Reading in Galician - FANECA BRAVA

I've just finished reading this novel, which I came across quite accidentally and it was a real pleasure to read, and a nice surprise. It is a page-turner, and I personally enjoyed Portas's skillful use of language, poetic yet dynamic. 

Here's a small extract from a review:

Trátase dunha intriga ben artellada e dunha novela coidadosamente escrita, cuxa lectura engancha e seduce. Ese coidado na escrita, que tanto se agradece, non a converte, porén, nunha lectura difícil, senón fluída e rápida a medida que se van desvelando misterios e se quere saber máis. 

And an interview with the author:

WHY DO CELEBRITIES INSIST ON BEING WRITERS TOO???

I'm sure you've all seen those books written by celebrities, I mean, even Obama himself couldn't resist it. What is it about books that lures people into trying to write even when they suck at it? The last fiasco I've read about was Gwyneth Paltrow's cook books.

The reviews speak for themselves...

"... it taks "laughable Hollywood neuroticism about eating to the next level"... It's All Good reads like "the manifesto to some sort of creepy healthy-girl sorority with members who use beet juice rather than permanent marker to circle the 'problem areas' on each other's bodies" ... "Paltrow casually writes that she has a surfeit of apples from teh trees on ther $5.4 million five-bedroom Hamptoms summer home". Her suggested diet, Yahoo! Shine calculates, would cost $300 a day, a figure obviously out of reach for the vast majority of Americans".


Read the whole review here.

And one in Spanish by Mikel López Iturriaga ("el comidista") which is quite fun to read here 

I AM PLEASED TO INTRODUCE...

I am thrilled that this is the first book we are going to read!

 The three of us, Ana, Paul and myself, hope you ENJOY reading it and that it makes you think about a lot of different issues. 

To whet your appetite, here is a series of links related to the book:

A podcast where Lionel Shriver discusses some aspects of the book and its story.

An article where Lionel Shriver (she's actually a woman, I was surprised!) discusses the difficulties she faced to get her book published.

A review. And here's the way it opens (which I love and it also provides a fair warning!): 

"If you are already a parent, this book will make you count your blessings but if you have yet to become one, beware…this book will scare the hell out of you and could quite possibly reduce your egg/sperm supply just by reading it"

MUSIC and LANGUAGE: The Singing Neanderthal

Music moves the human body (our feet tap, our bodies sway) and the human heart (our emotions beat in time to a song’s pulse). Every child in every society creates music, defined to include song and dance: it’s a fundamental activity of Homo sapiens.

Given its emotional power, it’s odd to discover that music’s evolutionary history has been neglected. Theories about the origins of technology and language crowd anthropologists’ shelves, but most evolutionists fall silent about music. In The Singing Neanderthal: The Origins of Music, Language, Mind and Body, British archaeologist Steven Mithen sets out to redress this gap.

Read a review of the book here.