Paul and I recently read the book Kissing the Virgin's Mouth by Donna Gershten. The book is a novel about Mazatlán...which you will recognize easily, even though the author calls the city Teatlán.

The main character, Magda, grows up in a poor family in one of the barrios of Mazatlán. Her father sells tejuino (a corn drink) from a cart. Magda is determined to get a better life for herself - but of course there were many bumps along the way. She spends more than a decade in the US.

The book won the Bellwether Prize (for socially or politically engaged fiction) and gives great insight into Mexico's poor but also into the conflicts Mexicans must feel when they live in the US.
A really good book. We borrowed it from the Mazatlán English Library on Michael's recommendation, but it is available from Amazon.

Paul and I read constantly. Before we moved to México, one of our issues was that we needed to be in a place where we had access to English language books. We were big library users when we lived in Washington State.

Amazon and Amate Books ship to Mexico, so if we want to buy books, we can. We've had fast service from both online booksellers.

One of the things that contributed to our decision to move to Mazatlán, though, was the English Library. It is a membership library, run by volunteers, and has thousands of books.

Our membership allows us to take out five books at a time. Several times a year they have surplus book sales, and we always buy a bagfull.

I've been keeping track of the books I've read for the last couple of years and have my list here. I like to print it out every once in a while so when I'm in the library I can remember to look for books by authors I've enjoyed.

The library has temporary memberships also, so if you are here for a short time you can take advantage of their excellent selection of books.

The picture above is Bliss and the Captain in front of the library.

Mexico: The Trick is Living Here by Julia Taylor is an e-book available for sale at her website. I believe I had Googled "retire Mexico" or something when I ran across her site. I bought the book and have been enjoying it for the last couple of days...even though I am not too keen on reading books on the computer.

She gives a lot of factual and anecdotal information. As a former resident of the Pacific Northwest, I feel a kinship to her...and I love her writing style, too. She and her husband Luis live in Cuernavaca.

Enrique's Journey by Sonia Nazario is a pretty strong and upsetting look at a boy's journey from Honduras to the US - travelling on top of trains as he pursues his dream of being reunited with his mother. His mother left him in Honduras with relatives when he was five years old to go to the US in order to be able to support her family.

The descriptions of poverty in Honduras and Mexico are upsetting - people having one inadequate meal a day, teachers keeping the children's shoes at school so their parents don't sell them for food, and story after story of parents making the dangerous journey to the US in an attempt to provide a better life for their children. Those children, however, generally are resentful and feel rejected.

The story also describes many heroic people who help the migrants along the way. The author describes many examples of the generosity of the people near the train lines in the State of Veracruz - who even though they also live in poverty will run out to the trains as they pass and throw food and clothing up to the migrants riding on top. I'm sure this generosity was the difference between life and death to some.

Gardening in the Tropics by Holttum and Enoch is a book that was recommended to me by LaGringa in Honduras. It is about gardening in Malaysia. I bothered LaGringa for a request for a couple of gardening books I could purchase before I moved to Mexico. I thought other tropical gardeners might be interested, too. Click the picture above to go to the book on Amazon.

Plants for Tropical Landscapes by Rauch is the second book LaGringa recommended. It is from Hawaii, and while it doesn't give a lot of information about each plant, there are lots of pictures that come in handy when you take it with you to the nursery. These two books will be coming with us to Mexico soon! Thanks, LaGringa!