My Name Is Emilia Del Valle

To begin where my own experience of this book began, the cover art for this book is stunning, and a significant part of what drew me to it. When I put this book on hold in my library app, it was one I looked forward to the most. It didn't disappoint.

Emilia has no particularly special abilities. She is fairly clever, well read due to growing up with a school teacher for a farther, but most of all she is sure of herself, and willing to take bold risks in search of the adventure she craves. Her extraordinary story stems most of all from her restlessness, and its infectious.

Taking place at the edge of the popular consciousness (for US folks at least), we get to know an early San Francisco and Los Angeles at a time when their domination of the pacific coast was far from assured, when in fact they were small players compared to the powerful trade empire of a nation like Chile. And we see how foreign fueled political conflict begins the process of weakening Chile's hold on Pacific trade. We are also introduced to the culture and landscape of a nation that is far too often less than a footnote in US cultural consciousness.

A memorable book that was damn hard to put down. It turns out you can judge this book by its cover.