Cara Lopez Lee
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caralopezlee.bsky.social
Cara Lopez Lee
@caralopezlee.bsky.social
590 followers 490 following 430 posts
- Author of Candlelight Bridge: a 2025 Int’l Latino Book Awards Honoree, Hawthorne Prize Shortlister & Fiction Pick in SW Books of the Year
- Author of They Only Eat Their Husbands
- Moth StorySLAM winner

CaraLopezLee.com
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caralopezlee.bsky.social
When you see this - if you want to join in - please post an image from your own photos to describe your mental state
Wall mural painted on small brick building, featuring an indigenous woman in a dress that appears to grow from her body like a tree trunk. The trunk sends out roots and chopped wood - to which she holds out a flame in her palm as if to set herself ablaze
November 29, 2025 at 6:27 AM
caralopezlee.bsky.social
May we all honor Indigenous people today and every day! 🙏🌺💕
Colorful red-gold-indigo print of a graphic-design indigenous woman with long black and indigo hair layered with faint indigo flowers, looking at the viewer over her shoulder. A red eagle or hawk spreads its wings in the foreground, about to fly over her shoulder. A red sun hangs behind her. Text says: Indigenous People are the Future.
October 13, 2025 at 9:59 PM
caralopezlee.bsky.social
#20TBRbookchallenge
💙📚

Choose 20 books on your TBR shelf. 1 book per day for 20 days.
No explanations, just covers.

20/20

Paper Birds/Pájaros de Papel
Sonia Gutiérrez, Poet

#Booksky #bookchallenge
#readingchallenge #readersky
Book Cover: Black-and-white drawing of a bird with a woman’s head, perched on a branch. The woman-bird appears to be singing. Text: Paper Birds: Feather by Feather Pájaros de Papel: Pluma por Pluma
September 14, 2025 at 2:04 AM
caralopezlee.bsky.social
#20TBRbookchallenge
💙📚

Choose 20 books on your TBR shelf. 1 book per day for 20 days.
No explanations, just covers.

19/20

Creep
Myriam Gurba

#Booksky #bookchallenge
#readingchallenge #readersky
Book cover for Creep: Accusations and Confessions, by Myriam Gurba. It features a closeup portrait of the author, with very short dark hair, expression intense yet approachable, lit by bright sun, shadows of plants on her bare neck and upper torso - which is clad in two denim straps from either a jumper or overalls, and colorful tattoos on one shoulder. She is framed in white, but all else behind her appears black in the shadows. A blurb at top says: “This book is ceremonial: beautiful, difficult, and important.” - Imani Perry
September 12, 2025 at 2:49 AM
caralopezlee.bsky.social
Grateful for light in a dark week: the 2025 Int'l Latino Book Awards has given Candlelight Bridge honorable mention in historical fiction!

It's inspired by family stories of my Mexican & Chinese American grandma: tales of immigrants, mixed-race kids & the search for home
caralopezlee.com
#booksky
Book Cover Image: A sepia-toned 1920s photo of a woman and girl holding hands and walking across an old wooden bridge. The woman and girl are colorized. The girl wears a pink dress and hat. The mother's head and shoulders are wrapped in a dark blue rebozo (a.k.a. a shawl), and she's carrying a satchel or sack. Main Text in Blood-red letters: Candlelight Bridge A Novel Cara Lopez Lee Text in Black letters on yellow banner in middle of page: 2025 International Latino Book Awards Honorable Mention Historical Fiction A Gold Medallion announces the book is also on the: Hawthorne Prize 2025 Short List
September 11, 2025 at 2:36 AM
caralopezlee.bsky.social
#20TBRbookchallenge
💙📚

Choose 20 books on your TBR shelf. 1 book per day for 20 days.
No explanations, just covers.

18/20

The Water Dancer
Ta-nehisi Coates

#Booksky #bookchallenge
#readingchallenge #readersky
Book Cover Image - translucent blue water, as if in a swimming pool, seen from above, a black man in a white short-sleeved shirt floating in it, his head and shoulders submerged near the bottom of the cover, his hands and arms at least partially submerged, reaching overhead in a ballet-position, bubbles coming up around him - as if either his breath is coming up from below or the movement of his body has stirred up the bubbles Text: #1 New York Times Bestseller Ta-Nehisi Coates The Water Dancer A Novel
September 10, 2025 at 4:39 AM
caralopezlee.bsky.social
#20TBRbookchallenge
💙📚

Choose 20 books on your TBR shelf. 1 book per day for 20 days.
No explanations, just covers.

17/20

Death of the Author
@nnedi.bsky.social

#Booksky #bookchallenge
#readingchallenge #readersky
Book Cover Image: Black silhouetted head-and-shoulders profile of a black woman with small braids flowing from her hair. She’s set against a backdrop of flowing patterns of alternating orange and blue, which looks a tapestry when viewed from afar but like computer circuitry when viewed up close. Text: The Future of Storytelling is Here “This one has it all.” - George R.R. Martin Death of the Author A Novel Nnedi Okorafor New York Times Bestselling Author
September 7, 2025 at 5:13 PM
caralopezlee.bsky.social
#20TBRbookchallenge
💙📚

Choose 20 books on your TBR shelf. 1 book per day for 20 days.
No explanations, just covers.

16/20

She’s Under Here
@karenpalmer.bsky.social

#Booksky #bookchallenge
#readingchallenge #readersky
Cover of SHE'S UNDER HERE, by Karen Palmer. Taped ephemera in a collage on a white background: Polaroid photo with the subtitle: A LOVE STORY, A HORROR STORY, A RECKONING. Bits of a love letter. Baby footprint on a birth certificate. Piano score, slice of a photo that shows part of the author’s face. Includes a blurb at top: “Like a tandem skydive, just as terrifying and just as exhilarating.” - Lacy Crawford, author of Notes on a Silencing
September 6, 2025 at 11:07 PM
caralopezlee.bsky.social
#20TBRbookchallenge
💙📚

Choose 20 books on your TBR shelf. 1 book per day for 20 days.
No explanations, just covers.

15/20

Anny in Love
Barbara Wright

#Booksky #bookchallenge
#readingchallenge #readersky
Book Cover Image: photographic image of a woman with dark hair pinned at her neck, wearing a long purple 1800's dress that billows around her as she appears to run away from the viewer across a grassy field toward a grove of trees and a sea beyond that, all under a pink-tinged sky. Text: anny in love Barbara Wright
September 5, 2025 at 7:20 PM
caralopezlee.bsky.social
#20TBRbookchallenge
💙📚

Choose 20 books on your TBR shelf. 1 book per day for 20 days.
No explanations, just covers.

14/20

Fortunate Monsters
Manuel Luis Martinez

#Booksky #bookchallenge
#readingchallenge #readersky
Book Cover Image: a bundle of images, primarily faces, reminiscent of a Pablo Picasso abstract with disproportionate features, odd angles, and sudden curves - featuring warm bright tones of yellow, red, and orange. All against a bright yellow backdrop, with a band of white above it that contains the book title. Text: Fortunate Monsters A Novel by Manuel Luis Martinez Martinez’s “characters, mostly working poor, are treated with dignity and respect not always seen in fiction.” - Booklist
September 3, 2025 at 6:12 PM
caralopezlee.bsky.social
#20TBRbookchallenge
💙📚

Choose 20 books on your TBR shelf. 1 book per day for 20 days.
No explanations, just covers.

13/20

The Western Horse
Randi Samuelson-Brown

#Booksky #bookchallenge
#readingchallenge #readersky
Book Cover Image: a distant horse stands with a cowboy rider in red shirt and white hat sitting astride…they’re alone atop an otherwise empty, red sandstone desert mesa, which is surrounded by towering formations of more red sandstone, all overlooking an apparent canyon. Text: The Western Horse A Popular History of the Wild and Working Animal Randi Samuelson-Brown
September 2, 2025 at 2:52 PM
caralopezlee.bsky.social
#20TBRbookchallenge
💙📚

Choose 20 books on your TBR shelf. 1 book per day for 20 days.
No explanations, just covers.

12/20

The Electric Love Song of Fleischl Berger
David Rocklin

#Booksky #bookchallenge
#readingchallenge #readersky
Book Cover Image: black-and-white/grayscale photo of a wooden dock leading away from the viewer to a calm, glassy, reflective sea on a gray, cloudy day Text: David Rocklin The Electric Love Song of Fleischl Berger
August 31, 2025 at 10:15 PM
caralopezlee.bsky.social
#20TBRbookchallenge
💙📚

Choose 20 books on your TBR shelf. 1 book per day for 20 days.
No explanations, just covers.

11/20

Through Fences
Written by Frederick Luis Aldama
Illustrated by Oscar Garza

#Booksky #bookchallenge
#readingchallenge #readersky
Book cover image: close up of multiple openings in a chain-link fence. Inside each opening is a different comic-book-style image, in a varied color palette that emphasizes purples and ambers, such as: the face of a frightened boy in the dark, a skinny perplexed young man in glasses, an angry woman in medical scrubs holding up 2 fingers and a thumb, angry man with a mustache, back of a man with a backpack looking across a field, police officer at his open car door, bald guy in sunglasses, man in medical scrubs and a face shield. Text: Through Fences Written by Frederick Luis Aldama Illustrated by Oscar Garza
August 30, 2025 at 4:09 PM
caralopezlee.bsky.social
#20TBRbookchallenge
💙📚

Choose 20 books on your TBR shelf. 1 book per day for 20 days.
No explanations, just covers.

10/20

Honeymoon at Sea
Jennifer Silva Redmond

#Booksky #bookchallenge
#readingchallenge #readersky
Book Cover Image: distant sailboat crossing an otherwise empty cobalt blue sea, a sky with scattered clouds turned to soft shades of peach by sunrise or sunset, a backdrop of solid cobalt blue slanting over the top of the scene with the book title on it. Text: “Will especially delight armchair travelers.” - Diane Donovan, Midwest Book Review Honeymoon at Sea How I found myself living on a small boat A Memoir Jennifer Silva Redmond A white and gold medallion in the upper third says “Readers’ Favorite…Five Stars.”
August 28, 2025 at 3:04 PM
caralopezlee.bsky.social
#20TBRbookchallenge
💙📚

Choose 20 books on your TBR shelf. 1 book per day for 20 days.
No explanations, just covers.

9/20

Loving Pedro Infante
Denise Chávez

#Booksky #bookchallenge
#readingchallenge #readersky
Bookcover: Sepia-washed image of a Latina woman draped over an open book in a dreamy pose, while an old black-and-white movie image of 1940s Mexican movie star Pedro Infante casts a smoldering gaze over her head to someone we can't see. Text: Loving Pedro Infante a novel Denise Chávez "Vibrant...Sassy...Chávez is a pleasure to read" - San Francisco Chronicle
August 26, 2025 at 6:18 PM
caralopezlee.bsky.social
Choose 20 books on your TBR shelf. 1 book per day for 20 days.
No explanations, just covers.

8/20

The Men of Company E
Samuel S. Ortega &
Arnulfo Hernández Jr.

#Booksky #bookchallenge
#readingchallenge #readersky
Book Cover Image: Two eagles, one a golden eagle with a snake in its beak fronted by a shield bearing the colors of the Mexican flag, the other a bald eagle with wings spread fronted by a shield bearing the colors of the U.S. flag. Both of them are gripping two ends of a Nazi flag in their talons, pulling it apart, so that the Nazi flag is ripping down the middle. TEXT: The Men of Company E Toughest Chicano Soldiers of World War II 2nd Battalion, 141st Infantry Regiment 36th Texas Infantry Division Samuel S. Ortega Arnulfo Hernández Jr. in cooperation with Alfred Lugo, Producer/Playwright Freddy Morales, Historian, El Paso, Texas
August 25, 2025 at 3:53 AM
caralopezlee.bsky.social
#20TBRbookchallenge
💙📚

Choose 20 books on your TBR shelf. 1 book per day for 20 days.
No explanations, just covers.

7/20

The Daughter of Dr. Moreau
Silvia Moreno Garcia

#Booksky #bookchallenge
#readingchallenge #readersky
Book Cover: Brightly colored image featuring a dark-featured young woman wearing an upper-class full-length green dress from the turn of the last century standing at the front entry to a fine Mexican home, which is painted pink, orange, and green and covered in climbing green vines. Text: The Daughter of Doctor Moreau New York Times Bestselling Author of Mexican Gothic Silvia Moreno Garcia
August 23, 2025 at 10:46 PM
caralopezlee.bsky.social
#20TBRbookchallenge
💙📚

Choose 20 books on your TBR shelf. 1 book per day for 20 days.
No explanations, just covers.

6/20

Bitter Over Sweet
Melissa Llanes Brownlee

#Booksky #bookchallenge
#readingchallenge #readersky
Book Cover: Chunky images of tropical foliage and insects in shades of purple, dark blue, charcoal, orange, yellow, and white. Text: Bitter Over Sweet Melissa Llanes Brownlee
August 22, 2025 at 7:09 PM
caralopezlee.bsky.social
#20TBRbookchallenge
💙📚

Choose 20 books on your TBR shelf. 1 book per day for 20 days.
No explanations, just covers.

5/20

The Distance Between Us
- Reyna Grande

#Booksky #bookchallenge
#readingchallenge #readersky
Book Cover Image: Against a backdrop of bright blue sky and fluffy white sun-kissed clouds, the deep blue silhouette of a woman holds the silhouette of an invisible child through whom you can see the clouds and sky behind them - so that the child appears to blend into sky and clouds. Text: The Distance Between Us, a memoir Award-winning Author of A Dream Called Home, Reyna Granda Foreword by Sandra Cisneros At the top, a blurb says: "Reyna Grande is a fierce, smart, shimmering light of a writer with an important story to tell." - Cheryl Strayed In the deep blue margin on the right side of the cover are the words: Tenth Anniversary Edition The book also has a gold medallion that says: A National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist
August 22, 2025 at 2:54 AM
caralopezlee.bsky.social
#20TBRbookchallenge
💙📚

Choose 20 books on your TBR shelf. 1 book per day for 20 days.
No explanations, just covers.

4/20

A Bridge Home
- @monaalvaradofrazier

#Booksky #bookchallenge
#readingchallenge #readersky
Book cover image: most of the cover is filled with half the recorded face of a young woman (or teen) with dark hair and eyes, and the whole image is washed in a dark wash similar to sepia but more charcoal-rose in tone, with shots of bright digital pixels slashing across the image as if it is taken from an old video. Text: A Bridge Home Mona Alvarado Frazier “With its honest teenage voice and gritty realism, this novel stands out.” - Kirkus Reviews
August 20, 2025 at 4:31 PM
caralopezlee.bsky.social
#20TBRbookchallenge
💙📚

Choose 20 books on your TBR shelf. 1 book per day for 20 days.
No explanations, just covers.

3/20

The Great Divide
- Cristina Henríquez

#Booksky #bookchallenge
#readingchallenge #readersky
Bright Red book-cover that calls to mind a print of a painting full of colorful images: bright green leaves, pink flowers, yellow frogs, blue fish, multicolored grasshoppers, small squiggles of water and piles of dirt scattered throughout, a shovel sticking out of one dirt-pile. Floating in the center of it all is a canoe with two silhouettes of people sitting in it. Text: The Great Divide "A gorgeous, sweeping epic that draws together a truly unforgettable cast of characters. I loved it." - Ann Napolitano Cristina Henríquez A Novel
August 19, 2025 at 7:40 PM
caralopezlee.bsky.social
#20TBRbookchallenge
💙📚

Choose 20 books on your TBR shelf. 1 book per day for 20 days.
No explanations, just covers.

2/20

Burying Norma Jean
- Leah Rogin
#Booksky #bookchallenge
#readingchallenge #readersky
Book Cover: artist rendering of a silhouette of a woman in a leotard or bathing suit, standing on one foot, other three limbs flung wide in a pose of either dance, yoga, or celebration. She appears to be standing underwater on a cover full of bright aquamarine color with small light-blue curves resembling ripples. Text: Burying Norma Jean by Leah Rogin “Read this and then meet me at the cemetery!” - Kona Morris, Storyteller, Comedian, and founder of Godless Comics
August 18, 2025 at 4:30 PM
caralopezlee.bsky.social
#20TBRbookchallenge
💙📚

Choose 20 books on your TBR shelf. 1 book per day for 20 days.
No explanations, just covers.

1/20

Borderlands
and the Mexican American Story - David Dorado Romo

#Booksky #bookchallenge
#readingchallenge #readersky
Book Cover: Painting or Color Drawing of a protest. A Latina woman stands in the foreground, facing the viewer, fist raised overhead, expression determined, long dark hair pulled back in a yellow headband, wearing a purple dress and red sweater. Protestors in the background carry signs. Buildings and trees are scattered behind them, suggesting a university, government complex, or other sort of campus. A purple-blue sky with white fluffy clouds finishes the scene. Text: - Race to the Truth (series) - Borderlands and the Mexican American Story - David Dorado Romo
August 17, 2025 at 7:15 PM
caralopezlee.bsky.social
We're still telling stories in L.A. I'm adding my voice to "I Hate Stories" Sat, Aug 16

Angelenos, come hear the tale my ancestral ghosts came 100 years to tell. We need their stories now more than ever...to laugh, cry & hope: www.eventbrite.com/e/tell-it-tr...

#Storytelling
#LALife
#BookSky
Event Flyer shows a book lying open, its pages splayed like multiple wings, butterflies emerging from the pages to fly away into a backdrop of ethereal blue sky with fluffy clouds struck by an offstage sun. Text says: Tell It! True Stories and Personal Essays presents I HATE STORIES August 16, 7:30 PM Alex Alexander, Alex Stein, Andrew Boyle, Cara Lopez Lee, Elaine Gale, Laurie O'Brien Produced and Hosted by Pablo Marz The Young Actor Workspace, 5571 Pico Bl, LA 90019
August 10, 2025 at 3:48 AM
caralopezlee.bsky.social
The world may shrivel
But home lights the dry petals
Till sun last goes down
- Cara Lopez Lee

#haiku
#authorlife
#californialife
#chicanawriter
Small bunch of dried roses in a vase on a kitchen table, turned extra rosy and nostalgic by the setting sun coming through a window not shown in photo. A caption layered atop patches of light and shadow on the table reads: “In a season of darkness a moment of light/En una temporada de oscuridad un momento de luz”
July 28, 2025 at 6:08 PM