October 2019 Book of the Month
With the Fire on High: A Novel
by Elizabeth Acevedo
Published by: Harper Collins Publishers
ISBN-10: 006266283X
ISBN-13: 978-0062662835
SYNOPSIS:
From the New York Times bestselling author of the National Book Award winning The Poet X comes a dazzling novel in prose about a girl with talent, pride, and a drive to feed the soul that keeps her fire burning bright.
Ever since she got pregnant freshman year, Emoni Santiago’s life has been about making the tough decisions—doing what has to be done for her daughter and her abuela. The one place she can let all that go is in the kitchen, where she adds a little something magical to everything she cooks, turning her food into straight-up goodness.
Even though she dreams of working as a chef after she graduates, Emoni knows that it’s not worth her time to pursue the impossible. Yet despite the rules she thinks she has to play by, once Emoni starts cooking, her only choice is to let her talent break free.
Author webpage: http://www.acevedowrites.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AcevedoWrites
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AcevedoWrites
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/AcevedoWrites/
BIO:
ELIZABETH ACEVEDO is a New York Times bestselling author of The Poet X and With the Fire on High. Her critically-acclaimed debut novel, The Poet X, won the 2018 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. She is also the recipient of the Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Fiction, the CILIP Carnegie Medal, and the Boston Globe-Hornbook Award. Additionally, she was honored with the 2019 Pure Belpré Author Award for celebrating, affirming, and portraying Latinx culture and experience.
Her books include, Beastgirl & Other Origin Myths (YesYes 2016), The Poet X (HarperCollins, 2018), & With The Fire On High (HarperCollins, 2019).
She holds a BA in Performing Arts from The George Washington University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Maryland. Acevedo has been a fellow of Cave Canem, Cantomundo, and a participant in the Callaloo Writer’s Workshops. She is a National Poetry Slam Champion, and resides in Washington, DC with her love.
October 2019 Conversations Book
Where We Come From: A Novel
by Oscar Casares
Published by: Knopf
ISBN-10: 0525655433
ISBN-13: 978-0525655435
SYNOPSIS:
Stunning and timely novel about a Mexican-American family in Brownsville, Texas, who reluctantly becomes involved in smuggling immigrants into the United States. For Nina, after doing a small favor for her maid she eventually finds herself providing refuge for a young immigrant boy named Daniel, for whom traveling to America has meant trading one set of dangers for another. Separated from the violent human traffickers who brought him across the border, pursued by the authorities, Daniel must stay completely hidden. But the arrival Nina’s 12-year-old godson, Orly, threatens to put them all at risk of exposure. Tackling the crisis of U.S. immigration policy from a deeply human angle, Where We Come From explores through an intimate lens the ways that family history shapes us, how secrets can burden us, and how finding compassion and understanding for others can ultimately set us free.
Author webpage: https://www.oscarcasares.com/
BIO:
OSCAR CÁSARES is the author of Brownsville, a collection of stories that was an American Library Association Notable Book of 2004, and is now included in the curriculum at several American universities, and the novel Amigoland. He is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Copernicus Society of America, and the Texas Institute of Letters. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, he teaches creative writing at the University of Texas in Austin, where he lives.
