Category: fiction

Five Things About Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

  1. I took this book out without looking much into the subject or author so I was not sure what I was going to be reading.
  2. I really loved it. It is a beautiful and unexpected book with a wealth of details and textures.
  3. It was really interesting the idea of setting a clone and almost “futuristic” plot in a old English countryside.
  4. The way the author gives out just the smallest bits of information is so controlled and wonderful.
  5. I read it as a fairly straight forward story, although i suppose more can be projected onto the characters. As in if each character is a specific metaphor or representation of a feeling. That is not usually the way I read.

Cinco cosas sobre “Rendición” de Ray Loriga

  1. Lo empecé a leer con reticencia porque los libros de Ray Loriga perdieron todo appeal para mi hace mucho.
  2. Para mi sorpresa, tiene un buen inicio que atrapa.
  3. Estaba intrigada por el hecho de que al parecer tenía un personaje femenino sensato y no sólo un cliché sobre el que el personaje masculino pueda desatar su enojo. Al final esto fue el desenlace más decepcionante.
  4. La premisa es extremadamente interesante, y él escribe bien. Sólo no estoy interesada ya en las “profundas desilusiones de los hombres”.
  5. Aunque la idea de la ciudad y la forma en que todos se comportan es relevante, me pregunto qué tanto está ligada a la situación política de España y qué es lo que quiere él decir exactamente con este libro.

Cinco cosas sobre “Mi novia favorita fue un bulldog francés” de Legna Rodríguez Iglesias

  1. Es posible que Legna Rodríguez Iglesias sea una de mis autoras contemporáneas favoritas.
  2. El ritmo de su escritura le da una textura interesantísima a los cuentos, y aunque parece que se está explayando en demasiados temas, es claro que todas las palabras son seleccionadas exactamente.
  3. Una de las mejores descripciones de ser un extranjero y tener que pasar por aduanas que yo he leído.
  4. Me gusta la sensación de lista constante de emociones que hay en sus textos.
  5. She is funny as hell.

Five Things About The Lucky Ones by Julianne Pachico

  1. I had many different emotions while reading this book, which ultimately was my favorite thing about it.
  2. It bothers me to an extent that so many of the Colombian writers that get talked about in the states are either Gabo or wealthy, privileged people who grew up mostly in the United States. It doesn’t feel representative of what people in Colombia are writing, but this may be a larger issue of the commercialization of third world trauma.
  3. I really liked the structure of a novel through loosely linked short stories.
  4. And while I was bothered by the privilege the story shows, I think she is also aware of this.
  5. The characters felt best when they weren’t performing rich-kid sadness.

Five Things About Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

  1. To be honest, Marianne bothered me a lot a the beginning. I thought her self important, but she grew on me.
  2. I appreciate that there was a long plot driving the whole story, but at moments it lost me with the abundance of details and people.
  3. The romance between Marianne and the colonel was a bit too hurried in my opinion.
  4. I think this is the last Jane Austen I had left to read. 
  5. Not  my favorite, but didn’t hate it.

Five Things About The Baron in the Trees By Italo Calvino

  1. I had been hearing amazing things about this book for a long time from a lot of people and I must say it did not disappoint. Not even a little. This is pretty much a perfect book.
  2. I think the women in this book were amazing and interesting and if anything I am slightly sad that they did not get more time.
  3. Everything about the writing was so well done. Which is not surprising, but it is always welcome.
  4. The least engaging parts of the story, to me, where the parts where it went too much into the lives of other men. Like the uncle. I understand what it was doing, but I preferred the interaction of the Baron with his people much better.
  5. He had a polyamorous woman who was allowed to be herself and the main character recognizes that their differences and the reason the relationship didn’t work was because of him and not her. I mean, that was gold.