Wednesday, August 25, 2004

Latina gains literary attention

Delightful news from CLTV today: Julia Alvarez's book "In the Time of the Butterflies" was chosen as the next "One Book" in Chicago. "One Book One Chicago" is the city's way of encouraging its residents to read, so a book is selected to be read by the entire city. Book discussions and special events are held thru out the city. Other books featured included "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "Night". Click on the title above to see further info on the special events in October 2004.

Comical news from CLTV: Police have video that shows it was Dave Matthews band's tour bus which dumped septic waste on a tourist boat in the Chicago River early August.

5 comments:

john_m_burt said...

I don't know what label Dave Matthews is signed to, but they should have signed with a label that's owned by Monsanto or DuPont, or one of the other great polluters of the world -- then the administration would have seen to it that they got a free pass on any pollution fines.

Diana said...

We must go to the Julia Alvarez events. If you haven't read the book it's fabulous! Anyway, I just found out about the drama about the tourist boat getting pooped on by the Dave Matthews band. Only in chicago I guess. Yeah, Lisa Madigan, States Attorney was all riled up about it on tv this morning. On some other Chicago news did you see Daley with his Sox cap on? Go White SOX!! The front page of the Sun-Times reports him telling them to "Get a team!" He's got my vote next election.

Anonymous said...

I am excited that Julia Alvarez's book was picked and I plan on participating in the one book, one city event by rereading it. It is one of my favorite books and I enjoyed reading it, but--yes, I must play devil's advocate--I want to know why a book by two other excellent Latina writers who happen to be from Chicago and write about it were not chosen. Perhaps I am being unfair and even biased...

dr.v (Not a narcotic Pez dispenser) said...

I also wondered why Castillo or Cisneros weren't selected. You can nominate books via the Chicago Public Library website. I'm also excited about the various events that will happen in October. I hope I can go to one of them if not ALL of them.

AnalisaGuzman said...

I love Julia Alvarez. And the book is FAB! It would have been interesting if they had chosen So Far From God, which I think is Castillo's best novel so far (but with the war theme, maybe a little too close of a critique of the larger political issues we are going through right now?). And Cisneros, well, I don't know why not. But think of In The Time of the Butterflies, isn't that an interesting choice considering it is about martyred women who defy a horrible dictator? IRAK ANYONE?