November 2020 Book of the Month
The Resurrection of Fulgencio Ramirez
by Rudy Ruiz
Published by: Blackstone Publishing
ISBN-13: 978-1982604615
SYNOPSIS:
In the 1950s, tensions remain high in the border town of La Frontera. Penny loafers and sneakers clash with boots and huaraches. Bowling shirts and leather jackets compete with guayaberas. Convertibles fend with motorcycles. Yet amidst the discord, young love blooms at first sight between Fulgencio Ramirez, the son of impoverished immigrants, and Carolina Mendelssohn, the local pharmacist’s daughter. But as they’ll soon find out, their bonds will be undone by a force more powerful than they could have known.
Thirty years after their first fateful encounter, Fulgencio Ramirez, RPh, is conducting his daily ritual of reading the local obituaries in his cramped pharmacy office. After nearly a quarter of a century of waiting, Fulgencio sees the news he’s been hoping for: his nemesis, the husband of Carolina Mendelssohn, has died.
A work of magical realism, The Resurrection of Fulgencio Ramirez weaves together the past and present as Fulgencio strives to succeed in America, break a mystical family curse, and win back Carolina’s love after their doomed youthful romance. Through enchanting language and meditations about the porous nature of borders—cultural, geographic, and otherworldly—The Resurrection of Fulgencio Ramirez offers a vision of how the past has divided us, and how the future could unite us.
BIO:
Award-winning author Rudy Ruiz was selected as #1 among the Top Ten “New” Latino Authors to Watch & Read in 2015. Ruiz was born in Texas, the son and grandson of Mexican immigrants. He grew up in a bilingual, bicultural setting along both sides of the border. He earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at Harvard, where his studies included literature and creative writing. Ruiz’s fiction debut, “Seven for the Revolution,” won four International Latino Book Awards. In 2017, he was awarded the Gulf Coast Prize in Fiction. His stories have appeared in literary journals including Gulf Coast, The Ninth Letter, BorderSenses, New Texas, and The Notre Dame Review. Ruiz’s novel, “The Resurrection of Fulgencio Ramirez,” will be released in 2020 by Blackstone Publishing. He currently resides in San Antonio with his wife and children.
Author website: http://rudyruiz.com/
Author blog: http://rudyruiz.com/blog/
November 2020 Conversations Book
FLYING FREE: My Victory over Fear to Become the First Latina Pilot on the US Aerobatic Team
by Cecilia Aragon
Published by: Blackstone Publishing
ISBN-13: 978-1982642464
SYNOPSIS:
The daughter of a Chilean father and a Filipina mother, Cecilia Rodriguez Aragon grew up as a shy, timid child in a small midwestern town during the 1960s, targeted by school bullies and dismissed by many of her teachers.
Yet in the span of just six years, Cecilia became the first Latina pilot to secure a place on the United States Unlimited Aerobatic Team and earn the right to represent her country at the Olympics of aviation, the World Aerobatic Championships. How did she do it?
Flying Free is the story of how Cecilia Aragon broke free from prejudices of race and gender to rise above her own limits by combining math and logic with her passion for flying in unexpected ways. You don’t have to be a math whiz or a science geek to learn from her story. You just have to want to soar.
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BIO:
CECILIA ARAGON is an author, air-show pilot, and the first Latina full professor in the College of Engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle. She coauthored Writers in the Secret Garden, has worked with Nobel Prize winners, taught astronauts to fly, and created musical simulations of the universe with rock stars. Her major awards for research, and a stint at NASA designing software for Mars missions, led President Obama to call her “one of the top scientists and engineers in the country.” For more information, visit: ceciliaaragonauthor.com.
Author webpage: ceciliaaragonauthor.com
Twitter: @ceciliararagon
