¡Adelante! Books of the Month 2011-12
AAUW thanks the members, branches, and states who submitted books the 2011–12 ¡Adelante! Book Club.
September
National Hispanic Heritage Month
The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction
By Linda Gordon
In 1904, New York nuns brought 40 Irish orphans to a remote Arizona mining camp to be placed with Catholic families. The Catholic families were Mexican, as was the majority of the population. Soon the town's Anglos, furious at this "interracial" transgression, formed a vigilante squad that kidnapped the children. The Roman Catholic Church sued to get its wards back, but all the courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, ruled in favor of the vigilantes. The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction tells a disturbing and dramatic tale that illuminates the creation of racial boundaries along the Mexican border.
Book review on AAUW Dialog blog.
Submitted by Pauleta Terven, AAUW Colorado Springs (CO) Branch
October
National Disability Employment Awareness Month
Handle with Care
By Jodi Picoult
Every expectant parent will say they don't want a perfect child, just a healthy one. So when Charlotte and Sean O'Keefe's daughter is born with a heartbreaking disability, their lives are overwhelmed by what-ifs. What if their child had been born healthy? What if she had never been born at all?
Submitted by Jayne Kasten, AAUW Ballwin-Chesterfield (MO) Branch
November
Native American Heritage Month
Set Me Free
By Miranda Beverly-Whittemore
Elliot Barrow is a man of ideals. The founder of Ponderosa Academy, a school for Native Americans, he is a paragon of virtue. But when he is critically injured in a horrific fire, his family, colleagues, and friends begin to unravel the devastating catastrophe at the heart of his life.
Submitted by Taylor Blackwell, AAUW Membership Intern
December
The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: My Family's Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World
By Lucette Lagnado
This book recreates the majesty and glamour of Cairo in the years between World War II and Gamal Abdel Nasser's rise to power. Lucette Lagnado's father, Leon, was a boulevardier who conducted business on the elegant terrace of Shepheard's Hotel and later in the cozy, dark bar of the Nile Hilton, dressed in his signature white sharkskin suit. But with the fall of King Farouk and Nasser's nationalization of Egyptian industry, Leon and his family lose everything.
Submitted by Nancy Ferer, AAUW Northwest Bergen (NJ) Branch
January
Secret Daughter
By Shilpi Somaya Gowda
On the eve of the monsoons in a remote Indian village, Kavita gives birth to a baby girl. In a culture that favors sons, the only way for Kavita to save her daughter's life is to give her away. Halfway around the globe, Somer, an American doctor, decides to adopt the child after learning that she will never have one of her own.
Submitted by Nann Blaine Hilyard, AAUW Waukegan Area (IL) Branch
February
Black History Month
Mirror of Our Lives: Voices of Four Igbo Women
By Joy Nwosu Lo-Bamijoko
In Mirror of Our Lives, four Nigerian women share the compelling tales of their troubled lives and failed marriages, revealing how each managed to not only survive but triumph under difficult and repressive circumstances. Njide, Nneka, Miss Nelly, and Oby relive their stories of passion, deceit, heartache, and strength as they push through life — each on a unique journey to attain happiness, self-respect, and inner peace.
Submitted by Dogwin Sadoh, AAUW Summit College Club (NJ) Branch
March
Women's History Month
My Sisters Made of Light
By Jacqueline St. Joan
This novel follows three generations of a Pakistani family as they make their way through life in the political, social, and religious maze that is their motherland. My Sisters Made of Light pulls readers into the often terrifying world of honor crimes against women in Pakistan through the life and family history of a woman named Ujala.
Submitted by Connie Paeglow, AAUW Denver (CO) Branch and Stormy McDonald, AAUW Lakewood (CO) Branch
April
Breaking Night: A Memoir
By Liz Murray
When Liz Murray's mother died of AIDS, she took control of her own destiny and went back to high school, often completing her assignments in the hallways and subway stations where she slept. While homeless, Murray squeezed four years of high school into two, won a New York Times scholarship, and made it into an Ivy League school. This is an unforgettable and beautifully written story of one young woman's indomitable spirit to survive and prevail, against all odds.
Submitted by Nancy Ferer, AAUW Northwest Bergen (NJ) Branch
May
Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month
Leaving Mother Lake: A Girlhood at the Edge of the World
By Yang Erche Namu and Christine Mathieu
In the remote Himalayas, there is a place the Chinese call "the Country of Daughters." This is the home of the Moso, a culture in which women govern all aspects of society. Leaving Mother Lake is the extraordinary story of Yang Erche Namu, whose impulsive, restless nature drives her to leave home, defying the tradition that holds Moso culture together. Her adventure out into the world teaches her to better appreciate the one she leaves behind.
Submitted by Janet Beach, AAUW Capital (NV) Branch
June
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month
Waking Up Gray
By R. E. Bradshaw
Lizbeth Jackson finds her first gray hair on the morning of her trip to Ocracoke Island, off the coast of North Carolina. She was about to begin a three-month sabbatical there in order to finish her master's thesis in linguistic anthropology on the Carolina Brogue, but what she ends up studying is her lesbian neighbor and the uncontrollable pull Jackson feels toward her.
Submitted by Taylor Blackwell, AAUW Membership Intern
July
One Hundred Names for Love: A Stroke, a Marriage, and the Language of Healing
By Diane Ackerman
One day, Diane Ackerman's husband, Paul West, an exceptionally gifted wordsmith and intellectual, suffered a terrible stroke. When he regained awareness, he was afflicted with aphasia — loss of language — and could utter only a single syllable: "mem." The standard therapies yielded little progress. Ackerman soon found, however, that by harnessing their deep knowledge of each other and her scientific understanding of language and the brain, she could guide West back to the world of words.
Submitted by Vesta Hornbeck, AAUW Keene (NH) Branch
August
These Is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881–1901
By Nancy Turner
A moving, exciting, and heartfelt American saga inspired by the author's own family memoirs, these words belong to Sarah Prine, a woman of spirit and fire who forges a full and remarkable existence in a harsh, unfamiliar frontier. Scrupulously recording her steps down the path providence has set her upon, she shares the turbulent events that molded her and tells of her enduring love for cavalry officer Capt. Jack Elliot, which gave her strength and purpose.
Submitted by Cara Koch, AAUW Colorado Springs (CO) Branch