Twelve months ago, I suggested resolving to read more books in 2014 (http://blogs.nvcc.edu/espanol/2014/01/11/resolve-to-read-more-libros-in-2014/). This year I thought I would write a follow-up post with some suggested titles for 2015. Please look for them in NOVA’s libraries. If you can, consider buying one or more of them from a bookstore. A local independent bookstore, such as Busboys and Poets, Politics and Prose or Kramer Books and Afterwards, would especially appreciate your business.

The following list is a compilation of books that I have mentioned in one class or another, many more than once. Some were originally written in English, some in Spanish. Hopefully there is something for everyone. Here they are, in no particular order:

Non-fiction

Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, Jared Diamond

1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus, Charles C Mann

My Beloved World, Sonia Sotomayor

Diaries of Christopher Columbus

Illustrated Diary of Frida Kahlo

Fiction

Querido Diego, te abraza Quiela, Elena Poniatowska

The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Díaz

Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories, Sandra Cisneros

Don Quixote por Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (For a good English translation, read Edith Grossman’s.)

Como agua para chocolate, Laura Esquivel

La vida es sueño, Calderón de la Barca

Cien años de soledad, Gabriel García Márquez (his novellas and short stories are great too)

La casa de los espíritus, Isabel Allende

El cuarto de atrás, Carmen Martín Gaite

Poets

Richard Blanco

Antonio Machado

Juan Ramón Jiménez

Federico García Lorca (Don’t miss his famous plays: La casa de Bernarda Alba, Yerma, and Bodas de Sangre.)