The premise for this swap was to share 12 books from our "To read" list. Because I don't keep my Goodreads' list very updated, this list is a mix between those books and the ones that I physically own but are waiting in my "To read" pile(s).
I read mostly in Spanish so, if my copy it's in that language, so is the title here. Links and descriptions are from Goodreads, and you could check there the original or English titles.
1) Grace, Tamar y el divino Laszlo, by Deborah Kay Davies. I bought this book for my mother as her birthday present, and she lend it to me now because "you'd like it".
This book is a collection of short stories set in the valleys of South Wales and follows the lives of two sisters, Grace and Tamar. As these dark, universal stories detail their volatile sibling rivalry—on several occasions they almost kill each other—their disruptive coming of age, and dubious maturity, they express how utterly strange it is to learn to become human.
2) La fortuna de los Rougon, by Émile Zola. This year I decided I would try to complete this series. I've been searching in every second-hand bookstore that crossed my path and, despite my low expectations, I have now 14 out of the 20 parts of the complete series. Not bad, huh? Luckily, each book is independent and, although recommendable, could be read in any order. So, this book is in my list because is THE FIRST of the whole series, and probably the next I'll be reading.
Set in the fictitious Provençal town of Plassans, The Fortune of the Rougons tells the story of Silvère and Miette, two idealistic young supporters of the republican resistance to Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte's coup d'état of December 1851. They join the woodcutters and peasants of the Var to seize control of Plassans, and are opposed by the Bonapartist loyalists led by Silvère's uncle, Pierre Rougon. Meanwhile, the foundations of the Rougon family and its illegitimate Macquart branch are being laid in the brutal beginnings of the Imperial regime.
3) Anne of Green Gables, by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Another series I'd like to complete. I had the chance to buy a couple of books recently, but, despite the fact those stories happen within Anne's universe, they're not about her, I read some of the books when I was a kid from my school's library but they didn't have the first ones
Anne Shirley begins her adventures at Green Gables, a farm outside Avonlea, Prince Edward Island. When the freckled girl realizes that the elderly Cuthberts wanted to adopt a boy instead, she begins to try to win them and, consequently, the reader, over.
4) Ulises, by James Joyce. I bought this book YEARS ago, and I even tried to read it, but I was on vacations and I guess I couldn’t set my mind to it or it just wasn’t the moment. I wasn’t able to pass from the first pages.
Two characters, Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom, go about their separate business, crossing paths with a gallery of indelible Dubliners. We watch them teach, eat, stroll the streets, argue, and (in Bloom's case) masturbate. And thanks to the book's stream-of-consciousness technique--which suggests no mere stream but an impossibly deep, swift-running river--we're privy to their thoughts, emotions, and memories. The result? Almost every variety of human experience is crammed into the accordian folds of a single day, which makes Ulysses not just an experimental work but the very last word in realism.
5) The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I read many many time The Little Princess (by the same author), and I still love the story very much! I believe this is as loveable as the other, or at least it’s what it seems in the movie.
Recently arrived at her uncle's estate, orphaned Mary Lennox is spoiled, sickly, and certain she won't enjoy living there. Then she discovers the arched doorway into an overgrown garden, shut up since the death of her aunt ten years earlier. Mary soon begins transforming it into a thing of beauty--unaware that she is changing too. But Misselthwaite hides another secret, as Mary discovers one night. High in a dark room, away from the rest of the house, lies her young cousin, Colin, who believes he is an incurable invalid, destined to die young. His tantrums are so frightful, no one can reason with him. If only, Mary hopes, she can get Colin to love the secret garden as much as she does, its magic will work wonders on him.
6) The Casual Vacancy, by J. K. Rowling. This book was a gift from my brother for my last birthday. It will be weird to read something from her that isn’t Harry Potter related…
When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties, the town of Pagford is left in shock. Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war. Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils ... Pagford is not what it first seems. And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?
7) Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn. Loved the movie, MUST READ THE BOOK.
On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne's fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick's clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn't doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife's head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media--as well as Amy's fiercely doting parents--the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he's definitely bitter--but is he really a killer?
8) Madame de Treymes, by Edith Wharton. Another author I’ve been collecting, although very randomly. I loved everything I read from her so far, so I’ll keep buying, if the occasion appears.
It is the story of the tactical defeat but moral victory of an honest and upstanding American in his struggle to win a wife from a tightly united but feudally minded French aristocratic family.
9) La letra escarlata, by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Ohh I started this book some time ago, I read the first pages, but I left it in a backpack that was stolen from me :( I bought it again, so I now can know how it goes
Set in the harsh Puritan community of seventeenth-century Boston, this tale of an adulterous entanglement that results in an illegitimate birth reveals Nathaniel Hawthorne's concerns with the tension between the public and the private selves. Publicly disgraced and ostracized, Hester Prynne draws on her inner strength and certainty of spirit to emerge as the first true heroine of American fiction. Arthur Dimmesdale, trapped by the rules of society, stands as a classic study of a self divided.
10) Attachments, by Rainbow Rowell. Ahh, I’ve read Eleanor & Park and Fangirl, so now I feel I must read everything she had published! Her love stories are BRILLIANT.
Beth Fremont and Jennifer Scribner-Snyder know that somebody is monitoring their work e-mail. (Everybody in the newsroom knows. It's company policy.) But they can't quite bring themselves to take it seriously. They go on sending each other endless and endlessly hilarious e-mails, discussing every aspect of their personal lives. Meanwhile, Lincoln O'Neill can't believe this is his job now- reading other people's e-mail. When he applied to be "internet security officer," he pictured himself building firewalls and crushing hackers- not writing up a report every time a sports reporter forwards a dirty joke. When Lincoln comes across Beth's and Jennifer's messages, he knows he should turn them in. But he can't help being entertained-and captivated-by their stories.
11) Eric, by Terry Pratchett. I seriously believe this series can’t be beaten by anything in this world. This is the most complete universe I’ve ever entered. I’m glad I still have so many books to read, because I can’t get enough.
Discworld's only demonology hacker, Eric, is about to make life very difficult for the rest of Ankh-Morpork's denizens. This would-be Faust is very bad...at his work, that is. All he wants is to fulfill three little wishes:to live forever, to be master of the universe, and to have a stylin' hot babe. But Eric isn't even good at getting his own way. Instead of a powerful demon, he conjures, well, Rincewind, a wizard whose incompetence is matched only by Eric's. And as if that wasn't bad enough, that lovable travel accessory the Luggage has arrived, too. Accompanied by his best friends, there's only one thing Eric wishes now -- that he'd never been born!
12) Semillas 1. by Decur (Guillermo Decurguez). Ok, in this case you won't find any English reference because it’s an Argentinian book and author. Decur is a young illustrator and this is his last book, published this year. It was another birthday present from my brother and I’m looking forward to read it. His style is unique, super cute and naive. I recommend you to check his works online! You might won’t understand the language, but you will definitely understand the art :)
