My Readings - Tumblr Posts
Pic a pile Your next boyfriend.
Pile 1, pile 2, pile 3 clockwise.
For pile 1:I hear croissant and honey. I feel this like a grounded person who knows what to do, because its life was harsh with him and now he can love normaly like everyone else. It can be a person who like spend time at home with loved person or stay at home doing lazy things.
Lets see zodiacs it can be sun, moon or rising taurus, scorpio and aries.
Second pile: I get working with children, so a teacher or another children involved job, this is a person that love movie and his favorite are old russian or french movies .
A toned body with beard and loves nature, thinking of leave the big city for a more Cozy little town.
Zodiacs sun,moon or rising:gemini,cancer,leo.
Third pile:Strong fitness addiction and love for pancake, chocolate and strawberry.
A very calm and relaxed way of living with a lot of hours spent reading, watching movies or doing exercise also love sex,oooih spicy 3rd pile.
Zodiac signs,Sun,moon or rising :sag,virgo and scorpio.
Book Review: Historias de Cronopios y de Famas, Julio Cortázar
My Review in a Tweet:
Imagine you get a box filled with puzzle pieces, but they are all from different puzzles. You may see a familiar figure here, another face there, but no matter how you try to arrange the pieces together, you are sure it's not the meant image. Reading this book is like that.
My Full Review:
I became aware yesterday of my inappropriate lack of Argentinean authors in my reading list this year, and trying to mend that a little, I found this little book in a bookshelf while visiting my parents for the holidays.
While quite short, this book reminded me how much I ignore. I felt in a clear cultural disadvantage, where Cortázar (who some people may call the greatest Argentinean author) was playing a joke at my expense. I don't say this negatively.
Historias de Cronopios y de Famas is a collection of short stories, vague poems and... Nonsense. That's when the ignorance I felt started to creep in. I'm not sure of the exact literary current Cortázar belongs to, but this book read to me like an absurdist ramble without crossing over to dadaism.
I tend to believe that there are some clear themes of social and economic classes coating the short stories of the Cronopios, the Famas and the Hopes: they work as fictional and bizarre versions of Argentina's middle-to-low, high and (cultural) elite class respectively (I'm not sure about the Hopes). Cronopios are despised and treated condescendingly by the Famas, mocking their behavior and traditions, all too jovial and effusive and lazy; the Famas think too high of themselves and tend to use and abuse the other two; the Hopes seem to be trapped in an academic gasp, stunned by the lack of refinement of the Cronopios.
Even the short stories not directly related to the Cronopios and Famas act as a display of Argentina's idiosyncrasy, helped by the explicit mention of some elements, some places of this country (and more specifically, from Gran Buenos Aires).
But you have to remember that none of the stories really make sense. They are almost poetical, oneirical, nearing the realm of magical realism, very popular in Latin America.
The narration and writing themselves demand a lot of the reader's attention and time, forcing them to engage with the book to find some sense.
Again, I say all of this in a positive light: it's a challenging book in almost a literal sense, it presents itself innocently, like a bunch of nonsense, but soon you start to feel like there's something more underneath, like if under this outer coat of surrealistic and abstract tales laid a more tangible and grounded coat of the same color, merely a different tone but same color nonetheless.
I'm not sure how well this book would be received by non-argentinian or non-spanish speaking persons, but it's a good book anyways.
7,5/10.
My Other 2023 Readings.
Book Review: El Juguete Rabioso, Roberto Arlt
My Review in a Tweet:
It felt like reading The Catcher in the Rye but from Argentina, tinged with the economic and social issues of the early 20th century. Silvio Astier is a boy too old to be called a man and a man too young to be called a boy (no mistake made there).
My Full Review:
I read this book because of a sack of small reasons: it was short, I was one book shy from 30 in 2023, I wanted another argentinean author on my list and I had a physical copy of it.
El Juguete Rabioso (literally: The Rabid Toy) is the first novel of Roberto Arlt and, according to the copy I read, one of the founding books of the modern novel in our country. Commonly given as a mandatory reading in high school, I often saw this book here and there, postponing it indefinitively.
Now that I have finally read it, I think Arlt's place in our literary pantheon of writers is rightfully earned. The short novel is a quick glimpse into the life of Silvio Drodman Astier, a poor young boy from Buenos Aires, living in Floresta (at least from the second part on), fighting to stay out of the street and help his mother and sister.
The problem is, Silvio is too smart, too culturally cultivated for any of the jobs he can get as a poor boy from Floresta. He struggles with a feeling of entitlement to a better life in contrast with a sense of defeat while facing the circunstances he lives in.
The novel is carefully written, with a mix of refined language and old local slang that reflects on the dual nature of the character: a street rat at worst, a curious and smart young man at best.
His inner monologues are some of the best and most interesting parts, as his feelings of guilt, resentment and fear clash against each other.
The secondary characters function as common figures of Argentina's society from the early 20th century, when inmigration and poverty were high and people struggled to stay afloat. Their jobs, their cultural background, their relationships with one another highlight Silvio's own characteristics.
7/10.
My Other 2023 Readings.
And with those two last books/reviews, I finish this year's reading list. 30 books doesn't sound bad at all, I hope I can read that many and maybe some more next year!
📚 Mis lecturas del 2023 📚
¡Hola!
Lo venía haciendo en Twitter y decidí darle un mejor formato y mayor espacio, así que acá están mis lecturas de este año, en el orden en que fui terminando los libros.
Algunos los arranqué antes pero los pausé y continué con otro. Están clasificados y ordenados según la fecha en la que los terminé.
Enero:
Le Guin, Úrsula K. (1976) El Nombre del Mundo es Bosque. Editorial Minotauro
Albertalli, B. y Silvera, A. (2018) What if it's us
Klune, T. J. (2020) The House in the Cerulean Sea
Klune, T. J. (2020-2022) The Extraordinaries, Flash Fire, Heat Wave
Febrero/Marzo:
Continué lecturas, pero no terminé ningún libro, estaba preparando finales.
Abril:
Hall, Alexis (2020) Boyfriend Material
Doyle, Arthur C. (1902) El Sabueso de los Baskerville. Editorial Salvat.
Dick, Philip K. (1988) Cuentos Completos I: Aquí Yace el Wub
Hall, Alexis (2022) Husband Material
Mayo:
Marcos, Álvaro (2021) El Mago Merlín y el Poder del Dragón
Hall, Alexis (2022) Paris Daillencourt is about to Crumble
El-Motar, Amar, Gladstone, Max (2019) This is How you Lose the Time War
Miller, F., Janson, K., Varley, L. (1986) Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. Editorial OVNI.
Lewis, R., Mazzuchelli, D., Miller, F. (1988) Batman: Año Uno. Editorial OVNI.
LeBlanc, Maurice (1907) Arsène Lupin: Caballero Ladrón. Editorial Salvat.
Junio:
Dick, Philip K. (1989) Cuentos completos II: La Segunda Variedad.
Julio:
Silvera, Adam (2022) The First to Die at the End
Jemas, B., Bendis, B. M., Bagley, M., Thibert, A., Buccellato, S., Javins, M. (2001-2002) Spiderman, Poder y Responsabilidad. Marvel Comics. Editorial Salvat.
Álvaro, Marcos (2021) El Mago Merlín en la Torre Oscura
Agosto:
Machado, Antonio. (1899-1939) Poemas Esenciales. Selección de Jesús García Sánchez. Editorial Salvat.
Septiembre:
Stevenson, Robert Louis (1894) El Club de los Suicidas. Editorial Salvat.
Octubre:
Wells, Herbert George (1897) El Hombre Invisible.
Shelley, Mary (1818) Frankenstein, o el Moderno Prometeo
Capullo, G., Kubert, A., Lee, J., Snyder, S., Romita Jr., J. (2017-2018) Dark Nights: Metal. DC Comics. Editorial OVNIPRESS.
Noviembre:
Dick, Philip K (1989) El Padre-Cosa
Diciembre:
Millar, M. Kubert, A. & A. (2001-2002) Marvel Ultimave: X-Men. Men of Tomorrow. Return to Weapon X. Editorial Salvat.
Rothfuss, P. (2007) The Name of the Wind. DAW Books.
Cortázar, J. (2023) Historias de Cronopios y de Famas. 9a Edición. Buenos Aires, Punto de Lectura Editorial.
Arlt, R. (1926) El Juguete Rabioso. CAPÍTULO Biblioteca Fundamental Argentina. Centro Editor de América Latina.
📚 My 2024 Readings 📚
Hello again! I hope that, between the more lewd content you can find on my blog, you can also enjoy some book reviews. This year, I plan to diversify my readings list and pick some more culturally significant books from time to time.
January
Alberti, Rafael. Poemas Esenciales (Selección). Editorial Salvat, 2022.
Storni, Alfonsina. Antología Poética (1968) Selección por Alfredo Veirave. Biblioteca Argentina Fundamental. Centro Editor de América Latina.
Gaiman, Neil (1996) Neverwhere. Roca Editorial de Libros, Barcelona.
Christie, Agatha (1950) Tres Ratones Ciegos. Selección Biblioteca de Oro, Editorial Molino. Barcelona, España.
February
Dinesen, Isak (1937) Memorias de África. Narrativa Actual. RBA Editorial.
Bécquer, Gustavo Adolfo. Poemas Esenciales (Selección) Editorial Salvat. 2022
Philip K. Dick (1987) The Collected Stories, Volume IV.
March
Darío, Ruben. Azul... Cuentos, y Poemas en Prosa. Colección Criol Literario. Editorial Aguilar. Séptima Edición, 1969.
Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan (1887) Estudio en Escarlata. Editorial Salvat. Barcelona, España. 2022
April
Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan (1890) El Signo de los Cuatro. Editorial Salvat. Barcelona, España. 2022
Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan (1915) El Valle del Terror. Editorial Salvat. Barcelona, España. 2022
Darío, Rubén. Poemas Esenciales (Selección) Editorial Salvat. 2022
Christie, Agatha (1937) Muerte en el Nilo. Editorial Planeta de Agostini. Barcelona, España. 2022.
Mayo
Hernández, Miguel. Poemas Esenciales (Selección) Editorial Salvat. 2022
Quiroga, Horacio. La Gallina Degollada y otros cuentos. Biblioteca Fundamental Argentina. Editorial ... 19...
Junio
Cortázar, Julio. El Perseguidor y otros cuentos. Biblioteca Fundamental Argentina. Editorial... 19...
Echeverría, Esteban. La Cautiva, El Matadero y otros escritos. Biblioteca Fundamental Argentina. Editorial ... 19...
Christie, Agatha. Y no quedó ninguno (1939). Editorial Planeta de Agostini. Barcelona, España. 2022.
Julio
Jiménez, Juan Ramón. Poemas Esenciales (Selección) Editorial Salvat. 2022
Leroux, Gastón. El Misterio del Cuarto Amarillo (1907). Editorial Salvat. Barcelona, España. 2022.
Lorca, Federíco García. Poemas Esenciales (Selección). Editorial Salvat. 2022
Christie, Agatha (1934) Asesinato en el Expreso Oriental. Editorial Planeta de Agostini. Barcelona, España. 2022
Chesterton, Gilbert Keith (1910) El Candor del Padre Brown. Editorial Salvat. Barcelona, España. 2022
Martí, José. Poemas Esenciales (Selección). Editorial Salvat. 2022
Agosto
Varios autores. Los Poetas de Florida. Selección por Guillermo Ara. Biblioteca Fundamental Argentina. Centro Editor de América Latina. 1968
Varios autores. Los Escritores de Boedo. Selección por Carlos R. Giordano. Biblioteca Fundamental Argentina. Centro Editor de América Latina. 1968
Austen, Jane (1813) Orgullo y Prejuicio. Traducción de Alejandro Pareja Rodríguez. RBA Editorial. España, 2022
Milne, Alan Alexander (1924) When We Were Very Young
Mistral, Gabierla. Poemas Esenciales (Selección). Editorial Salvat. 2002
Septiembre
Christie, Agatha (1926) El Asesinato de Roger Ackroyd. Editorial Planeta de Agostini. Barcelona, España. 2022
Neruda, Pablo. Poemas Esenciales (Selección). Editorial Salvat. 2022
Poe, Edgar Allan (1841) Los Asesinatos de la Rue Morgue y otros cuentos. Editorial Salvat. Barcelona, España. 2022
Nervo, Amado. Poemas Esenciales (Selección). Editorial Salvat. 2022
Book Review: Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman
My Review in a Tweet:
It feels like cheating when you point out the similarities between two works then the author himself mentions a character by name, but this book truly feels like a Lewis Carroll or even James M. Barrie story. Lots of suspension of disbelief tho.
My Full Review:
I truly dislike saying this about a book, but I have finally finished reading "Neverwhere". There are a couple of reasons why it took me so long, but the main one is the constant and intentional nonsense you are forced to deal with.
The biggest responsible for that is the worldbuilding (or the lack of it): Gaiman cheats when he describes the "Londres de Abajo" (I'm guessing he named it the "Under London" in English or something like that?) as this mirror reality under London (not very subtle) that just happens to have anything the plot needs and works with simple and straightforward rules, the most important one being the owing of favors. The randomness of the characters and locations they visit constantly throws you off.
In favor of the novel, I did like the "clasic fairy tale" feeling of it, where our protagonists meet some perilous tests, fierce foes and unexpected allies. All of these also had a certain "greek myth" or "folk tale" nature to them, like the Beast of the Labyrinth or the Huntress and the Warrior.
The characters are very likeable, but they fall a little short in being fully developed or having truly great moments for themselves. "This thing happens, then this other thing happens and we are done", the characters don't seem to notice any of it or truly react to the events around them, they just stroll through the plot. Only in the ending I felt like they were experiencing real consequences of the events in the story.
It was a nice enough reading, but I don't know if I would recommend it, except maybe for teenagers. I remain curious for the rest of Gaiman's works, specially "American Gods", "Good Omens", and finishing "Sandman" (of which I read the first two volumes).
5.5/10.
My Other 2024 Readings.
Book Review: Out of Africa, Isak Dinesen
My Review in a Tweet:
I'm not drawn to Non-Fiction, but this autobiographic tale, while a bit slow, captivated me. The fourth part is jarring because it's a random collage of stories; the rest of the narration was great, coming back and forth in her memories until the moment she leaves the continent.
My Full Review:
Trying to diversify my readings, I picked up again this book I got as a Christmas present back in 2015 but never managed to finish. I'm not entirely sure this book qualifies as Non-Fiction, since it's still very poetic in the way the author describes her years in her coffee plantation at the foot of the Ngong Hills, but I describe it as NF because it is an autobiographic narration of a period of her life.
I still had to drag myself a little through some parts of the book, but that's not on Isak Dinesen (or more accurately, on Karen Blixen, her real name), it's on me and the genres I usually read being quite different from this. The book itself is structured into five parts, each of them separated into smaller chapters.
Even then, I enjoyed this book: Dinesen/Blixen has an artistic soul and a taste for the beauty in the world that makes her descriptions and tales really outstanding and marvelous, giving the reader a careful and joyful glimpse into the Africa of the early years of the 20th Century. The love she distills for her farm and the workers that come and go in her life, while sometimes might sound "problematic" from our modern set of values, makes you ache when tragedies and setbacks occur.
I wish the expression "abanico cultural" (cultural fan, as in the accesory for the hot days) existed in English, because that's what this book opens in front of you: a range of cultural and sometimes religious ways of being human, with just a tinge of the author's bias, and even when she's more openly judgemental of the ways of the masai and the other tribes, she still sees the beauty and wonder of their lifestyles.
The final part of the book, when she describes how all the problems of the farm start to pile up and she has to sell and leave Africa, really makes you feel sorry for her, hoping that fate will smile to her and turn the downtrend of her coffee productivity. When she finally leaves, it's like waking up from a pleasant dream of a sweet memory, and you are left with that bittersweet taste of longing.
7.5/10
My other 2024 readings.
Book Review: Selección de poemas de Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer
My Review in a Tweet:
I can't be impartial with Bécquer, he's a central poet in one of the canon events of my life (my first love). Luckily, I could still enjoy his Rhymes, and I read for the first time his Literary Letters and his Legends (which some read like horror stories).
My Full Review:
Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer is probably the first poet I read attentively, and I have loved him ever since I read his Rhymes for the first time. I gifted my copy because I was young and innocent, so I had to buy this book again.
Fortunately, this anthology includes not only his Rhymes, which I read again with great pleasure, but also his Literary Letters to a Woman and his Legends (each marked with a spanish city or theme).
Becquer fits perfectly in this romantic idea of poets, a brilliant and tortured genius, whose poems fill an intrincated metric and respect the rhyme while doing so. His themes also reflect this pinning, this painful way of experimenting romantic feelings, of tragic love.
The Literary Letters and the Symphonic Introduction of his Rhymes are wonderful works of poetic prose, blooming with beautiful allegories and metaphors, exuding such a love for Poetry itself you find yourself tempted to pick up a pen and follow in vain the steps of this bard.
I can't say much more other than restating my love for this author and his works: Becquer remains a core author of my taste in poetry in particular and literature in general.
My other 2024 readings.
Book Review: Azul..., Cuentos and Poemas en prosa, Rubén Darío
My Review in a Tweet:
Such a small book, and yet filled with wonders, rich in intertextuality that I doubt exists nowadays: it shines in his works a dedication to cultivate his knowledge of the contemporary literature and all that came before that I wish I could emulate.
My Full Review:
These poems and short stories decorate this books like the things that fills the house of someone who traveled.
And yet, at the moment of the first draft of the book and according to his friend Juan Valera, Ruben Darío had never left Nicaragua, his writing has elements of a hundred other poets and styles while making them their own, from places he never visited and times he never lived in.
Despite that, the collection of intrincancies and small tokens of the world make this book a very interesting but complex reading: you soon begin to feel too ignorant to really appreciate it, but I decided to view it as pulling the curtain to peek at a world that I felt was lost, one of true dedication to the culture and art as an inmportant facet of human experience.
Even more so today than ever before, when there seems to be an active anti-intellectualism stance when contemplating art, it is important to push ourselves to go beyond what we can fuly comprehend, to dive deeper into genres and authors that we deem too old or too far removed from our daily experience.
In terms of the quality of the writing, I can't really judge it, but I did enjoy it. Some passages of the poems struck me as particularly beautiful or mordant, depending on the tone. Some short stories were inscrutable, others were so simple and brilliant.
I'll add some fragments that I really liked, all from different poems or short stories. If I tried to translate them myself, I wouldn't do them justice, so I'll leave them in Spanish, as a small treasure for those followers that speak it, or a small challenge for those who wish to translate them by themselves.
Again, I won't score poetry, not even that in prose.
My Other 2024 Readings.
Book Review: Poemas Esenciales, Rubén Darío
My Favorite Poem of the book:
"Románticos somos... ¿Quién que Es, no es romántico? Aquel que no sienta ni amor ni dolor, aquel que no sepa de beso y de cántico que se ahorque de un pino: será lo mejor"
My Full Review:
Pending review, I promise I'll revisit because I love Ruben Dario's works.
My Other 2024 Readings.
Book Review: Death on the Nile, Agatha Christie
My favorite quote of the book:
"—[...] le ruego encarecidamente, le suplico que [...] ¡No abra su corazón al mal! [...] Porque, si lo hace, el mal vendrá... Sí, con toda seguridad, vendrá. Entrará en su corazón, establecerá en él su morada y, a los pocos instantes, no habrá fuerza humana que lo desaloje..." ~Hercule Poirot
My Full Review:
Pending review, I will surely revisit once I'm done with all of the books from AC that I bought.
My Other 2024 Readings.
Book Review: Poemas Esenciales, Miguel Hernández
My favorite poem of the book:
Casida del Sediento Aroma del desierto soy: desierto de sed. Oasis es tu boca donde no he de beber Boca: oasis abierto a todas las arenas del desierto. Húmedo punto en medio de un desierto abrasador, el de tu cuerpo, el tuyo, que nunca es de los dos Cuerpo, pozo cerrado a quien la sed y el sol han calcinado.
My Full Review:
Pending review, I'll revisit because I need to complain about him.
My Other 2024 Readngs.
Book Review: La Gallina degollada y otros cuentos, Horacio Quiroga
My favorite quote of the book:
"... y, como pasa fatalmente con todos los matrimonios jóvenes que se han amado intensamente una vez siquiera, la reconciliación llegó, tanto más efusiva cuanto más infames fueran los agravios."
My Full Review:
Pending review, I need to yap about this author.
My Other 2024 Readings.
Book Review: El perseguidor y otros cuentos, Julio Cortázar
My favorite quote:
"Que la música salve por lo menos el resto de la noche, y cumpla a fondo una de sus peores misiones, la de ponernos un buen biombo delante del espejo, borrarnos del mapa durante un par de horas."
Pending review, I will for sure come back to this one.
My Other 2024 Readings
Book Review: La Cautiva, El Matadero y otros escritos, Esteban Echeverría
My favorite quote:
"Since men have no real value to us in politics, but as agents to realize or generate social ideas, we will frankly confess that we wish we saw all those favored by Fortune dethroned at last; we can't conceive progress at all for our nation, if not by having the best and most capable take the initiative of thought and social action, and by best and most capable we mean those who are expression of the highest of virtues, and of the highest intelligence in the country."
This small book includes three of Evecherría's most renowed works, so I'll make a quick comment about each:
La Cautiva (The Captive)
This poems narrates the final days of a young woman, captured by the "indios", from where she manages to escape with her husband, badly injured from the fight. They profess a deep and passionate love for each other, but it's the woman who will be taking center stage while trying to keep her man from death and the dangers of the argentinean desert. It's a very beautifully written poem, enhancening the small figure of that woman in the hot lands dominated by the "savages", characterizing her as a force of nature, of willing to live despite it all, of profound love.
El Matadero (The Slaughterhouse)
This one is a short story, set in one of the most violent times of our "civil war" history: unitarios against federales. The story begins actually with a severe rain that swamped Buenos Aires, making everyone suddenly very anxious in a religious and political sense. But the worst part was that the flood impeded the arrival of several cows to the city's slaughterhouse. When the streets and roads finally allow the transport of the first lot of cows, chaos invades the zone, as one bull has infiltrated the group and is running rampant through the city. It is finally taken down by a "glorious unitario". Parallel to the felled bull, a federal appears in town, refusing to wear the symbols of the unitarios, for which he's punished to death. The valiant defiance of the federal mirrors the violent fight for survival of the bull, but both are just slaughtered for being out of place. The story itself is quite simple and the analogies it presents are easy to understand, but Echverrria writes with such a joyful and witty style, making fun of both sides and the people from his time that his work becomes almost satyrical of the Buenos Aires of the 19th century. I really liked it
Reflexiones
This was a non-fiction section of the book, regarding the political views of Esteban Echeverria. I won't dwelve much into it because it's mostly related to Argentina at the time, but I will highlight the author's knowledge of the academic and literary enviroment of his time.
My other 2024 readings.
Book Review: Poemas Esenciales, Juan Ramón Jiménez
My favorite poem of the book:
Destino ruin; si tu fueses // Cursed fate; if you were un hombre y se te pudiera // a man and one could buscar, igual que al león // hunt you, like the lion más terrible, por la tierra. // most fearsome, through the Earth
My Ful Review:
The only previous work I've read from Juan Ramón Jimenez is "Platero y Yo", about a kid and his donkey. It's been a while since I read it, but I can clearly trace the same wonder and curiosity of childhoodness in the poems included in this selection.
The author's verses are sweet and short, candid and full to the brim with the same eagerness to discover new things, marveling at the beauty of nature mostly.
That same childhood wonder though is also responsible for the erratic train of thought of the author, jumping from theme to theme with apparently no rhyme or reason, resulting in a aeries of poems with a very thin connection between them.
All in all, I liked his poetry, which seemed to mature in themes alongside the author.
My other 2024 readings.
Book Review: Poemas Esenciales by Federico Garcia Lorca
My Favorite poem of the book:
Amor de mis entrañas, viva muerte, en vano espero tu palabra escrita y pienso, con la flor que se marchita que si vivo sin mí quiero perderte. [...] Llena, pues, de palabras mi locura o déjame vivir en mi serena noche del ahora para siempre oscura. // Love of my guts, living death, in vain I await your written word and I think, with the whitering flower that if I live without me I want to lose you. [...] Fill, then, of words my madness or let me live in my serene night of now for ever dark.
My Full Review:
Oh Lorca, dear Lorca: were you set up to dissapoint me by your peers? Were my expectations too high? Is my understanding and knowledge of poetry that shallow? Was this particular selection a disservice to your works?
I think I'm simply not well versed in the style and artistic school of the "Generación del 27", but I couldn't really connect nor enjoy most of the poems included in this book.
Even the most basic symbolisms seemed too vague to me to truly grasp, and I feel so dissapointed in myself, because I really looked forward to finally reading his poetry, but the almost surrealist nature of his verses alienated me.
I hope I can come back to this book and to this poet with kinder eyes, it's the least he deserves from me.
My Other 2024 Readings
Book Review: Murder on the Orient Express, Agatha Christie
My favorite quote of the book:
– [...] It was like coming across a wild animal. – But he has the most respectable aspect... – Precisément! The body... The cage.. is truly respectable, but the wild animal lurks behind the bars.
My Full Review:
Having seen the 2017 adaptation, I'm fascinated by the different tones the author and the director give to the same story. Even Hercule Poirot, our cherised belgium detective, ends up having two very different personalities and morale: Book Poirot is a little more inclined to indulge in justice by one's hand, shielding the culprit from consecuences, while Movie Poirot is the unyielding spirit of righteous justice, impotent to enact it.
The mystery and the key details are esentially the same, but the movie and the book conduct the investigation in unique ways, the first having a thorough and more stereotypical "detective looking around" kind of search and register, while the book consists esentially of a series of interviews, with some witnesses going twice through interrogation when new information is revealed.
The whole cast of characters and suspects is endearing and quite charming, but it's so numerous it ends up not being explored very deeply, recurring to common class and nationality stereotypes of the time.
Despite already knowing the story and the ending, I read the novel in two days, Agatha Christie's books are very welcoming and friendly.
My Other 2024 Readings.
Book Review: The Innocence of Father Brown, G. K. Chesterton
“I am a man,” answered Father Brown gravely; “and therefore have all devils in my heart."
Full Review:
I was pleasently surprised by both the style of the narration and the nature of this book: rather than a single, spread out mystery across many chapters, Chesterton writes a bit-sized crime for each one, all of them easily laid out apart by the gentle Father Brown.
Our main "detective" in these short stories is a humble man of faith, who sometimes lets himself poke fun at the skepticism of the non-believers when the crime seems unsolvable at first glance, making the kind of satyrical comments only someone ingratiated with God would make, with only a hint of a blush.
He's often accompanied by Flambeau, former criminal mastermind, now reformed detective, who consults the Father for advice and perspective on the most complex mysteries he comes across.
"Something has fallen on us that falls very seldom on men; perhaps the worst thing that can fall on them. [...] We have found the truth; and the truth makes no sense.”
Given the quick and fast paced nature of the mysteries, one ends up reading them to find out the extravagant solution the Father Brown stumbles upon by grace of rationality and divine inspiration rather than trying to solve them themselves.
The narration is adorned simultaneously by the religious reflexions of the Father Brown and the constant exhaltation of rational thinking as a valid and necessary way to navigate the world.
My Other 2024 Readings.