Major works Bad Boys
CarameloThe celebrated author of The House on Mango Street gives us an extraordinary new novel, told in language of blazing originality: a multigenerational story of a Mexican-American family whose voices create a dazzling weave of humor, passion, and poignancy –- the very stuff of life. Lala Reyes’ grandmother is descended from a family of renowned rebozo, or shawl, makers. The striped caramelo rebozo is the most beautiful of all, and the one that makes its way, like the family history it has come to represent, into Lala’s possession. The novel opens with the Reyes’ annual car trip–a caravan overflowing with children, laughter, and quarrels–from Chicago to "the other side": Mexico City. It is there, each year, that Lala hears her family’s stories, separating the truth from the "healthy lies" that have ricocheted from one generation to the next. We travel from the Mexico City that was the "Paris of the New World" to the music-filled streets of Chicago at the dawn of the Roaring Twenties -– and, finally, to Lala’s own difficult adolescence in the not-quite-promised land of San Antonio, Texas. Caramelo is a romantic tale of homelands, sometimes real, sometimes imagined. Vivid, funny, intimate, historical, it is a brilliant work destined to become a classic: a major new novel from one of our country’s most beloved storytellers.
Hairs / Pelitos"Everybody in our family has different hair"/ "Todos en nuestra familia tenemos pelo diferente," begins this rhythmic, bilingual picture book taken from acclaimed novelist/short-story writer Cisneros's The House on Mango Street. Ybanez expands upon the diversity theme by rendering the family members in a variety of unusual skin tones as well as with distinctive hairstyles. Purple-faced Papa has hair "like a broom,/ all up in the air," while Nettie's "slippery" orange hair contrasts vividly with her blue skin. The narrator waxes lyrical on the subject of Mama's hair: "sweet to put your nose into when she is holding you, holding you and you feel safe, [it] is the warm smell of bread before you bake it." Each spread is framed by bright borders ornamented with everyday objects-shoes and bikes; steaming cups of coffee; dice, jacks and jumpropes. Inside, the characters seem to float across swirling blocks of color. A spirited and buoyant celebration of individuality and of the bonds within families. Ages 4-8. (Publisher Weekly) This jewel-like vignette from Sandra Cisneros's best-selling The House on Mango Street shows, through simple, intimate portraits, the diversity among us. A Dragonfly Book in English and Spanish. A Parenting Magazine Best Children's Book of the Year. Un excelente constructor de vocabulario, con nombres de objetos en Inglés y en Español, acompañados por ilustraciones, agrupados por tópicos como colores, juguetes, animales y herramientas.
Loose WomanThe three parts of this spirited collection address the heart, "spangled again and lopsided." In her second book of poems, Cisneros (My Wicked Wicked Ways) presents a street-smart, fearlessly liberated persona who raves, sometimes haphazardly, always with abandon, about the real thing: "I am... / The lust goddess without guilt. / The delicious debauchery. You bring out / the primordial exquisiteness in me." As if breaking all the rules ("Because someone once / said Don't / do that! / you like to do it"), she delves with urgency into things carnal -- sequins, cigars, black lace bras and menstrual blood. Readers of Cisneros's coming-of-age novel The House on Mango Street will recognize the almost mythic undertow of her voice; it never weakens. We meet again a powerful, fiercely independent woman of Mexican heritage, though this time innocence has long been lost. For her the worlds of language and life are one and the same: "Lorenzo, I forget what's real. / I mix up the details of what happened / with what I witnessed inside my / universe." These poems -- short-lined, chantlike, biting -- insistently rework the same themes to tap them. (Publisher Weekly) "You bring out the Mexican in me./The hunkered thick dark spiral./The core of a heart howl./The bitter bile./The tequila lagrimas on Saturday all/through next weekend Sunday." In this typically direct, sensual, and bitingly colloquial poem, Cisneros is addressing a lover, but she might as well be addressing the act of writing itself, which clearly brings out the best in her, along with the passion she associates with her Mexican roots. As in Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories, one of Library Journal's Best Books of 1991, Cisneros deftly explores the consequences of being Hispanic and a woman-in particular, being the tough, independent free-spirited "loose woman" of her title. The poems that result are brilliant and shimmering and sharp-tongued and just occasionally a little too similar. Highly recommended where good poetry is read and essential for all Hispanic collections. (Library Journal) A candid, sexy and wonderfully mood-strewn collection of poetry that celebrates the female aspects of love, from the reflective to the overtly erotic. "Poignant, sexy... lyrical, passionate... cool and delicate... hot as a chili pepper." (Boston Globe) ContentsLittle Clown, My Heart
My Wicked Wicked WaysThis collection reveals the same affinity for distilled phrasing and surprise, both in language and dramatic development, found in Cisneros's volumes of short stories, Woman Hollering Creek and The House on Mango Street. For a glimpse of it, see the poem "Josie Bliss": "a tropical dream / of Wednesdays / a bitter sorrow / like the salt / between the breasts." Of the book's four parts, the first two immerse the reader in the Chicana homefront, including the poet's own place in it, presumably the San Antonio familiar from her prose work. The remaining two parts leave the barrio behind, as the author's world becomes more cosmopolitan and still more personal. Here Cisneros reflects on herself and her men, on how she treats them and they her. Although some poems in the last sections are excellent -- "No Mercy," with its air of a prosecutor's brief, is splendid -- as a love poet, Cisneros attitudinizes too much and uses her tight style more to ration her candor than to impel images. Even so, a disconcerting degree of sentimentality somehow gets through ("I forget the reasons, but I loved you once, / remember?"), along with some enervated deadpan humor: "I've learned two things. / To let go / clean as kite string. / And to never wash a man's clothes. / These are my rules." (Publisher Weekly) Hailed as "not only a gifted writer, but an absolutely essential one" (The New York Times Book Review), Sandra Cisneros has firmly established herself as an author of electrifying talent. Here are verses, comic and sad, radiantly pure and plainspoken, that reveal why her stories have been praised for their precision and musicality of language. ContentsVelorio
The House on Mango StreetTold in a series of vignettes stunning for their eloquence, The House on Mango Street is Sandra Cisneros's greatly admired novel of a young girl growing up in the Latino section of Chicago. Acclaimed by critics, beloved by children, their parents and grandparents, taught everywhere from inner-city grade schools to universities across the country, and translated all over the world, it has entered the canon of coming-of-age classics. Sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes deeply joyous, The House on Mango Street tells the story of Esperanza Cordero, whose neighborhood is one of harsh realities and harsh beauty. Esperanza doesn't want to belong -- not to her rundown neighborhood, and not to the low expectations the world has for her. Esperanza's story is that of a young girl coming into her power, and inventing for herself what she will become.
La Casa en Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros
Vintage CisnerosVintage Readers are a perfect introduction to some of the great modern writers presented in attractive, accessible paperback editions. "Sandra Cisneros knows both that the heart can be broken and that it can rise and soar like a bird. Whatever story she chooses to tell, we should be listening for a long time to come." (The Washington Post Book World) A winner of the PEN Center West Award for Best Fiction and the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship, Sandra Cisneros evokes working-class Latino experience with an irresistible mix of realism and lyrical exuberance. Vintage Cisneros features an excerpt from her bestselling novel The House on Mango Street, which has become a favorite in school classrooms across the country. Also included are a chapter from her new novel, Caramelo; a generous selection of poems from My Wicked Wicked Ways and Loose Woman; and seven stories from her award-winning collection Woman Hollering Creek. ContentsHairs
Woman Hollering CreekA 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. A little girl revealing secrets as only a child can; a witch flies at dawn over a small town -- these are just two of the scenarios presented by Cisneros in this collection of short stories. A writer of vivid imagination, with a very acute sense of mysticism and a witty poetic style, Cisneros not only entertains but leaves a lasting impression. A key work from a major Hispanic American writer; recommended for public libraries. (Library Journal) In this collection of Mexican-American stories, Cisneros addresses the reader in a voice that is alternately buoyant, strong, funny, and sad. The brief vignettes of the opening piece, "My Lucy Friend Who Smells Like Corn," are tiles in a mosaic. Taken together, these vignettes give a vivid, colorful picture of life on the Texas/Mexico border. Family ties are strong: aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents are all present. The stories are often about the romantic dreams of young girls longing to escape stifling small-town life who discover that things are not much different on the other side of the border. Cisneros has an acute eye for the telling detail that reveals the secrets and the dreams of her characters. She writes with humor and love about people she knows intimately. (Library Journal) Ranging from prose lyrics of less than a page to much lengthier (but still lyrical) fictions, these stories are eloquent testimonials to the status of Mexican-American women. Cisneros introduces a cast of Chicanas from the environs of San Antonio, Tex., letting us eavesdrop on a series of interior monologues as well crafted as they are expressive. She begins with the self-conscious yet spontaneous effusions of young girls ("You laughing something into my ear that tickles, and me going Ha Ha Ha Ha"), then turns to preadolescents and young women; her speakers evince a shared, uneasy awareness that their self-worth depends on a loyalty to Mexico strained, all the same, by the realities of their lives up North. The restless vamp of "Never Marry a Mexican" feels "ridiculous" as "a Mexican girl who couldn't even speak Spanish," and cultivates a contempt for her white lover ("nude as a pearl. You've lost your train of smoke") and his wife ("alive under the flannel and down, and smelling like milk and hand cream") -- but she is not sure just what she is envying. In this sensitively structured suite of sketches, however, Cisneros's irony defers to her powers of observation, so that feminism and cultural imperialism, while important issues here, do not overwhelm the narrative.
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Bad Boys, by Sandra Cisneros
Caramelo, or, Puro Cuento, by Sandra Cisneros
Caramelo, or, Puro Cuento, by Sandra Cisneros
Caramelo, or, Puro Cuento (En Espa?ol), by Sandra Cisneros, translated by Liliana Valenzuela
Caramelo, or, Puro Cuento, by Sandra Cisneros
Caramelo, or, Puro Cuento, by Sandra Cisneros
Caramelo, or, Puro cuento, by Sandra Cisneros
Caramelo, or, Puro Cuento (En Espa?ol), by Sandra Cisneros, translated by Liliana Valenzuela
Caramelo, or, Puro Cuento, by Sandra Cisneros
Caramelo, or, Puro cuento, by Sandra Cisneros
Caramelo, or, Puro cuento, by Sandra Cisneros
Caramelo, or, Puro Cuento, by Sandra Cisneros
Caramelo, or, Puro Cuento (En Espa?ol), by Sandra Cisneros, translated by Liliana Valenzuela
Hairs = Pelitos, by Sandra Cisneros, illustrated by Terry Ybàñez, translated by Liliana Valenzuela
Hairs = Pelitos, by Sandra Cisneros, illustrated by Terry Ybàñez, translated by Liliana Valenzuela
Hairs = Pelitos, by Sandra Cisneros, illustrated by Terry Ybàñez, translated by Liliana Valenzuela
Loose Woman, by Sandra Cisneros
Loose Woman, by Sandra Cisneros
Loose Woman and Woman Hollering Creek, by Sandra Cisneros
Loose Woman, Woman Hollering Creek, The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros
My Wicked, Wicked Ways, by Sandra Cisneros
My Wicked, Wicked Ways, by Sandra Cisneros
The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros
The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros
The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros
The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros
La Casa en Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros, translated by Elena Poniatowska
The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros
The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros
The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros
The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros
Vintage Cisneros, by Sandra Cisneros
Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories, by Sandra Cisneros
Woman Hollering Creek, by Sandra Cisneros
Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories, by Sandra Cisneros
El Arroyo de la Llorona y Otros Cuentos, by Sandra Cisneros, translated by Liliana Valenzuela
Woman Hollering Creek, by Sandra Cisneros