Kate Padilla has long enjoyed reading, and for the last decade, combined her writing skills and book pleasure to review books for Authorlink.
Kate’s journalism career began in high school with a weekly column in her hometown newspaper, and later, after graduating from the University of Wyoming, she moved into newspapers as a reporter and editor and also as a radio news director. She subsequently worked as a U.S. Senate staffer helping write legislation and then as a public lands manager for the Department of Interior until her retirement. Now, she is an award-winning poet, artist and writer living in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Her passion is exploring, traveling to places not often frequented by tourists, ranging from Albania in the Balkans to isolated Honduran islands in the Caribbean.
Not surprisingly Kate favors foreign authors because they immerse her in other worlds and cultures, books such as those written by Nobel Prize winner Naguib Mahfouz, who writes about the Arab world, or Milan Kundera, from Czechoslovakia. Any book written by women with Latin or Mexican roots is a must, she says, listing authors Isabel Allende and Sandra Cisneros as idols. She never passes up a poetry book sent her way, though they are a challenge to review because the poetry is subjective. She also enjoys a good detective novel, and at times, magical fanaticism. Her review favorites include offerings from the Library of America, a nonprofit that collects and preserves writings from America’s key authors. If she had a genre she doesn’t prefer, it would likely be most Western novels. Her pet peeves are preachy religious or moralizing books, those that demean women or have disregard for the environment.
Chelsea Girls, Fiona Davis, Random House - The historical novel, “Chelsea Girls,” verifies the old adage that history repeats itself. Fiona Davis’ drama unfolds during McCarthyism when entertainers living in the New York Chelsea Hotel were without evidence targeted for subversive practice and blacklisted as “communists” and “socialists.”
Ann Petry The Street, The Narrows, Farah Jasmine Griffin Editor - The Library of America has published two mind-boggling novels written by African-American Ann Petry, mostly obscure in the white-dominated 1940s-50s. Her acute observation and insight into human consciousness and foundations of racism in white-mainstream USA is profoundly provocative.
The Daughter's Tale, Armando Lucas Correa, Atria Books - Armando Lucas Correa’s powerful and sorrowful novel, “The Daughter’s Tale,” returns us to the rise of Nazism in Germany, told through the eyes of young Jewish girl. It’s based on a true account of a woman who was 14 years old when her parents were dispatched to a death camp.
Dance In America, Mindy Aloff Editor, Library of America - Historian and dance critic Mindy Aloff has assembled the most thought-provoking and entertaining writers, performers, and critics and produced a treasure trove of information on dances unique to the United States.
The Gown, Jennifer Robson, HarperCollins - Yet another story on a royal wedding might be be a turnoff, but Jennifer Robson’s novel, “The Gown,” surprises with a captivating story on self-reliant women who sewed and embroidered Princess Elizabeth’s wedding dress. Based on true events in October, 1947 in London...
The Great Alone, Kristin Hannah, St. Martins Press - The austere beauty and unforgiving winters of Alaska’s outback further unravels the already-fragile and violent life of the Allbright family in Kristin Hannah’s novel, “The Great Alone.”
For the Sake of the Game, Laurie King & Leslie Klinger, Editors, Pegasus Books - Editors Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger have assembled an anthology, For the Sake of the Game, including well-known writers from different genres whose works imitate the fictional tales of Sherlock Holmes
The Chef's Secret, Crystal King, Touchstone - Crystal King’s historical novel, “The Chef’s Secret,” is a fictional story based on a true character, Bartolomeo Scappi, who served as the Vatican chef during the 16th century Italian Renaissance.
Hunt Them Down, Simon Gervais, Thomas & Mercer - “Hunt Them Down,” by Simon Gervais, is a crime thriller riddled with immense and constant firepower, bodies strewn from Chicago to Miami, and crashing to a conclusion in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, where one of the drug cartel’s most vicious leaders plots horrific revenge.
The Future i Female!, Lisa Yazek Editor, Library of America - Shocking, disturbing and awe-inspiring is Lisa Yaszek ’s compilation of 25 science fiction and pulp stories, all written by women, in a special publication by The Library of America,The Future is Female! It comes with a warning: Visionary women writers in this landmark anthology may permanently alter your perception of American science fiction.