Color Me Brown Links

It's has been too long since I've read women's literature, a genre that dominated my reading before I began running my group for girls. Some readers have commented that we focus on YA. Well, I need to address that. I love YA but I'm grown woman who enjoys women's stories as well. We do cover adult literature here and I will work on creating greater balance.

With that said, today's Color Me Brown Links focus on strong women in adult situations. I haven't read Bless Me Ultima but it is included as a closing to our month long celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month. Hope you find a good read here.

You might recall Bless Me Ultima by Rudolpho Anaya is one of our recommended titles for Hispanic Heritage Month. We can thank the voracious reader, Eva for a great review at A Striped Armchair.
I knew that it was a coming-of-age story set in New Mexico during the 40s. I vaguely imagined some kind of The Outsiders only with Hispanic teens. But I was so wrong! Antonio, the protagonist, is only 6 when the story begins (and 7 when it ends). And the book is about religion and belief; it’s Antonio’s religious coming-of-age tale. Ultima is a wisewoman, or curandera, who comes to live with his family in her old age.

Lotus Reads reads some amazing works. Most times the novels are set in places I've never been and her reviews are as brilliant as the stories written. Here's a collection of reviews starting with a Woman at Point Zero.Firdaus was born into a peasant home in Egypt. From a young age she realized that being born a girl was a curse. Women were just property that men owned....chattel. Even their bodies didn't belong to them, but to the men that "kept" them. She was only a little girl when her Uncle's hands would steal to her thighs as she worked on kneading dough for the family meal, and then, when she was not much older she was given in marriage to a grotesquely-ugly man in his '60's who used her for his pleasure...

If you enjoy the more heady, academic reviews do check out Asian American Literature Fans. I don't spend enough time there. If you're nerdy and enjoyed lectures, go here. Stephen Hongsohn reviews The Weight of Heaven by Thrity Umrigar.
Thrity Umrigar’s The Weight of Heaven is perhaps one of my favorite novels I have read in the past couple of years. It’s a hefty book as the title suggests, especially as is routed through the ethics of globalization. What makes this book a success is the absolute conviction with which we believe the bereavement of the main characters, Frank and Ellie Benton, who lose their son, Benny, to a tragic bout with meningitis.

Have you read or written a review that you think we should feature for CMB? Send me a link. Happy reading.