Bibliodiversidade - Reading Diversely

June has been my best reading month of the year so far, not just because I was able to fit in a reasonable amount of reading time but because all the books I have read this month were very good books and I discovered a few new authors that I really liked and will be wanting to read more. So let us take a look at my June reads, one by one: The Fist of God, Frederick Forsyth : I had loved Forsyth's The Day of the Jackal, the first book I read from this author, and also the first one I read through Bookcrossing . So it is no wonder that I also really liked this one. Even though the theme is very different (The Day of the Jackal is about an attempted murder of General de Gaulle and this one is about the first Gulf War and the liberation of Kuwait), they both share an attention to detail, accuracy of information, suspense and a great ability to mix historical facts with a fiction plot, all with a

Entre 4 e 6 de Junho, realiza-se o Festival Literáro de Bragança. Os detalhes estão aqui . * * * From the 4th of June until the 6th, Bragança hill host a literary festival. You can look at the details here .

May was not as good a reading month as April, not because of the numbers (I read 6 books against 7 in April, which is pretty good for me) but because of the satisfaction those books gave me (something far more important than the number). So without delay, here they go: Angels & Demons | Dan Bown : This was my palate cleanser after reading Janet Murray's  remarkable Strong-minded Women (see my last monthly readings post for more details). I was really disappointed with the last fifth of the book. It started as a really well crafted thriller, with a lot of historical references to real places and facts (mixed with some made-up information, but that's OK, since this is fiction, after all) and I had a good time googling Roman architecture and art pieces as I went reading. Although "movie-script writing" is not what I usually look for in a book, I once in a while like to re

I am so lucky that the first stop of the Literary Travel was scheduled for the town where I live! Last week, a full theatre (who said literary events do not sell out in inland Portugal?) hosted two of my favourite authors: Chilean Luís Sepúlveda and Portuguese Valter Hugo Mãe (actually born in Angola, when it was still a Portuguese colony). For nearly two hours, we listened to the two authors talking about books, politics and life. My favourite book from Valter is so far (I still have many to read) A Máquina de Fazer Espanhóis (of which I know only a Spanish translation: La Máquina de Hacer Españoles ). From Luís Sepúlveda the choice is harder because I have read so many that really spoke to me. The Old Man who Read Love Stories is certainly one of them (which I learned last week that was based on his own experience of living 7 months with an Amazonian tribe), but so is Mundo del Fin del Mundo , Patagonia Express , or As Rosas de Atacama (again, I can't find an English t

Two women reading on a verandah at Ingham, QLD, ca. 1894-1903. I was not able to write a post about the March reads in time, so I am joining two months into one post, March and April. I read 3 books in March: The Tailor of Panama | John le Carré (UK): this was quite an enjoyable read, even though spying and international intrigue are not among my favourite genres. But I had this book lying around for too long and decided I had to read it before letting it go again through Bookcrossing , which is where it came from. One of the things I found very interesting is how the core of the story remains so up-to-date: intelligence services from developed countries looking for new purposes by messing around in the third world, a small lie becoming bigger and bigger until it is appropriated by those services/governments and the media as a means to justify a military invasion... As my reading progressed, I had the creepy notion I already knew the story, and it was not from the movi

Written World by Rob Gonsalves I was talking with my daughter the other day about dreams and nightmares and at some point we started discussing our favourite dreams - you know, those that leave you disappointed when you wake up because they were being so good. It was then that I realised that some of my best dreams are related with books. There is this one where I am in downtown Lisbon, wandering inside one of those ancient buildings that used to host big stores selling textiles, dress fabrics and knitting yarns, where I often went with my mother when I was a child. The only difference is that in my dream, the fabrics, yarns and all the rest have been replaced by... books! Endless wooden shelves filled with books disposed in a sort of labyrinth, that leave me in complete awe! I start browsing through the titles and find books I have read long ago, books that I used to love but at some point have lost, or others that I have been longing to read for years. There is this other dream