Yvette Modestin   My great strength is knowing who I am and where I come from, my island. –Oscar de la Renta   Celebrating Latinx Heritage Month by looking at some books on Latinx history in the U.S.  In 2014, for the first time in history the majority of students were non-white. Finally, some educators were able to start teaching history that included the contributions of marginalized peoples.  It’s a start.  It’s a wave. A storm is coming, and we are the storm.   AN AFRICAN AMERICAN AND LATINX HISTORY OF T...

   CELEBRATING LATINX HERITAGE MONTH EVERY DAY WE GET MORE ILLEGAL  BY JUAN FELIPE HERRERA City Lights Publishers     America We Talk About It          Summer Journals – August 8, 2017 ....I had to gain, pebble by pebble, seashell by seashell, the Courage to listen to my self. My true inner self. For that I had to Push you aside. It was not easy I had pushed aside my mother My father my self in that artificial stairway of becoming you to Be inside of you – after years I realized perhaps too late there Was no way I could bring them back I could not rewind the Clock. But I did – I could do one thing. I could care. Now we --are here.                               –Juan Felipe Herrera       Passionate. Insightful. Unforgettable. ...

The Latina Book Club begins its celebration of Latinx Heritage Month  with Juanita Gandara , Educational Consultant, Children’s Book Author and Founder of an anti-bulling program.   Juanita has come up with a great character that transcends literature and has become a role model for young minds. We are in awe of her work. All we can say is – Bravo!   Welcome to The Latina Book Club.  How are you coping with the Covid pandemic? Are you going out? If so, what was the first place you visited once the quarantine was lifted? Juanita:   I have been coping well overall despite the sudden changes we have all have had to adapt to.  For myself, going virtually has been the biggest challenge.  Fortunately, for myself, I consider myself a very resourceful and capable individual when it comes to learning and never gives up!  I rarely go out but if I do, it is to do my grocery shopping, occasional trips to the post office, etc.  Th...

The Latina Book Club celebrates LATINX HERITAGE MONTH every day. To honor authors during this celebratory month, we will highlight a new book every day. Join us and #ReadLatinoLit. A PECULIAR KIND OF IMMIGRANT’S SON By Sergio Troncoso Cinco Puntos Press   RELEASED TODAY ! Brilliant. Thought provoking. Extraordinary. Sergio Troncoso’s much anticipated new collection of stories takes us on journeys from Boston to Manhattan to West Texas. The book is full of unique characters going out into the world, struggling with two cultures, learning to be true to themselves. SUMMARY:   How does a Mexican-American, the son of poor immigrants, leave his border home and move to the heart of gringo America? How does he adapt to the worlds of wealth, elite universities, the rush and power of New York City? How does he make peace with a stern old-fashioned father who has only known hard field labor his whole life? With echoes of Dreiser’s American Tra...

The Latina Book Club celebrates LATINX HERITAGE MONTH every day. To honor authors during this celebratory month, we will highlight a new book every day. Join us and #ReadLatinoLit. TAINA by  Ernesto Quiñonez Vintage Another virgin birth? In Spanish Harlem?   Could be.   TAINA is full of magical realism, revolution and redemption. And the best part, this novel is available in English and Spanish. Happy Reading. SUMMARY:   When Julio, a teenager living in Spanish Harlem, hears that Taina, a pregnant fifteen-year-old from his high school claims to be a virgin, he decides to believe her. Julio has a history of strange visions and his blind and unrequited love for Taina will unleash a whirlpool of emotions that will bring him to question his hard-working Puerto Rican mother and his communist Ecuadorian father, his beliefs and even the building blocks of modern science (after seeing the conception of Taina’s baby as a revolution in nat...

The Latina Book Club celebrates LATINX HERITAGE MONTH every day. To honor authors during this celebratory month, we will highlight a new book every day. Join us and #ReadLatinoLit. BOA Editions TRACING THE HORSE By Diana Marie Delgado Diane Marie Delgado’s long awaited collection of poems are to be read “for feeling’ in a world gone one-dimensional.”   This is her story – her coming of age.   It’s the story of family, violence, loneliness and addiction. There is no filter, just a stark vulnerability that captures her readers’ attention and hearts. SUMMARY:   Set in Southern California's San Gabriel Valley, Diana Marie Delgado’s debut poetry collection follows the coming-of-age of a young Mexican-American woman trying to make sense of who she is amidst a family and community weighted by violence and addiction. With bracing vulnerability, the collection chronicles the effects of her father’s drug use and her brother’s incarceration, asking ...

The Latina Book Club celebrates LATINX HERITAGE MONTH every day. To honor authors during this celebratory month, we will highlight a new book every day. Join us and #ReadLatinoLit. Antheneum/ Caitlyn Dlouhy Books BARELY MISSING EVERYTHING By Matt Mendez “Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans.”    Fabi, her son Juan and his best friend JD find this out the hard way. They all had other plans for themselves, but life proved cruel and merciless. They are hoping for one last shot at their dreams…maybe. SUMMARY:   Juan has plans. He's going to get out of El Paso, Texas, on a basketball scholarship and make something of himself--or at least find something better than his mom Fabi's cruddy apartment, her string of loser boyfriends, and a dead dad. Basketball is going to be his ticket out, his ticket up. He just needs to make it happen. His best friend JD has plans, too. He's going to be a filmmaker one day, like Quinten...