Hi all! I may be interested in joining in at some point in the future, but for now I’m just wondering if there could be a list of past clubs added to the original post? I might want to go through a past book on my own before joining in real time. 
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Good idea! I’ve created one here: Past Spanish Bookclub Reads | Spanish list by eefara | Natively (keep in mind you can also check out the Spanish book club index thread as well). @HopeWaterfall if you get a chance, could you add the list to the OP?
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Done! I made the post into a wiki as well (if you can confirm it worked?)
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Yep, everything looks good!
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Hi everyone; we’re nearly done with our current book; I plan on opening voting for the next on May 26. Please get in any extra nominations before then!
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Book: Esperanza Renace (Esperanza Rising) (Scholastic Gold) | L23
Genre: Young adult, historical fiction
Length: 272 pages (paperback), 164 pages (Kindle edition, this is the page number quoted on Natively)
Is there an ebook available?: yes
Is there an audiobook available?: yes
Variety of Spanish: Latin American Spanish (author born in USA of Mexican heritage)
Summary - Spanish
Esperanza pensaba que siempre viviría con su familia en su rancho en México, y que siempre tendía hermosos vestidos y una linda casa llena de sirvientes. Pero una tragedia inesperada las obliga a ella y a su madre a escapar a California en la época de la Gran Depresión, y a asentarse en un campamento para trabajadores agrícolas mexicanos. Esperanza no está preparada para el trabajo duro, las penurias económicas o la falta de aceptación que ahora sufre; pero cuando su nueva vida se ve amenazada, deberá buscar la manera de sobreponerse a las dificultades: su vida y la de su madre dependen de ello.
Summary - English
Esperanza thought she’d always live with her family on their ranch in Mexico–she’d always have fancy dresses, a beautiful home, and servants. But a sudden tragedy forces Esperanza and Mama to flee to California during the Great Depression, and to settle in a camp for Mexican farm workers. Esperanza isn’t ready for the hard labor, financial struggles, or lack of acceptance she now faces. When their new life is threatened, Esperanza must find a way to rise above her difficult circumstances–Mama’s life, and her own, depend on it.
Content warnings if known
From StoryGraph
Graphic
Death of parent, Racism, Deportation
Moderate
Fire/Fire injury, Chronic illness, Xenophobia
Minor
Animal cruelty, Murder, Excrement
Why are you nominating this book:
Trying to find interesting young adult content that’s not too challenging to read, and is either written originally in Spanish or is set in Spanish speaking society, I came across this book recommended for Spanish Learners on the Rosetta Stone website. I can’t actually work out if it was originally published in Spanish or English. Tentatively labelled a Mexican “Grapes of Wrath”. Looks like it could be an interesting and approachable read.
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I made an attempt an updating the OP now it’s a wiki to make it easier navigate for people arriving for the first time. There may be nicer ways to show some of the information!
It was interesting the integration we have in place in the forums already with the main Natively website, and how organising these threads is different to doing it on another forum. For example, I made a table with the name of the book in one column, the Natively level in the next column, and was then going to add links to the book on Natively. Then I realised I just needed the link to the book on Natively, and discourse did the rest!
Also thinking about the best way to integrate with lists. Perhaps I might try and add links to the nomination posts in the Natively list of nominations, and then my lists of links to nomination posts in the OP might not be needed anymore.
EDIT - also now we’ve read at least one non-fiction book maybe we should drop “fiction” from the name of the thread.
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Hey guys, sorry for my long absence; hopefully the next book poll can be set up in a day or two.
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Hello all! It’s time to vote!
What would you like to read next?
- Sin noticias de Gurb
- Marina
- Lobizona
- Alguien para ti
- El principe Caspian
- El juego de Westing
- Esperanza Renace
0
voters
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Bumming the poll again; we’ve only had one voter so far. I’m unfortunately abstaining for the moment, as work is likely going to make me too busy to read for another month or so. If everyone’s just generally busy, we can definitely push the vote back and try again in a while.
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I agree. 5 days in and one voter - not looking that promising. Perhaps try again after a period and might be more interest.
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Esperanza renace just got its first review on Natively and it was a good one…
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Hi there - I have been on Natively for awhile for Japanese, and just realized this morning they have branched out into a few other languages. My Spanish is at a much higher level than Japanese and it has been my goal to read more. I would love to join you all. I am also interested in books first written in Spanish - they seem fairly hard to find for some reason. I think they are often crowded out by the translations in the search engines - and I am not at the level yet to read Borges or Garcia Marquez in the original (easily). I will start following this thread and look foward to (hopefully) joining in.
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Awesome, glad to have to you! Things have been pretty quiet for the club the last few months, but now’s a good check-in time to see how everyone’s doing and if we’ve got some interest in reading a new book.
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I wonder if it is worth posting in WaniKani forums that Natively has branched out - I did not know this. I spend much more time there because I am running flashcards several times daily. @eefara I see from your avatar that it looks like you are also learning Japanese?
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I believe there’s a Natively-specific update thread buried somewhere in the WK forums, but I don’t recall now if the expanded languages ever got posted there or not. I know @brandon (Natively’s owner) usually posted updates, so he might know.
Yes! Japanese is my main focus (and has been for over a decade now), but my first foreign language was Spanish, which I learned (maybe that should be “learned”…) in school. I’ve really let my Spanish rust over the years, though, and it’s only recently that I’ve been working towards getting it back in working order.
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Welcome Gailyn! I hadn’t done much in Spanish in recent years but have been enjoying reading in Spanish again since around 18 months ago when it was added to Natively. I am hoping that by steadily reading some mid level books, I’ll be comfortable tackling harder material some time in the future.
I’ve been happy reading at the level we’ve been reading in the club, it’s been fairly straightforward reading for me so good for extensive reading. I’d also be up for reading something a little harder. I really enjoyed the Javier Castillo book I read earlier this year and would be interested to read another.
As for finding Spanish books originally written in Spanish, I came across this bookshelf in an Italian bookstore the other day. A good selection of books - and I spotted two of our bookclub nominations on the shelf!
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I am going to pick one of the books the group has done already to get started. I will likely have some recommendations based on a couple of books I already own and some I saw on Natively this morning.
I am self taught - but by self taught, I have studied Spanish for more than 20 years and speak it for work every day. However, since I am self taught - I have weird holes in my vocabulary. I also can’t write - no idea where all the accent marks go! I am comfortable enough in Spanish that I don’t think of studying in an organized way like I do with Japanese, but I really should do more reading and watching.
I have done pretty well with the young adult fiction I have attempted to read. I plan to start with some things rated in the 20’s and see how it goes. Fall would be a good time for me to start a new book with the group depending on your schedules.
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I bought a copy of Marina today. I love that Italian bookstores often have a Spanish shelf, in a way I rarely see at home.
I think I’ll remove my Prince Caspian nomination. I nominated it as I have the full set of Narnia books in Spanish (a gorgeous hardback set) and that is the next one I’m due to read. I think I’d like to crack on and finish the set anyway, and I’m sure we can find interesting children’s books to read that were originally written in Spanish.
Greta Gerwig is making a new series of Narnia movies starting with The Magicians Nephew next year, so if we do read a Narnia book maybe it should be that one!
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I went ahead and removed it from the list. Let me know if you’d like to add it again.
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