Julia Alvarez – Cannonball Read 17

“I wonder what it would be like to be free?”

Before We Were Free by Julia Alvarez

October 11, 2022 by The Chancellor Leave a Comment

Before We Were Free by Julia Alvarez My rating: 3 of 5 stars It wasn’t until I was in college completing classes for my Spanish degree that I learned about the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic. I was disappointed in my education up to that point, that I had never learned about this tragic time in Dominican history. Since college, I have rarely heard about Trujillo and his regime mentioned. I have taught one of Julia Alvarez’s short stories in my English classes and […]

Butterfly breathing

Already a Butterfly: A Medication Story by Julia Alvarez

October 9, 2020 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

Do you need a reason to read Already a Butterfly: A Medication Story other than the fact it is by Julia Alvarez and Raul Colon? I mean, it almost does not get much better than this. Yet, it does get better when you read this picture book on meditation for kids and even, adults. However, if I have one comment that leans towards a negative it is that the word “medication” is used. I completely enjoyed the journey of our heroine Mari Posa. I just […]

Las Mariposas – Sisters standing up to a murderous dictator

July 28, 2018 by Sophia Leave a Comment

Another day and another book from my list of 50 Books Every Woman Should Read Before She Turns 40. This one was In the Time of the Butterflies (1994) by Julia Alvarez. I had heard of this novel before and was interested in reading it. It is a fictionalized version of the true story of four sisters in the Dominican Republic, three of whom were killed by the order of the brutal dictator, Rafael Trujillo. Trujillo came into power with a military coup, and he managed to stay […]

Proto 90s/Ur-text

May 27, 2017 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

This book is one of those books that wrote the book on how to write books. That is, early 90s hybrid culture immigrant narrative. And this one is not exactly the one that did it first and did it best, but it is a very compelling book with alive characters that are funny and interesting. But I also think this book has the issue that a lot of these books have which is you can feel the marketing of the book at times in the […]

It made me want to go guava picking

September 21, 2016 by alwaysanswerb Leave a Comment

3.5 stars Reading How the García Girls Lost Their Accents made me really want to re-read The House on Mango Street. Not because I remember really liking it when I read it in school, but because I think I have a little bit more maturity to appreciate it now, and because it’s also a book composed of vignettes that represents a particular Latina immigrant experience. But I don’t remember it very well, so I am curious why one gets picked to be read in schools, […]

An interesting young adult historical novel

September 12, 2015 by bonnie Leave a Comment

Eleven and a half years ago, I read a book that would (unbeknownst to me) awaken in me a craving for contemporary fiction. I had been raised on a steady diet of 18th and 19th century classic novels and had no idea that any other kind of novel existed, beyond the John Grisham-esque paperbacks that my high school friends liked to read. But when I took Much Ado About English, my introduction-to-the-major course at my beloved liberal arts college, I found a new love, though […]

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