Book Reviews

I recently received this email: “I’m a Latina lesbian author who was thrown out of a Catholic high school due to a love letter written to me by my first love. My new book, Down to the Bone, (nominated for ALA Best YA Book 2009, Rainbow List, received a starred Booklist review, and was submitted for consideration to the National Book Award and Lambda Literary Awards) was inspired by true-to-life experiences. My book brings up important Christian/Catholic issues that I strongly believe will interest you.”

About the author: Mayra Lazara Dole is an author who has also been a drummer, dancer, landscape designer, chef, hairdresser and library assistant.  She was born in Cuba and now lives in Miami with her partner, Damarys.

Mayra Lazara Dole is the author of Down to the Bone, a novel set in Cuban Miami, about Laura, a girl who gets kicked out of her house and expelled from school when it’s discovered she is a tortillera–a girl who likes girls.

“At 14, my first love and I were thrown out of a Miami Catholic high school due to a love letter she sent me about our first time making love.”

“The math teacher snatched the letter from my hand and gave it to Mother Superior. The math teacher had a bad rap among the girls for being a tortillera/disgusting dyke. They read the letter to my mom who’d been dragged from one of her factory jobs to attend the infamous finger-pointing experience (finding out her little girl was a total homo) – Mami was so shocked she punished me harshly: I could never again see or speak to my beloved.”

“The loss of my first love was grave–at the time, she was the love of my life. My best friend’s mom never let her speak to me again.  I was allowed to finish the last two months at school, where I was ostracized and treated like a leper. My neighbors–they’d been family to me–forbade me to enter their homes. I felt hopeless, lonely, unwanted and even thought about suicide  until, unexpectedly, straight-looking guys started befriending me. My family had no clue they were homos. My close friend Willy and I acted like a straight couple. We went to gay clubs on weekends and won every dance contests.  We became club kids in Miami’s gay scene.”

Notes on the book: 17-year-old Laura has fallen in love with Marlena. They have been involved in a committed relationship for two years, however, neither of their families know. That all changes when Laura is caught reading a love letter from Marlena by one of the nuns at her Catholic high school. Not only does the nun retrieve the letter, she reads it to the entire class. Immediately Laura becomes an outcast in the eyes of her friends. When she goes home she discovers gthat her mother was notified and she is immediately cast from her home.

Laura goes to live with her friend, Soli, and her mother, Viva, who are more open-minded and loving but she never stops yearning to go home. Laura is unable to tell anyone that she is a lesbian, so for most of he novel she lives a closeted lifestyle. The reader is allowed to feel Laura’s pain as she loses the people in her life and also her joy as she matures.

Dole does a good job in allowing readers a peek into the Cuban, gay and lesbian teen culture, and also provides a clear view of the pain these teens go through to be themselves.

About the author:

Beverly Graves Myers was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky. As a youngster she fell in love with opera and mystery, which made her the only nine-year-old on the block listening to Rigoletto while reading Agatha Christie.

A yen for faraway times and places led Bev to study history at the University of Louisville.  A career in public psychiatry gave her a good perspective of why people behave the way they do, in anger as well as love.

Cruel Music is the third novel in the Baroque Mystery series featuring Tito Amato, a renowned castrato in 18th century Italy.

Learn more about Beverle Graves Myers and her historical mysteries on her website and on her blog.

Notes on the book:

Tito Amato returns from an operatic tour expecting to relax with his family. Instead he finds his merchant brother Alessandro imprisoned on a trumped-up smuggling charge, a capital crime in 1740 Venice.

The senator who controls Alessandro’s fate is determined to have a Venetian as the next pope. He forces Tito to Rome to sing at the villa of a powerful, music-loving cardinal who will control the next papal election.

Tito spys as he serenades Cardinal Lorenzo Fabiani and his guests.  Pope Clement XII is sinking fast, and two candidates emerge as leading contenders for St. Peter’s throne.

Tito’s investigation leads him into Roman subcultures–communities of goddess worshippers right under the Church’s nose, and church leaders who are more interested in natural science than theology.

Background notes:

The character of Tito Amato is based on the 17th century castrato Atto Melani.

Melani was born in 1626 in Pistoia, a small Tuscan town. Atto and three of his six brothers were all castrated for the sake of their lovely voices.

Learning court manners along with his vocal exercises, Melani soon attracted the patronage of nobleman Mattias de’Medici. While their precise relationship is buried under the weight of years, it appears the singer may have entertained de’Medici with more than music..

Melani also added the role of spy when Cardinal Mazarin of France made a request for Italian singers to entertain the French court. Besides performing on stage, Melani would have serenaded his noble patrons at banquets and intimate suppers. He quickly learned to turn his talents and good looks to his advantage.He also kept his ears open for information which would interest Mattias de’Medici.

Melani went on to perform the same function for Cardinal Mazarin at German courts. Still later, he became involved in a scheme to gain the papal throne for Cardinal Giulio Rospigliosi, who became Pope Clement IX.