2016: a year in books

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Anna Hope, Fabio Volo, Jodi Picoult, Joe Hill, Kate Atkinson, Kazuo Ishiguro

So another year has passed and it’s time to review my bookish statistics – I love to do this every year!

In 2016 I read 65 books, just enough to finish my GoodReads challenge! Of those 65 books:

• 31 were written by women and 34 were written by men.
• 12 were “my own damn books”, meaning books I owned before 2016 started.
• 12 books were written by Spanish authors.
• I read 14 books in English.
• I listened to 16 audiobooks (all of them in English too).
• 5 were ebooks.
• I read 24 books borrowed from the library, thanks to the book club, but also because I’ve been browsing the library in search for short books to complete the challenge – I’ve discovered a handful of authors I want to read more of!

I will include more categories this year, such as author’s nationality, year of publication and fiction/non-fiction books, to make it more complete.

I’m really pleased with the amount of books I’ve read, and with the quality too: I think that we, as readers, know ourselves better every year so we chose reads we know we’ll enjoy. I have only read three books that I didn’t like or did not finished: one was a gift, another was a book club pick, and the other was my own choice.

Among the best of the year, I want to share with you the following:

I have read the two novels of Anna Hope this year, and I enjoyed both, but I fell deeply for the characters in The ballroom.

Never let me go was an unexpected favorite in my list: a sad story of love and friendship with a premise so hard to assume.

Jodi Picoult is an author that always brings up ethical and moral issues, and in The storyteller she asks if a sweet old man should be forgiven from the crimes he comitted in the past.

Daybreak is a book written as a diary in which a woman has an affair with a man, and it’s so well narrated that one just can’t believe it hasn’t been written by the protagonist, but by a man!

Life after life made me think that what we call “right” or “the best for us” sometimes brings unhappiness.

And finally, The fireman was a thriller that made me realize that I should read more books of this genre, because I have such a good time with them!

*****

Hope this new year 2017 brings you wonderful reads.

Happy New Year!

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The storyteller, by Jodi Picoult

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Jodi Picoult

What a thought-provoking book! It’s about evil, goodness, and the fact that the two of them can converge into the same person.

Sage Singer is a solitary girl who works at night in a bakery, hidden from the world by her own choice because she thinks she is not worthy of love, friendship, or being happy. One day, she makes friends with Josef, a respected old man from the community where she lives and, shockingly, he confesses to her that he was an SS Nazi guard at Auschwitz and asks her to help him die.

Of course, Sage’s first reaction (after denial, that is, because such a confession seemed more likely to be a made up story by an old man) is disgust for all the crimes committed by Josef in the past, but then again, that was long time ago, and the man he is now is completely different: a nice teacher who has been helping others for years. Might the new Josef redeem the old one? Who is to judge?

Intertwined in this story, there is also Minka’s; she is Sage’s grandmother and a Holocaust survivor who has kept the horror she lived to herself, becoming a new person with a new life once she moved to America. But now Sage needs to know, and Minka finally releases her story, in which Josef plays also a part. Therefore, if the reader was feeling pity for a ninety-year-old man who took part in the world’s worst crimes but voluntarily decided to become a new person, now is willing to change her mind after knowing Minka’s story in Auschwitz.

As far as I know, Picoult’s books are always this controversial. The characters play the two points of view of the story, both of them explained in detail for the reader to sympathize and one has to decide for herself, which is not an easy task. And then again, we are not the ones to judge, but we can’t avoid judging either.

So, if you are looking for a book (or an author, for that matter) to challenge your values and morality, this is a great option. Besides, I never get tired of stories set in World War II, and this particular one is well written: raw and bitter when necessary, but well balanced with kindness and humour thanks to secondary characters in both storylines.

PS: This book was not on my list for the Read my own damn books Challenge, but I have other four books by this author waiting on my shelves 😉

The storyteller
Jodi Picoult
Atria Books, 460 pages
Book on Goodreads

New books – June 2015

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Ashley Farley, Bee Ridgway, Celeste Ng, Gillian Flynn, Jodi Picoult, S.J. Watson, Sadie Jones, Sarah Hall, Tess Thompson

It’s time to show you my new books!

There has been a book fair here in my hometown a couple of weeks ago, so I had the perfect excuse to buy here and there and, besides, I have received a few books from publishers and from a giveaway I won.

Here you go:

The outcast and The river of no return were the books I purchased in the Book Fair.

Back in April I participated in Dewey’s 24 hours readathon and, as always, since I’m kind of an addict to the mini-challenges, I participated in many of them and I won the one hosted by Darren. The prize was £15 to spend in The Book Depository, and I choose Everything I never told you, Leaving time and Sharp objects. I still can’t believe how cheap books are in that web!

And finally, I received Second life (which I have already finished) and The wolf border from Harper. I’ll review them soon, because they are for sale this month.

I also have a couple of new ebooks:

Her sister’s shoes (Ashley Farley): I’m participaing in a book tour of this book, I think it’s my kind of read.

Duet for three hands (Tess Thompson): I was browsing on Amazon Spain but this book wasn’t available in my country so I contacted the author and she kindly sent me a copy! You know she is one of my favourite romance authors, and I really wanted to read this one – I have already started it!

So that was it!

You see I have plenty of books to enjoy after I finish my exams next week 😀

New books – from the Book fair

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Diana Gabaldon, Jodi Picoult, Jojo Moyes, Nicholas Sparks, Sohpie Hannah

There has been a book fair of second-hand books in my hometown this last fortnight, and there is always a stall with a tiny pile of books in English I like to check every year, so there I went, and I almost need a taxi to come back home with all those books 😉

It’s not my fault – they were so cheap I couldn’t help myself!

Night Music (Jojo Moyes): My boyfriend bought me this one. You know how much I loved Me before you, and I want to read more by this author.

Change of heart and Handle with care (Jodi Picoult): another author I would like to read more by.

The lucky one (Nicholas Sparks): I know I will end up crying with Sparks’ stories, but even so, I love them.

The other half lives (Sophie Hannah): I didn’t know this one, but I had to choose four books if I wanted to get a discount, so I thought this one might be a good mystery.

Written in my own heart’s blood (Diana Gabaldon): Here you can see my crown jewel 😀 I didn’t buy this one at the book fair; I ordered it in my local library because I have just finished the 7th book in the series and I don’t want to wait until the 8th is translated into Spanish, so I bought it on a whim!

And now, it’s time to read my brand new books.

House rules, by Jodi Picoult

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Jodi Picoult

What I thought this book was about: a moving story about a poor autistic child and his poor family trying to get a good life for him.

What I really found: a thrilling story about an almost adult autistic boy who is involved in a murder, and how he, his family, the police investigator and his lawyer cope with that situation.

The book has five characters and every chapter is told by one of them. Jacob has got Asperger’s syndrome and he is a brilliant eighteen-year-old boy who can’t empathize or find a good way of communication with others. Emma is Jacob’s mother, a divorced woman whose entire life turns around Jacob, trying to find a routine he is comfortable with and fighting against the barriers others put for her son to integrate. Theo is the youngest brother; he has grown up alone since his mother has always been looking after Jacob and he is now old enough (15 years old) to realize that he is actually the eldest brother and that he will be the one who must carry on in the future with all the work his mother is doing at the moment regarding Jacob. And he doesn’t want to.

When Jess, Jacob’s social integration teacher, disappears, there are a lot of clues that make detective Rich think that Jacob is guilty. Jacob’s passion – and obsession – is criminal investigation: he always goes to the crime scenes of the village to “help” the police to solve the cases, and he enjoys playing his own crime scenes at home for his mother to solve them. But this time his own belongings are with Jess’s corpse. The last character, Oliver, is a young lawyer Emma contracts who really doesn’t know how to deal with Jacob’s case because he doesn’t have experience in that field. And the worst thing is that the boy seems to be guilty.

The reader doesn’t know who killed Jess, so you can just listen to every character in order to find what happened that day when Jacob had his last class with Jess. At the beginning nobody thinks Jacob is the murderer but then he does things and gives some explanations that make you think the worse. Even Emma and Theo don’t know – and don’t want to know – the truth.

While the investigation goes forward, all the characters talk about what living with an autistic boy means, included Jacob, who tries to explain how his mind works and how he analyzes people’s body language and reactions and how hard he tries to integrate into his class and his brother’s friends. Emma would never want a life without Jacob, but she really doesn’t have her own life, and Theo is afraid of living always babysitting his brother in the future.

It’s a shame you can guess what happened to Jess from the beginning of the book, although you get confused later, with Jacob’s statements to the police and the judge, but I really couldn’t put the book down during last week. Not only is it a crime investigation, but also a picture of all the feelings round a boy with Asperger’s syndrome.

I’m looking forward to reading more books of Jodi Picoult!

My review in Spanish here.

IMM 2 and bookish activities for next weeks

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Danna Pycher, Gabriele Wills, Jodi Picoult, Lisa D. Ellis, Paullina Simons, Winifred Watson

This time I want to show you some of the new books I have got in Spanish but that are also available in English, so they will be reviewed sooner or later here:

House rules (Jodi Picoult): I have already read it and I loved it. It is so different from what I thought it was about, but so thrilling.

The bronze horseman (Paullina Simons): I have read several positive reviews about this book and I think I will love the story.

Miss Pettigrew lives for a day (Winifred Watson): I neither knew this book nor the author, and then why do I have this novel? Because Leander sent it to me this week! She says this is what I call a “medicine book” – a book that makes you feel better – and that is exactly what I need at the moment. Thanks, Leander!!

And I also have promising novels to read on my kindle:

Elusive Dawn (Gabriele Wills): this is the second book of the Muskoka trilogy, and I’m looking forward to reading it since I loved The summer before the storm (my review).

Finding Lily (Lisa D. Ellis): I got this book for review in a book tour (Virtual author book tours). I chose it because I thought I would like the plot, so I will tell you about the book at the end of May.

3rd generation and beyond (Danna Pycher): when Rebecca asked me to participate in the first book tour she is organizing, I said yes! Because this is her first book tour and also becuase she talked very good about this book, so I’m sure I will like it. My review will be out in May too.

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Other things to take into account:

Weekday Readathon

Don’t  you have a good plan for next Wednesday? I do, becuase the Weekday Readathon will take place on 24th of April 😀

More information at:

• Love at first book
• The book wheel

3rd generation and beyond book tour

If you want to become a tour host for this book, let Rebecca know it, because she is organizing a tour and there are still available dates in May. Check it here.

I am participating; I’m sure I’ll find the book be very thought provoking.