THE LATINA BOOK CLUB

The Latina Book Club welcomes Thelma T. Reyna , editor, of the newly published WHEN THE VIRUS CAME CALLING.  It's a heart-wrenching anthology that records the events Americans - and the world! - have been living and struggling with these past seven months.  Some of the stories are hard to read, but all expose the havoc this disease has wrought and, most importantly, the resilience of people who refuse to be defeated.  WHEN THE VIRUS CAME CALLING:  COVID-19 STRIKES AMERICA Thelma T. Reyna, Editor   A ground-breaking anthology of 46 distinguished American contemporary poets and prose writers, written in real time in the first half of the historic, devastating coronavirus COVID-19 invasion of America in 2020. In heart-wrenching, wide-eyed observations, firsthand events, tragedies, and reflections, these top authors document for us the horrors, grief, and heroism of friends, family, neighbors as we watched the disease unfold. Here are moments of hope and togethe...

To read a poem is to hear it with our eyes;  to hear it is to see it with our ears.  –poet Octavio Paz The Latina Book Club is highlighting five wonderful books of poetry this week. We’ve been reading a lot of poetry lately. No reason.   We enjoy it and find that it speaks to the soul.   Poetry makes us cry, laugh, moan, roar.   Poetry is not dead.   It lives within the words we read, the music we hear, and the world we see around us.   Let us know the Latinx poets you enjoy.   HERMOSA   By Yesika Salgado   Not A Cult      A journey of firsts, of mistakes, of celebrations, of the love, the crush, the disaster, the rebuilding, and the never-ending cycle of growth. BE RECORDER: POEMS By Carmen Gimènez Smith Graywolf Press   A dream of rebellion―against compromise, against inertia, against self-delusion, and against the ways the media dream up our co...

In honor of Father’s Day, The Latina Book Club , has put together this short list of male authors.    We selected a wide variety, from coming of age stories to political poems to dark thrillers.   G reat selections all.     Happy Reading.     LOVE by Matt de la Peňa (G.P. Putnam) Written by a Newbery Medal winning author, this novel is about the love that surrounds us. As children we can see it, feel it, even taste it.  We lose that feeling as adults, but this beautifully illustrated picture book by Loren Long, brings those loving feelings back to life. MAXIMILIAN AND THE LUCHA LIBRE CLUB: A Bilingual Lucha Libre Thriller by Xavier Garza (Cinco Puntos Press) Book 3 in the series, has Max joining the Lucha Libre Club – a club for kids related to the luchadores. His friend Paloma is in it too, but it’s Cecilia who has captured Max’s young heart, no? WHAT LANE?   by Torrey Maldonado (Nancy Paulsen...

   Poetry is the language of love, of revenge, of despair, of hope, of the people.   Here is a Top 14 List of Latino poets we should all be reading more of.  Among them we have the FIRST Spanish American Poet to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, an inaugural poet and two Poet Laureates.  I've tried to find websites for all the poets and, where there isn't any, I've posted a link where you could get more information on them.   Happy reading! --mcf TOP LATINO POETS Gabriela Mistral 1.     Gabriela Mistral (First Spanish American to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature) "Song of Death," http://www.poemhunter.com/gabriela-mistral 2.     Pablo Neruda, "Cantos Ceremoniales," http://www.fundacionneruda.org/en 3.     Julia de Burgos, "Rio Grande de Loiza," http://www.juliadeburgos.org 4.     Richard Blanco (Fifth Inaugural Poet of the U.S.), "For All Of Us, One Day...

The Latina Book Club congratulates President Obama on his second term in office. We’d also like to congratulate Richard Blanco for being the first Latino Inaugural Poet. Today, January 21, 2013, Americans celebrate the birthday of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Today, President Barack Hussein Obama takes the Oath of Office for his second term. Today, for the fifth time in history, there is an Inaugural Poet, and for the first time in history, that Poet is a Latino living the American Dream – Richard Blanco . Below is the full text of Richard’s inaugural poem. One Today By Richard Blanco Inaugural Poet January 21, 2013 One sun rose on us today, kindled over our shores, peeking over the Smokies, greeting the faces of the Great Lakes, spreading a simple truth across the Great Plains, then charging across the Rockies. One light, waking up rooftops, under each one, a story told by our silent gestures moving behind windows. My face, your face, millions o...