The Life of Elizabeth I by Alison Weir

There is a strong idea in the world that a woman cannot live unless she is married

Why I read this book

I read The Lady Elizabeth by the same author and I really liked her writing style. Elizabeth I has always been am interesting character to me and having the opportunity to learn a bit more about her by an author that I already like was something I wouldn't pass.

What the book is about

Obviously the book is about the life of Elizabeth I as a Queen. While the Lady Elizabeth walks us through the childhood and teenage years of Elizabeth, prior to her coronation, this book explores the year that Elizabeth was on the throne. Divided in sections that tackle her international politics, economy and her court in general, this book is a good example of a well researched biography.

First impressions

Alison Weir is amazingly thorough; I knew I liked the romanticized character of Elizabeth, but the Elizabeth portrayed in this book is just unbelievably interesting. From her dealing with the detractors of her father's formed religion to her manipulation of other courts to her advantage, Elizabeth was a woman of vision, not afraid to take the reins of her kingdom.

Final thoughts

Elizabeth was praised and criticized largely during her kingdom. In both cases her gender was always a factor to be considered by her allies and enemies. As a young woman she was congratulated on her exceptional memory and curiosity and she would have her father to thank for insisting in her being educated as a prince, for this had a considerable impact in her behavior as a ruler. She spoke more than 5 languages and managed to deal with conspiracies against her life from even before she was considered an heir to the throne and all of this shaped the diplomat that most of us know.

She was smart (most of the time) when choosing the people around her, and through this close group of people managed to bring prosperity to her land and to establish what we now refer to as the Elizabethan era, an epoch rich in culture that not in vane is considered the Golden age.

But the book doesn't show a perfect Elizabeth, and this made me like the content even more. While the Virgin Queen is praised often in the book, there is also discussion of some traits in her character that take the figure of the queen from this idealized image to a more humane person, flawed and with weaknesses; a person that overcame such weaknesses in order to fulfill what she considered her destiny.

It is the first book I hear in the voice if Davina Porter, and I have to say I did enjoy her performance. Her pace was appropriate to a non-fiction book where so much information was given, and her inflections when encountering quotes from Elizabeth or other characters made a nice flow in the book.

A person who did not wish to treat their mother well, deserves a wicked step mother

The Giver by Lois Lowry

We don't dare to let people make choices of their own

Why I read this book

As I've mentioned several times before, when possible, I like to read the book before the movie. As the trailer for the movie has gained momentum, curiosity started to grow inside of me. I've liked other YA dystopias before so I figure why not give this one a try.

What the book is about

The book takes place in a community were "sameness" is rule. Everyone dresses pretty much the same and they behave in similar fashion too. There is no chaos, and you life is carefully planned and decided for you. At the same time, this community has neither pain, nor suffering of any kind and people are portrayed as content with the situation. At 12 your career is assigned, and it is then that our protagonist Jonas is selected as the new Receiver. What this actually means is a mystery to him, since there can only be a Receiver at a time for the community. He will finally discover what, if anything, pushed the community to be formed.

First impressions

The thing that impressed me the most, from the beginning of the story, was the dedication and importance given to people to be accurate in their usage of words. It was interesting to hear the voices of children no older than 12 years old, being extremely precise in their speech. This I actually enjoyed. The concept of loosing/gaining the concept of color was very different and I will have to agree with several critics to the movie that it is a shame this wasn't used to portray the changes happening to Jonas in the movie.

Final thoughts

I quite enjoyed the concept of the book. The importance of memories and how they might shape or destroy a whole community was very well built and to see all the responsibility of memories to fall into a single individual was quite unique too.

Although the main character is 12 years old, I don't think I would've enjoyed this book at that age, particularly as we advance in the story. There were some parts that, in my own opinion, need a bit more of "ground" to be able to stomach them and take them critically, that I did not have at that age. However, it was nice to see a protagonist this young and not the (now) typical 15/16 year old.

It has an appealing critique to what society accepts and what it frowns upon, but mostly, why is it frown upon. Would thing be really easier if we were more uniform, including our thoughts? Would the absence of pain be worth it the absence of love?

I will read at leas the next book in the quartet, Gathering Blue, to learn more of this world building. There are a lot of unanswered questions at the end of this book that I hope that will be tackled in the other three.

[...] but was considered rude to call attention to things that were unsettling or different about individuals. 

Bout of Books Goals

I am basing my set of goals on the post that Andi did in her blog. Since it is the first time I am participating I really had no clue what my goals could be, but here I am trying to set them. Since I will be reading a bit every day, this post applies to the whole week.

So according to my last challenges on Goodreads, my book read/week is 1.23. Now, this has been increasing since I first started keeping track, but let's just stick to the average, shall we? Hence my first goal for next week is:

Start AND finish at least 2 books

Now, based on this goal, I would like them to be one Audio and one in Print (e-book or paper). My candidates would be Sapphire Blue by Kerstin Gier for the Audio, and probably The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne M Valentefor the print, although this might change if I get a call from the library.  If I stick to this choices it will also help to my "Prequel & Sequel" Challenge and my "Once Upon a Time" Challenge, so that's good.

Other than that my goals for this Read-a-Thon will be:

Post at least one review of the books read DURING this week

Visit and comment on at least 2 different blogs that are participating in the Read-a-Thon(per day for a total of at least 14 visits/comments)

 So that's it for now. Let's hope I can check all of them!

Bout of Books Read-a-Thon: My first

Well, well, would you look at that!, if it isn't another Read-a-Thon. I saw this last year, but the same way I couldn't join the Dewey's Read-a-Thon as a reader last year, I couldn't join this one. This year, however busy I am at the lab, I have no exam whatsoever, so I can actually read for fun when I get home!. To explain to you guys what exactly this one is about, let me use the blurb provided buy the organizers:

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, May 12th and runs through Sunday, May 18th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 10 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

So there you have it, I am officially joining the Bout of Books and  I will be posting my goals

The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle

Is a rare man who is taken for what he truly is.

Why I read this book

Let me tell you a story. Is the story of a girl that watched SO many times the movie The Last Unicorn that just mentioning it now a days, 20 or so years later, makes all of her family to roll their eyes. Is also the story of a girl who did not know the movie was based on a book! If you haven’t guessed by now, the girl is me. And yes I have to live with the fact that for years I leaved in complete ignorance. But, not to worry, here I am compensating, reading the book…and going to the screening of the movie to meet the author!!!

What the book is about

You would think the title is pretty self-explanatory but just in case. The book is told as an observer would tell you the story of a magnificent creature that is not aware of the fact that she might be the last one of her kind on Earth. Having a hard time to accept it, the Unicorn leaves her forest and crosses the land to find her peers. In the way she will encounter other mythological creatures, learn about humans and even about herself.

First impressions

While the movie is imprinted in my brain in Spanish, reading this book was like re watching it all over again, since I recognize every dialogue and every scene. I felt like I was a kid again, curled up under the blankets and childhood felt so much closer. When I was a kid I would watch white horses and repeat in my head that I did believe, in hopes that I would see the magic happen. Reading the book I had the realization that the magic has always been in the way this story makes me feel.

Final thoughts

I cried a bit while reading this book. Not only because there are a few sad moments during the story itself, but because, as I mentioned, I felt as a little kid again, and that made me so happy!.

This book has so many things on its favor if you like fantasy; it has the magic, not only from the Unicorn, but from Schmendrick, Mommy Fortuna and off course the Red Bull; it has love, pure love from Molly to the Unicorn and what she represents; it has a quest, it has a hero…and it’s all built so beautifully.

Is a very short book, under 300 pages in my edition in any case, and it is full of sentiment and the end is very lovely. To see how all of the characters have suffer and changed through this suffering makes you (me) reconsider every harsh moment as something to actually be grateful for.

The Red Bull never fights. He conquers, but he never fights

I have a confession...

I don't read in Spanish that much anymore. That isn't the confession; the confession is that in the last 5 years, ever since I left my country, I haven't done much about it, even if deep down it bothers me.

I am not talking about books translated to Spanish; when given the opportunity I like to read the book in the original language, but alas, I can only read fluently in 3 languages and that limits how often I can actually do so. No, I am talking about books that were originally written in Spanish, independent of them being from Spain or Latin America. Yes there is a difference between books from either region, but we will get to that another time.

I could use the excuse that I moved to a country were Spanish is not the main language and because of that, most of the books I can get through the library (and boy, do I use the library here) are either in English or in French. But no, that's not the only reason, because as it turns out they DO have books in Spanish, I just don't actively look for them. I even know a bookstore that sells ONLY in Spanish, however, for now, on my student income, I can't afford most of these books, since they are quite more expensive that the English versions, and that also applies if I try websites like the Book Depository.

So after a while, I stopped reading books written in Spanish; I received some from my family, here and there, but last year only 3% (a.k.a 2 books) of my reading was done in Spanish. And this actually saddens me. I went back to Colombia for a couple of weeks recently, this time without my boyfriend fiancé, and so I was able to only speak in Spanish for 2 weeks and this made me realize how much I miss it. Not just that I really like my language, mind you I will give you all the arguments I have on how Spanish is a beautiful and easy to learn language; no, I miss it because I learned how to read in Spanish, because there are a bunch of expressions that are impossible to translate but when I see them they make me smile. But most of all, and I realize this might sound lazy, I miss it because of how simple it is for my brain to follow, even when I am exhausted, to read in Spanish. It's easier to engage with the plot; easier to retain the information, even when my brain decides to remember right then that I have to buy butter tomorrow; easier to remember tiny details.

And after telling you this, you are going to ask me: how come you haven't tried harder? Whilst I have no answer to this question, other than I don't know I can tell you that I am committed to changing that. Right now

Going Over by Beth Kephart

Everybody has a plan, I guess. We're all on a mission

Why I read this book

I got this book through the Early Reviewers program from LybraryThing in exchange of an honest review. The reason why I asked for this book was because I have never read a book based in this time period in Germany and the fact that it was written from a YA point of view, from both sides of the wall was very interesting to me.

What the book is about

During the early 1980s, on a divided Germany, we encounter 2 teenagers that grew up together thanks to the friendship of their grandmothers. They fell in love, even though they see each other 4 times a year at most. Ada lives on the East side of the wall, has colored hair and is an artist. Stefan lives on the West side of the wall and works on a job chosen for him. At night, both dream of joining each other.

First impressions

Beth Kephart did a wonderful job giving both Ada and Stephan their own voices. I like the fact that she didn't tried too hard to make them sound like teenagers and just went with simple, heartfelt dialogues and inner monologues. The side stories were as touching and well built as the main story itself.

Final thoughts

I am so happy I got a copy of this book. It was a beautiful story with very touching characters. The hope in both of the main characters mixed with Stefan's fear and Ada's energy made the jumping between chapters fast paced and made me want to turn the pages faster to know that things would be ok for everyone.

It is not just a happy story though. As it would be expected in a story built around the Berlin Wall there is quite a bit of social commentary; the differences between the 2 sides, the gastareiter, the people who tried and failed or succeed going from West to East. This social part of the story blends seamlessly with the life of Ada and Stephan, pushing their relationship to another level.

Because people who run don't want to be caught. People who hide don't want to be found.