December

Love in the Time of Cholera
By Gabriel Garcia Marquez (368 pages)

While delivering a message to her father, Florentino Ariza spots the barely pubescent Fermina Daza and immediately falls in love. What follows is the story of a passion that extends over 50 years, as Fermina is courted solely by letter, decisively rejects her suitor when he first speaks, and then joins the urbane Dr. Juvenal Urbino, much above her station, in a marriage initially loveless but ultimately remarkable in its strength. Florentino remains faithful in his fashion; paralleling the tale of the marriage is that of his numerous liaisons, all ultimately without the depth of love he again declares at Urbino's death. In substance and style not as fantastical, as mythologizing, as the previous works, this is a compelling exploration of the myths we make of love.

Host/Discussion Leader: Fanny
Discussion Meeting: Sunday January 7th (6pm).
Location: My Pi Pizzeria (2417 N Clark - Clark &Fullerton).

November

En el tiempo de las Mariposas.
Julia Alvarez (320 pages)

On a deserted mountain road in the Dominican Republic in 1960, three young women from a pious Catholic family were assassinated after visiting their husbands who had been jailed as suspected rebel leaders. The Mirabal sisters, thus martyred, became mythical figures in their country, where they are known as Las Mariposas (the butterflies). Three decades later, Julia Alvarez, daughter of the Dominican Republic and author of the acclaimed How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, brings the Mirabal sisters back to life in this extraordinary novel. Each of the sisters speaks in her own voice, beginning as young girls in the 1940s, their stories vary from hair ribbons to gun-running to prison torture. Their story is framed by their surviving sister who tells her own tale of suffering and dedication to the memory of Las Mariposas. This inspired portrait of four women is a haunting statement about the human cost of political oppression.

Host/Discussion Leader: Katie
Film /Discussion Meeting: Sunday November 5th (Time & Place TBA).

October -

Sister Chicas
Lisa Alvarado, Ann Hagman Cardinal, Jane Alberdeston Coralin.
Sister Chicas tells the story of three young Latina friends in Chicago. They meet while working on the school paper, but during their weekly coffee dates they form a friendship that gives them the sisters they never had, and together they struggle with the normal stresses of growing up: parents, careers, boys, fashion, all while figuring out their identities and learning how to fit their rich cultural heritage into their lives as modern Norteamericanas.

Host/Discussion Leader: Amy
Discussion Meeting: Sunday October 8th (6:30pm).
Amy's apt. - 3019 W Belden in Logan Square
(three blocks from the blue line California stop)

Our 1st Discussion Title:

The House on Mango Street / La Casa en Mango Street
By Sandra Cisneros (128 pages)

A linked collection of forty-four short tales that evoke the circumstances and conditions of a Hispanic American ghetto in Chicago. The narrative is seen through the eyes of Esperanza Cordero, an adolescent girl coming of age. These concise and poetic tales also offer snapshots of the roles of women in this society. They uncover the dual forces that pull Esperanza to stay rooted in her cultural traditions on the one hand, and those that compel her to pursue a better way of life outside the barrio on the other.

Host/Discussion Leader: Patty
Discussion Meeting: September 10th (6:30pm).
Cafe Ambrosia
1620 Orrington Ave (3 blocks from the Davis stop going east)
Evanston, IL 60201

Grand Opening Call-out Meeting

Our very first meeting is coming soon!
Mark your calendars. We are having our first meeting on Sunday August 13th (5:00pm).
Location: The Bourgeois Pig Café
738 W. Fullerton Pkwy
Chicago, IL 60614

In the meantime take a look at the reading suggestions.
After introducing ourselves, we'll go through the ground rules and vote to select the current title.