The Book Thief

Markus Zusak is an Australian writer, son of a German mother and an Austrian father. All his live he was surrounded by memories and stories of a Nazi Germany, and perhaps that's why he wrote his magnum opus The Book Thief. In addition to this book, Zusak has also written 4 other books, The Underdog and I Am The Messenger being among them.
This book - released in 2005, having already been translated to more than 40 languages and adapted to cinema - depicts the life of Liesel Meminger, during the second world war. The entire narrative is brought to us by Death, the omnipresent narrator, who travels around Germany to collect the souls of all the war victims.
It's a book full of emotions, happy endings, disasters, a war and many stolen books. In spite of it's historical background, the story is not exclusively dedicated to the Holocaust. In fact, it's a fairly detailed portray of the life of a girl in Molching, Munich. In this book, the war is not a theme, but a cause for many of the vicissitudes, and Markus Zusak's ability to make this distinction should be praised.
In my honest opinion, I consider this book one of the best I have ever had the pleasure to read. not only for it's clever choice of narrator, but also for all the life lessons it has to offer. It's a difficult book to read if you're the kind of person who clings to the characters, but it is certainly a book that should not be missing from your library.
If your curious about this author, or want to buy the book, I will leave some links where you can find all the information you need. For now I'm leaving you, but I'll be back soon with another book xx.

"One was a book thief. The other stole the sky." - Markus Zusak.

Photo Credits: Amazon

Where to get the book:
http://www.amazon.com/Book-Thief-Markus-Zusak/dp/0375831002/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1442537239&sr=8-1
Markus Zusak: https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markus_Zusak

Baltasar & Blimunda

José Saramago was a Portuguese writer awarded with the 1998 Nobel Prize for Literature. Throughout his 87 years of life he wrote several novels, such as The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, Blindness, The Elephant's Journey and Baltasar & Blimunda, the last one being the one I will write about today. In addition to writing, Saramago was also a member of the Portuguese communist party. He passed away on June 18th 2010, in Spain.

You're probably questioning yourself how I found out about this writer. And why I decided to read one of his books. Well, one thing you may not know is that I'm Portuguese. And as a citizen of Portugal, and a 12th grade student (equivalent to the senior year in high school), I have to read this book for school.

Baltasar & Blimunda (original title: Memorial do Convento) is a love story set in the 18th century, during the construction of the Convent of Mafra, as payment for a promise made by the king D. João the 5th of Portugal to ensure succession. Baltasar and Blimunda are a couple, he has returned from war without his left hand, she has eyes that can see everything. In the course of action other characters arise, such as the priest Bartolomeu Lourenço, a pioneer in the history of aviation; and the harpsichordist Domenico Scarlatti (these two characters have in fact existed, and did serve the Portuguese royal family in the 18th century).

The entire narrative is marked by much symbolism, from the characters' appellations up to the convent itself. Saramago's writing has also accentuated the uniqueness of this novel, by the lack of typical characteristics of the direct speech, such as punctuation, and by his wonderfully ironic and blasphemous prose.

The reading of this book requires the utmost attention due to the extreme precision with which it was written. It is suitable for those who like historical novels, and want to learn a little about Portuguese history, in particular at the beginning of the 18th century.

I will leave some links in this post where you can find a little bit more about José Saramago, and also where you can acquire this book - which has been translated into 20 languages, so if you're not accustomed to read in English, don't worry, it is likely that there is an edition in your language.

I hope you enjoyed this post, and that in some way I have encouraged you to read this novel, or any other novel from Saramago. Tell me in the comments bellow what you think about this book or this author. I will see you guys very soon with another book! xx.

Photo Credits: Wikipedia

Where to get the book: 

http://www.amazon.com/Baltasar-Blimunda-Jose-Saramago/dp/0156005204 (The book front I display and the one Amazon displays may be different, but don't worry it's the same book). 

José Saramago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Saramago

A Work In Progress

There is no better way to start this blog than with a book written by a person so beloved by the internet's world.

Connor Franta is an American young man recognized for his work on Youtube, where he publishes videos - including vlogs, a kind of blog but in audiovisual format - on his own channel. Currently he has more than 4.8 millions subscribers on his channel and his videos have been watched over 260 million times - and the numbers just keep on growing.

At the age of 22, and after spending over a year working on it, Connor released his first book entitled A Work In Progress, in which he presents his life behind the camera, or even before there was a camera.

I can say that the book surpassed all the expectations that I had. This is a well constructed and singular autobiography, where Connor not only reports events and milestones in his life, but also explains how these have affected and changed his views and perceptions. He also gives his opinion about various subjects, and shows how it has changed and grown over the years.

What left me more bewildered - positively, of course - is how easily you can relate to this book. And despite the fact that in many occasions he refers to problems linked to the interned and his generation - which are not necessarily associated with other generations - Connor can always somehow write in a way where all his readers would understand what he says. This is something very difficult to do, but he did it very well.

If you are a Connor's fan and you already read the book, leave your opinion in the comments.

If you didn't know him, nor his work, I will leave some links at the end of this post where you can access all the information about him, and also where you can get the book.

I hope you found this interesting and useful, and I will see you soon with another book. Bye xx.

Photo Credits: Connor Franta

Where to get the book: http://www.simonandschusterpublishing.com/A-Work-in-Progress/

Connor Franta's Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ConnorFranta

Connor Franta's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ConnorFrantaFans

Connor Franta's Twitter: https://twitter.com/ConnorFranta

Connor Franta's Instagram: https://instagram.com/ConnorFranta

Welcome!

This is a difficult text to write. First, because I don't know what to say. Second, because I can't imagine what will happen next. I think that the best way to start this blog is with a small introduction: My name is Bia, I'm 17 years old and I'm passionate about books. The rest you will discover later.

And it's the books that this blog will be dedicated to. Throughout my life I always loved reading, and in some way I found in other people's words a refuge, a safe place.

So, I decided to share my passion with the world. In this blog I will publish short reviews of the books I read, and perhaps my view is the same as yours, or I can help you decide which books you'd like to read!

I hope that in some way this blog, in addition to keeping me busy doing what I love most - reading and writing - also becomes useful to the people that follow it and read what I have to say.

For now I'm going to leave, but I will return soon with a post where you can see what I have planned for the blog. Until then, I hope you have a great day! Bye xx