Book Club
Our book club celebrates literature, both fiction and non-fiction, written by Latinx women. We aim to support up-and-coming Latinx women in literature. We run a group on Whatsapp and we meet once a month to discuss our chosen book. Email us to join at latingirlsatwork@gmail.com.
May: My Broken Language by Quiara Alegria Hudes
Quiara Alegría Hudes was the sharp-eyed girl on the stairs while her family danced in her grandmother's tight North Philly kitchen. She was awed by her aunts and uncles and cousins, but haunted by the secrets of the family and the unspoken, untold stories of the barrio--even as she tried to find her own voice in the sea of language around her, written and spoken, English and Spanish, bodies and books, Western art and sacred altars. Her family became her private pantheon, a gathering circle of powerful orisha-like women with tragic real-world wounds, and she vowed to tell their stories--but first she'd have to get off the stairs and join the dance. She'd have to find her language.
February: The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector
Narrated by the cosmopolitan Rodrigo S.M., this brief, strange, and haunting tale is the story of Macabéa, one of life's unfortunates. Living in the slums of Rio de Janeiro and eking out a poor living as a typist, Macabéa loves movies, Coca-Cola, and her rat of a boyfriend; she would like to be like Marylin Monroe, but she is ugly, underfed, sickly, and unloved. Rodrigo recoils from her wretchedness, and yet he cannot avoid realization that for all her outward misery, Macabéa is inwardly free. She doesn't seem to know how unhappy she should be.
We will discussed this book on Thursday 10th February at 19:00 GMT via Zoom.
December: The Bitch by Pilar Quintana
Colombia’s Pacific coast, where everyday life entails warding off the brutal forces of nature. In this constant struggle, nothing is taken for granted. Damaris lives with her fisherman husband in a shack on a bluff overlooking the sea. Childless and at that age “when women dry up,” as her uncle puts it, she is eager to adopt an orphaned puppy. But this act may bring more than just affection into her home.
We discussed this book on Wednesday 19th January 2022 at 18:30 GMT via Zoom.
October: Dominicana by Angie Cruz
Fifteen-year-old Ana Cancion never dreamed of moving to [the United States], the way the girls she grew up with in the Dominican countryside did. But when Juan Ruiz proposes and promises to take her to New York City, she has to say yes. It doesn’t matter that he is twice her age, that there is no love between them. Their marriage is an opportunity for her entire close-knit family to eventually immigrate.
Our meeting was held on 24th November at 18:30 GMT via Zoom.
August: The Soul of a Woman by Isabel Allende
"When I say that I was a feminist in kindergarten, I am not exaggerating," begins Isabel Allende. As a child, she watched her mother, abandoned by her husband, provide for her three small children without "resources or voice." Isabel became a fierce and defiant little girl, determined to fight for the life her mother couldn't have.
We discussed this book on the 24th September via Zoom.
July: Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia
A daughter's fateful choice, a mother motivated by her own past, and a family legacy that begins in Cuba before either of them were born.
Our meeting was held on the 6th of August via Zoom.
June: Cantoras by Carolina de Robertis
From the highly acclaimed, award-winning author of The Gods of Tango, a revolutionary new novel about five wildly different women who, in the midst of the Uruguayan dictatorship, find one another as lovers, friends, and ultimately, family.
We discussed this book on the 18th of June via Zoom.
May: Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo
In a dual narrative novel in verse that brims with both grief and love, award-winning and bestselling author Elizabeth Acevedo writes about the devastation of loss, the difficulty of forgiveness, and the bittersweet bonds that shape our lives.
Our meeting was held on the 14th May via Zoom.
April: Stubborn Archivist by Yara Rodrigues-Fowler
In Stubborn Archivist, a young woman from London grows up navigating between two cultures and finding it hard to understand where she belongs and her place in this world. She tells her story through family conversations, through her mother, grandmother, and her aunt. Slowly she begins to emerge into the world, establishing her own sense of identity.
We discussed this book via Zoom on 9th April and were joined by the author herself!