About The Book Club:

Welcome to The Poder Circle Book Club—a quarterly, themed book club that aims to spark and facilitate important discussion around our shared experiences, our unique stories, and the issues that affect our comunidad. As Poderistas, we want to show the world that libros by Latinxs matter—that our words have Poder. As people, we come from a long tradition of storytellers whose words have sparked movements. We honor that tradition by uplifting Latinx voices, deepening our understanding of the Latinx experience, facilitating discussion, and inspiring action through words with impact. 

 

What To Expect: 

There is no cost to join, all you have to do is subscribe to The Poder Circle Book Club list! Once signed up, you’ll receive:

  • bi-monthly Poder Circle Book Club emails
  • Exclusive Poder Circle Book Club content
  • Invitations to private events including virtual discussions with authors & the Poder Circle community
  • Quarterly discussion guides
  • Plus surprise appearances, giveaways y más

The theme of The Poder Circle Book Club is:

The Power of Salud

Stressed out? Overwhelmed? It happens to the best of us. But listen up, Poderistas! This quarter, we’re embracing a theme dedicated to nurturing our well-being: The Power of Salud. In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, let’s focus on self-care, stress management, and creating healthy routines.

Join us as we delve into books that offer insights and inspiration on how to honor your wellness. Whether it’s through practical tips, empowering stories, or soothing practices, our curated reads will guide you towards a balanced and vibrant life. This is your moment to recharge, reflect, and reclaim your health—mind, body, and spirit.

Let’s embark on this journey together, one page at a time.

The Featured Selection

This year we are thrilled to announce our special Salud y Poder Bundle where 3 amazing works by incredibly talented and diverse authors will be shared in the same quarter to inspire and help Latinas to feel like their best selves and motivate them to prioritize self-care. As we explore the theme of The Power of Salud, we can’t think of a better group of books to read together than:

About Crying in the Bathroom

From the New York Times bestselling author of I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, an utterly original memoir-in-essays that is as deeply moving as it is disarmingly funny

Growing up as the daughter of Mexican immigrants in Chicago in the ‘90s, Erika L. Sánchez was a self-described pariah, misfit, and disappointment—a foul-mouthed, melancholic rabble-rouser who painted her nails black but also loved comedy and dreamed of an unlikely life as a poet. Twenty-five years later, she’s now an award-winning novelist, poet, and essayist, but she’s still got an irrepressible laugh, an acerbic wit, and singular powers of perception about the world around her.

About I Am Diosa

This raw and relatable guide to radical self-care and self-love empowers readers to embrace the powerful Diosa within.

In this fiercely inspiring book from a fresh new voice in the women’s empowerment space, psychotherapist Christine Gutierrez welcomes women to join her in healing the wounds from past hurt or trauma to reclaim their worth and come back home to their true self and soul.

Diosa is the Spanish word for Goddess. A diosa is anyone who honors the primal feminine energy in the world and within themselves. According to Gutierrez, diosas face obstacles in their lives but are always ready and willing to go to their core to reclaim their inner worth and self-esteem. They are the ones that rise from the ashes and dare to piece themselves back together bone by bone and soul piece by soul piece. From stories of resilience from both Gutierrez and members of her Diosa Tribe, to mantras, meditations, and guided journaling prompts, this book gives women the tools they need to honor their sacred feminine and become who they were always meant to be.

I Am Diosa will inspire women to give themselves permission to feel, to be seen, to be heard, and to return to their truest selves.

About Break the Cycle: A Guide to Healing Intergenerational Trauma

From Dr. Mariel Buqué, a leading trauma psychologist, comes this groundbreaking guide to transforming intergenerational pain into intergenerational abundance. With Break the Cycle, she delivers the definitive guide to healing inherited trauma. Weaving together scientific research with practical exercises and stories from the therapy room, Dr. Buqué teaches listeners how trauma is transmitted from one generation to the next and how they can break the cycle through tangible therapeutic practices, learning to pass down strength instead of pain to future generations.

When a physical wound is left unhealed, it continues to cause pain and can infect the whole body. When emotions are left unhealed, they similarly cause harm that spreads to other parts of our lives, hurting our family, friends, community members, and others. Eventually, this hurt can injure an entire lineage, metastasizing across years and generations. This is intergenerational trauma.

This trauma is why some of us become estranged from our families, why some of us are people pleasers, why some of us find ourselves in codependent relationships. This trauma can be rooted in the experiences of ancestors, who may have suffered due to unhealthy family dynamics, and it can be collective, the result of a shared experience like systemic oppression, or harmful ingrained behaviors in a culture like the acceptance of physical discipline of children, or even a natural disaster like a pandemic. These wounds are complex, impacting our minds, bodies, and spirits. Healing requires a holistic approach that has so far been absent from the field of psychology. Until now.

Get reading and purchase your copy of The Poder Circle’s featured book!

Show your support for Latina authors and order your copy of Crying in the Bathroom, I Am Diosa and Break the Cycle: A Guide to Healing Intergenerational Trauma.

Use codes:

PODERBK15 for 15% off Sánchez’s Crying in the Bathroom via this link

PODERBK15  for 15% off Guiterrez’s I Am Diosa via this link

PODERBK15 to receive 15% off Dr. Buqué’s Break the Cycle: A Guide to Healing Intergenerational Trauma via this link

About the author Erika L Sánchez  Erika L. Sánchez is the daughter of Mexican immigrants. Her debut poetry collection, Lessons on Expulsion, was a finalist for the PEN America Open Book Award. Her debut young adult novel, I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter was a #1 New York Times bestseller, a National Book Awards finalist, and Tomás Rivera Award winner. Time has recognized it as one of the best YA novels of all time. It is now being made into a MGM Orion film directed by America Ferrera. She is an executive producer on the project.  I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter has also been adapted to the theater at Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago, Seattle Rep Theater, and Greenway Court Theater in Los Angeles. Also, her novel has been banned across the country for utterly illogical reasons. Most recently, Sánchez published a critically acclaimed memoir-in-essays titled Crying in the Bathroom with Viking Books. It won the Chicago Review of Books Nonfiction award and has been optioned for television. Sánchez was a Fulbright Scholar, a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent fellow from the Poetry Foundation, a Princeton Arts Fellow, a recipient of the 21st Century Award from the Chicago Public Library Foundation, and a recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in poetry. Sánchez earned a BA from UIC and an MFA from the University of New Mexico. Her books have been translated and published in Korea, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, Brazil, France, Mexico, Poland, Turkey, and Italy. She’s appeared on WGN, PBS, NPR, Good Morning America, Telemundo, Univision, and MSNBC. She lives in Chicago with her family.  Xochitl Gonzalez is the New York Times bestselling author of the award-winning novel Olga Dies Dreaming and a staff writer for The Atlantic, where she was a Pulitzer Prize Finalist for Commentary. A Reese’s Book Club Pick, her new novel, Anita de Monte Laughs Last, was published on March 2024 with Flatiron Books.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Christine Gutiérrez Christine Gutiérrez, MA, LMHC, is a Latina licensed psychotherapist, self-worth expert, and thought leader. Gutierrez is also the author of the book I Am Diosa: A Journey to Healing Deep, Loving Yourself, and Coming Back Home to Soul and the affirmation deck Wisdom Del Alma. Christine has a Bachelor’s degree from Fordham University in human behavior and development and a Master’s degree from City College of New York in mental health counseling with a focus on prevention and community. Through her work, Christine offers group coaching, corporate wellness, transformational retreats such as her annual Diosa Retreat in Puerto Rico, and soul-based business mentorship in her annual Madre Diosa Legacy Council. In addition, Christine is the founder of the forthcoming app DIOSA a global community where like-hearted women gather to meet soul sisters, gather in a circle, and rise together. She has been featured on the Kelly Clarkson Show, Latina Magazine, Yahoo Health, Ebony, Cosmopolitan for Latinas, Oprah Magazine, Entertainment Online, Telemundo, and others. Christine currently resides in New York with her husband and daughter.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Dr. Mariel Buqué Dr. Mariel Buqué (pronounced like a bouquet of flowers) is a first-generation Black Dominican psychologist, a world-renowned intergenerational trauma expert, and the author of the bestselling book Break the Cycle: A Guide to Healing Intergenerational Trauma. Her mission is to help reduce the recurrence of Intergenerational ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) within communities of color. Dr. Buqué earned her doctoral degree in counseling psychology at Columbia University, where she also trained as a 3-year fellow in holistic mental health within Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC), an initiative that was backed by the United States Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). There, she offered culturally-responsive mental health services across multiple specialty clinics, including Columbia Medical’s OB/GYN and Primary Care clinics.  Upon seeing the huge gap in trauma-informed care and trauma-informed institutional action that specifically addresses the needs of underserved communities, Dr. Buqué sought out to develop a holistic system of care, with equity and prevention at the center. This is the method that is central within her consultation and therapy practice, the Break the Cycle Trauma Center (BTC).

Deep Dive

After reading our featured book, keep exploring the Poder Circle quarterly theme of The Power of Salud with a curated selection of works created by Latinas coming soon!

Accessibility 

We understand that times are tough for many and joining a book club is sometimes not within your budget. Poderistas wants to ensure we can make The Poder Circle Book Club accessible to amigas who have a financial need. To honor this, we have reserved a limited amount of books that are available on a first-come, first-served basis for those who have a need. Please email hola@poderistas.com with the email subject ‘Book Club Accessibility’ to request a copy. In your email, please include your name, mailing information, and the book you’re interested in.