Using Awards Lists As a RA Tool: Bram Stoker AwardsⓇ Preliminary Ballot Edition

 This is part of my ongoing series on using Awards Lists as a RA tool. Click here for all posts in the series in reverse chronological order. Click here for the first post which outlines the details how to use awards lists as a RA tool.

As I talk about in this series, the longer the awards list the better it is as a resource for us. Today is a great example of this.

The Bram Stoker Awards® lists are released in 2 stages. The first, released earliest this week, is the Preliminary Ballot. These are the 10 long list titles for each of 13 categories, for all ages of readers. The voting member of the HWA will winnow these lists of 10 down to 5 official nominees.

However, for our purposes, the more the merrier and I am sharing this longlist with all of you in the interest of giving you easy access to the maximum number of vetted and recommended horror titles.

Please use this list to check your shelves to make sure you own these titles. The Preliminary Ballot provides a great survey of Horror from 2025. 

And, backlist accèss is easy. The Bram Stoker Awards website is comprehensive and easy to use. Click on the Winner/Nominees tab and you get a menu to choose a year and view all of the nominees and winners. This is a great resources for displays, to update your collections, and provide recommendations any time of year.

Remember, along with novels, anthologies, and story collections, there are awards for YA, Middle Grade, Graphic Novels, Screen Plays, and Nonfiction. You can identify horror for all sections of your library. And for newer voices, not only is there a "First Novels" category, but also, check those Long Fiction (novella) and Short Fiction (Stories) categories for up and coming authors.

Below you can find the full press release from the HWA. If you would like to view it on the website, click here.

[Full disclosure, I am an active voting member of the HWA. Furthermore, my book and 4 of the essays included within it are on this list in the Long Nonfiction and Short Nonfiction categories below.]

Horror Writers Association Releases the 2025 Bram Stoker Awards® Preliminary Ballot

The Horror Writers Association (HWA) is pleased to announce the Preliminary Ballot for the 2025 Bram Stoker Awards®. The HWA (see http://www.horror.org/) is the premier writers organization in the horror and dark fiction genre, with more than 2,000 members. We have presented the Bram Stoker Awards in various categories since 1987 (see http://www.thebramstokerawards.com/). Works on this ballot are not referred to as “nominees” or “finalists.” Only works appearing on the Final Ballot may be referred to as “nominated works” and their authors as “finalists.”

Laura Blackwell, Bram Stoker Awards® Committee’s Co-Chair, Administration says, “The Preliminary Ballot represents the discernment of thirteen awards juries, the work of HWA staffers and awards committee, and the admiration of the entire HWA membership. We’re delighted to present this curated list of 130 pieces of horror fiction and non-fiction, and I’m excited to see what our voting members select for the Final Ballot.”

The 2025 Bram Stoker Awards® Preliminary Ballot. 

Superior Achievement in an Anthology

Allingham, LCW and Eno, River — Vampire Hunters: An Incomplete Record of Personal Accounts (Speculation Publications)

Armiento, Isabel, ed. — One Bad Night & Other Stories (Aardvark Book Club)

Bissett, Carina, ed — Fractured Reveries: A Storied Imaginarium Salon (Storied Imaginarium)

Day, Julie C.; Bissett, Carina; and Gidney, Craig Laurance, eds. — Storyteller: A Tanith Lee Tribute Anthology (Essential Dreams Press)

Golden, Christopher and Keene, Brian — The End of the World As We Know It: New Tales of Stephen King’s The Stand (Gallery Books)

Ihezue, Somto and Kidula, Olivia — Will This Be A Problem? The Anthology (Shilitza Publishing)

Kulski, Kristy Park — Silk & Sinew: A Collection of Folk Horror from the Asian Diaspora (Bad Hand Books)

Murray, Lee and Jeffery, Dave — This Way Lies Madness: Stories from the Edge of Darkness (Flame Tree Publishing)

Pascale, Elaine — Darkness Most Fowl (The Godmother of Horror Press)

Ryan, Lindy and Wytovich, Stephanie M., ed. — HOWL: An Anthology of Werewolves from Women-in-Horror (Black Spot Books)

Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection

Castro, V. — The Pink Agave Motel & Other Stories  (CLASH Books)

Chapman, Clay McLeod — Acquired Taste (Titan Books)

Files, Gemma — Little Horn: Stories (Shortwave)

Guignard, Eric J. — A Graveside Gallery: Tales of Ghosts and Dark Matters (Cemetery Dance)

Langan, John — Lost in The Dark and Other Excursions (Word Horde)

Ntumy, Cheryl S. — Black Friday: Stories from Africa (Flame Tree Press)

Piper, Hailey — Teenage Girls Can Be Demons  (Titan Books)

Regan, M. — stories in the minor key (Sobelo)

Robertson, Andrew — InHUMANities(The Great Lakes Horror Company)

Tantlinger, Sara — Cyanide Constellations (Dark Matter INK)

Superior Achievement in a First Novel

Daly, Grace — The Scald-Crow (Creature Publishing)

Justine, H. Lee — You Watched in Silence (Blackstone Publishing)

Karella, Bitter — Moonflow (Run For It)

Madrid, L.L. — My Lips, Her Voice (Creature Publishing)

Pell, Tanya — Her Wicked Roots (Gallery Books)

Penney, Vanessa F. — The Witch of Willow Sound (ECW Press)

Steel, Hester — The Faceless Thing We Adore (Page Street Horror)  

Tennison, Kathryn — Molting (Uncomfortably Dark Horror)

Viel, Neena — Listen to Your Sister (St. Martin’s Griffin)

Wehunt, Michael — The October Film Haunt (St. Martin’s Press)

Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel

Bunn, Cullen (writer) and Luckert, Danny (artist) – Jumpscare (Dark Horse Comics)

Bunn, Cullen (writer) and Mitten, Christopher (artist) – The Autumn Kingdom: Through the Blight (Oni Press)

Carey, Mike (writer) and Raimondi, Pablo (artist) – Ghostbox (Mad Cave Studios)

Cleveland, Anthony (writer) and Cormack, Alex (artist) – Buried Long, Long Ago (Mad Cave Studios)

King, Sandy (editor) – John Carpenter’s Tales for a HalloweeNight, Volume 11 (Storm King Comics)

Kraus, Daniel (writer) and Dani (artist) – Athanasia (VAULT Comics)

Mignola, Mike – Bowling With Corpses and Other Tales from Lands Unknown (Dark Horse Comics)

Oeming, Michael Avon – William of Newbury (Dark Horse Comics)

Tynion IV, James (writer), Foxe, Steve (writer), and Kowalski, Piotr (artist) – Let This One Be a Devil – (Dark Horse Comics & Tiny Onion Studios)

Tynion IV, James (writer) and Walsh, Michael (artist) – Exquisite Corpses (Image Comics & Tiny Onion Studios)

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction

Bacon, Eugen — The Nga’phandileh Whisperer: A Sauútiverse Novella (Stars and Sabers)

Ballingrud, Nathan — Cathedral of the Drowned (Tor Nightfire)

Cooper, S.H. — Reap, Sow (Independently Published)

Ha, Thomas — “Uncertain Sons” (Uncertain Sons and Other Stories, Undertow Publications)

Langan, Sarah — “Squid Teeth”(Reactor)

Langan, Sarah — Pam Kowolski is a Monster! (Raw Dog Screaming Press)

Marano, Luciano — Humbug (Crystal Lake Publishing)

McRobert, Neil — Good Boy (Wild Hunt Books)   

Wise, A.C. — “Wolf Moon, Antler Moon” (Reactor)

Superior Achievement in Long Non-Fiction

Borwein, Naomi Simone, ed. — Global Indigenous Horror (University Press of Mississippi)

Cavallaro, Jason — Cracking Spines: Three Decades of Horror (Independently Published)

Grafius, Brandon R. and Morehead, John W., eds. — The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Monsters (Oxford University Press)

Hieber, Leanna Renee and Janes, Andrea — America’s Most Gothic (Kensington Publishing)

Isaacson, Johanna — What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (DieDieBooks)

Lisowksi, Zefyr — Uncanny Valley Girls — (Harper Perennial)

Rogerson, Matt, ed. — Darkest Margins: 24 Essays on Liminality and Liminal Spaces in the Horror Genre  (1428 Publishing)

Scrivner, Coltan — Morbidly Curious: A Scientist Explains Why We Can’t Look Away (Penguin Random House)

Sederholm, Carl H. and Woofter, Kristopher, eds. — The Weird: A Companion (Peter Lang, Oxford)

Spratford, Becky Siegel, ed. — Why I Love Horror: Essays on Horror Fiction (Saga Press)

Superior Achievement in a Middle Grade Novel

Averling, Mary — The Ghosts of Bitterfly Bay (G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers)

Blankenship-Kramer, Carey — Ghost Scout’s Honor (Scholastic Press)

Collings, Michaelbrent — Grimmworld: The Big Bad Wolf (Shadow Mountain Publishing)

Dawson, Delilah S. — Ride or Die (Delacorte Press)

Field, Colm — Uncle Zeedie (Fox and Ink Books)

Kuyatt, Meg Eden — The Girl in the Walls (Scholastic Press)

Malinenko, Ally — Broken Dolls (HarperCollins Children’s Books)

Ocker, J.W. — Welcome to the Ghost Show (HarperCollins Children’s Books)

Oh, Ellen — The House Next Door (HarperCollins Children’s Books)

Russell, Ally — Mystery James Digs Her Own Grave (Delacorte Press)

Superior Achievement in a Novel

Baker, Kylie Lee — Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng (MIRA / Hodder & Stoughton)

Chapman, Clay McLeod — Wake Up and Open Your Eyes (Quirk Books)

Hendrix, Grady — Witchcraft for Wayward Girls (Berkley)

Hill, Joe — King Sorrow (William Morrow)

Jones, Stephen Graham — The Buffalo Hunter Hunter (Saga Press)

Kraus, Daniel — Angel Down (Atria Books)

Moreno-Garcia, Silvia — The Bewitching (Del Rey)

Piper, Hailey — A Game in Yellow (Saga Press)

Tingle, Chuck — Lucky Day (Tor Nightfire)

Wagner, Wendy N. — Girl in the Creek (Tor Nightfire)

Superior Achievement in Poetry (Collection and Long Form)

Addison, Linda D. and Hodge, Jamal — Everything Endless (Raw Dog Screaming Press)

Byrdlong, Brian — Strange Flowers (YesYes Books)

Couturier, Scott J. — Nightmuse: Poems of Speculative Darkness (Jackanapes)

Gold, Maxwell I. — Songs of Enough: An Inferno All My Own (Hippocampus Press)

Kearns, Shannon — The Uterus is an Impossible Forest (Raw Dog Screaming Press)                                               

Niles, Frederick — Slender Bones in Sacred Soil (Blood Moon Publishing)

Peebles, Cate — The Haunting (Tupelo Press)

Raguso, MarieAnn C, Ph.D — Allegories of Beauty & Violence: a collection of Gothic Romance Poems (Analyze This)

Rockwell, Griffin — listen—a poetic creature (Interstellar Flight Press)

Schultz, K. A. — PÔËTÍQUE Dark Poems & Lyric Poetry (Dakeha Taunus LLC)

Superior Achievement in a Screenplay

Busick, Guy and Taylor, Lori Evans — Final Destination: Bloodlines (New Line Cinema / Domain Entertainment / Practical Pictures)

Coogler, Ryan — Sinners  (Warner Bros. / Domain / Proximity)

Cregger, Zach — Weapons (New Line Cinema / Domain / Subconscious)

Ezban, Isaac and Fentanes, Ricardo Aguado — Parvulos: Children of the Apocalypse (Corazon Films / MalignoGorehouse / Red Elephant)

Garland, Alex — 28 Years Later (Sony / Columbia Pictures / TSG Entertainment)

Hancock, Drew — Companion (New Line Cinema / BoulderLight Pictures / Vertigo Entertainmen)

Hassel, Lukas — House of Abraham (Jump Rock Pictures)

Mollner, JT — The Long Walk (Lionsgate / Media Capital Technologies / Vertigo Entertainment)

Philippou, Danny and Hinzman, Bill — Bring Her Back (Causeway Films / Salmira Productions / The South Australian Film Corporation)

Shanks, Michael — Together (1.21 / 30West / Picturestart / Princess Pictures)

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction

Daniels, L.E. — “Stomata” (Darkness Most Fowl, The Godmother of Horror Press)

Joseph, RJ – “Inheritance” (Full Throttle: A Dark Dozen Anthology, Uncomfortably Dark Publishing)

Keeling, Phil – “The Elevated Table” (Red Cedar Review, Vol. 60)

Lee, Felicia – “Chichilo” (Short(b)Reads) (Hollow Oak Press)

McKenzie, Amy Lynne – “Because I Am Writing Another Horror Screenplay” (Out There, Sans. PRESS)

Nelson, David Erik – “The Nölmyna” (Reactor)

Szczepaniak-Gillece, Jocelyn — “Saint Dymphna’s School for Borderland Girls” — (Weird Horror #10, Undertow Publications)

Taborska, Anna — “[Ir]reversible” (Witches and Witchcraft: An Anthology of Stories, Poems, and Essays, Hippocampus Press)

Tierney, Charlotte – “Who Kills a Spider” (Extra Teeth Magazine, Extra Bite)

Wongsatayanont, Champ – “Autogas Ferryman” (Nightmare Magazine #156, Adamant Press)

Superior Achievement in Short Non-Fiction

Barb, Patrick —“Deathwish Wolf Man: The Tragic Hero at the Heart of the Universal Monster” (Interstellar Flight Magazine) (Interstellar Flight Press)

Cassels, Pat — “Coney Island’s Last Surviving Classic Haunted Ride” (Atlas Obscura)

Chapman, Clay McLeod —“Why I Am Horror” (Why I Love Horror: Essays on Horror Fiction, Saga Press)

Due, Tananarive —“My Long Road to Horror” (Why I Love Horror: Essays on Horror Fiction, Saga Press)

Jones, Stephen Graham — “Why Horror” (Why I Love Horror: Essays on Horror Fiction, Saga Press)

Kerestman, Katherine — “Frank Belknap Long Letters, Written to Michael E. Ambrose, 1976-1979” (Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts Oct 2025, International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts)

Moshaty, Mo —“Haunted Thresholds: Liminal Horror and the Psychological Disintegration of Women from Post-Partum, Grief, Trauma and Religious Fanaticism” (Darkest Margins: 24 Essays on Liminality and Liminal Spaces in the Horror Genre) (1428 Publishing Ltd)

Pelayo, Cynthia — “My Mother Was Margaret White” (Why I Love Horror: Essays on Horror Fiction, Saga Press)

Weinstock, Jeffrey Andrew — “Author Functions: Stephen King’s Writers” (Theorizing Stephen King, Amsterdam University Press)

Weinstock, Jeffrey Andrew — “The Victorian American Ghost Story” (The Victorian Ghost Story: An Edinburgh Companion) (Edinburgh University Press)

Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel

Chapman, Clay McLeod – Shiny Happy People (Delacorte Press)

Cheng, Linda — Beautiful Brutal Bodies (Roaring Brook Press)

Chupeco, Rin — We’re Not Safe Here (Sourcebooks)

Goldsmith, Amy — Predatory Natures (Delacorte Press)

Harris, Pamela N. — Through Our Teeth (Quill Tree Books)

Moreau, Khalia  — He Burns By The River (Augustine Books)

Rodriguez Wallach, Diana — The Silenced (Delacorte Press)

Roux, Madeleine — A Girl Walks Into The Forest (Quill Tree Books)

Sain, Ginny Myers — When The Bones Sing (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)

Tobias, Trisha — Honeysuckle and Bone (Sweet July Books)

Our voting members will now vote on these Preliminary Ballot items, with voting closing on February 15, 2025. Only Active and Lifetime Members in good standing are eligible to vote.

Flashback to My 2013 Interview With Luis Alberto Urrea and Suggested Readalikes [and a mini-rant on diverse readalikes]

Yesterday's post where I talked about pairing your promotion of upcoming books with a backlist suggestion led me to thinking about other current releases and how I could help you promote both new and old easier. Back on March 6th, Luis Alberto Urrea's new novel, The House of Broken Angels, published with much [derserved] fanfare and press. 

I loved how during that week Urrea was everywhere, writing New York Times Op Eds, on FreshAir, and especially in all of our Chicago media [he teaches at UIC]. I am sure you had many requests for the book. While I loved this because I am a huge fan of Mr. Urrea's work [here's my review of a book I still think about and suggest all of the time, Into the Beautiful North], but I know first hand he is a wonderful person too.

How do I know? Because in 2013 I was asked to interview Mr Urrea for Fox Valley Reads. The details of the evening as well as more links to some of the planning documents are here and reposted at the end of this post.

Mr Urrea was amazing throughout this process. Not only did this event take place in Spanish and English, on two different days [I have a post here about how the Spanish interviewer and I worked together on this], but he also spent over an hour with me on the phone prior to the event so we could "get to know each other." He is smart, kind, and funny. And, I bet this comes as no shock, he is an amazing off-the-cuff storyteller.

While all of the marketing for The House of Broken Angels was happening, I kept flashing back to my interview with Urrea, and yesterday's post made me realize I should have reposted it for all of you too.

In keeping with the theme of using a new release to promote older material, take a look at this post from 2013.

But also, here is an updated diverse readalike list of authors for Urrea to help you provide pepole with books to read while they wait for The House of Broken Angels. First, you need to understand that while Urrea's plots focus heavily on the Mexican American immigrant experience, the reason his books have such a wide appeal is because they are about a duality of identity and being an outsider in general. So while a few of my titles and authors may be "Hispanic" not all of them are.

...Wait, now I need to do a mini rant for a second because that last sentence got me going....

Just because Urrea's books are "Mexican-American" in frame does not mean readers who like his books only want "Meixcan American" books. I HATE THIS. What readers love about Urrea is that he writes character centered stories with dramatic and bittersweet storylines, lyrical writing that is beautiful but still accessible, that heavily draw on the themes of identity and belonging. Yes for some the frame is intriguing, but not for everyone. Most lists with Urrea also have Sandra Cisneros too. Look, she's a good writer, but they ARE NOT THAT SIMILAR IN STYLE. You know why people put them together? Because they are Mexican. That is not helpful to anyone. We can open people up to a variety of authors from many walks of life who write similarly to Urrea who aren't Mexican American. It's not that radical people. It's what we already do for white writers.

....Okay, rant done, back to your regularly scheduled post...

Second, as I have been saying constantly these days- truly diverse lists don't only have POC or LGBTQIA authors, they have a sampling of everyone. You can see my recent updated Stephen King diverse readalike author list for more on that.

So here is a great list of other authors who come from a variety of backgrounds but like Urrea write character centered stories with dramatic and bittersweet storylines, lyrical writing that is beautiful but still accessible, that heavily draw on the themes of identity and belonging:

• Junot Diaz
• Louise Erdrich
• Jennifer Clement
• Carol Rifka Brunt
• Viet Thanh Nguyen
• Toni Morrison
• Colson Whitehead
• Mohsin Hamid
• Jonathan Safran Foer
• Cristina Henriquez

 **********************************************

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2013

Luis Alberto Urrea and Me: A Recap with Pictures!

Well last night went great.  We had a nice crowd and I think people enjoyed it. As you can see I have a few pictures spread throughout this post, but for more pictures go to the Fox Valley Reads Facebook page.

As a reminder, here are the questions I was planning to ask Luis. I got to most of them.

Now here are some thoughts from me on what he said:

• Luis loves libraries and he loves visiting book groups.  He encouraged everyone to contact him about either visiting your book group in person or over Skype.  He estimates he has participated in at least 70 book clubs already and a man invited him to their Books and Guns book club in November.  He had his wife [who was in the audience] checking his schedule to see if he was available.  
• We began with Luis describing his early life as a poor kid living in Tijuana with an East Coast mother and a Mexican father.  Besides his funny and poignant impersonations of his parents, he talked about his first stabs at writing, his mother "publishing" his first book [he was the best selling author of his kitchen], and how he never thought a kid from his world could be a published author.
• His mom reading him Mark Twain is what really opened his eyes to literature and made him want to be a writer.
• Ursula Le Guin was his first big supporter and she was one of the first people to buy one of his pieces.
• We talked at length about the real people he based most of the characters off of.
• Aunt Irma is a real person.  It was his aunt.  She was the Mexican bowling champ.  And if you have read the book, the fight about Yul Brenner really happened.
• The Mexican Biker who falls for Vampy...he's a real guy from Aurora!
• Atomico is based on his cousin.
• Nayeli is a real girl.  In fact, you can listen to more from Luis and Nayeli on this episode of This American Life from 2003.  Luis is in the process of entertaining offers to turn Into the Beautiful North into a movie. He has always promised Nayeli a cut of the money he would get from a movie version.  He really hopes that happens.
• Mary Jo the librarian, who tragically passed while working at the library before the book was written, was a real librarian in Kankakee.  Her family is grateful that she now will spend eternity on library shelves.  Luis talked about a beautiful memorial to her that he participated in.
  
• That reminds me.  I did ask the question, "Why Kankakaee?" Luis shared his experiences in that city.  Most of what he said was also recounted in the New York Times by him here.  Luis has kept up his affiliation with the community and really feels it is a model city for working with the immigrant community.
• Much as I said in my review of Into the Beautiful North, Luis talked a lot about how he wanted to take a break from the heavy tomes he had been writing, and instead write a book that "made him laugh everyday as he was working on it," but still bore witness [his biggest drive as a writer] and was thought provoking.  He is honored that the book has had such "legs."  As he said most books are lucky to last 6 weeks.  The Devil's Highway is going on its 10th Anniversary and will have a new edition to honor that out next year, with new text. He said that every time something tragic or newsworthy happens on the border, the book's sales increase.  And now with Into the Beautiful North being an official NEA Big Read approved book, it's is selling well now, a few years after its publication.
• We talked about the ending and how the entire story is really about Nayeli's hero's quest to become a samurai warrior in her own right.  Luis said that he saw the book's ending not as abrupt, but as the end of Nayeli's journey to become the hero.  The audience [and I] agreed with him.  It is a powerful, epic hero's quest story even without knowing if she was successful in beating out the banditos. In fact, it is more about the quest because of the ending.   
• We did end the discussion of the book with my question about the unique set up of the book and it's subversive way of tackling the immigration issue.  I commented on how I thought the book would make anyone, from the right or the left, question how they feel about this complex issue.  He shared stories of visiting the border and the "wall," which by the way, is only 600 miles on an over 2,000 mile border, and you can simply walk around it at its end. He talked about the border jumpers and board patrol agents who both love his books.  He also expressed hope that there can be a resolution to this problem.  He thought we were moving in the right direction but then 9/11 put us in reverse.  He also mentioned that we have to solve the drug problems first.  Arms are going into Mexico and drugs are coming out all illegally and it is making everything worse. There is no easy answer, but he is confident there is an answer. He hopes to help to be part of the solution.
• He ended the night by talking about much of what he is currently working on.  He also told a poignant story about researching his mother's past as a Red Cross Doughnut Dolly on the front lines of WWII and finding pictures of her in a book.  He is working on a historical fiction novel to honor these brave but forgotten women.  He said it will freak out reviewers and fans because there will not be "a single Mexican in the book," but rather he is bearing witness to his American roots.

Overall, he was just a wonderful storyteller who cares passionately about using his work to speak for those who have been forgotten or do not have a platform to speak for themselves.  He is a honorable, good man, but he is also charming and funny.  A rare breed.  If you ever get a chance to see Luis in person, go.

Thank you to Fox Valley Reads for putting on a great program and for allowing me to be a part of it.

Some of the wonderful staff who made the
event possible [with Luis].

Monday Discussion: Best Book You Read in 2013 Part 2

This week, I want to hear about your favorite book you read in 2013 that was NOT published in 2013. In other words, your favorite back list title.

I went back through my 5 star books for the year and found 2 back list contenders.  I will walk you through my reasoning for how I picked my winner.

Each year I pick at least one of the best books of the year to save to read early the next year. [For example, I will be reading one of the consensus 2013 top 10 books, Doctor Sleep, in January.]  This year's contender was The Round House by Louise Erdrich, and oh my, did I love this book.  Read my review for more detail on why. As the year continued, I figured it would for sure hold the top spot here today.

But then I was asked to interview Luis Alberto Urrea for Fox Valley Reads and read the book, Into the Beautiful North [2009].  I went into reading that book as an assignment for a job, and came away from the overall experience of reading the book and being able to talk directly to Urrea about it, absolutely captivated.  I think the fact that I was caught off guard by how much I loved this book coupled with the author himself being such a fabulous person made reading this book one of the highlights of my entire year.

So, while The Round House may be a better read overall, my best book that I read in 2013 that was not published in 2013 was Into the Beautiful North, and it wasn't even a hard choice.

But why walk you through all of this reasoning? Because I want to use it as an example of reading tastes and how they are influenced by more than how a book is written.  As you see here, in a vacuum, The Round House was the best book not published in 2013 that I read in 2013, but life does not happen in a vacuum, and for reasons related to the book itself and my experiences with it, reading Into the Beautiful North was the best reading experience I had in 2013.

As you help readers, it is important to remember what they bring to the table in terms of what is going on in their lives as you suggest books to them.  Looking at yourself and why you found some reading experiences superior to others will help you to be more attuned to your patrons needs. I share my personal example in the hopes that you can use my example to help others.

For past Monday Discussions, and in particular, to add to last week's Part 1 of the best book discussion, click here.

Next week is the last Monday I am working during 2013, so we will tackle Reading Resolutions for 2014.

Luis Alberto Urrea and Me: A Recap with Pictures!

Well last night went great.  We had a nice crowd and I think people enjoyed it. As you can see I have a few pictures spread throughout this post, but for more pictures go to the Fox Valley Reads Facebook page.

As a reminder, here are the questions I was planning to ask Luis. I got to most of them.

Now here are some thoughts from me on what he said:

• Luis loves libraries and he loves visiting book groups.  He encouraged everyone to contact him about either visiting your book group in person or over Skype.  He estimates he has participated in at least 70 book clubs already and a man invited him to their Books and Guns book club in November.  He had his wife [who was in the audience] checking his schedule to see if he was available.  
• We began with Luis describing his early life as a poor kid living in Tijuana with an East Coast mother and a Mexican father.  Besides his funny and poignant impersonations of his parents, he talked about his first stabs at writing, his mother "publishing" his first book [he was the best selling author of his kitchen], and how he never thought a kid from his world could be a published author.
• His mom reading him Mark Twain is what really opened his eyes to literature and made him want to be a writer.
• Ursula Le Guin was his first big supporter and she was one of the first people to buy one of his pieces.
• We talked at length about the real people he based most of the characters off of.
• Aunt Irma is a real person.  It was his aunt.  She was the Mexican bowling champ.  And if you have read the book, the fight about Yul Brenner really happened.
• The Mexican Biker who falls for Vampy...he's a real guy from Aurora!
• Atomico is based on his cousin.
• Nayeli is a real girl.  In fact, you can listen to more from Luis and Nayeli on this episode of This American Life from 2003.  Luis is in the process of entertaining offers to turn Into the Beautiful North into a movie. He has always promised Nayeli a cut of the money he would get from a movie version.  He really hopes that happens.
• Mary Jo the librarian, who tragically passed while working at the library before the book was written, was a real librarian in Kankakee.  Her family is grateful that she now will spend eternity on library shelves.  Luis talked about a beautiful memorial to her that he participated in.
  
• That reminds me.  I did ask the question, "Why Kankakaee?" Luis shared his experiences in that city.  Most of what he said was also recounted in the New York Times by him here.  Luis has kept up his affiliation with the community and really feels it is a model city for working with the immigrant community.
• Much as I said in my review of Into the Beautiful North, Luis talked a lot about how he wanted to take a break from the heavy tomes he had been writing, and instead write a book that "made him laugh everyday as he was working on it," but still bore witness [his biggest drive as a writer] and was thought provoking.  He is honored that the book has had such "legs."  As he said most books are lucky to last 6 weeks.  The Devil's Highway is going on its 10th Anniversary and will have a new edition to honor that out next year, with new text. He said that every time something tragic or newsworthy happens on the border, the book's sales increase.  And now with Into the Beautiful North being an official NEA Big Read approved book, it's is selling well now, a few years after its publication.
• We talked about the ending and how the entire story is really about Nayeli's hero's quest to become a samurai warrior in her own right.  Luis said that he saw the book's ending not as abrupt, but as the end of Nayeli's journey to become the hero.  The audience [and I] agreed with him.  It is a powerful, epic hero's quest story even without knowing if she was successful in beating out the banditos. In fact, it is more about the quest because of the ending.   
• We did end the discussion of the book with my question about the unique set up of the book and it's subversive way of tackling the immigration issue.  I commented on how I thought the book would make anyone, from the right or the left, question how they feel about this complex issue.  He shared stories of visiting the border and the "wall," which by the way, is only 600 miles on an over 2,000 mile border, and you can simply walk around it at its end. He talked about the border jumpers and board patrol agents who both love his books.  He also expressed hope that there can be a resolution to this problem.  He thought we were moving in the right direction but then 9/11 put us in reverse.  He also mentioned that we have to solve the drug problems first.  Arms are going into Mexico and drugs are coming out all illegally and it is making everything worse. There is no easy answer, but he is confident there is an answer. He hopes to help to be part of the solution.
• He ended the night by talking about much of what he is currently working on.  He also told a poignant story about researching his mother's past as a Red Cross Doughnut Dolly on the front lines of WWII and finding pictures of her in a book.  He is working on a historical fiction novel to honor these brave but forgotten women.  He said it will freak out reviewers and fans because there will not be "a single Mexican in the book," but rather he is bearing witness to his American roots.

Overall, he was just a wonderful storyteller who cares passionately about using his work to speak for those who have been forgotten or do not have a platform to speak for themselves.  He is a honorable, good man, but he is also charming and funny.  A rare breed.  If you ever get a chance to see Luis in person, go.

Thank you to Fox Valley Reads for putting on a great program and for allowing me to be a part of it.

Some of the wonderful staff who made the
event possible [with Luis].