An affecting set of poems about family, resilience, and moving forward.
A bilingual collaboration between several Mexican and Mexican American authors.
Ruiz describes this collection as a “poetry pulley” that “reel[s] in the poems made by rural poets with their friends, neighbors, co-workers and family,” including several Mexican immigrants and his own brother, who works for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The poems are presented in both English and Spanish, with shared bylines between Ruiz and his collaborators and some of Ruiz’s solo work mixed in. Many of the 13 contributors—most of whom are identified by their first names only—work agricultural jobs; some lack documents, and a few survived human trafficking. The book’s various sections address the stress of migration, the anxiety of deportation, and the difficult reality of pursuing the American dream. One of the uses of poetry is to provide catharsis that journalism and even memoir can’t facilitate. Centavo, one poet, recounts selling cannabis as a child with a local gang to help his parents: “They would come and get me— / my backpack full and / it wasn’t just weed any more. I moved other shit: / Ten thousand pesos for one trip.” In another poem, David Ruiz (the author’s brother) grapples with his role as an ICE officer: “Imagine that you’re established here. You got / your kids to pick up from school. / You own two cars and / you got a job— / and I’m supposed to pick you up and send you back.” The starkness of the language makes the speakers’ surveys of past wounds feel even more acute. Some longer works braid several perspectives together, such as one that puts David Ruiz and multiple other contributors in conversation as two sides of an interaction at the Mexico–United States border. Ruiz’s solo works provide a sort of bridge, offering accounts of an experience between two worlds. The power in all these poems is not in their desire to convince, to cause guilt, or to inspire but in plainly laying out the many costs that one pays to live in America.
An affecting set of poems about family, resilience, and moving forward.Pub Date: May 3, 2022
ISBN: 9798985263220
Page Count: 212
Publisher: Pulley Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 31, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.
A love story about a life of second chances.
In Nassau, in the Bahamas, casino detective Vincent LaPorta grills Alfie Logan, who’d come up a winner three times in a row at the roulette table and walked away with $2 million. “How did you do it?” asks the detective. Alfie calmly denies cheating. You wired all the money to a Gianna Rule, LaPorta says. Why? To explain, Alfie produces a composition book with the words “For the Boss, to Be Read Upon My Death” written on the cover. Read this for answers, Alfie suggests, calling it a love story. His mother had passed along to him a strange trait: He can say “Twice!” and go back to a specific time and place to have a do-over. But it only works once for any particular moment, and then he must live with the new consequences. He can only do this for himself and can’t prevent anyone from dying. Alfie regularly uses his power—failing to impress a girl the first time, he finds out more about her, goes back in time, and presto! She likes him. The premise is of course not credible—LaPorta doesn’t buy it either—but it’s intriguing. Most people would probably love to go back and unsay something. The story’s focus is on Alfie’s love for Gianna and whether it’s requited, unrequited, or both. In any case, he’s obsessed with her. He’s a good man, though, an intelligent person with ordinary human failings and a solid moral compass. Albom writes in a warm, easy style that transports the reader to a world of second chances and what-ifs, where spirituality lies close to the surface but never intrudes on the story. Though a cynic will call it sappy, anyone who is sick to their core from the daily news will enjoy this escape from reality.
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780062406682
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.
After being released from prison, a young woman tries to reconnect with her 5-year-old daughter despite having killed the girl’s father.
Kenna didn’t even know she was pregnant until after she was sent to prison for murdering her boyfriend, Scotty. When her baby girl, Diem, was born, she was forced to give custody to Scotty’s parents. Now that she’s been released, Kenna is intent on getting to know her daughter, but Scotty’s parents won’t give her a chance to tell them what really happened the night their son died. Instead, they file a restraining order preventing Kenna from so much as introducing herself to Diem. Handsome, self-assured Ledger, who was Scotty’s best friend, is another key adult in Diem’s life. He’s helping her grandparents raise her, and he too blames Kenna for Scotty’s death. Even so, there’s something about her that haunts him. Kenna feels the pull, too, and seems to be seeking Ledger out despite his judgmental behavior. As Ledger gets to know Kenna and acknowledges his attraction to her, he begins to wonder if maybe he and Scotty’s parents have judged her unfairly. Even so, Ledger is afraid that if he surrenders to his feelings, Scotty’s parents will kick him out of Diem’s life. As Kenna and Ledger continue to mourn for Scotty, they also grieve the future they cannot have with each other. Told alternatively from Kenna’s and Ledger’s perspectives, the story explores the myriad ways in which snap judgments based on partial information can derail people’s lives. Built on a foundation of death and grief, this story has an undercurrent of sadness. As usual, however, the author has created compelling characters who are magnetic and sympathetic enough to pull readers in. In addition to grief, the novel also deftly explores complex issues such as guilt, self-doubt, redemption, and forgiveness.
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5420-2560-7
Page Count: 335
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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