How to Leave Hialeah (Iowa Short Fiction Award) This is a stunning collection of earthy, uproarious stories that force you to smile even as they break your heart. Ms. Crucet doesn’t hold back at all in her intimate depictions of the lives of Cuban immigrants in Miami.
I first encountered one of the stories in this book in an online literary journal and was captivated by the writer’s honesty. If you’re not sure whether or not to buy this book, go and look up Low Tide first. It will give you an appetite for more. There’s a link to it on my blog. :
United in their fierce sense of place and infused with the fading echoes of a lost homeland, the stories in Jennine Capó Crucet’s striking debut collection do for Miami what Edward P. Jones does for Washington, D.C., and what James Joyce did for Dublin: they expand our ideas and our expectations of the city by exposing its tough but vulnerable underbelly.
Crucet’s writing has been shaped by the people and landscapes of South Florida and by the stories of Cuba told by her parents and abuelos. Her own stories are informed by her experiences as a Cuban American woman living within and without her community, ready to leave and ready to return, “ready to mourn everything.”
Coming to us from the predominantly Hispanic working-class neighborhoods of Hialeah, the voices of this steamy section of Miami shout out to us from rowdy all-night funerals and kitchens full of plátanos and croquetas and lechón ribs, from domino tables and cigar factories, glitter-purple Buicks and handed-down Mom Rides, private homes of santeras and fights on front lawns. Calling to us from crowded expressways and canals underneath abandoned overpasses shading a city’s secrets, these voices are the heart of Miami, and in this award-winning collection Jennine Capó Crucet makes them sing.
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Sunday, November 29th, 2009
Dog Tricks: How to Teach Your Dog to Dance and Dazzle Less than desirable – K. Smoak – Iowa
This book sucked. One of the tricks is actually to teach your dog to run away. It would take about 5 million treats to train your dog using the advice of this book.
This is a cute little set and would make a fun gift for puppy buyers or anyone with a young dog they wish to train. The book is short and simple and the props are fun. The only thing necessary is motivation. I got it to teach my therapy dogs tricks so they can entertain on their visits. A fun set for sure. : Dog Tricks is a fun and easy how-to book and accompanying kit that provides straightforward know-how to teach even an old dog new tricks. With this simple guide your pooch will master amazing tricks that will leave your friends and their “average” dogs stupefied.
The Dog Tricks training package includes a 32-page instruction book complete with four-color art, a mini-soccer ball, eight mini trick-training cones, and the crucial invisible magic dust. Equipped with these common tools, you’ll be able to teach your dog unbelievable stunts such as:
” Walk Yourself, and Don’t Be Long
” Dance the Shimmy
” Take a Bow
” Dribble Like Diego
” Find My Glasses
Successfully teaching your dog to perform tricks like these will not only be great fun for you both, but will enrich your dog’s life, help with general obedience training, and help him make new friends and influence people. With this remarkable kit, you won’t limit your pooch to a life of mediocrity!
Dog Tricks: How to Teach Your Dog to Dance and Dazzle
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Saturday, November 28th, 2009
How to Lose Your Self of Steam & Other Teaching Lessons I Never Learned From Professional Development : This award-winning teacher and blogger knows how to get the best from her students, but often she is the one learning life lessons from her students. Through inspiring and humorous anecdotes, the author chronicles nearly 15 years of publications advising and the students who crossed her path.
How to Lose Your Self of Steam & Other Teaching Lessons I Never Learned From Professional Development
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