Summer is always a great time to get reading. Whether you’re at home or by the pool, a book makes the perfect companion. If you’re looking for something new to read, then consider adding one of the following books to your summer reading list. Most of the books on this list have also been either banned or challenged which should be an incentive to read them for the book rebels among us.
1. "When I Was Puerto Rican"
This is the first book in a trilogy of autobiographies detailing the life of Esmeralda Santiago. The story details her life from childhood growing up as the oldest of seven in Macun, Puerto Rico, and follows her through adolescence as her family moves to the United States and she is forced to adapt to a new country and culture. This is a beautifully written and very interesting book that is relatable to anyone who’s ever faced a big change.
2. "Strange Pilgrims: Twelve Stories"
No list about Latino authors would be complete without including Colombian author and Nobel prize winner, Gabriel Garcia Marquez. While Marquez’s most famous book is "One Hundred Years of Solitude" (which yes, it’s included in this list), I think that "Strange Pilgrims" is better to start familiarizing yourself with his work. In a series of 12 short stories, Marquez deals with subjects such as love, death, innocence and strangeness. All the while infusing each of the stories with a healthy dose of magical realism. The fifth story, “I Only Came to Use the Phone” is truly terrifying.
3. "How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents"
This book by Julia Alvarez is told in reverse chronological order and follows the lives of the Garcia family focusing on the four daughters. The book starts as the sisters are adults living in the United States and goes back in time to when their childhood when the family was forced to flee the Dominican Republic to escape dictator Trujillo. Through the sister's’ perspective we are able to see how they assimilate to American culture while still feeling a connection to the country they left behind.
4. "The House on Mango Street"
This book by Sandra Cisneros is one of my all-time favorite books and probably the only book I can reread without growing tired of it. It follows a young girl named Esperanza as her family moves into a new house in the titular “Mango street.” In first person, Esperanza describes her life and the daily happenings of the neighborhood. I’ve read this book many times and every time I do, I feel like I discover something new that I missed in all the other prior reading. The format with short, poem-like stories makes this book seem like an easy quick read but within Cisneros' unconventional formatting and use of rhyme, there is a deep coming-of-age story that deals of issues that constantly surround us.
5. "Like Water for Chocolate"
At its core, this is a romance novel. Author Laura Esquivel weaves a tale of fate and forbidden love. For those not into romance novels, this is also a story about tradition, familial obligations, food and magic. The recurring themes of food and magic are interconnected with food being almost magical and each chapter begins with a different recipe that plays an important part to the story. This book will constantly make you ask, “What just happened?” but trust me, you’ll want to read till the end.
6. "The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao"
This book by Junot Diaz was only published in 2007, making it the most modern in this list, but it is still as powerful as the others and it actually won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2008. It’s not only a fantastic story filled with comedy, tragedy and sci-fi/fantasy reference, but it just feels right. Diaz doesn’t shy away from using slang, profanity and Spanglish which makes reading the book feel like speaking to a friend. Albeit, a very poetic and eloquent friend.
7. "One Hundred Years of Solitude"
The most famous book in this list, this book is also by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and actually won him the Nobel Prize for literature in 1982. This book follows many generations of the Buendia family in the fictional land of Macondo. Marquez builds a magical world inside of our own with characters that are as complex as they are infuriating. If you are going to read this book, then I recommend you look up the Buendia family tree ahead of time because it can get confusing.
