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Bookish activities I have participated in in April:

Weekday Readathon: I told you all about it here.

La corte de Carlos IV joint reading: this is the second of the National Episodes by Spanish classical author Benito Pérez Galdós. I organized the joint reading of the first episode and one of my blogger friends has organized this one. We are enjoying very much reading these novels!

Giveaways:

On April 21st, 22nd and 23rd I won 3 giveaways in 3 Spanish book blogs – one per day – and I just couldn’t believe my eyes and my luck! I have received two of the books and I’m waiting for the third.

Meeting friends:

Last weekend I had a chat through google hangout with Allison and Rebecca and I was able to speak (more or less) to them and understand (more or less) them. I had never done this before and I have to say I spent a great time talking about everything with them plus they didn’t complain about my English!

List of readings:

I will summarize the books I have read this month and I will talk a little bit more about the ones I won’t review in this blog:

  • The summer before the storm (Gabriele Wills): a book that I loved. My review here.
  • A modest proposal (Jonathan Swift): this was a funny text in which the author exposes his solution to the poverty problem in Ireland: eat the poor children. Then, there won’t be more poor children. Easy! I haven’t reviewed it in this blog, but I recommend this short text.
  • Gone Girl (Gillian Flynn): I liked it very much; you will read my review at the end of this week.
  • House Rules (Jodi Picoult): this book and author have been a wonderful discovering for me. My review here.
  • 3rd generation and beyond (Danna Pycher): it will be reviewed soon.
  • Brújulas que buscan sonrisas perdidas (Albert Espinosa): Espinosa is a Spanish author and this is the third book of him I have read. I have found it repetitive; once you read one of his books, the rest are more or less the same.
  • La corte de Carlos IV (Benito Pérez Galdós): this book is on my Classics club’s list. Last year I started to read the National Episodes – the first episode was Trafalgar, and you can read the review here – and this is the second one. The National Episodes are a enjoyable way to learn about Spanish history; I’m very glad to read them little by little.
  • Fantasía (Emila Pardo Bazán): Pardo Bazán was Galdós’ partner and this is the first time I read one of her short stories. She talks about the idea of heaven, hell and purgatory; a journey through God’s domains in Christmas Eve.

 Hope May brings wonderful stories to talk about!