Why am I passionate about this?

I am passionate about writing. In my childhood in a rural Montana town, I read all the books in the school library. I also kept diaries, wrote poetry, and when I moved to California at age 16, wrote essays that my High School English teachers read aloud to the class. I switched to academic writing when studying for a master’s degree in social welfare and obtaining a doctorate degree in multicultural education. Since retiring as a school administrator, I have written about my travels in 105 countries. My writing has appeared in numerous print and online publications. My second memoir tells of the struggles and triumphs of a bicultural marriage. 


I wrote...

Between Inca Walls

By Evelyn Kohl LaTorre,

Book cover of Between Inca Walls

What is my book about?

An adventurous and romantically inclined twenty-one-year-old seeks belonging and fulfillment volunteering in Mexico and Peru. She joins the Peace Corps…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of The Boys of Riverside

Evelyn Kohl LaTorre Why did I love this book?

This story of the Cubs football team of the California School for the Deaf, Riverside, left me in awe. Their team won the championship of their eight-man football league in Southern California in 2022, 2023, and 2024. 

The book is as instructive as it is inspiring. Creative play-by-play descriptions like “…bounced off defenders like a pinball…” provide a clear visualization of the sport of football. This was especially important for a novice football watcher like me. Through the author’s prose, I could see the plays and feel the excitement of the games. 

Even more importantly, I understood how the deaf community interacts with the hearing-dominant world, which is often oblivious to their existence. The football players worked as a unit because their differences banded them together and gave them strength.

By Thomas Fuller,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Boys of Riverside as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The incredible story of an all-deaf high school football team’s triumphant climb from underdog to undefeated, their inspirational brotherhood, a fascinating portrait of deafness in America, and the indefatigable head coach who spearheaded the team, by New York Times reporter and San Francisco Bureau Chief, Thomas Fuller.

"The Boys of Riverside is another example of how anyone can achieve their dreams, making what appears impossible, possible.” —Marlee Matlin, Academy Award winner

In November 2021, an obscure email from the California Department of Education landed in New York Times reporter, Thomas Fuller’s, inbox. The football team at the California School for…


Book cover of Belonging

Evelyn Kohl LaTorre Why did I love this book?

I wanted to know why Michelle Miller, an award-winning broadcast journalist on the CBS Saturday Morning show, yearns to reconnect with her biological mother. She wants her Latina birthmother to recognize her as her own. Questions we both wanted to know: Was she abandoned because her father was married to someone else? Because she had darker skin than her Hispanic mother? Or because her mother’s family disapproved of their daughter being with a Black man despite his being a surgeon and a city councilman? 

Michelle attended Howard University, where she formed tight friendships. Her journalistic career is marked by interactions with famous civil rights movers and shakers. Yet, throughout her life, she missed having a mother and a “normal” nuclear family to belong to. 

By Michelle Miller,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Belonging as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

"[An] outstanding debut."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

The award-winning journalist and co-host of CBS Saturday Morning tells the candid, and deeply personal story of her mother’s abandonment and how the search for answers forced her to reckon with her own identity and the secrets that shaped her family for five decades.

Though Michelle Miller was an award-winning broadcast journalist for CBS News, few people in her life knew the painful secret she carried: her mother had abandoned her at birth. Los Angeles in 1967 was deeply segregated, and her mother—a Chicana hospital administrator who presented as white,…


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Book cover of Songbird

Songbird by Laci Barry Post,

It's 1943, and World War II has gripped the nation, including the Stilwell family in Jacksonville, Alabama. Rationing, bomb drills, patriotism, and a changing South barrage their way of life. Neighboring Fort McClellan has brought the world to their doorstep in the form of young soldiers from all over the…

Book cover of Long Island

Evelyn Kohl LaTorre Why did I love this book?

I’m not sure why this Oprah’s Book Club pick is named Long Island since most of the crucial scenes take place in Ireland, the homeland of forty-three-year-old Eilis Lacey. I read this book because it is the sequel to Toibin’s previous book, Brooklyn, which was made into a movie starring Saoirse Ronan.

I often wonder what happens to couples after their romantic and enthralling beginnings, and life between two cultures interests me. It shows the differences that develop between two people from different cultures who fall in love and try to make a life together. In this second half of their lives, the couple have more than the usual problems. The unending plot-twists led me to finish the book in a day. A good read, but I’m sure the ending will be controversial.

By Colm TĂłibĂ­n,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked Long Island as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK * INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * “Stunning.” —People * “Dazzling yet devastating...Tóibín is simply one of the world’s best living literary writers.” —The Boston Globe * “Momentous and hugely affecting.” —The Wall Street Journal *

From the beloved, critically acclaimed, bestselling author comes a spectacularly moving novel featuring Eilis Lacey, the complex and enigmatic heroine of Brooklyn, Tóibín’s most popular work in twenty years.

Eilis Lacey is Irish, married to Tony Fiorello, a plumber and one of four Italian American brothers, all of whom live in neighboring houses on a cul-de-sac in Lindenhurst, Long Island,…


Book cover of Twice a Daughter

Evelyn Kohl LaTorre Why did I love this book?

Few things delight me more than being immersed in a world where a character is searching for where he/she belongs, such as in the world of closed adoptions. From the first page to the last, the book absorbed me in the highs and lows of an adoptee’s search for her biological mother and father.

Julie perseveres in her hunt for nearly a decade. The author’s vivid descriptions of her intense emotions during her quest made me aware of the painful consequences of keeping adoption information secret. I felt her sorrow, disappointments, and tension. The depictions of her Collie companions, her garden, and Chicago make them characters that add authenticity. This book is a heartfelt memoir—with a surprise ending. I highly recommend it.

By Julie Ryan McGue,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Twice a Daughter as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Julie is adopted. She is also a twin. Because their adoption was closed, she and her sister lack both a health history and their adoption papers - which becomes an issue for Julie when, at forty-eight years old, she finds herself facing several serious health issues. To launch the probe into her closed adoption, Julie first needs the support of her sister. The twins talk things over, and make a pact: Julie will approach their adoptive parents for the adoption paperwork and investigate search options, and the sisters will split the costs involved in locating their birth relatives. But their…


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Book cover of Fourth and Long

Fourth and Long by Britt Belle,

Fourth and Long is a novel written in the first person with dual POVs.

Ellie: When I meet Slater, an infamous quarterback trying to salvage his career, I know better than to form expectations. Our relationship starts out casual, but I can’t help falling for him. The problem is, that…

Book cover of Collaborative Happiness

Evelyn Kohl LaTorre Why did I love this book?

I read with fascination this study of how quality, environmentally sound, and satisfying lives have been achieved in two intentional communities in two distinct cultures: the Kankanmori community of Tokyo, Japan and Quayside Village of Vancouver, British Columbia.

The author’s observations about how humans are becoming more isolated rang true to my experiences in California. I was encouraged by how both these cohousing communities developed bonds through play, work, and frequent interactions at common meals. I would have thought the strict structure of the living arrangements in Japan might have counteracted the desired feelings of belonging. But they bonded just as well as the ‘hang-loose’ Canadians. I was convinced that living in cohousing, especially as I age, is the way to live more happily and less isolated.

By Catherine Kingfisher,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Collaborative Happiness as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Understudied relative to other forms of intentional community, and under-recognized in policy-making circles, urban cohousing communities situate wellbeing as simultaneously social and subjective, while catering for groups of people so diverse in age. Collaborative Happiness looks at two such urban cohousing communities: Kankanmori, in Tokyo; and Quayside Village, in Vancouver. In expanding beyond mainstream approaches to happiness focused exclusively on the individual, Quayside Village and Kankanmori provide an alternative model for how to understand and practice the good life in an increasingly urbanized world marked by crisis of both social and environmental sustainability.


Explore my book 😀

Between Inca Walls

By Evelyn Kohl LaTorre,

Book cover of Between Inca Walls

What is my book about?

An adventurous and romantically inclined twenty-one-year-old seeks belonging and fulfillment volunteering in Mexico and Peru. She joins the Peace Corps and is sent to the Andes, where she searches for a place to make an impact. In the town of Abancay she is invited to teach in a village being planned for the Quechua-speaking indigenous population.

She trains at the local hospital, but the new town doesn’t materialize. So, she forms 4-H clubs and teaches in nearby dirt-floored schools. She is asked to be queen of the boys school in the annual parade. A university student helps her perfect her Spanish. The couple falls in love. When Evelyn becomes pregnant, she must choose where she belongs: the Latin culture that accepted her, or her own.

Book cover of The Boys of Riverside
Book cover of Belonging
Book cover of Long Island

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