It’s August and it’s still hot. Here are some books to help keep your cool:
• Aug. 1: In the novel The Sound of Things Falling, Colombian author Juan Gabriel Vásquez explores the effects of the drug war in his native country.
• Aug. 6: A Colombian-American college student finds romance in the world’s most romantic city in Patricia Engel’s It’s Not Love It’s Just Paris.
• Aug. 13: In Spanish novelist Javier Marias’ The Infatuations, a woman is intrigued by a couple she sees at her local café – and then the man is murdered.
• Aug. 29: Tim Z. Hernandez imagines the life of Bea Franco, the farmworker who inspired a character in Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, in Mañana Means Heaven.
Events:
• The Latino Comics Expo , featuring Lalo Alcaraz and Mario Hernandez, will take place Aug. 17-18 in Long Beach, Calif.
Writing conferences:
• Reyna Grande will be the keynote speaker at the Comadres and Compadres Writers Conference Oct. 5 at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, N.Y. The event will include panelists and one-on-one sessions with agents and editors.
Writing contests:
• Sept. 1 is the deadline for Lee & Low Books’ New Voices Award, given to an unpublished children’s book written by a writer of color.
Other features:
• Mario Alberto Zambrano talked about his novel, Lotería, to NPR.
• Alfredo Corchado discussed his book Midnight in Mexico: A Reporter’s Journey Through a Country’s Descent into Darkness, to NPR’s Fresh Air and PBS NewsHour.
• Joy Castro talked about her newest book, Nearer Home, to “Words on a Wire.”
• The life of The Alchemist author Paulo Coehlo is being made into a movie, according to the Huffington Post.
• Roberto Bolaño’s 2666 is now available on e-readers, according to the Los Angeles Times. Francisco Goldman read Bolaño’s 2008 short story, “Clara,” on The New Yorker magazine’s fiction podcast.
• Junot Díaz made annotations on portions of his award-winning book The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao for the Poetry Genius website, according to MediaBistro.
• The federal courts have ordered the Tucson, Ariz., school district to make Mexican-American Studies available in its classrooms, reports NPR.
• Each major publishing house now has a Latino author on its roster, reports Latinzine.
• Graphic novels are becoming more popular in Colombia thanks to a lift in tax restrictions, according to Publishing Perspectives. One of the titles is a biography of Gabriel Gárcia Márquez.
Also this month:
• Nobel Prize winner Jacinto Benavente y Martinez was born Aug. 12. The Hispanic Reader turns two years old on Aug. 16. Jorge Luis Borges, Paulo Coelho and Oscar Hijuelos celebrate birthdays on Aug. 24.
The Hispanic Reader 
I’ve been waiting for the Tim Hernandez release. After reading this post I’m sure my TBR stack of books will be taller. Looks like a Jenga game in progress.
Ha! My nightstand also looks like a Jenga game, too. It’s always hard to get the magazines out without the whole thing collapsing.