More than a Literary Society... A Family!

The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Anne Shaffer & Annie Barrows

“I wonder how the book got to Guernsey? Perhaps there is some sort of secret
homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers.”

I have always thought that a book can save you, from anything! I have read lots of amazing books in my almost 20 years of life, they have been my back-up plan, my accomplices, my entertainment...

But there are some books that are more than that... that become your friends, and give you a heart-warming sensation, and The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Anne Shaffer & Annie Barrows is one of those.

Written as letters, The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society tells us the story of Juliet Ashton and the people of one of the Channel Islands, Guernsey, just after the WWII is over.

I must confess that I was on the verge of tears when I finished it. You get to love each one of the characters as if they were part of your family: Juliet, Dawsey, Elizabeth, Kit, Isola, Sidney, Eben, Eli... all of them are real people in my mind!

I hope everybody manage to read this book sometime in their life, because I cannot praise it enough. Now, I really want to do three things: first of all, do my own Literary Society (or join one); secondly, have a penpal (I really want to receive and send letter to someone abroad!); and, last but not least, go to Guernsey in a near future!

Wrap-Up... Kind of...

So, my last weeks have been chaotic... it was end of term (it was my first term at college, and I am glad to say that I did well) and I have been quite sick (I have been coughing for a week now... I hate it!), but I have managed to read quite a lot (I have read 2 of the books for the Holiday Reading Challenge and a couple of books for my next school term (which will start on January... I am so excited!). In conclusion... get ready for some reviews throughout the next weeks!

Also, I have a challenge with one of my BFFs... we will read Ulysses by James Joyce... we will read a chapter per week or so until we finish it, and we will do comments about it... I know it will take us some time as it is a quite complicated book, but I am looking forward to read and finish it!

Finally, this week is Christmas, so (hopefully) I will receive some awesome books!!

:D

Hour 18

I have been reading for 10 hours now. I have finished Travesuras de la Niña Mala by Mario Vargas Llosa (he is awesome!), Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone by J. K. Rowling (for the 4th time I have loved it!), some short stories ("The Kiss" by Angela Carter, "A Visit to Grandpa's" by Dylan Thomas, "In Love With Raymond Chandler" and "Happy Endings" by Margaret Atwood (she is one of the greatest writers I have ever read, seriously!), and "The Whore of Mensa" by Woody Allen) and a couple of essays ("Politics and the English Language" by George Orwell, and "The Language Mavens" by Steven Pinker), and am through the half of Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I am quite tired of it, so I'll read a childhood favourite: The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

I conclusion, I have read 868 pages so far, which is awesome!

And, as a footnote, today, October 10th, is my little brother 13th birthday. He is an awesomely intelligent kid and I am glad of being his sister. I wish him the best!

Read-Along: Travelling More & More

I've got some technical issues and that's why I didn't post it, I am sorry! But, here we are!

This is the third part of Gulliver's Travels, it was really good and interessting but I didn't love it as I did with the first one, but I liked it more than the second one.

My favourite part was the one when he's at Laputa (a pretty funny name!), the flying island, and he gives us details of how does it moves (this was really awesome to me!). Also, their people are short of attention and they do not realize their women affairs with the people of Balnibarbi (another funny name!) as they are mainly concerned about math and music (it reminds me a little to the whole World Cup Thing -no offense-... my dad and brothers and some friends tend to ignore me while they watch it!). It seems like the whole story is kind of a representation to some excerpts of England's History, and that's good for me, as Swift represents the idea of a possible destruction to Balnibarbi by Laputa, as if it was showing the domain of England over another country.

Even though, he moves along to other countries: Luggnagg and Glubbdibdud (this names are the funnier of the whole book! and they are pretty difficult to write, too!). where he is allowed to see (and talk) with the ghosts of the dead leaders (that's awesome and kind of scary for me! I don't know tho who I'd talk, perhaps Maximiliano de Habsburgo, Porfirio Diíaz, Benito Juárez, Miguel Hidalgo, Mrtin Luther, King Henry VIII, Elizabeth I of England, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Parr) and he can select to whom he's talking to... I liked this part a lot! Then, Gulliver goes to Japan (this is a real country, but I think it is represented as a fantastic and exotic country because of its distance to England) in his way home.

I think it shows more of the human side of wanting and desiring, and how harmful somethings we want or desire can be to our society. I liked it, because in this way Swift is showing some side of humanity (satirical, political, humanistic... let's see what side shows us the fourth part!).

So, now we have one part left... see you then!

Jane In June + Happy Birthday To Me

Ok, so, I am into this AWESOME blog activity called Jane In June at Misty's blog, Book Rat (check it out asap!), and I've got my guest post posted today! Also, today is my 19th birthday!

Jane Austen + Birthday in one day, how good is that?!

I will be posting a couple of reviews of Austen's books somewhere in the next couple of weeks (as soon as I can)... for now... Thank you Misty!

And... HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!!!