December '09

1984, By George Orwell (268 pages)

Among the seminal texts of the 20th century, Nineteen Eighty-Four is a rare work that grows more haunting as its futuristic purgatory becomes more real. Published in 1949, the book offers political satirist George Orwell's nightmare vision of a totalitarian, bureaucratic world and one poor stiff's attempt to find individuality. The brilliance of the novel is Orwell's prescience of modern life--the ubiquity of television, the distortion of the language--and his ability to construct such a thorough version of hell. Required reading for students since it was published, it ranks among the most terrifying novels ever written.

Leader/Host: Open

Discussion Meeting: Sunday Jan 10th - 6pm

Location: Hyde Park Area

Nov 09 - On a lighter note ...

The Dirty Girls Social Club
By Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez

The Dirty Girls Social Club closely resembles Terry McMillan's Waiting to Exhale: a handful of young women seek real love and job satisfaction. Unlike McMillan, Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez has completely thrown out any literary pretensions whatsoever, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Dirty Girls is a fun, easy, ultimately charming read, not least because the girls themselves are so appealing. Six Latina women become fast friends at Boston University and thereafter meet as a group every few months. Now in their late twenties, they're each on the cusp of the life they want. The novel is narrated in turn by each woman.

Leader/Host: Open
Discussion Meeting: Wed Dec 2nd - 7pm
Location: Cafe Bolero

Por mayoría de votos, decidimos tomarnos un descanso y pasar de lo serio a lo trivial, de las muertes a las aventuras y de la lectura intensa a la lectura light. Do you think this will turn into one of those Sisterhood of Traveling Pants/Gossip Girl nightmares that we love to hate and/or hate to love?

October '09

Lituma en los Andes / Death in the Andes
By Mario Vargas Llosa (288 pages)

Lituma en los Andes cuenta la historia del cabo Lituma y su compañero Tomás mientras investigan la misteriosa desaparición de tres personas. Esta investigación se realiza bajo la amenaza constante de la guerrilla Sendero Luminoso, que trata de oponerse al sistema, y al gobierno por medios violentos y crueles. Por otra parte, conoceremos también parte de la vida de Tomasito y sus amores con Mercedes.

Esta novela, publicada en 1993 y ganadora del premio Planeta, presenta muchos puntos en común con su anterior novela, pero también grandes novedades dentro de la obra de Vargas Llosa como la incorporación del mito. Tanto los mitos clasicos, como los andinos tienen una gran importancia en la novela.

Leader/Host: Diana?
Discussion Meeting: Sunday Nov 1st - 4pm
Location: National Museum of Mexican Fine Arts

Aug-Sept '09

The Angel's Game /El Juego del Ángel
By Carlos Ruiz Zafon

En la turbulenta Barcelona de los años 20 un joven escritor obsesionado con un amor imposible recibe la oferta de un misterioso editor para escribir un libro como no ha existido nunca, a cambio de una fortuna y, tal vez, mucho más.

Con estilo deslumbrante e impecable precisión narrativa, el autor de La Sombra del Viento nos transporta de nuevo a la Barcelona del Cementerio de los Libros Olvidados para ofrecernos una gran aventura de intriga, romance y tragedia, a través de un laberinto de secretos donde el embrujo de los libros, la pasión y la amistad se conjugan en un relato magistral.

Leader/Host: Colleen

Discussion Meeting: Sunday Sept 27th - 6pm

Location: Colleen's Casa

Jul '09

Assault on Paradise

by Tatiana Lobo (298 pages)

On the one hand a hilarious swashbuckling adventure, on the other a bloody, bitter indictment of the Catholic Church in the colonizing of Central America, this novel deservedly won the Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz Prize in 1995. Pedro Albaran, first victim and then instrument of the Inquisition, arrives in Costa Rica in the first decade of the 18th century. In his tender love for a native woman, he embraces her culture without ever understanding it and then must watch his Spanish countrymen wreak havoc on her?and their daughter's?people. The novel is kept moving rapidly by its memorable cast of characters, including a sensuous tavern keeper, a deranged priest, and corrupt politicians. Born in Chile, Lobo has lived in Costa Rica since 1966.

Leader/Host: Open

Discussion Meeting: Sunday August 3rd - 7.30pm

Location: Irazu Costa Rica Restaurant
www.irazuchicago.com
1865 N Milwaukee Ave

June 09

What is The What
By Dave Eggers (475 pages)

Valentino Achak Deng was a refugee from the Sudanese civil war-the bloodbath before the current Darfur bloodbath-of the 1980s and 90s. In this fictionalized memoir, Eggers makes him an icon of globalization. Separated from his family when Arab militia destroy his village, Valentino joins thousands of other "Lost Boys," beset by starvation, thirst and man-eating lions on their march to squalid refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya, where Valentino pieces together a new life. He eventually reaches America, but finds his quest for safety, community and fulfillment in many ways even more difficult there than in the camps: he recalls, for instance, being robbed, beaten and held captive in his Atlanta apartment. Eggers's limpid prose gives Valentino an unaffected, compelling voice and makes his narrative by turns harrowing, funny, bleak and lyrical. The result is a horrific account of the Sudanese tragedy, but also an emblematic saga of modernity-of the search for home and self in a world of unending upheaval.

Leader/Host: Sarah
Discussion Meeting: Sunday June 28th - 6pm
Location: Ras Dashen Ethiopian Restaurant
http://www.rasdashenchicago.com/
5846 N Broadway Ave.

25 Minutos (y 37 segundos) en youtube ...

Estos fueron algunos de los videos que compartimos en el "youtube hour" durante nuestro paseo...

May 09 -

Lilus Kikus
By Elena Poniatowska (135 paginas)
This was Poniatowska's first book. It was labeled a children's book because it had a young girl as protagonist, it included illustrations, and the author was an unknown woman. Lilus Kikus has not received the critical attention or a translation into English it deserved, until now. Poniatowska is admired today as a feminist, but in 1954, when Lilus Kikus appeared, feminism didn't have broad appeal. 21st century readers will be fascinated by the way Poniatowska uses her child protagonist to point out the flaws in adult society.
Leader/Host: Laura
Discussion Meeting: May 15th weekend (@ the cottage)

Elena Poniatowska in Chicago.

August 21, 2009
Museum Of Mexican Fine Arts

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We are hitting the road!!!!

Nuestro primer road-trip se esta acercando!

We can barely wait to hang out at the cottage and have good old fashion outdoors & adventurous fun. Ladies, get ready to disconnect from work, worries, and errands.

Does anybody know good road games? El mas clasico es el de las 20 preguntas … mmm let’s see … “does it have something to do with a border town just like Juarez?”

Trivia: What other title from our past picks involved road & wheels?

March & April

2666
Roberto Bolaño
(Part 1-4)

Composed in the last years of Roberto Bolaño’s life, 2666 was greeted across Europe and Latin America as his highest achievement, surpassing even his previous work in its strangeness, beauty, and scope. Its throng of unforgettable characters includes academics and convicts, an American sportswriter, an elusive German novelist, and a teenage student and her widowed, mentally unstable father. Their lives intersect in the urban sprawl of SantaTeresa—a fictional Juárez—on the U.S.-Mexico border, where hundreds of young factory workers, in the novel as in life, have disappeared.


Leader/Host: Open
Discussion Meeting: Tuesday April 14th - 7pm
Location: Noble Tree Cafe (2444 N. Clark St. - Lincoln Park)
http://www.nobletreecoffee.com/

February '09 -

Memory Mambo

by Achy Obejas (200 Pages)

In Memory Mambo, her first novel, Achy describes the life of Juani, a 25-year-old Cuban lesbian who has to deal with family, work, love, sex, and the weirdness of North American culture. Obejas's writing is sharp and mordantly funny. She understands perfectly how the romance of exile--from a homeland as well as from heterosexuality--and the mundane reality of everyday life balance one another. Memory Mambo is ultimately very moving in its depiction of what it means to find a new and finally safe sense of home.

Leader/Host: Diana

Discussion Meeting: Sunday Feb 8th (2pm tentatively)
Location: TBD.

January '09 -

Brunch Time!

Title: Various (from Secret Santa Selection).

Discussion Meeting: Sunday Jan 11th (11am)
Location: Sarah's place @ 5032 N. Kenmore #3N

(2 blocks from the red line Argyle stop).