Fiction
The land of the cranes
Aida Salazar
jFICTION/Salazar Aida
Fiction
Nine-year-old Betita and her parents fled Mexico after her uncle was killed by the cartels, and settled in Los Angeles seeking political asylum and safety in what her father calls Aztlan, the land of the cranes; but now they have been swept up by by the government's Immigration Customs Enforcement, her father deported back to Mexico, and Betita and her mother confined in a family detention camp--Betita finds heart in her imagination and the picture poems her father taught her, but each day threatens to further tear her family apart.
Stella Diaz has something to say
Angela Dominguez
jFICTION Dominguez Angela
Fiction
Stella Diaz wants to be friends with the new boy in class, but sometimes she accidentally speaks Spanish instead of English and pronounces words wrong, which makes her turn roja. In addition, she has to get over her fear of speaking in front of the class.
Added by Anne W
Efrén divided : a novel
Ernesto Cisneros
jFICTION Cisneros Ernesto
Fiction
While his father works two jobs, seventh-grader Efrén Nava must take care of his twin siblings, kindergartners Max and Mia, after their mother is deported to Mexico. Includes glossary of Spanish words.
Added by Anne W
Esperanza rising
Pam Muñoz Ryan
jFICTION Ryan, Pam Muñoz
Fiction
Esperanza and her mother are forced to leave their life of wealth and privilege in Mexico to go work in the labor camps of Southern California, where they must adapt to the harsh circumstances facing Mexican farm workers on the eve of the Great Depression.
Added by Anne W
The moon within
Aida Salazar
jFICTION Salazar Aida
Fiction
Eleven-year-old (nearly twelve) Celi Rivera, who is a mix of Black-Puerto Rican-Mexican Indian is uncomfortable about her approaching period, and the changes that are happening to her body; she is horrified that her mother wants to hold a traditional public moon ceremony to celebrate the occasion--until she finds out that her best friend Magda is contemplating an even more profound change of life.
Added by Anne W
Marcus Vega doesn't speak Spanish
Pablo Cartaya
jFICTION Cartaya Pablo
Fiction
After a fight at school leaves Marcus facing suspension, Marcus's mother takes him and his younger brother, who has Down syndrome, to Puerto Rico to visit relatives they do not remember or have never met, and while there Marcus starts searching for his father, who left their family ten years ago and is somewhere on the island.
Added by Anne W
The first rule of punk
Celia C. Pérez
jFICTION Perez Celia
Fiction
Twelve-year-old María Luisa O'Neill-Morales (who really prefers to be called Malú) reluctantly moves with her Mexican-American mother to Chicago and starts seventh grade with a bang--violating the dress code with her punk rock aesthetic and spurning the middle school's most popular girl in favor of starting a band with a group of like-minded weirdos.
Added by Anne W
The end of October
Lawrence Wright
FICTION Wright Lawrence
Fiction
"At an internment camp in Indonesia, within one week, forty-seven people are pronounced dead with acute hemorrhagic fever. When the microbiologist and epidemiologist Henry Parsons travels there on behalf of the World Health Organization to investigate, what he finds will soon have staggering repercussions across the globe: an infected man is on his way to join the millions of worshippers in the annual Hajj to Mecca. Now, Henry joins forces with a Saudi doctor and prince in an attempt to quarantine the entire host of pilgrims in the holy city. Matilda Nachinsky, deputy director of U. S. Homeland Security, scrambles to mount a response to what may be an act of biowarfare already-fraying global relations begin to snap, one by one, in the face of a pandemic. Henry's wife Jill and their children face diminishing odds of survival in Atlanta and the disease slashes across the United States, dismantling institutions - scientific, religious, governmental - and decimating the population."--Provided by publisher.
It might seem strange to read a book about a pandemic during a pandemic, but I found it oddly comforting to read about a virus even worse than the one we are currently facing. I think during a different time, this work of fiction would feel more similar to science fiction, but so many parallels and realities rang true in this book that it was almost disturbing, but also there were moments that made you appreciate the majority of history in which we lived without a devastating virus. From my earlier reading this summer of Bill Bryson's The Body, it is only by luck that we went a whole century without such a sweeping viral illness as the Spanish Flu, not the proper precautions. I really enjoyed this action packed and at times--devastating read. -Mari
The devil all the time
Donald Ray Pollock
FICTION Pollock, Donald Ray
Fiction, Historical Fiction
This is another book I was sparked to read because I saw that it was a movie on Netflix. I watched about half an hour of the show, decided that I really liked it, and decided to stop watching and read the book first. I am so glad I did. The book was fantastic, disturbing and completely engrossing. Several characters' narratives make up this dark tale of the powers and dangers of religious devoutness, all leading up to the narrative of Arvin, an orphaned boy in rural Ohio that learns that has to battle with redemption. The book was much better than the movie, but I recommend both! -Mari
Rodham : a novel
Curtis Sittenfeld
FICTION Sittenfeld, Curtis
Fiction
"In 1971, Hillary Rodham is a young woman full of promise. Life magazine covered her Wellesley commencement speech, she's attending Yale Law School, and she's on the forefront of student activism and the women's rights movement. Then she meets a fellow law student named Bill Clinton. A charismatic Southerner, Bill is already laying the groundwork for his political career. In each other, Hillary and Bill find a profound intellectual, emotional, and physical connection that neither has previously experienced. In the real world, Hillary followed Bill back to Arkansas, and he proposed several times. Although she turned him down more than once, she eventually accepted and became Hillary Clinton. But in Curtis Sittenfeld's powerfully imagined tour de force of fiction, Hillary follows a different path. Listening to her doubts about the prospective marriage, she endures a devastating break-up and leaves Arkansas. Over the next four decades, she blazes her own trail--one that unfolds in public as well as in private, that crosses paths again (and again) with Bill Clinton, that raises questions about the trade-offs all of us must make to build a life. Brilliantly weaving actual historical events into a riveting fictional tale, Sittenfeld delivers an uncannily astute story for our times. In exploring the loneliness, moral ambivalence, and iron determination that characterize the quest for political power, as well as both the exhilaration and painful compromises demanded of female ambition in a world still mostly run by men, Rodham is a singular and unforgettable novel."--
I love Curtis Sittenfield, and this type of book is what she does best. This follows Hilary Rodham Clinton in an alternative history where she chooses a different path. This story takes us through her lifetime with an ending we don't know yet, and I couldn't put it down! -Mari
Added by Anne W