THE LATINA BOOK CLUB

     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: F...

   The Latina Book Club's mission is to promote Latina / Latino authors.   We do this through book reviews, author interviews, publicity announcements, book of the month selections, etc. A new popular feature we added this year is " Writers Wednesdays ." The first Wednesday of each month, we will feature a writer talking about ...writing.             Our guest this month is Reyna Grande .   She preferred that we ask her questions on writing, so below are her answers.   Happy Reading! LBC:   When did you know you wanted to write? REYNA:   I discovered writing by accident. In junior high, I was an English as a Second Language student and I began to write as a way to learn English. I wrote stories about my hometown in Mexico, about the people I had left behind when I came to the U.S. Eventually, writing was no longer about learning English, it became my way of making sense of the world around me ...

It's official!   Las Comadres Para las America , the national Latina organization, will present a day-long conference on October 5, 2013, for Latino writers seeking book publication. This year's keynote speaker is Reyna Grande , a National Book Circle Critics Award finalist and winner of the American Book Award and International Latino Book Award. The Comadres and Compadres Writers Conference will be held at Medgar Evers College , CUNY, Brooklyn. Joining La Comadres as collaborators are AT&T, Scholastic, the National Black Writers Conference, the Center for Black Literature, the Foreign Language Department and the Latino American Association, Adriana Dominguez, and Marcela Landres, with support from the Association of American Publishers. The conference will help attendees navigate the challenges and opportunities specific to Latino writers. Scheduled panels will focus on poetry, marketing/publicity, children's/young adult writing, self-publishing, ficti...

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...

   When we think about illegal immigrants, we think about adults, we think about coyotes, we think about drowning, we think about women being sold into prostitution, we think about young men lost in the desert. We never think about the children, especially not the children left behind by desperate parents in search of a new life for their families.   Reyna Grande – award-winning author, speaker, teacher, mother, immigrant! -- was one of these children. THE DISTANCE BETWEEN US is her life's story. It's painful, it's harsh, it's scary, it's hopeful, it's life-affirming.   In THE DISTANCE BETWEEN US, Reyna speaks frankly about her life in Mexico with her grandmother; about illegally entering the U.S. when she was only nine-years-old; about going to live with her abusive father; about losing hope; about finding solace in books and writing; about finding herself; about striking out on her own; about finding her own American dream.   Reyna has opened a vein, a...

As you celebrate Thanksgiving with your loved ones, think also about how to celebrate Reading. I love to read. I love to discuss books with friends. I love to be adventurous. Luckily my New York City bookclub allows me to be all those things. For example, I am a member of the Comadres, Compadres & Friends Bookclub in New York City. Our book for November was Daisy Martinez’ cookbook, DAISY: MORNING, NOON AND NIGHT. Now you may wonder how a bookclub can discuss a cookbook and if it makes for good reading. I’m here to tell you that we did and it does. Not only did we discuss the cookbook, but we went one step further and asked all the members of the book club to bring a dish that they cooked using one of Daisy’s recipes. We had a feast! There was rice with corn; chicken with garlic; empanadas with corn; empanadas with carne; watercress / pear/ pomegranate salad; Peruvian salad (with garbanzos and colored peppers); and of course, pumpkin flan.  The picture on the left ...

    If you are anywhere near Los Angeles this weekend, do consider visiting THE 13th ANNUAL LATINO BOOK & FAMILY FESTIVAL at Greenlee Plaza at California State University.  It promises to be a fun-filled weekend full of books!  And, artists, arts & crafts, story-telling, music, folklorico dancing, exhibits and Mexican food. The Latino Book & Family Festival is spearheaded by Latino Literacy Now, in partnership with actor and community activitist Edward James Olmos .  Author Reyna Grande is this year's Program Coordinator, and she has lined up many wonderful authors, including Belinda Acosta, Julia Amante, Kathy Cano-Murillo, Victor Cass, Margo Candela, Alex Espinosa, Stephen Gutierrez, Josefina Lopez, Rafael Navarro, Thelma Reyna and Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez.   For the complete list of authors, click here . For more information and the Festival's website, click here . For directions to the Festival, click here . If...

Inspired by Reyna Grande's book, DANCING WITH BUTTERFLIES -- about four women in a Mexican folkloric dance troupe --, some of the members of New York's Latina bookclub went to see the Ballet Folklorico de Mexico de Arianna Hernandez on February 24, 2010. It was wonderful!   In the audience were dignataries and politicians -- Mexican and American.  There were also lots of families with children.  I felt like a kid myself.  In Reyna's book, she talks about a dress with 10-yards of fabric.  I saw that.  She talks about the dancing couple forming a bow with their steps, I saw that. It was the book, the dances come to life.  It was a great blend of both the literary and the real worlds.  So for anyone who has read or is reading Reyna's book, do try to see a Ballet Folklorico live.  You will be entranced.  Here are some pictures from the Ballet Folklorico.  Enjoy---maria

If you've read DANCING WITH BUTTERFLIES by Reyna Grande, you know that the story revolves around four women who dance/work for a Ballet Folklorico company.  Reyna does such a good job in protraying the dances and the costumes that a reader can almost see them. Well, we don't have to guess at the dances any longer.  The Ballet Folklorico de Mexico de Amelia Hernandez is coming to New York for the night of Wednesday, February 24, 2010, 8:00PM at Town Hall (123 West 43rd Street). Tickets are $50, and can be ordered via TicketMaster. Here's the link: http://www.ticketmaster.com/search?tm_link=tm_homeA_header_search&q=Ballet+Folklorico+De+Mexico&search.x=51&search.y=14 I am trying to organize a group for dinner (Mexican, of course!) and the Ballet Folklorico on February 24.  If you are interested, please email me at ferrerm@aol.com . Hope to see you there.   Viva Ballet Folklorico!

Join me on Monday, January 25, at 8:00pm EST when I interview author Reyna Grande. As you know, Reyna is the author of DANCING WITH BUTTERFLIES.  Her book was the January selection for the Comadres, Compadres & Friends National Book Club. To register for this FREE teleconference, logon to http://www.lascomadres.org/ , and go to the Events tab. If you have any questions you'd like to ask Reyna, email me at ferrerm@aol.com . Happy Reading. Maria Ferrer

This group meets the third Thursday of each month at the Borders Bookstore at Columbus Circle in New York City at 6:30PM.  For January, they are reading DANCING WITH BUTTERFLIES by Reyna Grande. SUMMARY:    Folklórico, traditional Mexican dance, bring together four women in Los Angeles. Yesenia and her husband lead Alegría, a successful Folklórico dance group, but Yesenia’s arthritic knee keeps her offstage and restless in her marriage. Sisters Elena and Adriana grew up dancing in Alegría, but bitterness over their difficult childhood has soured their relationship. And Soledad, the group’s costume designer, is determined to open a dress shop in L.A., even though she is in the U.S. illegally.

Author:  Reyna Grande Publisher:  Washington Square Press Website:   http://www.reynagrande.com/ Folklórico, traditional Mexican dance, bring together four women in Los Angeles. Yesenia and her husband lead Alegría, a successful Folklórico dance group, but Yesenia’s arthritic knee keeps her offstage and restless in her marriage. Sisters Elena and Adriana grew up dancing in Alegría, but bitterness over their difficult childhood has soured their relationship. And Soledad, the group’s costume designer, is determined to open a dress shop in L.A., even though she is in the U.S. illegally. Tragedy strikes each of these four women, leaving Alegría’s future in doubt. Yesenia tries to reshape her body through cut-rate plastic surgery in Tijuana. Elena’s new marriage breaks up after her baby is stillborn, and instead of dancing through her grief, she lusts after an underage dancer. Adriana, missing her abusive father, chases oblivion through a series of dangerous relat...