Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
The Distance Between Us
The Distance Between Us: A Memoir | Reyna Grande
23 posts | 29 read | 22 to read
Mago pointed to a spot on the dirt floor and reminded me that my umbilical cord was buried there. That way, Mami told the midwife, no matter where life takes her, she wont ever forget where she came from. Then Mago touched my belly button . . . She said that my umbilical cord was like a ribbon that connected me to Mami. She said, It doesnt matter that theres a distance btween us now. That cord is there forever. When Reyna Grandes father leaves his wife and three children behind in a village in Mexico to make the dangerous trek across the border to the United States, he promises he will soon return from El Otro Lado (The Other Side) with enough money to build them a dream house where they can all live together. His promises become harder to believe as months turn into years. When he summons his wife to join him, Reyna and her siblings are deposited in the already overburdened household of their stern, unsmiling grandmother. The three siblings are forced to look out for themselves; in childish games they find a way to forget the pain of abandonment and learn to solve very adult problems. When their mother at last returns, the reunion sets the stage for a dramatic new chapter in Reynas young life: her own journey to El Otro Lado to live with the man who has haunted her imagination for years, her long-absent father. In this extraordinary memoir, award-winning writer Reyna Grande vividly brings to life her tumultuous early years, capturing all the confusion and contradictions of childhood, especially one spent torn between two parents and two countries. Elated when she feels the glow of her fathers love and approval, Reyna knows that at any moment he might turn angry or violent. Only in books and music and her rich imaginary life does she find solace, a momentary refuge from a world in which every place feels like El Otro Lado. The Distance Between Us captures one girls passage from childhood to adolescence and beyond. A funny, heartbreaking, lyrical story, it reminds us that the joys and sorrows of childhood are always with us, invisible to the eye but imprinted on the heart, forever calling out to us of those places we first called home.
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
Pick icon
100%
review
brushlo
post image
Pickpick

she does a great job of showing the real story and cost of immigration. the impact on both the children and spouses. the cost of coming to the us to better ones life are real and lasting.

review
Allthebookclubs
post image
Pickpick

This may be my favorite book of the year! I felt like I was standing right next to Reyna more than once. As a social worker, I couldn‘t stop thinking about all of their ACEs scores, even her parents. Her writing was beautiful, came across honest and was very moving! Book 21 of 2020

review
KVanRead
post image
Pickpick

Got A LOT of #audioknitting done yesterday as I could not stop listening to this vividly written and moving memoir. Highly recommend and I‘m really looking forward to Thursday‘s virtual Alta California Book Club discussion with the author!

https://www.altaonline.com/california-book-club/a34455377/the-distance-between-u...

#IntegrateYourShelf

KVanRead @Riveted_Reader_Melissa This has so many examples of the the issues we‘ve been reading about in We Are Displaced for #shesaid 4y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa Sounds excellent, I‘ll stack that one too! 4y
Chrissyreadit Just added - do you think audio would be better than reading? 4y
KVanRead @Chrissyreadit Sorry for the slow response! I actually just picked audio because that was what was available from Libby and I wasn‘t all that crazy about the reader —the writing really shone through though, so I would probably go with print. 4y
44 likes1 stack add4 comments
blurb
Mitch
post image

Not sure i‘ll get my copy in time but Loki g forward to tuning it to the author discussing the book - on Nov 19. Love the California Book Club!

https://www.altaonline.com/california-book-club/a34455377/the-distance-between-u...

#nfn2020

KVanRead Just started this on audio and also just got my California Book Club bookplates!! 4y
Mitch @KVanRead yeah ♥️👏🏼👏🏼♥️ 4y
49 likes1 stack add2 comments
blurb
Djspens
post image

🙄 I must really want to read this... ordered it twice 🙄🙄🙄 but my daughter will be happy, I always give her my duplicates...

45 likes1 stack add
blurb
Brooklyn.anne
post image

review
abookishbutterfly
post image
Pickpick

It was a great week for reading here! I finished and really enjoyed all three of these books.

The Distance Between Us by Reyna Grande: This is Grande‘s true account of her childhood spent in Mexico and, eventually, the USA. Many of her experiences were horrific yet she went on to be the first in her family to graduate from college and is now an award winning novelist and inspirational speaker. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3162260802

abookishbutterfly “If you do not believe in evil, you are doomed to live in a world you will never understand.” And so begins the powerful story of a golem made of clay, taking on human form, created for the sole purpose of protecting a young Jewish girl from the Nazi regime during World War II. The girl, Lea, has been instructed to destroy the golem when the war comes to an end. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2988402659 5y
abookishbutterfly The police say Gabe‘s wife and daughter were murdered but Gabe is convinced that his little girl, Izzy, is still alive after seeing a child who resembles her in the car in front of him. Katie is a waitress who sees Gabe come into the diner she works at once a week. She takes pity on him, as she has experienced tragic loss, too, but she maintains a safe distance because she has enough trouble to deal with in life. 5y
abookishbutterfly The Samaritan is Gabe‘s mysterious confidant. He assists him in his quest to find the vehicle his daughter was in, even though no one else believes it exists. Fran is on the run with her daughter, Alice, and Alice has strange paranormal experiences that connect her to a pale girl in a white room. Fran‘s story connects to Gabe‘s story, but how? https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2999682994 5y
69 likes3 comments
blurb
abookishbutterfly
post image

This is not a TBR post. It‘s a TBF post. TBF = to be finished.

It‘s not abnormal for me to start books, set them aside, and eventually get back to them. It is abnormal to have 8 of them left unfinished (aside from my 3 DNFs, not pictured) by the end of the month. I am actively engaged in a few of these and will likely finish them early on this month. I might get back to a few others. I might not. We shall see. But I started them all in January.

review
BookNightOwl
post image
Pickpick

One of the best memoirs I have ever read. This book made me cry and then made me sad and happy all the same time.

review
MarticaMustRead
post image
Pickpick

A solid #memoir, whose strength lies in its solid depiction of how the immigration struggle effects the children, not only with feelings of abandonment when they are left behind, but how those emotional scars can turn into resentment which in turn effect the parent-child relationship when they‘re reunited. While also having to struggle balancing assimilating to the U.S. while not losing sight of their culture & traditions from their home country.

37 likes1 stack add
blurb
MarticaMustRead
post image

🌞📖🍃🌱🤓 #BookClubPick #Memoir #LatinX #Diversity #LibrarianLife

Taking advantage of the sun finally coming out to read my bookclub book in the courtyard at work while on my break.

It's a tough look into the toll immigration takes on the kids that are left behind while parents cross, as well as the struggle to rebuild bonds once reunited, very good so far.
Turns out it was the 'One Book One Maryland' read in 2014!

Happy hump day Littens!

31 likes3 stack adds
review
Nitpickyabouttrains
post image
Pickpick

An interesting look at an illegal immigrant from Mexico to America. Her family crosses back and forth, parents leaving children. It is about different types of poverty and parent relationships. Moving at times.

review
BALC
Pickpick

A powerful novel that describes the immigrant experience - from poverty, dreams of the "other land" and lack of opportunity to opportunity and success. These factors combined with parental abuse, abandonment and alcoholism render the struggle even more difficult. Considering our current political status regarding immigration, this is a highly relevant novel that provides insight as to what it means and costs to hope for a better life.

RaimeyGallant Sounds really great. Great as in important, not as in I'm happy about the world or '45', as I'm now referring to him thanks to another Litten. And welcome to Litsy! #LitsyWelcomeWagon Some of us put together Litsy tips to help new Littens navigate the site. It's the link in my bio on my page in case you need it. Or if you prefer how-to videos, @chelleo put some together at the link in her bio. 7y
Chelleo Welcome🤗 7y
4 likes2 comments
quote
ReviewsMayVary
post image

“We were already living in some kind of Hell in this strange place of broken beauty.”
― Reyna Grande, The Distance Between Us: A Memoir

7 likes1 stack add
review
Booklover4ever
Pickpick

Very good book makes you think and feel soooo much. Read it over 2 days!

review
Sophronisba
post image
Mehso-so

I really wanted to like this book. But it's unfocused and draggy. The best part, which comprises maybe a quarter, is the section about the actual journey to the United States, and her early adjustment to living here. The rest feels like a generic bad-childhood memoir. I have a lot of sympathy for her and her siblings, but it doesn't make for enthralling reading.

blurb
Sophronisba
post image

The first half dragged, but I'm finding the second half, about living in the USA with her father and his second wife, more interesting.

1 like1 stack add
review
DreesReads
post image
Pickpick

Excellent memoir. Grande's parents left her and her siblings in Mexico to be raised by grandparents, as they themselves worked illegally in LA. Eventually the marriage collapsed and her father brought the 3 oldest to LA. They later received green cards under amnesty--and she is now a college graduate, award-winning author, and married mom. The hardships, hunger, poverty, teasing, and successes are all discussed. Would be great for older YA.

blurb
DreesReads
post image

Someone thinks I should be giving belly rubs.

Susannah Awww! Who could deny belly rubs to a face like that? 😁 7y
RealBooks4ever Kitties... Just add love! 😻 7y
14 likes2 comments
blurb
DreesReads
post image

Next up! The last book from my last library haul. Yesterday's haul will have to wait lol.

blurb
erzascarletbookgasm
post image

Two books on my enormous TBR pile by #MexicanAmericanWriters. One is an eye-opening memoir about life before and after illegally emigrating from Mexico to the United States, the other a novel about family and friendship of two teenage boys who struggles with racial & ethnic identity, and sexuality. #tbr
#mexicanormexicanamericanwriters #maybookflowers

Cinfhen Both sound like winners! 8y
RealLifeReading I keep meaning to read Aristotle especially in audiobook! 8y
57 likes2 stack adds2 comments
blurb
erzascarletbookgasm
post image

These are my choices for #immigrantstories.
Here I am for young readers, One Green Apple and The Distance Between Us for tweens. #booktober @RealLifeReading

blurb
Kelly
post image

Digging into the young readers edition with my reading buddy bunny this weekend

BekahB Adorable! 8y
33 likes1 stack add1 comment