February 2020 Book of the Month
Dominicana
by Angie Cruz
Published by: Flatiron Books
ISBN-10: 125020593X
ISBN-13: 978-1250205933
SYNOPSIS:
Fifteen-year-old Ana Cancion never dreamed of moving to America, the way the girls she grew up with in the Dominican countryside did. But when Juan Ruiz proposes and promises to take her to New York City, she has to say yes. It doesn’t matter that he is twice her age, that there is no love between them. Their marriage is an opportunity for her entire close-knit family to eventually immigrate. So on New Year’s Day, 1965, Ana leaves behind everything she knows and becomes Ana Ruiz, a wife confined to a cold six-floor walk-up in Washington Heights. Lonely and miserable, Ana hatches a reckless plan to escape. But at the bus terminal, she is stopped by Cesar, Juan’s free-spirited younger brother, who convinces her to stay.
As the Dominican Republic slides into political turmoil, Juan returns to protect his family’s assets, leaving Cesar to take care of Ana. Suddenly, Ana is free to take English lessons at a local church, lie on the beach at Coney Island, see a movie at Radio City Music Hall, go dancing with Cesar, and imagine the possibility of a different kind of life in America. When Juan returns, Ana must decide once again between her heart and her duty to her family.
In bright, musical prose that reflects the energy of New York City, Angie Cruz’s Dominicana is a vital portrait of the immigrant experience and the timeless coming-of-age story of a young woman finding her voice in the world.
BIO:
Angie Cruz’s novel, Dominicana is the inaugural bookpick for GMA book club, and the Wordup Uptown Reads selection for 2019. It was also longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie award in excellence in fiction for 2019. The New York Times Book Review called it “Lovely and Compelling” NBC NEWS said, “Dominicana is a triumphant return for Cruz…The journey of Ana Canción is one of the most evocative and empowering immigrant stories of our time.” It was named most anticipated/ best book in 2019 by Time, Newsweek, People, Oprah Magazine, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and Esquire. Cruz is the author of two other novels, Soledad and Let It Rain Coffee and the recipient of numerous fellowships and residencies including the Lighthouse Fellowship, Siena Art Institute, the Pittsburgh of the Arts Grant and the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute Fellowship. She’s published shorter works in The Paris Review, VQR, Callaloo, Gulf Coast and other journals. She’s the founder and Editor-in-chief of the award winning literary journal, Aster(ix). She’s an Associate professor at University of Pittsburgh where she teaches in the MFA program and splits her time between Pittsburgh. New York, and Turin.
Website: angiecruz.com
Twitter: @acruzwriter
February 2020 Conversations Book
River of Love
by Aimée Medina Carr
Published by: Homebound Publications
ISBN-10: 1947003496
ISBN-13: 978-1947003491
SYNOPSIS:
RIVER OF LOVE is a supernatural Love story about a fierce Indigenous Mexican American girl growing up in a white Colorado town during a youth-led cultural revolution of the 1970s. It’s a Love letter to the Southern Rocky Mountains, to the Spirits, to a close-knit family, and even to youth itself. The Arkansas River is a vital character, as is the environment, and wisdom of the ancestors. Things that happen when you’re young seem so much more important because they’re happening for the first time. Indigenous Mexican Americans straddle two very different cultures; this story focuses on how we are all connected.
BIO:
Aimée Medina Carr is a fifth-generation Indigenous Southern Colorado native, who lives in northern California in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains with her husband, two grown sons, two cats, and a Labradoodle. She worked for ten years as a filmmaker. Her debut novel River of Love received Honorable Mention for the Landmark Prize for Fiction Award given by Homebound Publications in 2018. Indigenous peoples’ have survived by storytelling-a form of resistance. We’re the ancestors of an age to come-a collective spirit through the centuries that work to make a difference, every generation has to move the boulder of good forward. If we don’t tell our stories, who will?
Author webpage: https://www.aimeemedinacarr.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/aimeecarol
