February 2013 -

Llegaron los hippies/And the Hippies Came
by  Manuel Abreu Adorno

Originally published in Spanish in 1978. To read And the Hippies Came is to find yourself surrounded by names and places that became history, but it will also surprise you with the sheer force of its stories and conflicts. During his time, Manuel Abreu Adorno was eulogized by Julio Cortazar. In his pen there was pulse of pop culture that gave immediacy to everything he wrote, and makes more inexplicable and inexcusable the fact that he has been lost to memory since his departure from this world. In this, his quintessential first book of twelve short stories, Abreu explores the hallucinating dimensions of life through the perspective of different social classes.

Llegaron los hippies / And the Hippies Came has now been released as a “flip” version that will read through to the middle in Spanish, flip it over, and it will read through to the middle in English. This is the first time that this cult-classic will be available in English.
(Siete Vientos)

Host: Aga                 

Fecha/Hora: Sunday February 24th @ 4pm

Location: Heartland Cafe (7000 N. Glenwood - Rogers Park, near Morse Red Line stop). http://www.heartlandcafe.com

January 2013 -

The Man with the Golden Arm
by Nelson Algren

Published by Doubleday in November 1949. One of the seminal novels of post-World War II American letters, The Man with the Golden Arm is widely considered Algren's greatest and most enduring work. It won the National Book Award in 1950. The novel details the trials and hardships of illicit card dealer "Frankie Machine", along with an assortment of colorful characters, on Chicago's Near Northwest Side. A veteran of World War II, Frankie struggles to stabilize his personal life while trying to make ends meet and fight a growing addiction to morphine. Much of the story takes place during the immediate postwar period along Division Street and Milwaukee Avenue in the old Polish Downtown.


Host: Sarah                    

Fecha/Hora: Saturday January 12th

Location: Rainbo Club (1150 N Damen Ave)

December 2012 -

Host: Fanny                     

Fecha/Hora: Saturday December 8th @ 4pm

Location: Fanny's place

October & November 2012 -

La Isla de los Hombres Solos / God was Looking the Other Way
by Jose Leon Sanchez


A brutal, searing story of prison life in latin America in which Sanchez uses the device of the ""found"" papers to reconstruct the fate of ""Jacinto"" serving a life sentence in the Penitentiary of San Luca off the coast of Costa Rica. Jacinto is an Innocent -- an illiterate, ingenuous peasant hauled off in chains to this island of the damned; Dante's Inferno is, by comparison, a humane and civilized spot. ... ""They say that in prison everyone suffers, the suffering cements a brotherhood between men; but it isn't that way."" He feels his own humanity being slowly sapped; he calls on God to turn his head; he tries an impossible escape in shark-infested waters; his leg is chopped off with a blacksmith's axe. . .before some revolution or other begins to dole out the first reforms that will many, many years later turn San Luca into a showpiece jail. (Kirkus Review)

Host: Fanny                     

Fecha/Hora: Sunday November 8th @ 11am

Location: Corona's coffee (909 West Irving Park)
                http://cafecorona.com

September 2012 -

State of Wonder 
by Ann Patchett 

Award-winning, New York Times best selling author Ann Patchett returns with a provocative and assured novel of morality and miracles, science and sacrifice set in the Amazon rainforest. Infusing the narrative with the same ingenuity and emotional urgency that pervaded her acclaimed previous novels, Patchett delivers an enthrallingly innovative tale of aspiration, exploration, and attachment in State of Wonder—a gripping adventure story and a profound look at the difficult choices we make in the name of discovery and love.  

"It's not often that a novel leaves me (temporarily) speechless. But Ann Patchett's new novel isn't called State of Wonder for nothing, because that's exactly the state I've been in ever since I first opened it. The numbness has worn off by now, but for days, all I could say to friends who asked me about it was the one-word review 'Wow'" - NPR Books. Full review: http://www.npr.org/2011/06/20/137172645/state-of-wonder-deftly-twists-turns-off-the-map
  

Leader/Host: Erin
Location: Erin's place

August 2012 -

Que me Quieres, Amor? 
By Manuel Rivas

Dieciséis relatos donde emergen la ternura y el humor como los mejores amuletos y reductos de humanidad, historias escritas con la sensación de quien roza con los dedos las vísceras y la piel del mundo. Un libro con el que Manuel Rivas obtuvo el Premio de Narrativa Torrente Ballester y el Premio Nacional de Narrativa, y en el que está incluido el cuento «La lengua de las mariposas», lleballevado al cine con el mismo título.

(Alfaguara)

Leader/Host: Aga
Location: Cafe Gaudi (624 N Ashland / by Erie)