Tuesday, August 11, 2009

September 5th: Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros


Get ready to read, because September's book is a big one, you can do it! We'll be meeting Saturday, September 5th, 2pm! Perhaps some Mexican treats will be served, you'll have to come to find out!

The book selection is Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros.



Summary from Salon:
"Caramelo," is a multigenerational story of a Mexican-American family whose voices create a dazzling weave of humor, passion and poignancy. Lala Reyes' grandmother is descended from a family of renowned rebozo, or shawl, makers. The striped caramelo rebozo is the most beautiful of all, and the one that makes its way, like the family history it has come to represent, into Lala's possession.

The novel opens with the Reyes' annual car trip -- a caravan overflowing with children, laughter and quarrels -- from Chicago to "the other side": Mexico City. It is there, each year, that Lala hears her family's stories, separating the truth from the "healthy lies" that have ricocheted from one generation to the next. We travel from the Mexico City that was the "Paris of the New World" to the music-filled streets of Chicago at the dawn of the Roaring '20s -- and, finally, to Lala's own difficult adolescence in the not-quite-promised land of San Antonio, Texas.

Listen to the author read from Caramelo here.

Random House published a reader's guide to the novel here.

Learn more about Sandra Cisneros on her official website.

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