Book picks similar to
The Concrete River: Poems by Luis J. Rodríguez


poetry
examen-de-maestría
20thcentury
have-but-not-read

Trinity Fields


Bradford Morrow - 1995
    Kip and Brice were best friends, born on the same day in 1944 in Los Alamos, New Mexico, the most secret place on earth. Sons of men who engineered the atom bomb, they play macabre games as children, tempting the fate that looms over their closed community. As they come of age in the mid-60s, Brice is drawn into antiwar activism, while Kip disappears into Vietnam and ultimately into the secret war in Laos-leaving Brice to marry Jessica, the woman they both love. Twenty-five years later, Kip returns, a ghost soldier come, perhaps, to reclaim what was lost. "Brilliant . . . dramatically real and poignantly felt . . . a remarkable feat." (Chicago Tribune) "Morrow's assiduous probing of the intricacies of moral choice hits us where we live-or ought to live." (The New York Times Book Review) "Astonishing in its breadth and vision-an intimate record of a dangerous age." (The Boston Globe)

The Silver Lotus


Thomas Steinbeck - 2011
    His trading empire faces pirates, violent storms, and illness as it forges new paths across the Pacific Ocean, opening new markets in Hawaii, Mexico, and China. It is there he meets the beautiful Lady Yee, the Silver Lotus, prized daughter of a wealthy Cantonese merchant family. A great love is born, and their adventures will shape their lives—their love will transcend borders, oceans, cultures, and their marriage will eventually serve as a foundation for the growth and development of the Northern California coast.Steeped in the rich culture of the Orient and set against the burgeoning trading routes of the Pacific Rim, The Silver Lotus presents Steinbeck’s most moving and textured narrative to date. Readers of both Lisa See and Patrick O’Brien will be drawn to this rich historical tapestry that examines how industry, adventure, and love served as the building blocks of the thriving California waterfront.

Petit à Petit


Ambica Uppal - 2020
    It assures you that tomorrow will be a better day and encourages you to realise your potential and achieve your aspirations. Petit à Petit is centred on themes like self-love, self-confidence and taking life into your own hands.No matter how far-away and impossible your dreams seem, don't be afraid to reach for them.

The Three O'Clock in the Morning Sessions


Angie Martin - 2014
    This book also contains two short stories, "the door" and "brief love". All of the works deal with lost love or almost loves.

Just Evil


Vickie McKeehan - 2011
    No one cared. But a stranger, bent on revenge, is out to change all that. Kit Griffin has finally overcome a painful childhood at the hands of her mother, former actress Alana Stevens. No longer living in the grasp of the cold, tyrannical woman, Kit has found a new life tucked away in little San Madrid, California, running a business she loves, surrounded by friends she considers family. For the first time her life is on track. That is, until Alana is found brutally murdered on Mother’s Day, pulling Kit back in to the dark horrors of her past. To make matters worse, the police consider her the prime suspect.Jake Boston, an old family friend and the man Kit has loved since she was a teen, is fighting his own demons as a suspect in his wife’s murder two years earlier. Despite his past, he’s determined to win Kit over once and for all. But before that can happen they need to convince the police there’s a killer working his way down a list with cold-hearted vengeance in mind. Forced to delve into Alana’s dark past, it becomes clear someone is out to settle a score. When Jake and Kit uncover a forty year old double murder that leads them straight to the door of a legal dynasty, they soon find out just how far the heirs will go to keep the past buried and eliminate all the loose ends to protect their empire. Will Jake and Kit become the next victims or will they find an unexpected guardian angel?

this is how you know i want you.


AVA. - 2015
    the book is meant to be read straight through and takes you into the rabbit hole of falling in love.

Answering Back: Living Poets Reply to the Poetry of the Past


Carol Ann Duffy - 2007
    With up-and-coming poets alongside more established names, and original poems alongside the new works they've inspired, Answering Back promises to be a truly unique and insightful anthology.

sticky notes


Indy Yelich - 2018
    She currently lives independently as a 19 year old in New York City. This debut collection chronicles her experiences with love, travel, and self-discovery in a shifting physical and emotional geography.

Jackstraws


Charles Simic - 1999
    Suffused with hope yet unafraid to mock his own credulity, Simic's searing metaphors unite the solemn with the absurd. His raindrops listen to each other fall and collect memories; his wildflowers are drunk with kissing the red-hot breezes; and his God is a Mr. Know-it-all, a wheeler-dealer, a wire-puller. In this latest lyrical gathering, Simic continues to startle his fans with the powerful and surprising images that are his trademark-slangy images of the ethereal, fantastic visions of the everyday, foreign scenes of the all-American-and moments full of humor and full of heartache.

The Ego Machine


Henry Kuttner - 1952
    . . ?Nicholas Martin looked up at the robot across the desk."I'm not going to ask what you want," he said, in a low, restrained voice. "I already know. Just go away and tell St. Cyr I approve. Tell him I think it's wonderful, putting a robot in the picture. We've had everything else by now, except the Rockettes. But clearly a quiet little play about Christmas among the Portuguese fishermen on the Florida coast "must" have a robot. Only, why not six robots? Tell him I suggest a baker's dozen. Go away."

Mean


Myriam Gurba - 2017
    Blending radical formal fluidity and caustic humor, Mean turns what might be tragic into piercing, revealing comedy. This is a confident, funny, brassy book that takes the cost of sexual assault, racism, misogyny, and homophobia deadly seriously.We act mean to defend ourselves from boredom and from those who would cut off our breasts. We act mean to defend our clubs and institutions. We act mean because we like to laugh. Being mean to boys is fun and a second-wave feminist duty. Being mean to men who deserve it is a holy mission. Sisterhood is powerful, but being mean is more exhilarating.Being mean isn't for everybody.Being mean is best practiced by those who understand it as an art form.These virtuosos live closer to the divine than the rest of humanity. They're queers.Myriam Gurba is a queer spoken-word performer, visual artist, and writer from Santa Maria, California. She's the author of Dahlia Season (2007, Manic D) which was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award, Wish You Were Me (2011, Future Tense Books), and Painting Their Portraits in Winter (2015, Manic D). She has toured with Sister Spit and her work has been exhibited at the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach. She lives in Long Beach, where she teaches social studies to eighth-graders.

What I've Stolen, What I've Earned


Sherman Alexie - 2013
    Native American Studies. "One of the major lyric voices of our time" (NY Times Book Review), winner of the National Book Award, Alexie publishes his first new collection of poetry and short prose in six years.

The Girl with the Persian Shawl


Elizabeth Mansfield - 2002
    A young woman looking to marry is always sweet and demure, charming and gracious, and, of course, deferential. But not Kate Rendell. An anomaly, Kate could not care less what people think of her and her tendency to speak her mind. Her suitors have all taken a disliking to this quirk of hers--and taken flight. And Kate has not minded. That is, until one man walks into her life...When Harry Gerard, Lord Ainsworth, calls upon Kate to view her family's much-admired painting of a girl with a Persian shawl, his hostess's rudeness takes him by surprise and he leaves confused. But for all the gall she displayed during his visit, Kate finds herself thinking about him more and more. And she would never let anything stand between herself and the object of her desire--even if the obstacle is her beloved cousin...

Thoughts Alight Poetry


Kawtar Elmrabti - 2020
    Each chapter holds the symbol of a petal containing a multitude of thoughts crowned with passion, love, light, hope and kindness.

Parable of the Sower


Octavia E. Butler - 1993
    Behind the walls of their defended enclave, Lauren’s father, a preacher, and a handful of other citizens try to salvage what remains of a culture that has been destroyed by drugs, disease, war, and chronic water shortages. While her father tries to lead people on the righteous path, Lauren struggles with hyperempathy, a condition that makes her extraordinarily sensitive to the pain of others.When fire destroys their compound, Lauren’s family is killed and she is forced out into a world that is fraught with danger. With a handful of other refugees, Lauren must make her way north to safety, along the way conceiving a revolutionary idea that may mean salvation for all mankind.