AAP, Borders, Las Comadres Launch National Latino Book Club
By Lynn Andriani -- Publishers Weekly, 5/7/2008 2:43:00 PM
AAP, Borders and the Latina organization Las Comadres have teamed up to create a Latino book club that will meet at select Borders stores in eight states. The club will select and read an English-language book by a Latina or Latino author each month, beginning in June.
Las Comadres Para Las Americas is an eight-year-old nationwide grassroots group of Latinas that started in Austin, Tex., and is now in 60 U.S. cities with 10,000 members. The book club grew out of a series of successful monthly teleconferences hosted by the Las Comadres network, with each teleconference featuring an author. The first live event was held at the Borders’ Columbus Circle location in New York last year and the selection was Broken Paradise by Cecilia Samartin (Washington Square Press). Starting next month, live events will take place at Borders stores in Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Texas and Utah, each one run by two Comadres members.
Selections for the Las Comadres and Friends National Latino Book Club will include memoir, fiction and children’s literature, and will be selected by a committee of Las Comadres members as well as Borders’ Hispanic interest buyer.
Bestselling author Esmeralda Santiago (When I Was Puerto Rican) will serve as the official spokesperson for the book club. She said, “The book club will provide an opportunity for Latinas nationwide as well as for book lovers across the country to experience the pleasures of books and reading.”
The 2008 selections are listed below.
June: A Handbook to Luck by Cristina Garcia (Vintage)
July: The King’s Gold by Yxta Maya Murray (HarperCollins)
August: Mexican Enough by Stephanie Elizondo Griest (Washington Square Press)
September: More Than This by Margo Candela (Fireside)
October: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (Riverhead)
November: The Gifted Gabaldon Sisters by Lorraine Lopez (Grand Central)
December: And Their Dogs Came With Them by Helena Maria Viramontes (Washington Square Press)
