New!
For All Spanish speakers, read the interview on Emilio Ichikawa’s page:
http://eichikawa.com/2010/01/erwin-perez-entrevista-a-leila-cobo-autora-de-%E2%80%9Ctell-me-something-true%E2%80%9D.html
Tell me something true
Chosen as one of the top books of the year!
SLHW’s List of Top 10 Hispanic Books of 2009
(http://pacpr.blogspot.com/2009/12/slhws-list-of-top-10-hispanic-books-of.html)
Top Latino Authors, 10 to Watch
http://latinostories.com/Top_Ten_Lists/top_10_authors.htm
The Society of Latino and Hispanic Writers of San Antonio has issued its Top 10 List of the Best Hispanic Books of 2009:
- 1. Confetti Girl by Diana Lopez
- 2. GI Bones by Martin Limon
- 3. Dancing with Butterflies by Reyna Grand
- 4. The Invisible Mountain by Carolina De Robertis
- 5. B as in Beauty by Alberto Ferreras
6. Amigoland by Oscar Casares
7. Damas, Drama and Ana Ruiz by Belinda Acosta
8. Last Night I Sang to the Monster by Bejamin Alire Saenz - 9. Diego: Bigger Than Life by Carmen T. Bernier-Grand
- 10. Tell me Something True by Leila Cobo
With regards to Latino Authors who have released their debut books, here are some of the best ones that have come across my desk:
1. Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa “Daughters of the Stone”
2. Belinda Acosta, Damas, Drama and Ana Ruiz
3. Julia Amante, Evenings at the Argentine Club
4. Leila Cobo, Tell Me Something True
5. The Invisible Mountain, Carolina De Robertis
Tell Me Something True By Leila Cobo
Author: JMom | Category: Books, Fictio
Title: Tell Me Something True
Author: Leila Cobo
Publish Date: 10/1/2009
ISBN: 9780446519366
Pages: 320
Tell Me Something True was one of the many that I read during my short hiatus. It was part of the Hispanic Heritage Month giveaway package here a couple of months ago if you remember. I read through this book in a couple of hours because, again, I couldn’t put it down. I just love books that can capture your attention this way and hold it.
Gabriella is a child of two worlds. She lives with her American father in Beverly Hills, the land of movie stars, wealth, plastic surgeries and acne treatments, but once a year she visit her grandmother in Columbia, a tradition that started soon after her mother’s untimely death in a plane crash when she was just a little girl. It is during one of these visits that several things happened to change her life. The main thing is, she comes across a diary written by her dead mother. Reading her mother’s words, she not only learns more about her but she also learns a secret that changes the way she looks at her life and her relationship with her family. Learning that her mother had an affair during one of her trips home to Colombia unsettled her and made her feel a bit rebellious. She felt betrayed that the image she had of her mother was all wrong. That maybe the picture she had held in her mind is not the truth. Maybe that was one reason she was drawn to Angel, the son of a convicted drug dealer, who she met at a party in Cali. Maybe with Angel she felt she was getting a taste of what her mother must have felt.
This story is beautifully written. Every detail, every event flowed perfectly in a way that you just didn’t want to put it down. You want to keep turning the page to see what happens next. By the end of the book, you are so deeply entrenched that you don’t want it to end. I certainly didn’t. I wanted the story to continue. I wanted to see what happened next to all the characters involved. I was left literally wanting more.
http://jmomfinds.amoores.com/2009/12/tell-me-something-true-by-leila-cobo/
INGRAM MAGAZINE’S “NEW VOICES” PICK FOR OCTOBER
“This first novel, one of the best that I have read all year, throws question after question at the reader and tosses us all back to our first loves and the choices we may or may not have made. Gabriella loses herself and finds herself in this entangled story. And we do the same.” -ReviewBroads
Tell Me Something True, while a debut novel, should be successful because it is raw, passionate, honest and fearless. -Examiner.com
“Definitely a book worth reading. This is a great novel about coming to terms with your past and understand what effect it has, and doesn’t have, on your future.” –Krishna’s Books
“A plot that leaves the reader asking for the follow-up.” -Semana
“This heartwrenching story focuses on how memories permeate the everyday relationships between mothers and daughters.” -RT (4/5 stars)
“A poignant tale of truths hidden and laid bare.” –Booklist
“A sweet debut novel […] the smooth prose and authentic Colombian setting provide a unique spin to familiar territory.” Publisher’s Weekly
“A good story, delicately told with pathos and compassion.”
-Bookloons.com
There is a picture of my mother. She’s kneeling in front of a bed of roses in the garden of our Los Angeles home, one hand holding down a huge straw hat against an obvious gust of wind, the other clutching weeds and roots she’s just dug up from the moist soil. Her long, curly hair is blowing around her face and she’s smiling and she looks beautiful and impossibly happy.
I had that picture in my bedroom, and it was my favorite for many years, before I learned that my mother hated gardening. That every plant she ever touched, died. That the beautiful day in that beautiful garden was a fluke. That at the time that picture was taken, she was probably already thinking of another life, another place, far from me, far from us.
A Fulbright scholar from Cali, Colombia, Leila Cobo is Executive Editor for Latin Content and Programming for Billboard. Under her tenure, Billboard has expanded its coverage of Latin Music and for the first time in its more than 100-year history, the magazine has a complete weekly section dedicated solely to Latin music. Ms. Cobo is also in charge of coordinating the yearly Billboard Latin Music Conference, the largest gathering of the Latin music industry in the U.S. (and probably the world). more…
