Cultural, Education, Opinion

Commentary: Toes in the sand. Nose in a book

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By Mona AlvaradoFrazier /Guest contributor

This catchy  headline is the title for Border’s summer book list. Now if we could just find the time to read the entire list and have the money to buy all the books. Since that’s not happening for most of us, let’s see what we can do with a shortage of time and money.

The following books are awardwinners, an Oprah pick, or on Amazon’s four-and-five starred review list. There are multicultural characters and settings that will take you from Bakersfield to Vietnam. Genres include adventure, biography, thriller, romance, and nonfiction. Best of all, they are under $12 and two of them are available for e-reading devices.

“Every night is Ladies Night” by Michael Jaime Becerra: A humorous and poignant story collection by a writer who observes with great skill, leading him to portray ordinary scenes in the ongoing human drama. (Booklist)

“What you see in the Dark” by Matthew Munoz: In 1959, the Director (i.e., Alfred Hitchcock) arrives in Bakersfield, Calif., to film Psycho, along with the Actress (Janet Leigh). Providing counterpoint to the events surrounding the making of the iconic Hollywood film, including the search for a motel to serve as the exterior of the Bates Motel, is the story of locals Dan Watson and Teresa Garza, whose doomed love affair ends in murder. (Booklist)

“Miss Scarlet’s School of Patternless Sewing” by Kathy Cano-Murillo: The founder of popular www.craftychica.com pens her second Crafty Chica novel. Scarlet Santana has abandoned a promising engineering career to follow her passion for sewing. Cano-Murillo manages to extract much mirth from her cast of craftsters, each striving to transcend restrictive patterns in life and to defeat family expectations that are squelching self-expression. (Kirkus)

“The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot: A fascinating story of medicine and family. Henrietta Lacks died from an aggressive cancer at the age of 30 in 1951. A sample of her cancerous tissue, taken without her consent, turned out to provide one of the holy grails of mid-century biology. (Amazon)

“The Double Comfort Safari Club” by Alexander McCall Smith: The new installment in Smith’s bestselling series finds Mma Ramotswe traveling to the north of Botswana to visit a safari lodge, where there have been several unexplained and troubling events–including the demise of one of the guests. (Amazon)

“Madonna’s of Echo Park” by Brandon Skyhorse: Echo Park, the LA neighborhood down the hill from Chavez Ravine, is the setting for this novel-in-stories—a vivid portrayal of the lives of Mexican Americans who live and work there. Skyhorse weaves his characters—migrant farm workers, gardeners, dishwashers, bus drivers, house cleaners, gang members—in and out of his stories in various time frames. (Booklist)

“The Lotus Eaters” by Tatjana Soli. A unique debut novel that follows an American female combat photographer in the Vietnam War as she captures the wrenching chaos and finds herself torn between the love of two men. (Amazon)

There are tons of books out there for equal or less prices at swap.com, .99¢ Store, used book stores, the Goodwill, and for free (library). There is no excuse to relax and get your read on. So put your toes in the sand, your nose in a book, and don’t forget the sunblock.

— Mona AlvaradoFrazier is the writer of two manuscripts: working titles “A Mariposa Heart” and “Strong Women Grow Here.” To see more of her work, visit www.latinapen.blogspot.com