Reading with Las Comadres
Teleconferences
Selections •
Participating Locations •
Submissions •
History
Teleconferences •
Subscribe •
Book Club Archive
February 2012 Teleconference
with Additional Conversation
Monday, February 27
 |
The Maid's Daughterby Mary RomeroPublished by New York University Press |
 |
The book explores the 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..
Read more ... |
 |
Additional conversation with Héctor Tobar,
Araceli is the live-in maid in the Torres-Thompson household—one of three Mexican employees in a Spanish-style house with lovely views of the Pacific. She has been responsible strictly for the cooking and cleaning, but the recession has hit, and suddenly Araceli is the last Mexican standing—unless... |
Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux2012 Teleconferences
Click here 
to go back to top
January 2012 Additional Conversation
Additional Conversation with Julia Amante, author of
Say You'll Be Mine
(Grand Central Publishing)
Isabel Gallegos is only a handshake away from living her dream life. After years of putting everyones needs before her own, she's selling her family's vineyard and moving to a quiet cottage on the California coast. But just as she's about to seal the deal, a letter arrives from Argentina with shocking news: her beloved cousin hasdied and Isabel is now the sole guardian of three young children. Read more...
Additional conversation with Lyn Di lorio, author of
Outside the Bones
(Arte Publico Press)
Fina is a big girl with a big mouth. She's the neighborhood bruja, or spirit worker as she likes to call herself, casting spells for her neighbors in Manhattan's Upper West Side. She can't believe it, though, when she puts an accidental fufu or spell on Chico, the irresistible trumpet player who lives upstairs...."We ain't on the island no more, we don't sacrifice in the mountains of Africa or Cuba; we do it in our apartments." But she needs help, so she'll do what it takes. All too soon she finds herself involved with a spirit whose quest for revenge can't be stopped. Read more...
Additional conversation with Melinda Palacio, author of Ocotillo Dreams
(Bilingual Press)
Set in Chandler, Arizona, during the city's infamous 1997 migrant sweeps, this riveting tale brings to life the social issues that arise from border policy and economic inequity. Palacio skillfully weaves a story of politics, intrigue, love, and trust in a community that is suspicious of others. There she learns that her mother had lived a secret life of helping the undocumented workers. As she gets to know her mother from clues left behind, she grapples with issues of identity and belonging that lead her on a journey toward purpose in life and reconnection with her roots. Read more...
Listen to the Interview
To be posted after the interview
January 2012 Teleconference
Queen of America, A Novel
Luis 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.
Read more...
Listen to the Interview
To be posted after the interview
February 2012 Teleconference
with Additional Conversation
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.
Read more...
Additional conversation with Héctor Tobar, author of
The Barbarian Nurseries, A Novel
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Araceli is the live-in maid in the Torres-Thompson household—one of three Mexican employees in a Spanish-style house with lovely views of the Pacific. She has been responsible strictly for the cooking and cleaning, but the recession has hit, and suddenly Araceli is the last Mexican standing—unless...
Read more...
Listen to the Interview
To be posted after the interview
March 2012 Teleconference
The Second Time We Met
Leila 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...
Read more...
April 2012 Teleconference
with Additional Conversation
The Madness of Mamá Carlota
Graciela 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...
Read more...
Additional conversation celebrating Dia de los Niños with Carmen Bernier-Grand, author of Our Lady of Guadalupe
(Alfred A. Knopf)
One morning, while walking to an early church service, Juan Diego hears a voice calling, Juanito! Juan Dieguito! He comes face to face with the Virgin Mary! I would like a shrine built on this hill, she tells him, and she instructs him to take her wish to the bishop. Juan Diego, a lowly peasant, protests that the bishop will pay no attention to him, but the Virgin says that she will protect him.
Read more...
Additional conversation with Rita Rosa Ruesga, author of The Piñata/La Piñata (Scholastic en Español)
Scholastic and Latin Grammy nominee Rita Rosa Ruesga have rejoined to bring a new book of songs for all ages from the Hispanic tradition. Among the fourteen new songs are "Antón Piruero," "Las mañanitas," and "A la rueda rueda." Full of beautiful illustrations by Soledad Sebastián and a brief description of the origin of each song, The Piñata/La Piñata also includes music notation and guitar chords for each tune and a link from which the song —sung by the author—can be downloaded.
Read more...
Listen to the Interview
To be posted after the interview
May 2012 Teleconference
with Additional Conversation
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...
Read more...
Additional conversation with Linda Rodriguez, author of Every Last Secret
(Minotaur/St. Martin’s Press)
Half-Cherokee Marquitta “Skeet” Bannion thought she was leaving her troubles behind when she fled the stress of being the highest ranking woman on the Kansas City Police Department, a jealous cop ex-husband who didn’t want to let go, and a disgraced alcoholic ex-cop father. Moving to a small town to be chief of the campus police force, she builds a life outside of police work. She might even begin a new relationship with the amiable Brewster police chief.
Read more...
Listen to the Interview
To be posted after the interview
June 2012 Teleconference
with Additional Conversation
Traces of Bliss
Cecilia 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...
Read more...
Additional conversation with Denise Vega, author of
Rock On
(Little Brown Books for Young Readers)
Half-Cherokee Marquitta “Skeet” Bannion thought she was leaving her troubles behind when she fled the stress of being the highest ranking woman on the Kansas City Police Department, a jealous cop ex-husband who didn’t want to let go, and a disgraced alcoholic ex-cop father. Moving to a small town to be chief of the campus police force, she builds a life outside of police work. She might even begin a new relationship with the amiable Brewster police chief.
Read more...
Listen to the Interview
To be posted after the interview
"Dude month" July 2012 Teleconference
with Additional Conversation
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?
Read more...
Additional conversation with Robert Arellano, author of Curse the Names, A Novel
(Akashic Books)
High on a mesa in the mountains of New Mexico, a small town hides a dreadful secret. On a morning very soon there will be an accident that triggers a terrible chain reaction, and the world we know will be wiped out.
James Oberhelm, a reporter at Los Alamos National Laboratory, already sees the devastation, like the skin torn off a moment that is yet to be. He believes he can prevent an apocalypse, but first James must escape the devices of a sensuous young blood tech, a lecherous old hippie, a predator in a waking nightmare, and a forsaken adobe house high away in the Sangre de Cristo mountains whose dark history entwines them all.
Read more...
Listen to the Interview
To be posted after the interview
August 2012 Teleconference
with Additional Conversation
The Claimed
Caridad 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...
Read more...
Additional conversation with Amanda Bonilla, author of Blood Before Sunrise
(Signet Eclipse/Penguin)
What you can’t see can kill you…
For months Darian and her Shaede guardian Raif have searched for the Oracle who attempted to overthrow the Shaede Nation—and kill Darian in the bargain. But now that they’ve finally found the half-crazed Oracle, for their efforts they are granted a possibility too painful for Raif to imagine, and too enticing for Darian to ignore.
Read more...
Additional conversation with Marta Acosta, author of The Dark Companion (TOR Teen/Macmillan)
Orphaned at the age of six, Jane Williams has grown up in a series of foster homes, learning to survive in the shadows of life. Through hard work and determination, she manages to win a scholarship to the exclusive Birch Grove Academy. There, for the first time, Jane finds herself accepted by a group of friends. She even starts tutoring the headmistress’s gorgeous son, Lucien. Things seem too good to be true.
Read more...
Listen to the Interview
To be posted after the interview
September 2012 Teleconference
with Additional Conversation
Hell or High Water
Joy 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.
Read more...
Additional conversation with Alberto Manguel, author of All Men are Liars translated by Miranda France (Riverhead Books)
Where can you find truth in a world that is so thoroughly ruled by lies? That is the question tackled by the investigation of a French journalist who endeavours to shed light on the enigma of an unexplained death: that of the brilliant South American writer Alejandro Bevilacqua, found lying on his balcony floor in Madrid in the mid-1970s. The few accounts of those who knew the deceased—including those of his last lover, a former fellow prison inmate, a sworn enemy and even the author Alberto Manguel himself—are contradictory and unreliable.
Read more...
Listen to the Interview
To be posted after the interview
October 2012 Teleconference
Count on Me: Las Comadres' Tales of Sisterhoods and Fierce Friendships
Adriana V. López
(Atria Books, A Division of Simon & Schuster)
Beloved bestselling Latino authors, including Esmeralda Santiago, Carolina De Robertis, and Luis Alberto Urrea share moving personal stories of the many ways that sisterly bonds have powerfully impacted their lives.
What would you do, where would you be, without your comadre?
Read more...
Listen to the Interview
To be posted after the interview
November 2012 Teleconference
with Additional Conversation
The Distance Between Us
Reyna 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.
Read more...
Additional conversation with Diana López, author of Choke
(Scholastic Press)
A heartfelt novel about the disturbing "choking game" trend—and one girl's struggle for self-acceptance. If she could—if her parents would let her—eighth-grader Windy would change everything about herself. She'd get highlights in her hair, a new wardrobe; she'd wear makeup. But nothing ever changes. The mean girls at school are still mean, and Windy's best friend Elena is still more interested in making up words than talking about boys. And then one day, Windy gets the change she's been looking for.
Read more...
Additional conversation with Malin Alegria, author of Border Town #1: Crossing the Line/Cruzar El Limite (Point/Scholastic Press)
In Dos Rios, Texas, life is all about borders—and what happens when you cross the line.
Nothing is simple in a border town like Dos Rios, in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Even for high school students Fabiola Garza and her younger sister Alexis, whose parents run a local Tex-Mex restaurant, Dos Rios is full of borders—where you should go, who your friends should be, which boy you should date.
Read more...
Listen to the Interview
To be posted after the interview
December 2012 Teleconference
with Additional Conversation
Better with You Here, A Novel
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.
Read more...
Additional conversation with Guadalupe Garcia McCall, author of Summer of the Mariposas (Tu Books, Lee & Low Books)
Guadalupe Garcia McCall’s Six Little Sisters was acquired by Tu Books. In case you’re waiting with bated breath, it will now and forevermore be called Summer of the Mariposas. It’s a gorgeous title, and the publisher thinks it’s even better than Seis Hermanitas because of the imagery of butterflies that is so prominent in the book. Just got a revision in, which I’m looking forward to reading. Just thought we would tease you with that, and tell you that you’ll be able to read it yourself this fall.
Read more...
Listen to the Interview
To be posted after the interview