I was reading the book
electronically, and the “percent remaining” count on my reader showed that I still
had a number of pages to go, when suddenly I realized I was in the very last
scene. When that realization hit me, I actually said, “Oh no, oh no,” out loud because I just wasn’t ready to be done with these women.
Las Madres follows five women on a
journey to Puerto Rico, unwittingly into the jaws of Hurricane Maria, but also
leaps across time to show us the losses and loves that led them there.
The
mothers, daughters, proxy tias, and friends who comprise the quintet have rich
relationships and personal journeys that influence how they relate as literal
and chosen family.
From the award-winning, best-selling author of When I Was Puerto Rican, a powerful novel of family, race, faith, sex, and disaster that moves between Puerto Rico and the Bronx, revealing the lives and loves of five women and the secret that binds them together
They refer to themselves as “las Madres,” a close-knit group of women who, with their daughters, have created a family based on friendship and blood ties.Their story begins in Puerto Rico in 1975 when fifteen-year-old Luz, the tallest girl in her dance academy and the only Black one in a sea of petite, light-skinned, delicate swans,…
I love a mystery or thriller, a number of which climbed to the top of my
pile this year. What they all have in common is rich characters in
communities dense with secrets.
The ultimate example for me was The Hunt, in which a colorful cast of damaged working-class people are
swept up into a thriller that revolves around the threat of a string of murders
spanning twenty years in Arkansas.
Growing up poor in rural Maine, my landscape
was different, but I recognize the hardscrabble
lives and the insular nature of small-town life so well depicted in Ford’s
novel.
The setting, the flawed queer protagonist and those who love her, and
the thicket of possible suspects all combine for a fresh spin on the genre and a
satisfyingly twisty story arc.
From the author of Real Bad Things and Cottonmouths, a Los Angeles Review Best Book of 2017, comes the darkly suspenseful tale of a small-town Easter tradition and its murderous secrets.
For seventeen years, a serial murderer has used the Presley, Arkansas, Annual Hunt for the Golden Egg to find prey. Or at least that's what some people believe. Others, like the town's devoted "Eggheads," relish the tradition and think the deaths are just unfortunate accidents. But for Nell Holcomb, the town's annual Hunt dredges up a particularly painful memory: her brother's death, long believed to be "the Hunter's" first…
As a gay person who is Latino, I’m thrilled to see both elements of my
identity represented in a book. That’s part of why I fell in love with The First
to Die at the End and They Both Die at the End (which was published first but
comes later in the narrative timeline of that world). But identity alone
doesn’t make a book.
In his leads, one who is fated for death and the other who
knows this, Silvera provides a romance to root for (even if we know the clock
is ticking for them.)
The book sprinkles in the stories of a raft of other
characters whose fates are more entwined than they’ll ever know, showing how no
life is ever lived alone.
In this prequel to the NO. 1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING phenomenon of TIKTOK fame, They Both Die at the End, two new strangers spend a life-changing day together after Death-Cast make their first fateful calls.
'If They Both Die at the End broke your heart and put it back together again, be prepared for this novel to do the same. A tender, sad, hopeful and youthful story that deserves as much love as its predecessor.' Culturefly '[A] heart-pounding story [full] of emotion and suspense.' Kirkus 'An extraordinary book with a riveting plot.' Booklist
FindingMyElfis a holiday rom-com written
with gay teens as protagonists: Grumpy Cam, a Cuban-American who may be failing
out of his first year at college, and Filipino-American Marco, a walking
sunbeam of a human that Cam meets when stuck working as a mall elf for Christmas break.
It's a sweet
enemies-to-lovers-to-reluctant-rivals tale with a big heart, a diverse cast,
and a lot of humor.
