As a child, actress Diane Guerrero knew she wanted to be on stage. She would dress up to sing in their apartment, choosing between Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston ballads. Diane ran home from school after practicing her latest solo to find an empty house: rice on the stove, plantains half-sliced, and the newspaper on the table. Fourteen-year-old Diane knew something was wrong, and hid under the bed.
Tag: Latin American
#DiverseBookBloggers, and why we’re necessary
Last Thursday, multicultural, LGBTQIA+ and differently abled bloggers converged for an epic discussion on the state of diversity in book blogging. Started by Nazahet (the blogger behind @_diversereads) and others, the #diversebookbloggers chat sought to unify book bloggers internationally. Unexpectedly, the turnout was great, with people checking in from Singapore, Germany, Australia, and other corners of the world. With questions like “What can diverse book bloggers contribute to the book blogging community that other’s can’t?” bloggers were able to get to the heart of representation issues in the blogging community, and how this has larger ramifications on the industry at…
Book Review | Dark Dude by Oscar Hijuelos
Life is always a little bit better when you win free things. That’s why I was on cloud nine when notified I won Vamos a Leer’s giveaway! Vamos a Leer is a project under the University of New Mexico that provides resources and book recommendations related to Latin America. That’s the simplified version, but trust me, they’re worth a look. As the winner, I received a copy of Dark Dude by Oscar Hijuelos, which I consumed like a vacuum. Thanks again to everyone at Vamos a Leer! Rating: 4 out of 5 stars Short Review: Dark Dude is something new–…
What got me thinking in March
I write a lot about books, but here’s some of the other stuff I read this past month! Hopefully this will be a new monthly feature. Check it out, and let me know in the comments what got you thinking this month.
Audio Gems in ‘The New Yorker Fiction’s’ Archive
My 9-5 job gets pretty monotonous– I just can’t help it! Thank goodness for “The New Yorker: Fiction” podcast. I don’t listen to it as a podcast, instead opting to go on the website and scour the cities for familiar authors and titles. Here, acclaimed authors read portions of other authors work before discussing the story with host Deborah Treisman. It’s simple, but yet oh so perfect. Authors are reading short stories and/or excerpts, making it a great fit for people looking for something to keep them awake while they’re…uploading several thousand documents to an internal database, for example. Interested? I knew you would…
Book review |Santa Muerte: the Daniela story, by Lucina Stone
Rating: 3.5 stars, rounded to 4 stars on Goodreads Short Review: Santa Muerte is a beautiful and ambitious debut book that manages to successfully integrate Mexican folklore and time travel. I’m going to take you on a bit of a roundabout journey with this book review, but trust me, it all loops back around.
Top Book Quotes of 2015 (so far)
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and Bookish. The topics vary, so the one I’m tackling this week (albeit a little late) is “Top 10 quotes from books I’ve read in 2015.” This is going to sound incredibly indecisive, but this isn’t truly a list of my 10 favorites– but it’s close. I got to the point with this list where I knew there were more I’d like to include, but I couldn’t find them in the book. Some are poignant, while others are silly. With that said, I’m pretty sure I could have found…
Graphic Novel Review | Cuba: My Revolution
Y’all might not think graphic novels are legitimate book club reads, but anyone who has read Persepolis will correct you. And if you liked the intimate, enthusiastic first person historical recounting that made Persepolis (and the accompanying movie) so great, you’ll [probably] like Cuba: My Revolution. Even if you’re new to graphic novels, it’s a really good introduction to the graphic novel as autobiographical and historical. I promise, adding pictures to a book makes it no less informative. Only a little more interesting. I’m no Cuban historian, but I saw this at the library, and was inspired over the last…
brown books | green tea 