Ruins by Peter Kuper
Ruins by Peter Kuper is the kind of book that can’t really be rated. There are parts that were a five, parts that were a one, and parts a nice solid three. And even each page really could be given its own rating. The main part that I based my score on is the cleverness of the story. We follow a monarch butterfly as its journey parallels the human couple for their year in Mexico. Some things are left up to the imagination in places […]
Yenebi's Drive to School by Sendy Santamaria
Yenebi’s Drive to School by Sendy Santamaria is about Yenebi, her sister Melanie, and mom drive to school every morning across the US-Mexico border. The end. Except it isn’t. You would not think that a trip to school would be as full as it is for Yenebi, but it is. It is wildly adventurous. Waking at four in the morning to get ready for the drive. Beating on if it will take two or three hours to get there. Wait? Two to three HOURS? You […]
Raiders of the Lost Heart by Jo Segura
3.5 stars Official book description: When archaeologist Dr. Socorro ‘Corrie’ Mejía is invited to join an all-expenses-paid dig in the Mexican jungle, she thinks her wildest dreams have come true. It’s her life goal to lead an expedition in search of the long-lost remains of her ancestor, Chimalli, an ancient warrior of the Aztec empire. But as the world-renowned expert on the topic, Corrie should be leading the expedition, not sharing the glory with her disgustingly handsome nemesis. Dr. Ford Matthews has been finding new […]
Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Caseopea Tun is basically treated as a servant by her grandfather, cousin, and extended family because her mother ran away and made an ill-advised marriage. Caseopea suffers the indignities mainly because her tyrannical grandfather has promised to leave her some money once he dies. However, during another turbulent row with her spoiled cousin Martín, he reveals that their grandfather has no intention of leaving anything to Caseopea. She feels furious and rebellious, which leads to her opening the forbidden chest at the bottom of her […]
Creep: Accusations and Confessions by Myriam Gurba
I became aware of Myriam Gurba on Twitter when she tweeted about her review of a forthcoming bestseller, American Dirt, being killed because it was too mean. My first thought, being intimately familiar with the liberties white women take with other people’s stuff, was that she was, at a minimum, as mean as she needed to be. (I am a white woman, born and raised in Texas, so when I say I am intimately familiar, I mean it is my heritage.) There is an essay […]
Frontera by Julio Anta, Jacoby Salcedo
CBR 15 Bingo: Guide – Guillermo has spent his afterlife guiding migrants from Mexico safely across the Sonoran Desert. Mateo is desperate to return to his life in Arizona after he and his family are deported back to Mexico, but that desperation makes him reckless. Lost in the desert, he must rely on someone he’s not even sure exists if he’s going to make it to safety. This is a graphic novel about Mateo, a teenage boy who is trying to cross the border into […]
