Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

by Junot Diaz

This is the long-awaited first novel from one of the most original and memorable writers working today. Things have never been easy for Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight, lovesick Dominican ghetto nerd. From his home in New Jersey, where he lives with his old-world mother and rebellious sister, Oscar dreams of becoming the Dominican J. R. R. Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But he may never... (more)

The House of Spirits

by Isabel Allende

Bestseller internacional y muy admirado clásico de la literatura latinoamericana, la trascendental novela de Isabel Allende cuenta la historia épica de la numerosa y turbulenta familia Trueba de Chile, con su patriarca angustiado y sus mujeres clarividentes, trazando sus vidas desde los fines del siglo pasado, hasta los días violentos del golpe que derrocó al gobierno de Salvador Allende en 1973. En La casa de... (more)

Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories (Vintage Contemporaries (Paperback))

Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories (Vintage Contemporaries (Paperback))

by Sandra Cisneros

A collection of stories, whose characters give voice to the vibrant and varied life on both sides of the Mexican border. The women in these stories offer tales of pure discovery, filled with moments of infinite and intimate wisdom.

Daughter of Fortune (Oprah's Book Club)

by Isabel Allende

A magnificent sweeping tale from the international bestselling author of 'The House of the Spirits'. Set in Anglophile Chile and goldrush California during the middle years of the nineteenth century, this magnificent romance tells the story of English foundling Eliza Sommers who grows up in the bustling entrepot of Valparaiso. Eliza is a spirited, sparky and ambitious romantic who becomes embroiled in a forbidden... (more)

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents (Essential Edition): (Plume Essential Edition)

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents (Essential Edition): (Plume Essential Edition)

by Julia Alvarez

Eagerly embracing their new American culture in Miami, the four Garcia women iron their hair, smoke cigarettes, date American men, forget their Spanish, and lose their accents all in their journey toward adulthood. Reprint. 25,000 first printing.

¡Yo! (Spanish Edition)

by Julia Alvarez

At last! A zesty, exuberant follow-up to the wildly popular How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, full of Julia Alvarez's keen observations and tender affection for her characters. The Garcia Girls are back, most notably Yolanda, or Yo, who has grown up to be a writer. In the process, she has managed to get kicked out of college, break more than a few hearts, have her own heart broken many times, return for... (more)

In the Name of Salome

by Julia Alvarez

"The story of my life starts with the story of my country... ." Thus begins Julia Alvarez's epic fictional account of the real-life Salomé Ureña-the "Emily Dickinson of the Dominican Republic." Born in the 1850s, in a time of intense political repression and turmoil, Salomé's fervent patriotic poems turned her-at seventeen-into a national icon. In the Name of Salomé is equally the story of Salomé's daughter,... (more)

Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo

by Hayden Herrera

Hailed by readers and critics across the country, this engrossing biography of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo reveals a woman of extreme magnetism and originality, an artist whose sensual vibrancy came straight from her own experiences: her childhood near Mexico City during the Mexican Revolution; a devastating accident at age eighteen that left her crippled and unable to bear children; her tempestuous marriage to... (more)

Aura

by Carlos Fuentes

Felipe Montero is employed in the house of an aged widow to edit her deceased husband's memoirs. There Felipe meets her beautiful green-eyed niece, Aura. His passion for Aura and his gradual discovery of the true relationship between the young woman and her aunt propel the story to its extraordinary conclusion.

Drown

by Junot Diaz

A critically acclaimed debut collection of ten cynical and sentimental stories captures the bleakness of life, first in the Dominican Republic and then in New Jersey suburbia, for immigrants of color. Reprint. NYT. "

Bon Voyage Mr President Penguin 60Gabriel García Márquez

Bon Voyage Mr President Penguin 60

by Gabriel García Márquez

SpiksPedro Juan Soto

Spiks

by Pedro Juan Soto

The Infinite PlanIsabelle, and Peden, Margaret Sayers (Translated by) Allende

The Infinite Plan

by Isabelle, and Peden, Margaret Sayers (Translated by) Allende

Of Love and Shadows

by Isabel Allende

Desarrollada en un país latinamericano sin nombre que vive bajo el dominio de una dictadura militar, la segunda, hipnotizante, novela de Allende cuenta la historia de una mujer y un hombre que están destinados, bajo las circunstancias más espeluzantes, a compartir un amor excepcional.Irene Beltrán es fruto de la clase alta, una bien intencionada, aunque algo ingenua, reportera en una revista para mujeres.... (more)

Portrait in Sepia: A Novel (P.S.)

by Isabel Allende

In nineteenth-century Chile, Aurora del Valle suffers a brutal trauma that erases all recollections of the first five years of her life. Raised by her regal and ambitious grandmother Paulina del Valle, Aurora grows up in a privileged environment but is tormented by horrible nightmares. When she is forced to recognize her betrayal at the hands of the man she loves, and to cope with the resulting solitude, she... (more)

Eva Luna

by Isabel Allende, Eva Allende

Niece of the assassinated Chilean president Salvador Allende, Isabel Allende has written a luminous literary novel that traces the life of an orphan from her impoverished beginnings to her rise to fame and fortune. HC: Knopf.

Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

by Pablo Neruda

The Nobel Prize–winning poet’s most popular work When it appeared in 1924, this work launched into the international spotlight a young and unknown poet whose writings would ignite a generation. W. S. Merwin’s incomparable translation faces the original Spanish text. Now in a black-spine Classics edition, this book stands as an essential collection that continues to inspire lovers and poets around the... (more)

Before We Were Free (Readers Circle)

by Julia Alvarez

Anita de la Torre never questioned her freedom living in the Dominican Republic. But by her 12th birthday in 1960, most of her relatives have emigrated to the United States, her Tío Toni has disappeared without a trace, and the government’s secret police terrorize her remaining family because of their suspected opposition of el Trujillo’s dictatorship. Using the strength and courage of her family, Anita must... (more)

Daughter of Fortune: A Novel

by Isabel Allende

An orphan raised in Valparaíso, Chile, by a Victorian spinster and her rigid brother, young, vivacious Eliza Sommers follows her lover to California during the Gold Rush of 1849 -- a danger-filled quest that will become a momentous journey of transformation. In this rough-and-tumble world of panhandlers and prostitutes, immigrants and aristocrats, Eliza will discover a new life of freedom, independence, and a love... (more)

Love in the Time of Cholera

by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

In their youth, Florentino Ariza and Fermino Daza fall passionately in love. When Fermina eventually chooses to marry a wealthy, well-born doctor, Florentino is devastated, but he is a romantic. As he rises in his business career he whiles away the years in 622 affairs--yet he reserves his heart for Fermina. Her husband dies at last, and Florentino purposefully attends the funeral. Fifty years, nine months,... (more)

Shelfari Book Activity

Tags: latin american lit

by Junot Diaz

by Isabel Allende

by Sandra Cisneros

by Isabel Allende

by Julia Alvarez

by Julia Alvarez

by Julia Alvarez

by Hayden Herrera

by Carlos Fuentes

by Junot Diaz

by Gabriel García Márquez

by Pedro Juan Soto

by Isabelle, and Peden, Margaret Sayers (Translated by) Allende

by Isabel Allende

by Isabel Allende

by Isabel Allende, Eva Allende

by Pablo Neruda

by Julia Alvarez

by Isabel Allende

by Gabriel Garcia Marquez