February 2019 Book of the Month
The House of Broken Angels: A Novel
by Luis Alberto Urrea
Published by: Little, Brown and Company
ISBN-10: 0316154881
ISBN-13: 978-0316154888
SYNOPSIS:
In his final days, beloved and ailing patriarch Miguel Angel de La Cruz, affectionately called Big Angel, has summoned his entire clan for one last legendary birthday party. But as the party approaches, his mother, nearly one hundred, dies, transforming the weekend into a farewell doubleheader. Among the guests is Big Angel’s half brother, known as Little Angel, who must reckon with the truth that although he shares a father with his siblings, he has not, as a half gringo, shared a life.
Across two bittersweet days in their San Diego neighborhood, the revelers mingle among the palm trees and cacti, celebrating the lives of Big Angel and his mother, and recounting the many inspiring tales that have passed into family lore, the acts both ordinary and heroic that brought these citizens to a fraught and sublime country and allowed them to flourish in the land they have come to call home.
Teeming with brilliance and humor, authentic at every turn, The House of Broken Angels is Luis Alberto Urrea at his best, and cements his reputation as a storyteller of the first rank.
BIO:
Hailed by NPR as a “literary badass” and a “master storyteller with a rock and roll heart,” Luis Alberto Urrea is a prolific and acclaimed writer who uses his dual-culture life experiences to explore greater themes of love, loss and triumph.
A 2005 Pulitzer Prize finalist for nonfiction and member of the Latino Literature Hall of Fame, Urrea is the critically acclaimed and best-selling author of 17 books, winning numerous awards for his poetry, fiction and essays. Born in Tijuana to a Mexican father and American mother, Urrea is most recognized as a border writer, though he says, “I am more interested in bridges, not borders.”
In 2017 Urrea won an American Academy of Arts and Letters Fiction award and his collection of short stories, The Water Museum, was a finalist for the 2016 PEN-Faulkner Award and was named a best book of the year by The Washington Post and Kirkus Reviews, among others. Into the Beautiful North, his 2009 a novel, is a Big Read selection by the National Endowment of the Arts and has been chosen by more than 50 different cities and colleges as a community read. The Devil’s Highway, Urrea’s 2004 non-fiction account of a group of Mexican immigrants lost in the Arizona desert, won the Lannan Literary Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the Pacific Rim Kiriyama Prize. The Hummingbird’s Daughter, his 2005 historical novel, tells the story of Urrea’s great-aunt Teresa Urrea, sometimes known as the Saint of Cabora and the Mexican Joan of Arc. The book, which involved 20 years of research and writing, won the Kiriyama Prize in fiction and, along with The Devil’s Highway, was named a best book of the year by many publications.
In all, more than 100 cities and colleges have chosen Into the Beautiful North, The Devil’s Highway or The Hummingbird’s Daughter (or another Urrea book) for a community read.
Urrea has also won an Edgar award from the Mystery Writers of America for best short story (2009, “Amapola” in Phoenix Noir and featured in The Water Museum). Into the Beautiful North earned a citation of excellent from the American Library Association Rainbow’s Project. Urrea’s first book, Across the Wire, was named a New York Times Notable Book and won the Christopher Award. Urrea also won a 1999 American Book Award for his memoir, Nobody’s Son: Notes from an American Life and in 2000, he was voted into the Latino Literature Hall of Fame following the publication of Vatos. His book of short stories, Six Kinds of Sky, was named the 2002 small-press Book of the Year in fiction by the editors of ForeWord magazine. He has also won a Western States Book Award in poetry for The Fever of Being and was in the 1996 Best American Poetry collection. Urrea’s other titles include By the Lake of Sleeping Children, In Search of Snow, Ghost Sickness and Wandering Time. Urrea attended the University of California at San Diego, earning an undergraduate degree in writing, and did his graduate studies at the University of Colorado-Boulder.
After serving as a relief worker in Tijuana and a film extra and columnist-editor-cartoonist for several publications, Urrea moved to Boston where he taught expository writing and fiction workshops at Harvard. He also taught at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette.
Urrea lives with his family in Naperville, IL, where he is a distinguished professor of creative writing at the University of Illinois-Chicago.
Author webpage: luisurrea.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/urrealism
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LuisAlbertoUrrea/
YouTube: https://www.instagram.com/urrealism/
February 2019 Conversations Book
A Song for Jessica
by Ruby Montalvo
Published by: Ruby Montalvo
ISBN-10: 1732312400
ISBN-13: 978-1732312401
SYNOPSIS:
When Allison Deleon’s younger brother was killed in a car accident fourteen years ago, her family was changed forever. Her parents dealt with their grief by cutting themselves off from each other and from her. As a young girl, Allison dreamed of singing onstage, but with little support from her parents and her own inability to fully embrace her musical gift, Allison eventually gave up on her dream.
Now, twenty-eight-year old Allison feels stuck.
Her best friend, Jessica – the only person who has always been there and still encourages her to pursue her music – will soon be married and moving across the country. Allison worries she’s losing her friend forever.
With Jessica urging her on, Allison sings live onstage and she falls in love with music all over again. Maybe it’s not too late to pursue the dream she abandoned long ago.
But when her estranged father files for divorce, her emotionally unstable mother needs her more than ever.
Allison wants to do the right thing, but she’s not sure what that is. Her sense of obligation to her family or her desire to forge her own uncertain path?
When Allison gets an unexpected second shot at her dream, she wants to do it, but something’s holding her back. She realizes that going for it would mean leaving her mother at a time when she needs her most.
Allison wants to do the right thing, but she’s finding out it’s not that simple.
BIO:
Ruby was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. She graduated with a degree in English from The University of Texas at Austin. She has worked as a proofreader, graphic artist, customer service representative, executive complaints clerk, corporate trainer, corporate content writer, English teacher, ESL teacher, elementary school librarian, and blogger. Besides reading, talking about books, writing, and talking about writing, some of my favorite things to do are scratching my dogs, going for a run/walk (I run/walk a solid twelve-minute mile), and hanging out with my husband at home with our two dogs.
Author webpage: http://www.rubymontalvo.com
