Reading with Las Comadres
Las Comadres and Friends
National Latino Book Club
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February Teleconference |
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The Maid's Daughterby Mary Romero
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The book explores this complex story about belonging, identity, and resistance, illustrating Olivia’s challenge to establish her sense of identity, and the patterns of inclusion and exclusion in her life.2012 BOOK CLUB SELECTIONS
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JANUARY 2012
Queen of America, A NovelLuis Alberto Urrea
(Little, Brown and Company)
After the bloody Tomochic rebellion, Teresita Urrea, beloved healer and "Saint of Cabora," flees with her father to Arizona. But their plans are derailed when she once again is claimed as the spiritual leader of the Mexican Revolution.
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FEBRUARY 2012
The Maid's Daughter,Living Inside and Outside the American Dream
Mary Romero
(New York University Press)
The book explores this complex story about belonging, identity, and resistance, illustrating Olivia’s challenge to establish her sense of identity, and the patterns of inclusion and exclusion in her life.
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MARCH 2012
The Second Time We MetLeila Cobo
(Grand Central Publishing)
Asher Stone grew up in an idyllic California family. His mother Linda made sure of that. She never wanted her son to feel different from other kids just because he was adopted. She was a loving, devoted mother, and Asher a happy, healthy boy. So when a life-changing accident causes Asher to question his identity, he suddenly announces...
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APRIL 2012
Perla
Carolina De Robertis
(Alfred A. Knopf)
Perla Correa grew up a privileged only child in Buenos Aires with a polished yet aloof mother and a straight-laced Naval officer father, whose profession she learned early not to disclose in a country still reeling from the abuses perpetrated by the deposed military dictatorship. Although Perla understands that her parents were on the wrong side of the conflict, her love for her Papá is unconditional. But when she is startled by an uninvited visitor...
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MAY 2012
The Madness of Mamá CarlotaGraciela Limón
(Arte Público Press)
It's 1852 in Cholula, Mexico, and three sisters, indigenous girls of the Chontal people, seek work at the Hacienda La Perla. They rapidly make their way from dish washers to the cook's assistants before entering the house as servants to the wealthy Acuña family. But when the youngest sister is viciously raped by a family member...
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JUNE 2012
Traces of BlissCecilia Velástegui
(Libros Publishing)
In an affluent suburb of Los Angeles, several wealthy seniors inadvertently begin experiencing the tragic memories of their ancestors, following aromatherapy massage sessions with their trusted massage therapist. Mostly discarded by their blood relatives, or with none remaining at all, the seniors rely solely upon their trusted caregivers, each of whom are also full of unhappiness and despair searching for fulfillment and worth at the hands of their senior employers. Their lives are sent into upheaval...
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JULY 2012
The Map of Time Félix J. Palma
(Atria Books, A Division of Simon & Schuster)
Set in Victorian London with characters real and imagined, The Map of Time is a page turner that boasts a triple play of intertwined plots in which a skeptical H. G. Wells is called upon to investigate purported incidents of time travel and to save lives and literary classics, including Dracula and The Time Machine, from being wiped from existence. What happens if we change history?
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AUGUST 2012
The ClaimedCaridad Piñeiro
(Forever/Grand Central Publishing)
Victoria Johnson loves her life. She’s her own boss in a quaint beachside town, and has great friends who keep her grounded. If only they knew who she really is: an heiress to an ancient race who possesses astonishing superhuman powers. It’s Victoria’s duty to restore her clan of Light Hunters to their former glory...
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SEPTEMBER 2012
Hell or High WaterJoy Castro
(Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press)
It's 2008 in New Orleans, and hundreds of registered sex offenders who went off the grid during the Hurricane Katrina evacuation have never been found. The sex-offender story is assigned to Nola Céspedes, an ambitious young reporter at the Times-Picayune, who tries to balance her investigation with taking care of her aging mother, seeing her girlfriends, mentoring a teenager, and meeting a mysterious stranger named Bento.
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OCTOBER 2012
The Distance Between UsReyna Grande
(Atria Books, A Division of Simon & Schuster)
From an award-winning novelist and sought-after public speaker, an eye-opening memoir about life before and after illegally emigrating from Mexico to the United States. After publishing two acclaimed and award-winning novels about the Mexican immigrant experience and the families forced to navigate its twists and turns, celebrated author Reyna Grande reveals her own troubled and triumphant story as an illegal immigrant in her heartfelt memoir.
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NOVEMBER 2012
City of Juarez
Judith Torrea
(Atria Books, A Division of Simon & Schuster)
Spanish journalist Judith Torrea, author of the blog Ciudad Juárez, en la Sombra del Narcotráfico (City of Juárez, in the Shadow of Drug Trafficking), won the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom award and was selected to be one of the 2011-2012 International Knight Fellows. Torrea, who has lived in Mexico’s most dangerous city—Ciudad Juárez—since 2009, has been covering drug trafficking, organized crimes, and immigration for 14 years.
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DECEMBER 2012
Gwendolyn Zepeda
(Grand Central Publishing)
Single mom Natasha Dávila has done a good job holding things together. Her divorce didn't leave her with much, but she has her kids and they are her world. Only now, she's facing a problem she never predicted: Her ex-husband is re-marrying, expecting a new baby and worst of all—suing Natasha for full custody of their two children.
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2013 Reading List Submissions
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We are in the process of selecting book titles through 2012 and are seeking submissions from publishers for 2013 or later.
Submission Guidelines:
- Publishers may submit a maximum of two (2) titles per imprint, not to exceed five (5) titles per publishing house.
- One of the submitted titles may be a children's book.
- Books must be scheduled for publication in 2012 or later.
- The authors should be Latina/o and the titles should be available in the English language.
- Availability in the Spanish language is a great advantage.
- Authors whose titles are selected also must be available for interviews at the monthly teleconference-Las Comadres will work with publishers and authors to find the best date and month in which to feature respective selections.
- For the teleconference, we will need from each publisher 40 books to be given as gifts to the first people who sign up for the call and to discussion leaders at the book club gatherings. If the publisher is a non-AAP member publisher, if selected, you must provide 40 gratis books and ship them to the discussion leaders and winners of early registration.
Deadline: October 28, 2012
Please email the following submission information to bworthington@publishers.org and mail a copy via post, with galleys if available or sample chapter and a synopsis, to:
Tina Jordan
c/o Becca Worthington
Association of American Publishers
71 Fifth Avenue, 2nd floor
New York, NY 10003
Title:
Author:
Publication date:
Format:
Retail Price:
Summary (50 words or less):
Please indicate if publisher will release book club discussion question guide (online/included in book):
History
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Association of American Publishers (AAP) have joined us in a partnership to promote reading of Latino authors by creating the first national level book club: Las Comadres & Friends National Latino Book Club. Initially, select Borders stores in Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Texas and Utah hosted the new book clubs. Membership is open to anyone. Most of the books also are available in Spanish. The initial launch of the Las Comadres & Friends National Latino Book Club included 15 cities, and future plans called for expanding the book club to all network cities where Las Comadres members are located. If interested in starting a Las Comadres Network in your city, please fill out subscription form and indicate your interest.
The national book club has grown out of a series of highly successful monthly teleconferences which we host, with each teleconference featuring one book club-selected author. The first gathering of our New York comadres for book club was on July 21, 2004 at the apartment of comadre Maria Ferrer. When Maria's schedule became too demanding, the book club was put on hiatus and was re-started in March 2007 at the Borders Columbus Circle location in New York.
Comadre Johanna Castillo, national organizer of the book club and a Comadres board member says, "We are launching the book club to promote the work of Latino authors to every book lover, to bring our community to bookstores, and to support our writers."
Esmeralda Santiago was our initial National Spokesperson for Las Comadres and Friends National Latino Book Clubs, she also is the best selling author of three memoirs: When I was Puerto Rican, Almost a Woman, and The Turkish Lover, and of the novel América's Dream. Her film adaptation of her memoir for Almost a Woman for PBS Masterpiece Theatre was awarded a Peabody Award. Esmeralda is also an essayist, anthologist, children's book author, and a guest commentator on NPR. She is a '92 alumna of the National Hispana Leadership Institute. Esmeralda lives in Westchester County, NY with her husband of 30 years, filmmaker Frank Cantor.