Preview: "The Hummingbird's Daughter"
Category: Books & Writing...
Posted Monday, July 25, 2005 at 10:04 PM [GMT-6]

You may recall that last month I and a number of other Texas bloggers were contacted by the Time Warner Book Group (TWBG) offering free recently-released books with the implied request that we post reviews of them after reading. I took them up on their offer, reading and reviewing "Potter Springs," a novel that I would not otherwise have read. It turned out to be surprisingly enjoyable, and I emailed Miriam Parker, the Manager of Online Marketing at TWBG to thank her for the opportunity to read it.

Miriam responded with an offer of additional books, and provided a wide range of choices in a variety of genres. I was somewhat taken back by the offer -- some of the books are currently best-sellers whose titles and authors you'd immediately recognize -- but I didn't want to take for free books that I or my wife might otherwise buy anyway. That just didn't feel right. So I asked Miriam for her recommendations of any new "sleeper" books that she thought I might enjoy. She replied with three selections, and she made one of them sound so intriguing that I agreed to read and review it. My new ángel de libros immediately Fed Ex'd it to me and I'm just getting started with it.

The book is entitled "The Hummingbird's Daughter," by Luis Alberto Urrea. I'm only 25 pages into it and I can understand Miriam's fascination with it. It's a novel set in the Mexico of the late 1800s and already I can see that it will be full of memorable characters, mystical phenomena and sly humor. (It's also challenging my limited Spanish vocabulary, especially in the area of colorful cursing!)

I'm looking forward to spending more time with the book, and sharing a review with you. And I want to thank Miriam Parker for expanding my literary horizons beyond CSS, PHP, HTML and web design!

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