Sweet Mary A Novel

"...It’s a fun summer read. And it’s not often readers get to cheer a stylish Cuban-American soccer mom turned gun-toting detective.”- Laura Wides-Munoz, Associated Press


"Sweet Mary is a wild ride, not just for Maria but for the reader. If the finish feels too good to be true, that's because fiction often has the edge over journalism; you can have a happy ending. Sweet."
- Ellen Kanner, The Miami Hearald

“Sweet Mary shimmers with authentic Florida heat. It’s not often you find a thriller so richly textured, and so true to the culture and soul of its setting.” - Carl Hiaasen, NY Times Bestselling Author


“Slick, efficient and spare, this story smokes like a well-rolled cigar.” - Kirkus Reviews


“This book is teeming with sexy South Florida characters, but them biggest turn-on in Sweet Mary is Mary herself, a soulful, ass-kicking single mom who goes all out for the only real man in her life–her son.” - Carlos Coto, Co-Executive Producer of “24”


“Liz Balmaseda’s emotional, inventive and provocative writing, engrosses you in the most satisfying of ways.” -
Andy Garcia, Academy Award nominated actor, director, producer

"The reader is left with a story that resonates long after today’s six o’clock news has been forgotten." - Carlos J. Quierôs, AARP

I Am My Father's Daughter
Living a Life Without Secrets

"When Salinas, a three-time Emmy-winning news anchor for Noticiero Univisin, started working, in 1981, there weren't many minority women in positions of authority in the news business. At that time, most Spanish-language programming came from Mexico and didn't reflect the interests or perspectives of Hispanic-Americans. As Salinas recounts the story of her successful career, she credits her hard-working parents, straight-laced upbringing, willingness to try new things and largely on-the-job training in news reporting. Like other media memoirs (such as Andrea Mitchell's 2005 Talking Back), this one contains irresistible firsthand accounts of interviewing political celebrities, in this case Noriega, Pinochet, Fujimori and subcomandante Marcos. There's a second, more personal thread woven into the career story: Salinas's mission to discover the truth about her recently deceased father, who, it turns out, was a Catholic priest before marrying her mother. Although this quest never becomes a major plot, some passages from Salinas's father's writings are remarkable, particularly his 1944 letter to the U.S. Department of War declining to 'sacrifice my life... the most esteemed human asset... to defend a system that... lacks a seal of kindness.' This entry into the crowded memoir category would be a great graduation gift for a career-oriented young Latina." - Publishers Weekly , Reed Business Information, Inc.

"When, in the early pages of her book, Emmy Award-winning journalist Salinas reveals that she discovered after her father's death that he was once a Catholic priest, a reader may infer that this family secret will be the book's foundation. Instead, it is one of several strands running through the text. Somewhat clumsily, Salinas intertwines her father's mysterious history with her own professional rise in journalism from reporter for a local Los Angeles station to that of well-known anchor for the Spanish-language television station Univision. She relates her painful personal quest to achieve motherhood along with career highlights that include profiling or interviewing Latin American politicians ranging from Manuel Noriega to Alberto Fujimori. Her passion to keep the Spanish-speaking community abreast of current affairs and her efforts to ensure that immigration issues are fairly represented in the media are duly noted. Although lacking the smooth transitions found in books like Mike Wallace's Between You and Me, this book does provide a credible introduction to Spanish-language broadcast journalism and may serve as an inspirational story as well. Recommended for public libraries." - Regina M. Beard, Economics Librarian, Kansas State Libs. Economics Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Waking Up in America
How One Doctor Brings Hope to Those Who Need it Most

"Inspiring memoirs of a remarkable physician whose dedication to helping the homeless has changed the face of health care in Miami. Winner of a MacArthur Foundation "genius" award, Greer, aided here by a Pulitzer-winning journalist at the Miami Herald, tells of his pledge, made on the sudden death of his young sister, never to let any one die or suffer alone. A Cuban who was born in the US by chance, he seems to moves easily between the worlds of Anglo and Spanish, rich and poor, powerful and helpless. In 1984, the lonely death of a local homeless man sent Greer, then an intern at Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital, looking for the man's family. The search led him to Camillus House, a shelter for the homeless, where he soon set up a tiny free walk-in clinic. At risk to his own safety, Greer scoured the mudflats under the bridges and highways to tell alcoholics, drug addicts, and other down-and-outers living there in crates and boxes about his free clinic and persuade them to come in for treatment. With furnishings and supplies and medicines scavenged by the resourceful Greer and care provided by fellow volunteers, the Camillus House clinic thrived and eventually grew to a multistory center named after Greer's dead sister. Greer acquired an education in raising funds and applying for grants, and he soon opened other clinics in Little Havana and in South Dade migrant labor camps. By 1991, the intrepid Greer had become the first assistant dean of homeless education at the University of Miami School of Medicine, with rotations of medical students staffing the clinics. Sharp in its indictment of profit-hungry HMOs that sign up homeless patients for their Medicaid-paid fees but don't servethem, hospital administrators who refuse admission to the under- or uninsured, and out-of-touch Washington policymakers, Greer's text offers spirited testimony to the difference one committed individual can make." - Kirkus Reviews