August opens the hot months of Summer and here in Pasadena, California the heat has been reminiscent of my two Summers in Korea. That first Summer, I lived with 75 men serving on the world's highest HAWK missile site. What can I say? I was young, it was rugged, it was an adventure, and I read a lot.
Three days on top of the mountain meant two nights pulling overnight duty doing hourly radio and phone checks, passing the rest of the still hours sitting at my post, reading.
The selections looked like the results of a half hour grab-what-you-can shopping spree at Ferlinghetti's City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco!Back in the world now since 1970--that's what GIs called the United States, "the world"--readers have unlimited choices subject only to clicking the links in the titles below and ordering what you will publisher-direct.
These are books I have looked through but not read at all. There's a good likelihood I'll read and like them enough to review in future columns, grateful for thoughtful publishers who send these in the mail.
First things first, there's a movie about the enchanted painter Carlos Almaraz. I want to share that with La Bloga readers. I met him. I hear it's a film of quality and merit, so I'm going in search of the film for a close look.
Distribution is the bugaboo of film. I might think the film is the greatest movie ever made but that does you no good in El Paso or Denver if you can't buy a ticket at the local art house. Cable TV, peor.
Unlike the film viewing process, publishers have solved the age-old distribution problem. A mouse click on the title, if you're provoked by the publishers' blurbs, connects you to the publisher's hopeful webpage. (Hyperlinks are cool. MLA stylesheet, ave atque vale.)
Aztlán Libre Press
The Canción Cannibal Cabaret & Other Songs.
Amalia L. Ortiz
Set in a not-so-distant dystopian future, La Madre Valiente, a refugee raised under the oppressive State, studies secretly to become the leader of a feminist revolution. Her emissaries, Las Hijas de la Madre, roam the land spreading her story, educating others, and galvanizing allies. Read more…
Arte Publico Press
Democracy and the Next American Economy: Where Prosperity Meets Justice
Henry A. J. Ramos
ISBN1558858768, 9781558858763
Progressive intellectual Henry A. J. Ramos believes the United States is at a crossroads, facing the most challenging moment since the civil rights movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. In fact, absent major new interventions and investments, he sees this moment as a pivotal turning point in the American journey in which political polarization, income and wealth disparity and public violence—much of which is race related—threaten the very essence and integrity of our democracy and economy.
Manhattan Tropics / Trópico en Manhattan.
Guillermo Cotto-Thorner
ISBN: 978-1-55885-881-7
...published in 1951 as Trópico en Manhattan, it was the first novel to focus on the postwar influx of Puerto Ricans to New York. Cotto-Thorner’s use of code-switching, or “Spanglish,” reflects the characters’ bicultural reality and makes the novel...Read More
The Glass Eye
Yolanda Gallardo
A humorous look at life in Nuyorican community in the Bronx.
ISBN: 978-1-55885-878-7
Doña Amada can see more through one eye than most people can see with two. She can see the past and the future, in spite of the shiny marble serving as her second eye, which was ripped out by her husband’s jealous...Read More
Oklahoma Where Latina Poetry Comes in Other Musics
Other Musics. New Latina Poetry
Edited by Cynthia Cruz
University of Oklahoma Press
PAPERBACK 978-0-8061-6288-1
KINDLE 978-0-8061-6335-2
E-PUB 978-0-8061-6336-9
Latina poets occupy an important place in today’s literary landscape. Coming from diverse backgrounds, they share an understanding of what it means to exist within the margins of society. As artists, they possess a dedication to their craft and a commitment to experimentation. Their voices—sometimes lyrical, sometimes autobiographical, sometimes politically charged—are distinctly female. Whereas previous anthologies have merged the works of Latino and Latina poets, this collection is the first to showcase Latina poetry on its own terms.
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