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.
Peter Taylor Complete Stories, Library of America - Author Peter Taylor produced a respectable amount of work during his lifetime, yet he never enjoyed the notoriety of other 20th-century writers even though he won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for his novel, “A Summons to Memphis.”
Dinner at the Center of the Earth, Nathan Englander, Random House - In his spy thriller, “Dinner at the Center of the Earth,” Nathan Englander takes us into the tragic and heartbreaking conflict between Israel and Palestine.
Ross Macdonald: Four Later Novels, Library of America - The work of Ross Macdonald, who the New York Times Book Review once lauded America’s best detective novelist, is featured in a four-novel collection just issued by the Library of America.
Unquiet Spirits, Bonnie MacBird, Harper Collins - “Unquiet Spirits,’ a new Sherlock Holmes adventure, rediscovers the intrigue of Arthur Conan Doyle’s century-old detective stories. Author Bonnie MacBird, a devoted Sherlock fan, follows Doyle’s precepts in her book.
The Copenhagen Affair, Amulya Malladi, Lake Union Publishing - Reading The Copenhagen Affair is like savoring chocolate ice cream — until you discover it’s really artificial flavored.
The Essential Hamilton, Letters and other Writings, Edited with introduction by Joanne B. Freeman, Library of America - Alexander Hamilton’s extraordinary and controversial life headlines a popular musical but if you want an in-depth view of his life,
Jack and Norman, Jerome Loving, St. Martins Press - In 1977, after a “ten-year drought on the use of the death penalty,” rifles aim and fire toward a circle pined on Gary Gilmore’s dark shirt.
Trophy Son, Douglas Brunt, St. Martins Press - Douglas Brunt’s crisply written novel, “Trophy Son,” details the lonely and painful journey of a young tennis player to the top of the professional ranks.
The Erstwhile, B. Catling, Random House - English artist and poet B. Catling’s imagination is way out there, much of it beyond my grasp, yet the intrigue keeps you reading his second, definitely surreal novel, “The Erstwhile.”
Later Essays, Susan Sontag, Library of America - The Library of America’s second volume of Susan Sontag’s brilliant observations and critiques, “Later Essays,” illustrates her extraordinary ability to dig deep into political and social conflict and provoke personal introspection.