THE LATINA BOOK CLUB

The Latina Book Club is Celebrating Women’s History Month by showcasing female authors and poets all this month.    We thank these fearless women for joining the celebration and sharing their works with us.   Enjoy! MARTA M. MIRANDA-STRAUB is a poet and storyteller who has spent her life working towards equity, inclusion, and creating systems change. Her activism has focused on advancing social and economic justice for marginalized communities. Until the age of twelve Marta was raised in Pinar del Rio, Cuba. In 1966 she immigrated to New Jersey. “As a refugee family from Cuba,” Marta said, “we were resettled by Catholic Charities in West New York, New Jersey, with a sponsor family in September 1966. We left our extended family, photo albums, toys, worldly belongings, language, culture, flag, and land on the island.” She now lives and works in Louisville, Kentucky, and affectionately describes herself as a Cubalachian— a combination of Cuban and Ap...

The Latina Book Club is Celebrating Women’s History Month by showcasing female authors and poets all this month.    We thank these fearless women for joining the celebration and sharing their works with us.   Enjoy! Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa was born in Puerto Rico and raised in New York City. She is a product of the Puerto Rican communities on the island and in the South Bronx. She attended the New York City public school system and received her academic degrees from the State University of New York at Buffalo and Queens College-City University of New York. As a child she was sent to live with her grandparents in Puerto Rico where she was introduced to the culture of rural Puerto Rico, including the storytelling that came naturally to the women in her family, especially the older women. Much of her work is based on her experiences during this time. Dahlma taught creative writing and language and literature in the New York City public school system before ...

The Latina Book Club is Celebrating Women’s History Month by showcasing female authors and poets all this month.    We thank these fearless women for joining the celebration and sharing their works with us.   Enjoy! JASMINNE MENDEZ is a poet, playwright, educator and award winning author.  Mendez has had poetry and essays published by or forthcoming in The New England Review, Crab Creek Review, Kenyon Review, Gulf Coast, The Rumpus, and others. She is the author of two poetry/prose collections ISLAND OF DREAMS (Floricanto Press, 2013) which won an International Latino Book Award, and NIGHT-BLOOMING JASMIN(N)E: Personal Essays and Poetry (Arte Publico Press, 2018). She is a Pushcart Prize nominee, and has received fellowships from Canto Mundo and the Kenyon Review Writer's Workshop among others. She is an MFA graduate of the creative writing program at the Rainier Writer's Workshop at Pacific Lutheran...

The Latina Book Club's March Madness begins.  No, not basketball.  Our madness is a dark and thrilling book that will keep people on the edge of their seats.  Happy Reading!   Independently Published He was not the demon everyone portrayed him to be, but rather he was a savior –a messiah—saving souls, and forgiving those who had failed to protect those they were supposed to protect. ---The Cowboy Dramatic. Scary. Thrilling.   Author Manny Meléndez has written a dark crime thriller that attracts and repels readers in equal measure, but keeps them reading. Clichés abound, but the author uses them wisely to quickly identify villain and hero alike. Readers are in for a roller coaster of emotions in this gripping page-turner, with twists and turns that will have readers on the edge of their seats until the surprising end. Meléndez doesn’t shy away from writing dark menacing characters.   Must be his love for the dark Master E...

ABRAMS PRESS The brotherhood of Beast Riders is lifting me in a huge hum of instructions, with great ferocity of purpose, with a kind of love new to me.    Love that says , Stranger, we are in this together. --Manuel The Latina Book Club is proud to be a blogger reviewer for Multicultural Children’s Book Day – January 31, 2020.   This year’s book review is of the BEAST RIDER by Tony Johnston and Maria Elena Fontanot de Rhoads (Abrams Press).   Views expressed are our own.  Haunting. Inspiring. Genuine.    BEAST RIDER is a harrowing, thrilling, and emotional ride fraught with danger and hope.   It’s one boy’s journey across the border to reconnect with his long lost brother. This very realistic tale is about love, courage, family and growing up fast. It’s also frightening because it can – and does! -- happen.   Young boys – girls, adults, elders – do ride “The Beast,” the fast moving train from Mexico tow...

ABRAMS PRESS Chef Aarón Sánchez’s memoir touched my soul. As a fellow Mexican American, I grew up a lot like Aarón and shared the same kind of traditional Mexican cuisines every night at the dinner table. I have a new respect and understanding for the recipes that were passed along within my family, and I now have a deeper appreciation because I recognize that this is connection to my past that will live on forever.   –Oscar de la Hoya, Boxing Legend Happy 2020!   The Latina Book Club has chosen a savory memoir/ cookbook for its first Book of the Month of this new decade.   WHERE I COME FROM: LIFE LESSONS FROM A LATINO CHEF by Aarón Sánchez is inspiring, passionate and delicious.   Right from the start, readers learn that Aarón equates his love of food with his love for his family and heri tage.   He thanks his mother, who pushed him out of the nest at 16 to go work with a well-known New Orleans chef, for his love of cookin...

T he Latina Book Club wishes everyone a very Happy New Year ! We're starting ours with the Three Kings Day Parade on Monday, January 6, 2020, at El Museo del Barrio, followed by lunch at La Fonda.  (How sweet it is.) We wish all our Readers and Followers all the best for 2020 and Happy Reading !! #ReadLatinoLit #ReadLatino #ReadLatinx