THE LATINA BOOK CLUB

It was standing room only last night at the 15th Annual International Latino Book Awards sponsored by Latino Literacy Now and held at the Instituto Cervantes in New York City during BookExpo America.  Actor Toni Plana was the Master of Ceremonies.   There were 190 winners!  Some of the night's most notable winners included: Sandra Ramos O'Briant whose THE SANDOVAL SISTERS' SECRET OF OLD BLOOD took first place in Best Novel, Historical Fiction-English and Best First Book, Fiction. Another double winner was Carmen Tafolla's REBOZOS for Best Poetry Book-Bilingual and Best Arts Book-Bilingual. Reyna Grande's THE DISTANCE BETWEEN US won for Best Latino Focused Nonfiction Book. Cecilia Velastegui's MISSING IN MACHU PICCHU won for Best Novel, Adventure or Drama. Melinda Palacio's HOW FIRE IS A STORY, WAITING won for Best Poetry Book - One Author, English. and Founder of Las Comadres Para Las Americas Nora Comstock's  COUNT ON ME: TALE...

http://www.lascomadres.org/lco/lco-eng/events/bookclub.html This National Book Club is organized by Las Comadres through a partnership with the Association of American Publishers (AAP).  The purpose is to promote reading of Latino authors. Membership is open to anyone -- women and men. Most of the books selected are also available in Spanish.  There are book clubs in 11 states. Las Comadres Para Las Americas was founded by Nora de Hoyos Comstock.  Their motto:  Connecting Latinas Everywhere! Their December book is  LAS CHRISTMAS: Favorite Latino Authors Share Their Holiday Memories by Esmeralda Santiago y Joie Davidow. This book contains beautifully illustrated book with stories and recipes from: Julia Alvarez, Liz Balmaseda, Gioconda Belli, Denise Chávez, Sandra Cisneros, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Mandalit del Barco, Junot Díaz, Martín Espada, Francisco Goldman, Estela Herrera, Jaime Manrique, Victor Martinez, Aurora Levins Morales, Rosario Moral...