| | |  Entertainment | Books | October 2008 
Mexico-Related Books to Read this October
 Ed Hutmacher - MexicoBookClub.com
| | For more information on these or other books with Mexico-related themes, please visit MexicoBookClub.com. | | |
October is a good month to finish off the lighthearted fare we feasted on through the summer and start getting ready for more serious fodder in the months ahead.
Here’s a handful of good reads recommended by MexicoBookClub.com that should satisfy anyone’s appetite — a few to help while away the hours and a couple that will make you sit up and think, all of them by authors eager to share a thing or two about Mexicanidad.
First Stop in the New World: Mexico City, the Capital of the 21st Century (Author: David Lida; Riverhead Books; 2008) This is a wildly informative exposé on Mexico City by transplanted New Yorker David Lida who has made the heaving capital his adopted hometown the last fifteen years. Much of what Lida reveals about the sprawling megatropolis could easily serve as a macrocosm for all of Mexico, but for hungry readers wanting a real taste of Mexico City itself, skip the slap-up meals the mainstream travel guides churn out and sink your teeth into First Stop in the New World. With journalistic objectivity and genuine fascination, Lida dishes out nitty-gritty, eye-opening vignettes that chronicle the best and worst of the biggest, most complex city in the world.
¡Caramba! (Author: Maria Martínez; Anchor Books; 2005) The title of this rollicking tome just about sums up the adventures of Martínez's six motley characters careening around the make-believe border town of Lava Landing, California (a kind of Twin Peaks meets Peyton Place locale). Our heroines, Natalie and Consuelo, are two Mexican-American chicas who set off on, well, a mission from God: they head for Mexico on a quest to rescue Consuelo's dead father from purgatory, where he has been forced to serve the ultimate penance—learning English as recompense for his multiple sins. Sound zany? It is, and wonderfully so. In one fell swoop, Martinez’s debut novel mixes magical realism, pop culture, oddball humor and picaresque experiences into a Thelma-and-Louis-in-Mexico telenovella. This is fun chica-lit you'll enjoy.
Return to the Same City (Author: Paco Ignacio Taibo II; Poisoned Pen Press; 2005) If you've never read any of Taibo's books featuring the roguish, one-eyed existentialist, Mexico City gumshoe Héctor Belascoarán Shayne, then you're in for a treat. In past episodes, Belascoarán has been shot, knifed, beaten up, slashed and killed – then brought back to life in Return to the Same City, the fifth in Taibo's series of detective novels. Here the resurrected private eye is hot on the trail of a notorious man called Estrella who leads Belascoarán on a wild and dangerous goose chase, from Mexico City (where mysterious characters easily blend in) to Acapulco (where the C.I.A. muscles in) to Tijuana (where a mariachi band serenades with bullets). In many ways, Taibo's Belascoarán is like a tour guide escorting readers through the mysterious, shadowy corners of Mexico's underworld.
Ask A Mexican (Author: Gustavo Arellano; Scribner; 2007) A hilarious and instructive look at Mexican-American culture by Gustavo Arellano who answers serious, curious and often irreverent questions about Mexicans. Culled from Arellano's popular syndicated column, the blunt questions and candid answers serve up plenty of give-and-take pontificating: the questions—some addressing Mexicans as 'greasers' and 'beaners'—pull no punches, and are met with equally in-your-face slapdowns by Arellano. Anglo Americans won't always agree with his spicy opinions, but we would be fools not to heed them. The book is, after all, a Mexican's point of view, and Arellano knows how to make his case with enough conciliating wit to make the word gabacho sound outright endearing to even the most fogeyish gringo.
Guacamole Dip: From Baja — tales of love, faith, and magic (Author: Daniel Reveles; Sunbelt Publications; 2008) Tecate isn’t only the name of a popular Mexican beer; it's also a real town, just a stone's throw south of the California-Mexico border. But experienced through the stories of Daniel Reveles, you'd think the Baja puebla is a hundred miles deep into the heart of Mexico. Reveles has a knack for making everyday life speak louder about Mexican culture than any textbook, though the seven short stories in Guacamole Dip (his fourth book of tales from Tecate) could comfortably fit in any sociology or anthropology classroom. The sometimes magical but always fascinating characters this time around include a private investigator, a benevolent witch, a matronly shopkeeper and a doughnut maker, to name a few. Each of them has a humorous or poignant story and through Reveles' masterful retelling, their tales are sure to deliver the smiles or tears fans have learned to expect.
Ed Hutmacher is Editor in Chief of MexicoBookClub.com. For more information on these or other books with Mexico-related themes, please visit the website. |
|
| |
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us