Hello Mustang Readers!
The Wilfred J. Airey Library, Puente, Men of Color and Unity Zone are excited to announce the Read 2 Succeed book selection for Spring 2024: A Ballad of Love and Glory – A Novel – by Reyna Grande! This is Read 2 Succeed’s first fiction title ever and first returning author!
We will have a Student Panel event on April 18 from 12:50-1:50 pm in CSS 217! You can also attend on Zoom at: .).
You do not have to have read the book to come and participate in the discussion!
Come support our amazing Puente, Unity Zone, and Men of Color students as they continue the conversation around this exciting book and topic! We will have FREE food and prize drawings for two $25 Target gift cards! We are also offering FLEX credit for faculty who attend!
If you need a copy of the book, contact Damon Nance at Send Email (Supplies Limited).
About the Book
A forgotten war. An unforgettable romance. The year is 1846. After the controversial annexation of Texas, the US Army marches south to provoke war with México over the disputed Río Grande boundary. Ximena Salomé is a gifted Mexican healer who dreams of building a family with the man she loves on the coveted land she calls home. But when Texas Rangers storm her ranch and shoot her husband dead, her dreams are burned to ashes. Vowing to honor her husband’s memory and defend her country, Ximena uses her healing skills as a nurse on the frontlines of the ravaging war. Meanwhile, John Riley, an Irish immigrant in the Yankee army desperate to help his family escape the famine devastating his homeland, is sickened by the unjust war and the unspeakable atrocities against his countrymen by nativist officers. In a bold act of defiance, he swims across the Río Grande and joins the Mexican Army—a desertion punishable by execution. He forms the St. Patrick’s Battalion, a band of Irish soldiers willing to fight to the death for México’s freedom. When Ximena and John meet, a dangerous attraction blooms between them. As the war intensifies, so does their passion. Swept up by forces with the power to change history, they fight not only for the fate of a nation but for their future together. “A grand and soulful novel by a storyteller who has hit her full stride” (Julia Alvarez, author of In the Time of the Butterflies), A Ballad of Love and Glory effortlessly illuminates a largely forgotten moment in history that impacts the US–México border to this day.
About the Author
Reyna Grande is an award-winning novelist and memoirist. Her most recent titles are A Ballad of Love and Glory, a novel set during the Mexican-American War (March 15, 2022), and an anthology by and about undocumented Americans, Somewhere We Are Human (June 7, 2022). Her critically acclaimed memoir, The Distance Between Us, was a National Book Critics Circle Awards finalist. The Common Reading book selection at colleges and universities across the nation, in September 2016, The Distance Between Us was republished for young readers ages 10-14. The sequel, A Dream Called Home, was released in October 2018. Grande's first novel, Across A Hundred Mountains (Atria 2006), received an American Book Award (2007), El Premio Aztlan Literary Award (2006), and a Latino Books Into Movies Award (2010). Grande's second novel, Dancing with Butterflies, was published in October 2009 to critical acclaim. It was the recipient of a 2010 International Latino Book Award and was selected by Las Comadres Para Las Americas National Book Club. Born in Mexico in 1975, Grande was raised by her grandparents after her parents left her behind while they worked in the U.S. She came to the U.S. at the age of nine as an undocumented immigrant and went on to become the first person in her family to obtain a higher education. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Creative Writing and Film and Video from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Antioch University. She is a sought-after speaker at middle/high schools, colleges, and universities across the nation, and teaches creative writing workshops.
*** Mustang Faculty: Please contact the Norco College Bookstore if you would like to make this a text for your course to coincide with the college-wide read!