Monthly Wrap Up

Hi everyone! Welcome to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. Today, I’ll be talking about all the books I read in April. This month I read 5 books and DNF’d 2. Here are my thoughts about them:  1. COZY MYSTERY AND CRIME: The Dark Vineyard and Black Diamond by Martin Walker I didn’t like this book and that is unfortunate because I had such high hopes for it. But it was not meant to be. The crime Bruno has to solve this time around is arson; the deliberate destruction of a wine vineyard in the outskirts of Saint-Denis and I admit that this…

Hi everyone! Welcome to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. Today, I’ll be talking about all the books I read and DNF’d this month. I haven’t done a long wrap-up like this one in a while. I read 7 books and DNF’d 3 in March, so it was a good reading month for me. [Insert smiley face here.] Let’s talk about books. 1. HISTORICAL FICTION AND SPANISH LITERATURE: Yo, Julia (I, Julia) And Y Julia Retó A Los  Dioses (And Julia Challenged The Gods) by Santiago Posteguillo First, let’s talk about the protagonist of this duology. Julia Domna was the wife of the…

1. CLASSIC AND MAGICAL REALISM: A Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez I picked this book up right after I finished reading it in Spanish. I did this because I’d been hearing very good things about the translation, and I wanted to see for myself if they were true. They are. Gregory Rabassa’s translation to English of this novel is probably one of the best translations I’ve ever read. Second, I read this English edition back to back with the Spanish edition because I wanted to see how the translator wrote several passages that stood out to me…

New Year, new books, guys. Here goes. Welcome. 1. CLASSIC AND MAGICAL REALISM: Cien Años de Soledad by Gabriel García Márquez Now I’m going to start this review saying that I was fortunate enough during college to meet Gabriel García Márquez (GGM). He visited my school campus in 2004 and I had the privilege to listen to a Q&A session about A Hundred Years of Solitude (Cien Años de Soledad)  with other students of the Bachelor program I was in. I also tried to get his autograph. Unfortunately, he stopped signing books before it was my turn, and I couldn’t….

Hi everyone. Welcome back to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. Here is what I thought about all the books I read in December 2024. I apologize for posting this so late into January but, once again, life got in the way. I am also still planning on posting my End of the Year Wrap Up soon. 1. FICTION AND MAGICAL REALISM: The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht The epitome of magical realism in modern literature is A Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez. But García Márquez did not invent magical realism. Yes, he is often credited as the father of…

Hi everyone. Welcome back to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. I apologize for posting this so late into December, but here it is. In November, I read four books and here are my thoughts on all of them. I will also be posting my End of the Year Wrap Up soon. 1. SCIENCE AND PREHISTORY: A Pocket History of Human Evolution by Silvana Condemi and François Savatier This is indeed a pocket history of human evolution. It is 154 pages long and it is roughly the size of a Paperwhite Kindle e-reader, so it is both short and small and can effectively…

Hi everyone. Welcome back to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. This month I finished 3 books. Here is what I think about them:  1. NONFICTION AND HISTORY: The Coming Of The Third Reich by Richard J. Evans This is the first book of The History Of The Third Reich trilogy by Richard J. Evans, and it describes the events both in world and German history that led to the Nazis assuming power in 1933. These include, for example, the economic disaster of hyperinflation in Germany after WWI, the antagonism of Germany’s population towards the Weimar Republic, the country’s new democratic government instituted…

Hi everyone. Welcome back to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. This month I finished 7 books. Here are my thoughts on all of them:  1. NONFICTION AND HISTORY: The Nuremberg Trial by Ann Tusa and John Tusa I mentioned this book last month and it is the most in-depth account of the Nuremberg Trial out there that I could find. It was published in 1984 and it is one that should still be read on the topic. The Nuremberg Trial tried 22 members of the defeated Third Reich in 1946. Among these were Martin Bormann, one of the closest men to Hitler…

Hi everyone. Welcome back to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. I have a confession to make. This month I didn’t finish any books. I did, however, pick up several, and I will talk here about what I am currently reading or why I didn’t finish some of those books. 1. NONFICTION AND MILITARY HISTORY: Inferno: The World at War, 1939-1945 This is the book I was reading when I posted by July Wrap Up last month, but ultimately decided to put it down for now. The reason: It is a one-volume account of World War II and it goes into every significant…

Hi everyone. Welcome back to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. Today, I’m doing my July Wrap Up. This month was also rather slow, and I only finished three books, just like in June. I did, however, finish the longest book I’ve read this year thus far and that, I think, is a big achievement. Nonetheless, it feels like I haven’t finished a book in a very long time. Here are my thoughts on all three of them: 1. CLASSIC AND HISTORICAL FICTION: The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu is one of those books that…