9
Sep
2010
The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
The Bean Trees was Barbara Kingsolver’s debut novel, back in the ’80’s. One chapter in, and you can already see the foreshadows of the voices she would create over the next few decades.
6
Aug
2010
The Last War by Ana Menéndez
I really wanted to love this book, but it’s over-narration killed it for me. Never in recent memory has it taken me so long to get through a book so short (just over 200 pages).
9
Jun
2009
The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño
Guess what this book isn’t about? Detectives. It’s about an avant guard poetry movement in 1970’s Mexico. The characters are all loosely based on the author’s friends, and the author himself, who…je ne sais quoi…O.K., indulge me for a second here: Jack Kerouac and Johnny Thunders had a romantic tryst in Mexico and Roberto Bolaño, or as he is known in the book, Arturo Belano, is their love child.
8
Jun
2009
Summer Vacation Reading Challenge
Well, not all of us teach or in school, so we don’t have an actual Summer Vacation (very sad for us and we are constantly jealous of the rest of you) but who doesn’t love lying in the grass or the sand in warm weather with a good book? And since many of us are not able to travel the world literally, we an still do it literarily. Molly at My Cozy Book Nook is hosting a Summer Vacation travel-themed challenge. Here’s the skinny:
3
Jun
2009
Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros
Have you ever seen Sandra Cisneros read? If you can, you should. She’s super cute, with a voice that’s almost but not quite shrill, and has so much energy you say to whomever is sitting next to you, “how old is she?”
18
May
2009
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez
I take heart in the fact that Gabriel García Márquez doesn’t subscribe to just one genre or style. It gives me hope that I might like his other work, and will understand why he got the Nobel Prize in Literature.
11
May
2009
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
I just finished this book, like, half an hour ago. It’s short, fun read–Magical Realism in 246 pages, though it reads faster than that.
30
Apr
2009
The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
For Thine is the Kingdom, the Power…Yes, yes, it’s that Power and Glory Graham references in his title. Just to be clear. Fitting, since it is about the struggle of a wayward Catholic priest and the Mexican Communists who want him dead.
15
Apr
2009
1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann
It’s hard enough to condense 30,000 years of human culture, movement, and industry into one book, let alone one review of said book, but I’ll give it my best shot.
13
Apr
2009
The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos
People asked me what this book was about while I was reading it and I’ll tell you what I told them. It is almost entirely about sex and how big the main characters’ members are.
