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.
Shakespeare in America, James Shapiro Editor, Library of America - Willa Cather wrote in 1894 that William Shakespeare “belongs” to two nations, America and England, a theme that resonates through “Shakespeare in America,” an anthology that traces Shakespeare and his influences in the United States from 1776 to the present.
The Practical Navigator, Stephen Metcalfe, St. Martins Press - Stephen Metcalfe’s flawlessly crafted novel, “The Practical Navigator,” takes the reader through an emotional, but heartwarming, account of a single parent raising an autistic child.
The Fall of Moscow Station, Mark Henshaw, Touchstone - Mark Henshaw’s experience as a Central Intelligence Agency analyst and member of the CIA’s “Red Cell” think tank offers up informed insight into the inner workings of the spy game between the United States and Russia in his novel, “The Fall of Moscow Station.”
Vonnegut Novels 1987 - 1997, Sidney Offit Editor, Library of America - Kurt Vonnegut’s final three novels, written in the late 1980s and early 1990s and released in a single volume by the Library of America, feature his bold futurist and darkly pessimistic views laced with blunt humor.
Happy People Read and Drink Coffee, Agnés Martin-Lugand, Weinstein Books 2016 Translation -- The French novel, “Happy People Read and Drink Coffee,” by Agnés Martin-Lugand, chronicles Diane’s life-journey from extreme suffering after her husband Colin and daughter Clara were killed when a truck crashed into their car, to survival.
The Word Game, Steena Holmes, Lake Union --Steena Holmes’s poignant novel, “The Word Game,” focuses on the struggles an adult experiences when they suspect child sexual abuse and how the allegation is handled by the professionals.
The Two-Family Hous, Lynda Cohen Loigman, St. Martin’s Press 2015-Prepare to suspend any sense of reality when reading Lynda Cohen Loigman’s debut novel, “The Two-Family House,” a family saga set in Brooklyn in 1947.
NAGASAKI Life After Nuclear Ward, Susan Southard, Viking --Susan Southard’s decade-plus of research and collected eyewitness accounts in “Nagasaki: Life After Nuclear War” is chilling, and prompts rethinking the United States’ true motive for dropping a nuclear bomb on Nagasaki,
The Girl who Buried her Dreams in a Can, Dr. Tererai Trent, Viking -- Dr. Tererai Trent, in her personal story, tells in an inspirational children’s story how she overcame punishing obstacles to fulfill her dream of being educated.
Lovers on All Saints Day , Juan Gabriel Vásquez, Riverhead Books -- These seven complex stories by Colombian Juan Gabriel Vásquez’s in “Lovers on All Saints’ Day” are haunting and indelible with masterful insight into love and loss. This English-translation collection was first published in Spanish 15 years ago and developed while Vásquez was in self-imposed exile in Belgium and France.