book review – Fake Flamenco

January: What’s on Your Bookshelf?

Thanks to Marsha for introducing me to this fun book review exchange. Can’t wait to learn about more great reads. In January, I’ve focused on non-fiction. The titles are Soul of an Octopus, Poet Warrior and It’s Not About the Burqa. Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness (2015) by […]

Afro-Latinos, book review, Latinas in the News, Puerto Rico, Spanish Culture and Language, writing

Writer Quiara Alegría Hudes Takes Stage and Screen by Storm

Quiara Alegría Hudes has my full attention. Her screenplay for In the Heights, her memoir My Broken Language, and her plays. In 2012, Water by the Spoonful, won a Pulitzer Prize. Quiara was born in the United States to a Puerto Rican mother and a Jewish American father. Hudes tells Caribbean-American stories that previously were […]

book review, Indigenous Peoples, Mexico

3 Maya Reading Adventures

JC Cervantes makes learning about the Maya pantheon part of the fun in her Zane Obispo middle grade series. The first book, The Storm Runner, answers the question: What would you do if you just found out you were the half human son of the Maya creation god Kulkulkan? JC Cervantes brings alive the Maya […]

book review, history, Indigenous Peoples, Life as a Woman, Nature, The Americas

Book Review: The Twisted Circle

Read Rosaliene Bacchus’ second novel The Twisted Circle when you have a completely free weekend, because you may not be able to put it down. Set in a tropical Guyana, South America, the story based on the country’s history follows a Catholic nun about to take her vows who teaches in a rural school. The […]

Afro-Latinos, book review, history, Latinas in the News, Life as a Woman, Spanish Culture and Language

Review: Celia: My Life by Celia Cruz

Úrsula Hilaria Celia Caridad Cruz Alfonso was called the Queen of Salsa. You may know her as Celia Cruz. A lifetime secret, 1925 was her birth year. She lived for 77 years; 42 of those years outside her beloved Cuba. In 1960 Celia Cruz left Cuba for a gig in Mexico and never returned to […]

book review, writing

Review: Conversations with Lorraine Hansberry (2021)

Lorraine Hansberry was an award winning playwright and the first African American woman to have a play performed on Broadway. Her play Raisin in the Sun (1959) was a big success. The story is about the life of a working class African American family in Chicago. The themes are segregation, restricted opportunities for African Americans, […]