Sophia's Staff Picks
Barcelona- 1945 : At dawn, the young Daniel Sempere is taken by his father-the owner of a bookshop- to a mysterious hidden place in the heart of the old city: The Cemetery of Forgotten Books. There, Daniel Sempere finds a cursed book that will change the course of his life and drags him into a web of secrets, buried in the dark soul of a grey post-war city. This novel has a bit of everything: mystery,romance,humor, a coming of age tale of a young boy and the greatness of Barcelona as a witness!
This is one of those stories that deserves to be read and comes to us with the typical structure of a book within another book, but its elegantly done and Ruiz-Zafón manages to keep you interested all the time.
I feel ''book- envy'' of those who are about to start this book (and the complete saga) ,for they are about to discover a masterpiece and embrace greatr emotions.!P.S Pay attention to Fermín and also read the whole series.
"Los libros son espejos: sólo se ve en ellos lo que uno ya lleva dentro"
I never thought that Neruda's work could be translated without loosing its intensity, yet I've found that same passion as if I was reading his words in Spanish.That detail says a lot a lot of the quality of his work and how he was able to surpass the barriers of language and time.
This book is a masterpiece of classic Latin American poetry and the purest homage to that amazing feeling called love.
Special mention to poems xv andd xx.''En un beso, sabrás todo lo que he callado''
This book tells us the story of the Buendía family members, during seven generations!They live in the ficticious town of Macondo,founded by the marriage of Jose Arcadio Buendía and Ursula Iguarán and who are cousins as well.This family is marked by tragedy,superstition and the believe that all the bad things that may happen to them is due to their blood ties.
All these characters live through wars, love,loss,genealogy,defense of their honor and even magical situations that transport us to their whimsical town, as if we were time travelers, but always condemned to a lonely life;no wonder why Garcia Marquez is considered the father of "magical realism' and one of the best Latin American classic writers. This book is his masterpiece and it is a pleasure from beggining to end, you will not regret it.
Special mention to "Remedios La Bella", who is by far, the most beautiful and unforgettable character in this story.
Macondo forever!*This istory is soon coming to Netflix.
We all know how this classic story goes:Dr.Franskenstein is having some ''God's complex'' and decides to create a human being using different corpses' parts; however, he ends up creating a creature -his son- who reveals against him and society and who also narrates the events in this novel.
What I like the most about this novel is the question of who is the real monster here, the creature or the creator? society itself ? aren't we all monsters,to a certain degree?
Rumor has it that Mary Shelley wrote this work inspired by her own rage and despair towards the people world she lived in, the same that ostracised and manipulated her. Fortunately and unlike the creature in her story , she didnt take revenge and ended up writing a delightful masterpiece.
'The world was to me a secret which I desired to divine.'
The kind of novel that you will read it in a sitting, seriously!
A story depicting the creation of a new family conformed by Blythe and Fox,their children Violet and Sam and the radical changes that they will face over time, along with the denial of Bkythe's maternal instincts, that will put to test her own sanity. At the same time, there is a paralel story of Blythe's mother and grandmother, who made me question the intricacies of intergenerational trauma and pure evil.
The Push made me understand that a mother's worst nightmare can have many (even worse)alternatives and that her mental health is the quintessential pillar of a family . At the same time, it really gave me the chills though I could not stop reading/analyzing it.
This is an exquisite debut full of psychological drama, also a deep novel that makes us -women- question if motherhood is always welcome ,how to raise your children properly , how to overcome loss, how to make your voice heard and to always follow your own instinct.
Warning:this novel is not for sensitive readers.
The best way to educate ourselves on antiracism while having a good laugh! This book is a very welcomed face-slap,full of OMG moments that teach us not to make fools of ourselves and promote education, equity and tolerance, a win-win!
This is poetry turned into a novel, the character of the curious and smart Libertie will captivate you from its beggining.Inspired in the story of one of the first Black female doctors in the United States, it takes us on a journey through the life of Libertie Sampson, in a post Civil War America, a free-born black girl,daughter of a physician who only wants her to follow her steps.
But Libertie is determined to live her life with autonomy and in her own terms,despite the fact that during her transition as a grown up woman, she is subordinated to her husband and other men in the Island of Haiti.The main character never accepts this new reality and will continue to fight for her freedom.
Greenidge prose is deep, ambitious and passionate; her novel presents relevant subjects such us marriage,career, female bonding, sexism,colorism and what it meant to be a free black woman, all of this infused with delightful descriptions that resound a bit of the magic realism of Gabriel García Marquez.
