Week # Air Date

Well, whether summer sends you running indoors seeking refuge from the heat or soaking up the rays outdoors, a good book, un buen libro, is a season must have. Now joining us to help you wade through long lists of recent releases is Marie Arana book editor for the Washington Post.

Cuba in the first half of the twentieth century was apparently much more vibrant than it has been in the second half of the century. That is of course according to many writers who have romanticized this period for those of us who can only read about it. Perhaps no American writer captures such nostalgia for the Cuba of old as author Oscar Hijuelos. In 1990 Hijuelos won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for his book 'The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love' His new book 'A Simple Habana Melody (from when the world was good)' Goes back to the same Cuba of Cuba of a half-century ago. And Oscar Hijuelos joins us now from station WBEZ in Chicago.

There are no strangers once we get to know each others stories. That's a saying the writer Victor Villasenor heard from his grandmother, his abuelita. For years victor Villasenor has dedicated his writing to telling the stories of his family. First as they fled Mexico during the Revolution and then as they settled in Southern California. Victor Villasenor's latest book 'Thirteen Senses' is a memoir of his family's experience in the United States and focuses on the relationship of his parents. He joins us here on Latino USA from KPBS in San Diego.