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)

June-July 2012 -

The Women 

by T.C. Boyle

Having brought to life eccentric cereal king John Harvey Kellogg in The Road to Wellville and sex researcher Alfred Kinsey in The Inner Circle, T.C. Boyle now turns his fictional sights on an even more colorful and outlandish character: Frank Lloyd Wright. Boyle's incomparable account of Wright's life is told through the experiences of the four women who loved him. There's the Montenegrin beauty Olgivanna Milanoff, the passionate Southern belle Maude Miriam Noel, the tragic Mamah Cheney, and his young first wife, Kitty Tobin. Blazing with his trademark wit and inventiveness, Boyle deftly captures these very different women and the creative life in all its complexity. (Book Description)

Discussion Meeting: Sometime in July, check back.
Location: TBD

Check this NPR web feature and podcast about this book:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101170584

May 2012 -

The Hummingbird's Daughter / La Hija de la Chuparrosa 

by Luis Alberto Urrea

Twenty years in the making, Urrea's epic novel recounts the true story of his great-aunt Teresita. In 1873, amid the political turbulence of General Porfirio Díaz's Mexican republic, Teresita is born to a fourteen-year-old Indian girl, "mounted and forgotten" by her white master. Don Tomàs Urrea later takes his illegitimate daughter into his home, where she learns to bathe every week and read "Las Hermanas Brontë." But Teresita also continues a folk education as a curandera, discovering healing powers and a mystical relationship with God. Indian pilgrims swarm to the Urrea ranch, where "St. Teresita," a mestiza Joan of Arc, kindles in them a powerful faith in God and a perilous hunger for revolution. The novel brings to life not only the deeply pious figure whom Díaz himself dubbed "the Most Dangerous Girl in Mexico" but also the blood-soaked landscape of pre-revolutionary Mexico. (The New Yorker) 

Leader/Host: Isabella
Discussion Meeting: June 3rd (11am) - Potluck!
Location: Bella's place 

Here is the author's page:

http://www.luisurrea.com/books/fiction/hummingbirds-daughter

and an article...

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/03/books/review/03DERASMO.html?pagewanted=all

 

April 2012 -

Gold Boy, Emerald Girl 

by Yiyun Li 

“Li's collection well deserves a celebration with its sophistication and honesty, which often derive from a deep understanding of the history, culture and politics of China, and of their impact on ordinary people. . . . Yes, sorrows may arise during times of reflection, but it's impossible not to fall in love with the privacy and tranquility of the time and place.”
—San Francisco Chronicle Book Review, Cover Review

Leader/Host: Open
Discussion Meeting: Sun April 1st (1pm).

This was the title selected for One Book One Chicago this spring. Here is the library page for it that includes interviews, programs & events, timeline, etc):
http://www.chipublib.org/eventsprog/programs/oboc/12s_gold/oboc_12s_greeting.php  

March 2012

The Bridge of San Luis Rey
By Thornton Wilder

"The Bridge of San Luis Rey opens in the aftermath of an inexplicable tragedy--a tiny foot-bridge in Peru breaks, and five people hurtle to their deaths. For Brother Juniper, a humble monk who witnesses the catastrophe, the question in inescapable. Why those five? Suddenly, Brother Juniper is committed to discover what manner of lives they led--and whether it was divine intervention or a capricious fate that took their lives." (Product Description)




Here are some fun wiki-facts about it:

• First published in 1927. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1928.
• In 1998, the book was rated #37 by the editorial board of the American Modern Library on the list of the 100 best 20th-Century novels.
• Time Magazine included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.
• The book was quoted by Tony Blair during the memorial service for victims of the September 11 attacks in 2001.
• The book was cited during the 2007 Minneapolis bridge collapse by Brian Williams of NBC News as well as Charlie Gibson of ABC News.
• Three films have been based on the novel.
• An opera by German composer Hermann Reutter was based on the novel.
• A play for puppets and actors was based on the novel, adapted by Greg Carter and directed by Sheila Daniels.

Here is the official Thornton Wilder Website:
http://www.thorntonwilder.com/fiction/the-bridge-of-san-luis-rey.html
(Nice image gallery with all the covers of the book)

Leader/Host: Open
Special Guest: Laura Harkness

Discussion Meeting: Sun March 4th @6pm
Location: 4 Suyos Peruvian Cusine (BYOB in Logan Square)
2727 W. Fullerton
http://www.4suyos.com

Jan-Feb 2012

El Tiempo Entre Costuras
By Maria Duenas.

"La historia de Sira Quiroga, una joven modista empujada por el destino hacia un arriesgado compromiso en el que los patrones y las telas de su oficio se convertirán en la fachada de algo mucho más turbio y trascendente. Bajo esta trama esquemática se tejen múltiples lecturas transversales que la convierten a un tiempo en una novela de superación personal, una novela colonial, una novela de amor, una novela de conspiraciones históricas y políticas, y una novela de espías. Una novela de ritmo imparable cargada de encuentros y desencuentros, de identidades encubiertas y quiebros inesperados; de ternura, traiciones y ángeles caídos." (Maria Dueñas)

Check out the gallery and background info:
http://eltiempoentrecosturas.blogspot.com

Leader/Host: Sarah
Discussion Meeting: Sat Feb 11 @3pm
Location: Sarah's place

Nov-Dec 2011

The Ask
By Sam Lipsyte

"In his vastly entertaining--but dark--social satire, Lipsyte exposes the plight of the highly educated and discontented. Critics particularly enjoyed protagonist Milo Burke who, unlike most people, is keenly aware of his own mediocrity. They also enjoyed Lipsyte's well-rounded secondary characters: the embittered war amputee, the indifferent wife, the vaguely dissatisfied entrepreneur. One notable exception came from the Los Angeles Times critic, who found the novel strange and humorless. Overall, however, reviewers hailed The Ask as a worthy, amusing read, and a "witty paean to white-collar loserdom" (New York Times Book Review). Did we mention it was dark? The Cleveland Plain Dealer called it an "exercise in dread." Since we're throwing around words like "amusing," "witty," and "entertaining," we had to warn you. " (From Booksmarks Magazine).

Leader/Host: Isabella
Discussion Meeting: Sat Dec 17 @3pm
Location: Bella's place

Sept / Oct

Libro de Mal Amor
By Fernando Iwasaki

Author Fernando Iwasaki introduces his main characters in a pretty unique way —through the eyes of the women who have loved him. Ten chapters that carry the names of the many women who have trashed him throughout the many years of his unfortunate love life. But, has it really been totally unfortunate? These experiences tell us that stories don’t only have a negative side —in the words of the author “an unsuccessful love live leads to a funny life since a bad love is a guarantee of good humor.” Description in Spanish: Fernando Iwasaki nos presenta un personaje de forma original y divertida: a través de las mujeres que no lo han amado. La poco afortunada vida amorosa del protagonista se nos presenta de esta forma, en diez capítulos que llevan el nombre de otras tantas mujeres que le han dado calabazas a lo largo de los años. Experiencias que no sólo tienen un lado negativo pues, en palabras del propio autor "a falta de éxito amoroso bueno es el éxito humoroso, pues el mal amor es garantía de buen humor". (Product Description)

Leader/Host: Tertulia Literaria
Discussion Meeting: Tuesday October 25th 6pm
Location: Instituto Cervantes ~ 31 W. Ohio

Agosto 2011

Tales from the Town of Widows / La Aldea de las Viudas.
by James Cañón

"Esta novela ganó en Francia el premio a la mejor primera novela extranjera publicada en el año 2008, y el premio de los lectores del festival América de Vincennes (también en Francia). En los EEUU, fue obra finalista del premio nacional de novela Edmund White, y del premio nacional de novela Lambda. Kirkus Reviews la escogió en el 2007 como uno de los “10 Mejores Libros del Año” para grupos de lectores. ... La aldea de las viudas nos deja una grata impresión con el manejo sobrio del lenguaje, la imaginación desbordada, la reflexión profunda sobre la condición humana, la religiosidad, el sexo, la guerra y el sistema político. Esta novela es en síntesis, según las palabras de un redactor de Washington Post Book World “Encantadora . . . Una historia divertida y a veces espeluznante, que Cañón cuenta con encanto y mordacidad.” Libardo Vargas Celemin (Revista de Letras).

http://www.revistadeletras.net/%E2%80%9Cla-aldea-de-las-viudas%E2%80%9D-violencia-genero-y-realismo-magico/

Leader/Host: Fanny
Discussion Meeting: Sunday August 21st, 2pm
Location: Hollywood Beach

Come celebrate our 5 year Anniversary!!!!

July 2011

A Visit from the Goon Squad
by Jennifer Egan

2010 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction
2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

"Readers will be pleased to discover that the star-crossed marriage of lucid prose and expertly deployed postmodern switcheroos that helped shoot Egan to the top of the genre-bending new school is alive in well in this graceful yet wild novel. We begin in contemporaryish New York with kleptomaniac Sasha and her boss, rising music producer Bennie Salazar, before flashing back, with Bennie, to the glory days of Bay Area punk rock, and eventually forward, with Sasha, to a settled life. By then, Egan has accrued tertiary characters, like Scotty Hausmann, Bennie's one-time bandmate who all but dropped out of society, and Alex, who goes on a date with Sasha and later witnesses the future of the music industry. Egan's overarching concerns are about how rebellion ages, influence corrupts, habits turn to addictions, and lifelong friendships fluctuate and turn. Or as one character asks, How did I go from being a rock star to being a fat fuck no one cares about? Egan answers the question elegantly, though not straight on, as this powerful novel chronicles how and why we change, even as the song stays the same." Publishers Weekly.

Leader/Host: Sarah
Discussion Meeting: Saturday July 30th, 11am
Location: Waterfront Cafe (6219 North Sheridan)

May/June 2011

In The Country of Last Things
by Paul Auster

"In a book-length letter home, Anna Blume reports that her search for a long-lost brother has brought her to a vast, unnamed city that is undergoing a catastrophic economic decline. Buildings collapse daily, driving huge numbers of citizens into the streets, where they starve or die of exposureif they aren't murdered by other vagrants first. Government forces haul away the bodies, and licensed scavengers collect trash and precious human waste. Weird cults form around the most popular methods of suicide. Anna tries to help, but the charity group she joins quickly runs out of supplies and has to close its doors. A number of post-apocalyptic novels have been published recently; Auster's, one of the best, is distinguished by an uncanny grasp of the day-to-day realities of homelessness. This is a scary but highly relevant book." Edward B. St. John (Library Journal).


Leader/Host: Colleen
Discussion Meeting: Sunday June 12th, 11am (Brunch!)
Location: Fanny's Porch.

Abril 2011

Santa Evita
By Tomás Eloy Martínez

"Argentine writer Martinez's latest novel explores his country's obsession with the legacy of Eva Peron, populist wife of former dictator Juan Peron. Let no reader assume, however, that this is a straightforward, chronologically strict novel about Evita from humble origins to early death. Primarily, this is the odd history of Evita's mummified body after her untimely death from cancer in 1952 at age 33. When his wife died, General Peron insisted her body be preserved for posterity; after his ouster, the powers who succeeded him as leaders of the country feared the possible use of Evita's body as a tangible symbol around which Peron's supporters might rally. In telling this almost macabre story of who did what with Evita's body and when, which is accomplished in a mixed-media format--a blend of fiction and documentary, essay and memoir--the author ultimately establishes a full portrait of Evita, emphasizing her impact on Argentine history both in life and after. A complex, challenging novel that lovers of Latin American fiction will applaud." Brad Hooper (Booklist).


Leader/Host: Sarah
Discussion Meeting: Wednesday May 11th (~6pm)
Location: Revolution Brewery (2323 N Milwaukee Ave-California Blue line stop)
http://revbrew.com/

Febrero / Marzo

Freedom
by Jonathan Franzen (576 pages)

From the National Book Award-winning author of "The Corrections" comes a darkly comedic novel about family. Franzen's intensely realized characters struggle to learn how to live in an ever-confusing world--one with the temptations and burdens of liberty, the thrills of teenage lust, the shaken compromises of middle age, the wages of suburban sprawl, and the heavy weight of empire.


Leader/Host: Open
Discussion Meeting: Saturday April 9th (~2pm)
Location: tbd

Diciembre/Enero

Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time.

By Greg Mortenson.

Some failures lead to phenomenal successes, and this American nurse's unsuccessful attempt to climb K2, the world's second tallest mountain, is one of them. Dangerously ill when he finished his climb in 1993, Mortenson was sheltered for seven weeks by the small Pakistani village of Korphe; in return, he promised to build the impoverished town's first school, a project that grew into the Central Asia Institute, which has since constructed more than 50 schools across rural Pakistan and Afghanistan. Coauthor Relin recounts Mortenson's efforts in fascinating detail, presenting compelling portraits of the village elders, con artists, philanthropists, mujahideen, Taliban officials, ambitious school girls and upright Muslims Mortenson met along the way. As the book moves into the post-9/11 world, Mortenson and Relin argue that the United States must fight Islamic extremism in the region through collaborative efforts to alleviate poverty and improve access to education, especially for girls. Captivating and suspenseful, with engrossing accounts of both hostilities and unlikely friendships, this book will win many readers' hearts.

(From Publishers Weekly)

.

Leader/Host: Sarah

Discussion Meeting: Monday, Jan 3rd (~6.30pm)

Location: Restaurante Irazu (1865 N. Milwaukee)