I don’t know much how other people choose their books.  I never hear it come up in everyday conversation.  I’m sure many book readers go to their own secret websites and podcasts.  I DO.  Choosing the right book is a big deal for me.  As I get older, I have difficulty squeezing my reading time into my week.  I want to be assured that when I do sit down with my book, I’ve made the right choice.   Here is a method I’ve developed over time: when I’m reading, I make a lot of annotations, so when the author of a book mentions another author, I WRITE IT DOWN.  If I like the FIRST AUTHOR, I feel confident to try the SECOND AUTHOR.   One book leads to another.  It’s not a scientific process, but it works for me. This is the year 2025.  I’m on a roll.  I’m on pace to read 50 books.  I have rarely said to myself, “What am I going to read next?”

Currently, I’m reading like three or four books at a time.  One of those is a Spanish-language narco-traficante novel written by Sinaloan author Elmer Mendoza.  The title in Spanish is Ella entró a través de la ventana del baño.  In English this translates into “She Came in through the Bathroom Window.”  If it sounds familiar, it’s a Beatles song.  I think Ringo is on lead vocals. The detective in this novel is always caught between a ROCK and a HARD PLACE.  I mean, on a daily basis,  the corruption of his colleagues and the violence of of the narcotraficantes just crushes him. He feels death and betrayal closing in on him from all sides.  No wonder, when and if he gets home, he has a hard time getting to sleep.  That’s when he reaches for a novel ( and maybe a bottle of whiskey and a few pills) to help him forget his misery.  In this book, he is reading  a novel written by Mexican writer F.G Haghenbeck.

OK!  That’s how I’ve chosen my next novel to read, for I have read Haghenbeck before, both in English and Spanish.  He wrote a fictional memoir about Frida Kahlo that I enjoyed. The title is The Secret Book of Frida Kahlo.  F.G. helped me understand Frida’s tormented childhood.  The inspiration from her (Jewish) father.  The up-and-down love-hate relationship she maintained with Diego Rivera.  F.G even captured Frida’s passion for cooking.  

When Frida was in high school, she nearly died in a horrible traffic accident. The bus she was riding collided with a streetcar.   It was like her life exploded into a million pieces. The handrail she was holding onto broke and completely passed through her pelvis (and uterus).  Her spinal column was crushed in three places and her collarbone was fractured. Some doctors told her she  would never walk again. Others wondered if she would live. She was confined to a bed for three months, and for the rest of her life she would be forced to wear plaster corsets.    She  spent a life time in and out of  physical therapy,  but  Frida discovered for whatever she lost, she could create. Through her painting, she could shape an entirely new life and identity. She decided that all the physical and emotional pain I suffered could make her stronger. Some day, I hope to read this novel with my students. Frida seems to have something to offer everyone.

My students will be afforded the flexibility to write what they want to write about, but writing about Frida’s role as a feminist Icon wouldn’t be a bad choice.  In her darkest hours of her pain and isolation she translated her trauma into the artwork we revere today.  She laughed at her own agony  she fought for her own respect, but her work was most often overshadowed by her famous husband, Diego Rivera.    I hope to see discussions of stereotyping in classroom workshops. Will my students be able to compare some of the challenges Frida faced with the challenges women face today?  I’m not sure Frida earned the respect she deserved before she was dead and gone. She once told a writer who she thought had slighted her, “I didn’t study with Diego.  I didn’t study with anyone.  I just started to paint.  He does pretty well for a little boy, but it is I who am the big artist.”  Frida wasn’t the kind of woman to pull back into her shell.

  I doubt that I will ever bring Bitter Drink into the classroom.  A LOT OF DRINKING and F*#&ING GOIN’ ON!  I know this from reading the Tennessee Williams story/play it’s based on, The Night of the Iguana. Tennesse was a hardcore drug addict alcoholic.  Later, he died of a seconal overdose. The director of Iguana was also famous for his hard drinking. Maybe John Huston was attracted to Tenessee's script, for he knew the characters on such an intimate basis.  On his movie location, he set out to create a party atmosphere to match the drinking displayed in the story itself.  Ava Gardner was there.  By this time, she was so LOOSE and CRAZY with her drinking she was living in exile in Spain, apparently to distance her from the presshounds and paparazi who lived to catch her in flagrante delito – frequent alcohol binges or sexual escapades.  But when she shows up in Puerto Vallarta, actually  the location  a small fishing village called Mismaloya, she look GOOD!  She plays an alcoholic sex-crazed hotel owner.  This role was perfect for her comeback, and she knew it.  LOLITA is in the house. I’m talking about fourteen-year-old nymphette actress Sue Lyon still glowing in her fame from her previous film. I’m not sure what she drinks, but she smokes a lot of mota. LIZ and DICK, though, have to be the drinking leaders at every turn. Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.   Liz is not in the movie.  She spent most of her time at the bar or dirinking Mai Tais on the beach.  Dick is in the movie, he plays an alcoholic priest, ex-communicated by his church, and now he’s working as a travel guide for a bogus tour company.  He’s completely WASTED all the time; before, during, and after work.

Here is the important component of the novel.  The detective is a beatnik named Sunny Pascal.  He’s drunk and sloppy from page one to one-hundred-fifty-eight. This is imnportant because he narrates the story of Bitter Drink.  He’s like straight out of a Raymond Chandler novel.  When he’s not drinking, he’s wise-cracking.  When ever he comes across a murder victim or a kidnapping, you figure he’s going to be next. In Bitter Drink, Sunny comes face to face with the Mexican Mafia. Their presence is not included in the script.  Their murder and mahem is behind-the-scenes.

Do you see a pattern in this post?  The pattern is DRINKING.  F.G. Haghenbeck integrates a variety of tropical drinks into each chapter.  In fact, he titles each new chapter with  a new drink: like "Margarita"; "Cuba Libra";  and "Tequila with Sangrita (Jalisco Style). To provide his actors with an ehnahced  sense of the play, Huston ordered the production of a small bar on the set. Burton started his day at 7:00 a.m. with his quest to drink a case of beer.  His contract stated explicitly that all filming would stop at 5:00.  That's when he would return to the bar to start his SERIOUS drinking. He was famous for the number of teqiula shots he could put down at once. I've read a joke out there somewhere about how to prepare Burton his favorite cocktail.  Well, first you begin with 21 tequila shots.  The Welshman also  had a taste for cactus brandy called raicilla. This shows up in Bitter Drink.  

I’m not writing a book report here. I suppose I’m reminding myself HOW and WHY I choose the books I read.  Often in the classroom, I bring up the term METACOGNITION.  It’s THINIKING about THINKING.  I know the more aware I am of my own learning process, the more I will advance.  It’s easier to make connections this way.  I’m always asking my students to inventory what they know.   Just a short time ago, I read the Tennessee’s play The Night of the Iguana.  I wrote about it here in my classroom blog and Facebook: Jay's NIGHT OF THE IGUANA Post – Tennessee Williams – Despair on the Beach.   I read about the play, the movie, and of course, Liz and Dick!   

DID YOU KNOW: The filming of The Night of the Iguana followed the filming of the world’s most expensive blockbuster (at the time) Cleopatra. Liz played Cleopatra.  Dick played Mark Anthony.  Their characters fell into a historic love affair.  Dick showed up on set drunk every day in short skirt – this was part of his Roman costume.  Liz came made-up as an exotic Princess.  The first time they met was in the studio cafeteria.  Dick was trying to steady the coffee cup he was holding in both his hands, but he was experiencing alcoholic shakes and the coffee was spilling all over the table.  Not too ROMANTIC first encounter.  For some reason, the Exotic Princess felt compelled to reach out her hand and help guide the cup to his lips.  This is a true story.  When their hands touched,  it was like LOVE at first SHAKE. 

 I enjoyed The Night of the Iguana so much, that this week I’m reading another Tennessee Williams play, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.  More DRINKING. Not too much F*#&ING.  Liz plays Maggie the Cat in the movie version.  Tennesse Williams, this dude can write!   I’m glad to have picked up F.G. Haghenbeck’s fictional account of the making of The Night of the Iguana. I was inspired to read F.G. from reading the mention of one of his novels in my Spanish-language Elmer Mendoza books.  I believe F.G. maintains a humerous, wise-cracking but historically accurate apporach to his writing that my students may appreciate in the future.  That’s why I just might go back to the Haghenback novel Frida’s Secret Book.  It’s here on my shelves in both English and Spanish.

DID YOU KNOW: Liz and Dick fell in love with Puerto Vallarta during the shooting of Iguana. They bought a beautiful villa they called the Kimberly House.   They maintained it – for like twenty years –  as their place to go to when they wanted to escape.  Sooner or later, Dick bought a second villa right next to it and bulit a bridge that would always connect them.  This way they could EAT, DRINK, LOVE, and AVOID KILLING EACHOTHER.  I don't know where they found their architect, but like 400 miles inland Frida and Diego lived much the same way as Liz and Dick.  Their house is still standing in the Mexico City neighborhoos of Coyoacán. (In the picture, that's Diego's White House on the left; That's Frida's Blue house onf the right.YOU CAN SEE A RED BRIDGE UP TOP THAT CONNECTS THE TWO.) I've gone there to visit, TWICE.  Frida once famously said, "There have been two great accidents in my life. One was the trolley, and the other was Diego. Diego was by far the worst.”  

Liz and Dick, Diego and Frida, their relationships were like mirrored images of one another.   In each case the lovers needed each other more than they could iever magine.   They really didn't have the temperment to live with each other. But leaving one another would tear them apart.   I'll tell that to my students.  I've read all about it.