About reading

  ‘There is something I must tell you, my dear daughter, I can’t hide it any longer, and I need your help: my name is not Sally Gilmartin; my real name is Eva Delectorskaya and I’ve worked as a secret agent for the British Security Coordination during the Second World War’.            What would you think if your mother, in her sixites, revealed such a secret?

            Would your life, your world, be the same if the person who has brought you up, given you a place in the universe, turned out to be, out of the blue, a spy?

            Restless is a haunting narration of the complicated implications of the role played by the British Secret Services to involve the United States in the World War.

            A gripping spy story of loyalty and betrayal that makes you turn page after page wondering what will come next. And a romantic love story of a young, brave woman betrayed in most ways, making of her life a hell of fear and suspicion in which she will be restless forever, until she gets revenge.

             I highly recommend reading this fast-moving novel that will not deceive anyone.

  The story is set at Manderley Mansion, an imaginary place in Ireland whose owner is Mr De Winter. It takes place in a period of time that spans from Rebecca’s engagement and marriage with Mr De Winter to her life with him after being married.In the book there are several main characters: Rebecca, Mr de Winter, his first wife, the maidwoman, his first wife’s friend and the police. All of them were in trouble since Mr de Winter’s first wife died and this problem won’t be solved until the end of the book.

The story starts when Rebecca was working for a rich woman and she met who would be her husband. After a short and difficult engagement she marries Mr de Winter and goes to Manderley but it is here that her problems begin because he remembers his first wife and because the maidwoman had a very good relationship with the dead woman.

            One day the maidwoman suggests that Rebecca should organise a fancy dress ball and she should wear a dress that was in a painting on a wall at Manderley.

Also there was a room Rebecca was not allowed to enter and which had been Mr de Winter’s first wife’s.

After having found the ship where Mr de Winter’s first wife was, the police and Mr de Winter’s friend try to find an explanation for her death ‘which is unexpected and different from their thoughts’.

Last year I had the opportunity of watching the film, directed by Alfred Hitchcok and which caused me the best impression, over all the photography. Before watching it I had read in the book cover that it had been the winner of two Oscars: best film and best photography.

For all the reasons mentioned above I recommend this book and the film, too.

You won’t be left indifferent.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is an intriguing mystery and adventure novel written by Mark Haddon.

The story is set in the UK, in present time. The main character, Christopher, is an autistic teenager who lives with his father in Swindon. One night, he discovers the corpse of her neighbour’s dog, Wellington, bleeding on the road. As he really loves animals, he feels very sad about Wellington’s death and decides to investigate its murder.

While he carries out his investigation, he discovers a lot of things which he did not expect to find. As he wants to know more things, he has to do a great effort to overcome his fear to talk to people and to keep his detective activity hidden from his father, who is bound to disapprove it.

I consider this novel a really interesting reading, not only because of the intriguing plot, but also, and over all, because of the original point of view it offers us. It is Christopher who is “writing the book” and tells the story himself, which makes it more realistic. The author provides a valuable insight into the world of an autistic person. He presents the main character as a very clever student, with photographic memory and an incredible ability for Maths, but with a huge difficulty to socialize and understand other people’s minds and feelings.

Although the author of the book is quite tactful at treating the autism matter, the novel could hurt some people’s feelings, as it uses bad words and vulgar expressions. Also, I would not recommend it to children under fifteen or sixteen, because it requires a mature reader to be well-understood.

Anyway, it is a very pleasant and moving story, suitable for all occasions, which definitely won’t let anyone indifferent.

THE GIVER is a 1993 novel by American writer Lois Lowry. The story is set in an imaginary land and period.

The plot is about a young twelve-year-old boy who is named Jonas. He grows up in a land where there is a lot of government control. The government doesn’t really exist in this imaginary world, but the people who have the control are called “the Elders”.

Some aspects of their control are, for instance, that they eliminate the pleasures and the suffering of life. Nobody in the community understands colours, music, warfare or any kind of pain. There are no choices. Every person is assigned a role in the Community.

The main character is a young boy aged 12 and his name is Jonas.  Most people in the town don’t understand how the system of The Elders works.  All the rules were written many years ago.  Everybody accepts them and nobody asks questions.

When Jonas turns twelve he is elected to be the next main elder and he starts to receive special training from the current main elder. This person holds the memories of  true pain and pleasure of life and he is going to pass Jonas his memories by putting his hands on him. Because of this, Jonas calls him The Giver. From this point on it is time for Jonas to receive the truth and he starts to ask questions because he thinks another way of life is possible.

In the end Jonas escapes from his way of life and tries to find another way of life for the others in his town.  During his search he discovers extraordinary things like colours, music and the feeling of pain.  He believes that everyone should have the opportunity to know these things. The conclusion is not clear. It’s up to the reader to decide.

This is a metaphor of modern governments who have too much control over their citizens, for instance the Chinese government. I understood the plot of the book to be a criticism of this kind of government. The book deals with the theme of the balance between security and freedom, which is an interesting theme nowadays so this is an interesting book.

I would highly recommend it to the most adventurous readers and to anyone interested in science fiction. It is definitely a thought-provoking book and it is also a haunting book. After reading the book, the characters will stay with the reader for a long time.

Book review written by Natalia Flaquer Panizo

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Even if you haven’t read the book try the crosswords below.

If you want to read it online or download it visit our downloads section.

Frankenstein, set in Europe in the 1790’s, begins with the letters of Captain Robert Walton to his sister. These letters form the framework for the story in which Walton tells his sister the story of Victor Frankenstein and his monster as Frankenstein told it to him.

Walton set out to explore the North Pole. The ship got trapped in frozen water and the crew, watching around them, saw a giant man in the distance on a dogsled. Hours later they found Frankenstein and his dogsled near the ship, so they brought the sick man aboard. As he recovered, Frankenstein told Walton his story so that Walton would learn the price of pursuing glory at any cost.

Frankenstein grew up in a perfectly loving and gentle Swiss family with an especially close tie to his adopted cousin, Elizabeth, and his dear friend Henry Clerval. As a young boy, Frankenstein became obsessed with studying outdated theories about what gives humans their life spark. In college at Ingolstadt, he created his own “perfect” human from scavenged body parts, but once it lived, the creature was hideous. Frankenstein was disgusted by its ugliness, so he ran away from it.

Henry Clerval came to Ingolstadt to study with Frankenstein, but ended up nursing him after his exhausting and secret efforts to create a perfect human life. While Frankenstein recovered from his illness over many months and then studied languages with Clerval at the college, the monster wandered around looking for friendship. After several harsh encounters with humans, the monster became afraid of them and spent a long time living near a cottage and observing the family who lived there. Through these observations he became educated and realized that he was very different from the humans he watched. Out of loneliness, the monster sought the friendship of this family, but they were afraid of him, and this rejection made him seek vengeance against his creator. He went to Geneva and met a little boy in the woods. The monster hoped to kidnap him and keep him as a companion, but the boy was Frankenstein’s younger brother, so the monster killed him to get back at his creator. Then the monster planted the necklace he removed from the child’s body on a beautiful girl who was later executed for the crime.

When Frankenstein learned of his brother’s death, he went back to Geneva to be with his family. In the woods where his young brother was murdered, Frankenstein saw the monster and knew that he was William’s murderer. Frankenstein was ravaged by his grief and guilt for creating the monster who wreaked so much destruction, and he went into the mountains alone to find peace. Instead of peace, Frankenstein was approached by the monster who then demanded that he create a female monster to be the monster’s companion. Frankenstein, fearing for his family, agreed to and went to England to do his work. Clerval accompanied Frankenstein, but they separated in Scotland and Frankenstein began his work. When he was almost finished, he changed his mind because he didn’t want to be responsible for the carnage another monster could create, so he destroyed the project. The monster vowed revenge on Frankenstein’s upcoming wedding night. Before Frankenstein could return home, the monster murdered Clerval.

Once home, Frankenstein married his cousin Elizabeth right away and prepared for his death, but the monster killed Elizabeth instead and the grief of her death killed Frankenstein’s father. After that, Frankenstein vowed to pursue the monster and destroy him. That’s how Frankenstein ended up near the North Pole where Walton’s ship was trapped. A few days after Frankenstein finished his story, Walton and his crew decided to turn back and go home. Before they left, Frankenstein died and the monster appeared in his room, mourning the loss of his creator. The monster explained his reasons for vengeance to Walton, as well as his remorse. He then told Walton of his plans to head to the North Pole and burn himself to death, as death would be less painful than life. He leaped from the ship into an ice-raft and was “borne away by the waves.”

If you want to have a good tender time, this is the book.

The plot is about two sisters, the eldest married and with twins, the other, single and with a liberal profession in the TV world. Suddenly cancer appears in the middle of the organized life of the married one and the single sister is going to be involved in it. She will have to make a very difficult decision: to go on with her, till now, glamorous but empty kind of life or to abandon all and take care of her sister’s family with everything it involves.

This book can stir your feelings, from sadness to happiness but always with the respect that this disease deserves. It is perfect to be made into a film, the kind of film that I like watching at five o’clock in the afternoon.

It can be considered as an autobiography because the author shares his adventures and misfortunes during his school days with the readers.
I think that the best adjective to describe it is HILARIOUS but between anecdote and anecdote a hard society is depicted. To be a student in those times was not as easy as now, the intolerance and absurd discipline mixed with the teachers’ irrational authority made that time cruel and hard for most of the students.

However, it is worth reading.

In my sister’s shoes is the last book that I have read. I like this it especially because it is funny reading, a good way to enjoy yourself during these horrible days of bad weather.

What I like most are the amusing dialogues that it has, above all between the main characters, Kate and Fiona or Kate and the children. The book is full of originally situations and stories that make you feel good and laugh a lot.

Consequently, I would recommend this reading above all for Spanish readers who want to read something easy and with pleasure, without having a dictionary next to them because most of the things are well understood.

However, from my point of view, this book keeps a secret: under its funny appearance there is a strong intention that tries to teach the reader an important lesson. Life it is not so easy on many occasions and sometimes destiny can gives you a different choice so we should be prepared to change our minds when the situations are difficult. Kate is a splendid woman who teaches us how sometimes you have to make a decision that doesn’t convince you at all but when there is not choice it is better to adapt to the situation.

Finally I would like to say that sometimes you need to read stories like that because it helps you to forget all your problems and definitely to be much happier.

Like water for chocolate is a 1989 novel by Mexican writer Laura Esquivel.

It tells the story of Tita De la Garza, the youngest daughter in a family living in Mexico during the Mexican Revolution in the early  1900s.

Through twelve chapters, each marked as a “monthly installment” and thus labelled with the months of the year, we learn of Tita’s struggle to pursue true love and claim her independence. Each installment features a recipe to begin each chapter

Tita ,who is fifteen at the  start of  the story,lives with her mother and her older sisters Gertrudis and Rosaura on a ranch near Mexico.

Pedro,a neighbour,and Tita fall in love at first sight. He asks Mama Elena for Tita’s hand in marriage but Mama Elena forbids it, citing the De la Garza family tradition which demands that the youngest daughter ( in this case Tita) must remain unmarried and take care of her mother until her mother’s death.

The trajectory of their struggle against one another is the axis around wich the entire novel revolves.

Pedro marries Tita’s oldest sister, Rosaura, to be close to Tita.

After her mother refuses to allow Tita to marry the man she loves, Tita channels her frustrated desires into the creation of delicious meals that often have strange effects on her family.

Tita, who was born on her family’s kitchen table, uses food to express her emotions. At the same time, through the expression of her culinary art, Tita learns to cope with and ultimately break free from her mother’s domination.

The novel is a mixture of recipes, home remedies and a love story with and erotic and explosive ending.

Tita manages to break the bonds of tradition, if not for herself, then for future generations.

The organitation of the novel offers substantial opportunities for feminist analysis.

With the female cast of characters, Esquivel imagines a world in which men are physically present only occasionally, though the legacy of sexism and the confinement of women to the domestic sphere persist.

The book is very readable. In my opinion, men can find it a little affected. However, if you are a sensual and sensitive person, you will enjoy reading it. It’s perfect for reading before sleeping.