Kirkus is No More. One Last Review to Talk up Friday's Event with Reyna Grande

Being that Nielsen has announced they are shutting down Kirkus Reviews, I thought they wouldn't care if I printed the review for Reyna Grande's Dancing with Butterflies in its entirety. But when I printed it, I realized that like all Kirkus reviews, it gave away too much plot. These reviews are used all over the web now, but all those spoilers!

"Four Los Angelenas connected to the vibrant world of Mexican Folklorico dance tell their stories. Their troupe, Alegria, dances to mariachi music, performing indigenous forms ranging from Aztec tribal steps to German-influenced polkas. After an arthritic knee ends her performing career, Alegria's founder and star Yesenia undergoes a midlife crisis that threatens her marriage. Husband Eduardo begins to unravel when Yesenia radically alters her plump form with cut-rate plastic surgery in Tijuana (not so cut-rate that she doesn't have to embezzle from Alegria to pay for it)..."

There was a time when Schwartz had several subscriptions to Kirkus, but we slowly determined that the perceived value of the reviews (like so many things in today's world) was decreased by access to other early information. So sad! We were at C. J. Hribal's fundraiser reading for the National Association of Hispanic Journalists at Sugar Maple and he and Larry Watson and I were having sort of a funereal reminiscence.

But really, this post is about Reyna Grande! She's appearing at Boswell this Friday, 7 PM.

Homepage.

A lovely write up from La Bloga.

And yay! Reyna got this week's Book Preview in the Shepherd Express.

And an interview from last summer in Latino L.A.