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The latest Tiger’s Choice, Naming Maya, by Uma Krishnaswami, is a response to the Books at Bedtime Reading Challenge that was extended to all readers of PaperTigers. Thanks to Marjorie for giving us all a chance to read our way through different countries and cultures–this challenge opens up a whole new reading adventure for those of us who choose to take it.

As Naming Maya unfolds, many of its readers are presented with a new country, new codes of behavior, new flavors, smells, and daily landscapes. The taste of “honey and chili powder” mingled on the tongue, milk delivered by bringing a cow to a doorstep and milking it in view of the person who is soon to drink it, listening to the call of a brain-fever bird, seeing a tree that is adorned with flowers, coins, and a statue of ” the plump, cheery elephant-headed god, Ganesha,” these things are all vividly described and give a glimpse of Chennai, India.

Or it does for me. How about you? As you read, do you see Maya’s new world, and experience her confusion? Do the differing values of her mother’s home country that frustrate this New Jersey girl become clear as the book progresses? And is memory a gift or a curse?

As the Tiger’s Bookshelf progresses on its own adventure of searching for readers who will take part in our online book group, the question persists of how do non-virtual, more conventional book groups solve the dilemma of having members take voice in their group discussions? If you belong to a book group that has found solutions to the silence, please let us know! How do you entice the shyest, least confident members to voice their opinions and express their thoughts?

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Manuel Ramos

COLORADO
There are at least six Latina/o novelists who are Colorado based. Here are very brief summaries about five of them, in no particular order.



Abelardo Lalo Delgado
Lalo Delgado is best known, of course, as a premier Chicano poet (he passed away in 2004). Stupid America, a brilliant and succinct exposure of racism and its painful legacy, is a masterpiece of literary accomplishment, Chicano or otherwise. His one novel, Letters to Louise, is not as well-known but it does have a solid reputation and I think it deserves a broader audience. The book was published by Tonatiuh-Quinto Sol International in 1982, and copies can still be found in unique book stores and online. One of the gems of my sprawling library is a copy of this book in excellent condition with a very personal and friendly author's autograph. I noted in an earlier review that the novel "tells the story of a man struggling with the contradiction of a good person involved in a moral dilemma, an ordinary person making complex choices in order to live the life he thinks he should."

Alan Cheuse, in the New York Times, said: "The narrator of Delgado's novel is a middle-aged Chicano poet/social worker/administrator named Santiago Flores. His job as an expert on the problems of migrant workers takes him across the Southwest, and his search for himself carries him back into the world of his childhood. In the warm, slightly wacky letters that he writes to an unknown correspondent --possibly you? possibly me? -- there's a touch of Whitman and also a swatch of Cantinflas, and finally a great and appealing personality, a new and attractive voice. By peering over Abelardo's shoulder you may catch a glimpse of yourself in his highly polished Chicano mirror."

Gene Guerin
Gene Guerin's debut novel, Cottonwood Saints (University of New Mexico Press, 2005), won the Premio Aztlán and the Mountains and Plains Regional Book Award for Adult Fiction. I reviewed this book for La Bloga, where I noted that the "author says in the book's Acknowledgments that Cottonwood Saints is a work of fiction but it is based on forty handwritten pages of reminiscences by his mother, Margaret Ortega Guerin. Without her memories there would be no book."

I also said: "At its heart this book is about the essential strength and dignity of hard-working, unpretentious people. In that way this book compares favorably, in tone, depth and sweep, to Luis J. Rodriguez's family saga of steelworkers in Twentieth Century Los Angeles, Music of the Mill (Rayo, 2005). The New Mexican rural poor of Cottonwood Saints overcome hardship and tragedy; raise families and provide for their children against all obstacles, natural and man made; they love, hate and disappoint; they overcome or succumb, yet they manage to leave something to pass on, something to cherish, in the same ways as Rodriguez's urban working class characters also survived and endured. They lived stories that cried out to be told."



Mario Acevedo
Mario Acevedo has staked out the Chicano-private eye-war vet-vampire turf and made it his special place. His first two books of a projected three book series have entertained and amused readers across the country. La Bloga has featured Acevedo several times -- interviews, reviews, and he did a guest post for us, too -- and at this point we eagerly wait for his next piece in the series. The first, Nymphos of Rocky Flats (Rayo, 2006), garnered this praise from La Bloga's Daniel Olivas:
"Acevedo gleefully debunks vampire lore and creates new rules of the game with a bit of romance thrown in for good measure. In the end, The Nymphos of Rocky Flats delivers fast paced fun topped off with wry humor and dead-on social commentary. One wonders who will play Felix Gomez in the screen adaptation."

His second, X-Rated Bloodsuckers (Rayo, 2007), also received rave reviews, including this from La Bloga's Michael Sedano:
"X-Rated Bloodsuckers will make an excellent, if perhaps ironic, gift for Easter. Harper Collins’ Rayo imprint has the novel scheduled for a March 2007 release. Outright hilarity in places, downright revulsion in others, e.g. rat chorizo and coffee mixed with Type B, and an involving yarn make it a standout. Hopefully, a recipient won’t be superstitious, but at any rate, the engaging character of Felix Gomez will win you as many friends as you give copies to."

The third Felix Gomez book, The Undead Kama Sutra, is set for a March, 2008 release.



Lynda Sandoval
Lynda Sandoval is a former police officer-turned fiction writer with fourteen book sales to her credit.

Sandoval writes women's fiction for HarperCollins Rayo; romance for Silhouette Special Edition; romantic suspense for Silhouette Intimate Moments; and young adult novels for Simon & Schuster.

Her books have won awards such as the 2000 Rising Star, the 2002 Golden Quill, and the 2002 Beacon—all sponsored by regional chapters of Romance Writers of America. She was also a finalist in the 2002 Booksellers Best, and a two-time Romance Writers of America Golden Heart finalist prior to selling.

Her novels include Chicks Ahoy (Simon & Schuster, 2006); Unsettling (Rayo, 2004); and And Then There Were Three (Harlequin, 2003). She also wrote True Blue: An Insider's Guide to Street Cops for Writers (Gryphon, 1999).



Aaron A. Abeyta
A few weeks ago I interviewed Aaron A. Abeyta and offered some comments about his debut novel, Rise, Do Not Be Afraid (Ghost Road Press, 2007). Abeyta's interview is worth looking at if you haven't read it yet. For example, here is his take on being a storyteller:

"I learned early on, mostly from my abuelo, that a story is a living thing. I don’t ever remember hearing a story that began at A and ended at Z. I didn’t grow up with typical plot structures as a model. My mom didn’t read Mother Goose to me, or anything of the sort. I tell people that and they look at me like I was abused, as if to say that my parents not reading to me was some sort of 20th century crime. I never felt deprived, however. Everyone around me told great stories, and those were my bedtime stories. For example, my abuelito would tell a story and then a few weeks later I would hear the same story from the sheepherder and they were remarkably different, yet essentially the same. The teller of the story was always the heart, the information the blood and the listener the soul. I try and remain true to this model, not only in the novel but in all my writing. I guess my people were born of circles because that’s the way we still communicate."

Abeyta teaches English at Adams State College in Alamosa. He also has published two poetry collections, As Orion Falls (Ghost Road Press, 2005), and Colcha (University Press of Colorado, 2000). Colcha won an American Book Award and the Colorado Book Award.

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